Fort Opportunity: Hampton sees potential
   in Fort Monroe

By Janet Dunphy

The war cry over Fort Monroe has given way to a steady drum beat of change.

Now that its closure is imminent, there’s a lot of planning going on outside the same gate that has kept the general public at bay for years. The city of Hampton is formulating a master plan for the fort and private investors are snatching up properties nearby.

“I can’t explain how really unique Fort Monroe is,” said Brian DeProfio, assistant to the Hampton city manager. “Until you walk around, you just can’t appreciate it.”

The Base Realignment and Closure commission said the base should close last fall. Hampton’s Federal Area Development Authority will guide the reuse and the Army will be the facilitator.

“That was a blow,” said Karen Keast, of the decision. She opened Black Swan Antiques & Collectibles on Mellen Street four years ago and lives nearby. “But the government has to save money. That’s why we put them in office.”

Keast said it isn’t the end of the world for local businesses because the area is experiencing a turnaround.

“What was once a dumpy area has come up and it can only get better,” she said.

While Keast gets business from the fort, lots of her customers come from the Southside, Richmond and other areas of the state.

DeProfio said the base has a $300 million economic impact on Hampton. “It’s been a significant driver of the city’s economy over time,” he said.

The current players are optimistic about the transition.

“I see our role as partnering with the city of Hampton in the redevelopment process,” said Col. Jason Evans, the post commander, who arrived in July and will probably leave in 2008, before the handoff. “We have a good relationship with the city and we know what we have to do.” Sharing information and being good environmental stewards are primary issues, he added.

DeProfio has done his homework. He knows the fort’s past and present and he’s helping to coordinate the future. The issues include ordnance cleanup, which could cost $230 million or more, and maintenance of the fort, which runs $15 million annually.

The city was down to a short list of prime contractors, or planning and engineering firms, at press time, according to DeProfio. They were Dover, Kohl & Partners, which was ranked as the first choice, and Sasaki Associates Inc. The subcontractors would be H. Blount Hunter, Zimmerman/Volk Associates Inc., Kimley-Horn, Matrix Design Group and Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Co.

A preliminary plan could be in place by fall and the city has made an effort to engage its residents. It solicited citizens to serve on a Reuse Steering Committee and received more than 70 resumes for three slots. An announcement will be made in mid-February.

Plus, 170 people have registered at the city’s Web site, not all of them local, and 150 people showed up at a public meeting about the fort’s future.

Part of the planning process includes consulting with others who have been involved with base closures, like the 1,800-acre Charleston, S.C., Naval Station, which made the BRAC list in 1993 and closed in 1996.

A representative of The Presidio of San Francisco, a former Army base that closed in 1994 after a 1989 mandate, also visited Fort Monroe. The Presidio, about 1,500 acres fronting both San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, now belongs to the National Park Service.

Hampton has hired the same attorney that negotiated the cleanup of Fort McClellan in Alabama. It was targeted by BRAC in 1995 and closed in 1999.

Fort Monroe has about 570 acres; 93 are vacant and 105 can potentially be redeveloped, according to the city. Until its closure, tentatively 2011, according to Evans, it is home to the Northern Region of the U.S. Army Contracting Agency, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, the Joint Warfighting Center and the U.S. Continental Army Band, among others.

The fort can be accessed by either Mellen Street in Phoebus or Mercury Boulevard just north. McNair Drive takes visitors past the marina south and turns into Fenwick Road as it heads north to the dead-end at Buckroe Beach.

Stately brick homes with white columns and wrap-around porches face the Chesapeake Bay on the southern end and the former Chamberlin Hotel sits facing the James River. Ingalls Road leads across the moat to the Casemate Museum. Huge artillery batteries are situated on the bay.

Besides office buildings, there’s the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse, a post exchange or PX, a child development center, bowling center, playground, campground, HRT bus stops and more.

The history of the fort, built between 1819 and 1834, is lengthy. Its mission was to protect the watery entrance to what is now Hampton Roads. It was a union fort in the Civil War. Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Edgar Allen Poe all spent time there.

But after 9/11 security got tighter and it was hard for the general public to get on base to see the historical attractions.

In an effort to save Fort Monroe from the BRAC list, the city formed and the 2005 General Assembly approved the Hampton development authority. Its purpose was to either partner with the fort on projects that might help it stay open or help prepare to close it. Fort Monroe will revert to the state and the state is supposed to transfer it to Hampton.

Authority members are appointed by the Hampton City Council, but they are an independent political subdivision of the commonwealth and can act without council’s approval.

“We need to essentially develop a plan to determine what our options are to make the best properties self-sustaining,” said DeProfio, explaining that the trend in historical preservation now is reuse. “If someone lives or works there, it will be taken care of.”

DeProfio said there are 150 historical structures. Unfortunately, most could be surrounded by unexploded ordnance, like cannonballs. The Army is responsible for the cleanup of the property and the surrounding waters. If it decides to privatize the cleanup as has happened at other installations, the authority will be able to move on the best properties quickly to get them on the tax rolls.

“I assume there is no perfect cleanup,” DeProfio said. “You have to find out what you can live with.”

For example, high-density developments wouldn’t happen on property with a higher risk.

Hampton has asked for a $3 million appropriation from the state over the biennium for the cleanup, DeProfio said. That includes attorney and administrative fees.

Their preliminary plans, which haven’t addressed any possible environmental issues, include a link to Buckroe Beach at the northern end of the fort. The estimated cost is $2 million. It would be seamless to extend Atlantic Avenue, but that would involve taking residences and DeProfio said it won’t happen.

So far the only guaranteed change on the fort is the Chamberlin Hotel. Drucker & Falk LLC is the manager of the investment group that purchased it.

“It’s a good thing. It’s a development opportunity on the Peninsula,” said Wendy Drucker, co-chief executor of the company. She did winter swims in the saltwater pool on base and brunched at the hotel growing up. “It’s amazing to be involved in this project. There’s a lot of nostalgia.”

Drucker said there will be 130 independent living units for the 55 and older crowd and 30 assisted living apartment homes. The owners are partnering with Sentara Healthcare to operate the assisted living homes and a wellness facility. It should be open by the end of 2007.

Once the fort’s master planner is chosen, they will compile a comprehensive list of need-to-know information that will be presented to the Army, DeProfio said.

But the private investors off base aren’t waiting. Patsy Hollingsworth is the manager of the Phoebus Art Factory at the corner of Mellen and Mallory streets. Her husband, Mark, owns the building. The art gallery was originally located upstairs and moved downstairs temporarily, until it became so successful.

“The response has been incredible,” Patsy Hollingsworth said. “We see Phoebus as a hidden gem. It has great potential.”

Hollingsworth has sold a building across the street to Bob and Chris Glover, the father-son team who own two restaurants in Norfolk, Cracker’s and the Empire Little Bar Bistro. They will open a martini and tapas bistro at the end of the month.

“I see it as getting in on the ground floor of a growing area,” said Chris Glover, the son. “It sort of reminds me of Ghent.”

David Terry has plans, too. He and his brother, Bill, own Ocean Properties in Virginia Beach and will build 39 condos and a 6,000-square-foot restaurant on the water outside the fort where Sam’s used to be.

“There’s not much waterfront left in Tidewater and Phoebus is such a cool place,” said Terry. He said the city has bent over backward to accommodate him. “They want to see new ideas and growth. They think outside the box.”

Terry had several conversations with Ernestine Jackson, who owns Phoebus Needlework Crafts & Miniatures. Her father once owned the local men’s store and she has lived on Mellen Street all of her life.

“I don’t like that they have to close it down, but the future is going to be good,” said Jackson, of the fort. “We have lots of new retailers in.”

The locals want to see controlled growth, too. “I don’t want big business here,” said Charles Felts, who buys and sells old and rare books for his shop, The Way We Were. “It’s just not the place for it.”

Felts has an established clientele and does a big Internet business, so he isn’t worried about the fort’s transition.

“If I’m affected 5 or 10 percent I’ll be surprised,” he said.

Overall, everyone agrees that the historical aspect of the fort needs to be preserved along with any new development. “The idea of tourism is not new to Fort Monroe and needs to be revitalized,” said John Quarstein, a member of the authority, director of the Virginia War Museum and author of Fort Monroe: The Key to the South.

He and others note that the fort is especially significant to black history because it harbored slaves during the Civil War. Quarstein lives in Buckroe, but spent seven years as a lifeguard at the Officer’s Club on base.

James Turner is executive director of the Phoebus Improvement League and has his pulse on the neighborhood. He is working to establish a historic district, which would make it eligible for federal and state tax credits. He sees the redevelopment of Fort Monroe as a jumpstart for the entire community.

“This is a tremendous opportunity,” Turner said. “Sometimes it just takes a convergence of events. It will happen here.”