By contrast, the City of Newport News is actively engaged in Oyster Point both as developer and customer. The city plans to float bonds to help build Oyster Point. Additional parking structures and roads also could be paid for by the city. The financial scope of the deal does have a few people worried. Some question whether projected tax revenue from Oyster Point will be sufficient to offset the city's sizable financial investment.
Doubts linger about the wisdom of mixing residential into a proposed downtown business core.
Madeline McMillan, the lone member of Newport News City Council to oppose the project, is skeptical of the city's estimates for financing the project. Similar designs are taking place in one of the last major parcels of vacant property in Virginia Beach, a 14-block stretch in the Pembroke area that parallels Virginia Beach Boulevard east toward Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake-based developer, Armada Hoffler, hopes to transform the scattershot mix of housing and businesses into Virginia Beach Town Center, a blend of retail, office, entertainment, parks, public facilities and residences encompassing 2.5 million square feet. At 400 feet, the office building would eclipse by 20 feet Dominion Tower in Norfolk as the region's tallest structure, according to the city's Economic Develop-ment Director Don Maxwell. The project also leverages the city's investment in existing infrastructure.