by James A. Bacon
United States Management (USM), a Virginia Beach development company, wants to build a $200 million, 18,000-seat arena and sports complex adjacent to the city’s convention center, which, it claims, will create jobs, boost the local tourism industry, bolster city property values and bring events to Hampton Roads that enhance the regional quality of life. Backed by $150 million in financing from Chinese interests, the company would spend $200 million of its own money.
All it will take from the City of Virginia Beach is a $52.7 million contribution to infrastructure costs for road improvements, utilities and parking. … Plus $26 million in optional streetscape improvements and additional road improvements…. Plus $7 million yearly in tax revenue generated by the project to pay down USM’s debt.
This project has consumed the attention of Hampton Roads much in the way that the Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium has absorbed Richmond residents. The arena is back in the local news thanks to the release of a consultant report detailing the commitment the city would have to make under the terms of the deal proposed by USM. That commitment, though large, is significantly smaller than called for in a proposal made and rejected earlier in the year, which makes it look good by comparison. Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms is supportive of the project, although some City Council members have expressed concern about the public cost.
If Hampton Roads residents wonder why their region has been such an economic laggard in the current business cycle, the fact that Virginia Beach is debating how much to subsidize a sports arena should tell you all you need to know. Sessoms had shown a penchant for grandiose public projects — extending light rail from Norfolk to the Virginia Beach resort area is another — that require the expenditure of massive public funds for highly speculative benefits. Rather than focusing resources on making Virginia’s largest city more competitive in a technology-intensive knowledge economy, the mayor is doubling down on the city’s past as a tourism destination — a second-tier tourism destination, at that.
It is undoubtedly true that the proposed arena, which could host everything from a pro basketball team to monster truck rallies, would stimulate economic activity. In a 2012 study, economist and former Old Dominion University James V. Koch estimated that an arena would generate $98 million in revenue throughout Hampton Roads, two thirds of it in Virginia Beach itself. (Two critical caveats: Koch’s study assumed that the arena would attract an NBA team that would play regular games there, and it included a multiplier effect as initial spending rippled through the economy.)
As Koch made clear in his study, he drew no conclusions regarding whether the arena should be built or how it should be financed. Nor did he, nor anyone else that I have been able to find, analyze the city’s Return on Investment of public dollars. Nor did he or anyone else conduct a risk analysis of what could go wrong, and what exposure the city would have, if, say, a recession came along and the wonderful assumptions behind the economic forecasts fell short. Risk analysis, as citizens of Southeastern Virginia should have learned from the U.S. 460 fiasco, is critical. Finally, I have seen no analysis of what alternative uses Virginia Beach might have for $53 million to $79 million.
Personally, I can think of many other ways for Virginia Beach to invest sums of that magnitude, although none would be as flashy as a new arena. The city could invest in creating islands of mixed-use, higher-density urbanism that bring in far more taxes, with fewer offsetting spending liabilities, than traditional suburban-style development. The city could invest in “smart cities” technologies that could cut energy expenditures, reduce water consumption and do a better job of managing traffic. The city could invest in integrating online learning into the curriculum of Virginia Beach schools. If city officials were feeling especially adventurous, they could foster the creation of innovation districts that would stimulate sustainable, entrepreneurial-based economic growth. Most of those priorities, however, require a decidedly un-sexy, stick-to-the-basics approach in which government focuses on those things that government can do well while leaving risky development schemes to the private sector. Alas, stick-to-the-basics doesn’t garner headlines or add to the aura of activist mayors.
Local governments in Virginia face chronic fiscal challenges. Virginia Beach doesn’t have a lot of money to waste. City officials need to show discipline in allocating tens of millions in discretionary spending. Once they commit to spending that money, they foreclose alternatives that could offer bigger payoffs at less risk.
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