NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — After being put off during the COVID-19 pandemic, Norfolk is again looking at how to best renovate Chrysler Hall, while also looking at what can be done to expand and improve Scope Arena.
The future of both 50-plus-year-old venues and their shared plaza was up for discussion at Norfolk City Council’s fall retreat last week.
The goal is relatively the same: improve the visitor experience, preserve the architectural icons and best position Norfolk to be the “uncontested leader of arts and culture in the region.”
While architects revealed proposed plans for Chrysler Hall, the city’s largest performing arts venue, remain much as they were in 2020, the cost has inflated nearly double original projections.
At the same time there is renewed interest in modernizing Scope, the region’s largest indoor arena, following the acknowledgement that a deal on a new arena wasn’t imminent.
A majority of city council said they want to move forward to modernize and enhance the structures.
How to pay for it and what exactly should be done? That still needs to be ironed out.
A full season-long closure of the nearly-2,500-seat Chrysler Hall was poised to move forward in early 2020.
The lobby was to be expanded, theater and seating access would be enhanced and additional and larger restrooms would be constructed.
Backstage a new three-door loading dock, kitchen and remodeled dressing rooms would be completed.
While nearly 150 seats would have been removed, then-City Manager Chip Filer said the “renovations are necessary to continue to attract top-tier shows and performers.”
Chrysler Hall is home to the region’s traveling Broadway shows and, according to Rob Henson with the Department of Cultural Facilities for Norfolk, it accounts for 50% of the revenue made in the city’s venue portfolio.
But at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Filer recommending delaying the project in order to try and weather anticipated lost revenues.
In 2022, he recommended axing the project completely due to increasing costs.
However, Mayor Kenny Alexander said they can’t continue to kick the can down the road.
“We own Scope, we own the Chrysler, we own the plaza. We have to do something to those facilities,” Alexander said.
Andrew McKinley, with VIA Design Architects, presented nearly the same plans last Monday as they were presented in 2019.
He estimated the cost for the work in April 2020 would have been $70 million, $15 million more than the City Council budgeted at the time.
Now, he anticipates the cost would be $97 million.
“At this point construction could commence as early as Summer of (20)26, construction period would be expected to last 15 months,” McKinley said.
When it comes to Scope, the nearly-11,000-seat arena, the plans are a lot less concrete.
Built in 1971 by Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi, to this day Scope remains the world’s largest reinforced thin-shell concrete dome, according to Seven Venues, the city’s operator of entertainment venues.
Home to the Norfolk Admirals hockey team, it also hosts the MEAC Basketball Tournament, Patriotic Festival and many other events throughout the year.
In an effort to attract bigger name acts and more revenue, in 2017 Norfolk hired Populous Architects, P.C. to see what could be done to expand Scope.
However in his 2019 State of the City, Alexander announced the intention to try and build a new arena instead, citing a report that found expanding Scope infeasible due to cost.
While a pair of proposals came forward for a larger 15,000-seat arena, no deal was ever reached due to economics and egos. Monday the city’s economic development director announced those proposals have been “shelved.”
Virginia Beach-based Moseley Architects are now working with the city to see what can be done more affordably. They propose increasing seating capacity, creating wider concourses, increasing restroom capacity, refreshing concession stands and overall interactive technology upgrades.
No cost estimate was given. Alexander said he is eager to see more.
“Lets see visuals, we can see a dollar amount and we can talk about a scope of work. But when you talk about wanting to increase seating, we want to improve we want to enhance, then show us, these are our goals, these are our objectives,” Alexander said.
City Manager Patrick Roberts said he would look to have the architects come back with more in six to eight weeks.
When it comes to paying for upgrades to both buildings, as well as the 11-acre plaza they sit on, historic tax credits are being explored.
Still Councilman Tommy Smigiel feels the city still needs to figure out what they want Scope to be.
“What is Scope going to be when it grows up?” Smigiel asked. “We’re not going to get Harry Styles, we’re not going get Taylor Swift to come here.”
Alexander said he’d like to get feedback from those who use Scope before making decisions.