Mayor Thomas Tomzak has won re-election in the City of Fredericksburg, trouncing his rival Debby Girvan by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin. The vote represents an overwhelming endorsement of the Kalahari waterpark project, the negotiation of which was Tomzak’s signature achievement. The Free Lance-Star has the story.
In my my recent column about Kalahari, “The Second Battle of Fredericksburg,” I gave extensive play to the criticisms leveled by Girvan and others against the Kalahari project, which will rebate nearly half the tax revenue collected by the city back to the Kalahari developer. Although the project will be a big financial winner for the city if the development proceeds as planned, the city could be a loser if the developer fails to line up his project financing. The city could be left holding the bag for $3 million in cash and in-kind expenses.
Critics also expressed concerns that Kalahari’s highly visible presence and marketing budget would define the identify of the city on the Rappahannock by the indoor waterpark, not its rich historical and cultural heritage. But voters either did not buy that logic or did not care.
The other big victor in Tomzak’s re-election is the Silver Companies, developer of the “Celebrate Virginia” tourism zone where Kalahari will be located. Silver Cos. has invested millions of dollars and considerable ingenuity in trying to promote the tract as a tourism zone with attractions that draw visitors from far outside the region. After a series of expensive setbacks, Kalahari could be the project that finally creates critical mass for Celebrate Virginia, creating momentum that Silver Cos. can build upon.
It will be interesting to see what happens to tourism attractions that rely upon visitors to arrive by automobile in an era of $120-per-barrel oil and $3.50-per-gallon gas prices. An optimistic scenario suggests that that travelers originating in the population centers of the Boston-Washington corridor might curtail their driving to Florida and settle for destinations closer to home, like Fredericksburg. A pessimistic scenario says that they’ll cut back on automobile vacations of all types. The voters of Fredericksburg have staked their future on the optimistic outcome. For their sake, I hope they’re right.