Broad Creek construction project
NORFOLK -- Kapitol Kuts was located at the corner of Princess Anne Road and Ballentine Blvd.
Norfolk city officials considered it an eyesore and have big plans to put up a new library there, as well as the Salvation Army Kroc Center.
The $90 million center is one of 25 projects throughout the United States financed by Joan Kroc, wife of the man who founded McDonalds.
"It's not just the City of Norfolk who will utilize a facility of that magnitude. That's why when we did our planning and focus groups, we talked to people in other municipalities, because the goal is to have them come here and share in that experience as well," said Norfolk’s vice mayor Anthony Burfoot.
Next Monday the Firestone tire store will come down, and by the end of the year or early next year, more buildings across Ballentine Blvd. will fall, where the old Haynes warehouse used to stand, all to expand the Broad Creek Revitalization Plan of housing, mixed use, education and recreation.
The hope is that new energy will emerge from the rubble. What was once blight at the intersection will disappear.
"Exactly while you were doing the interview, we had some people coming up asking questions and I know thousands of people drive up and down Ballentine as well as Princess Anne Road, and they're probably looking and saying, ‘What's going on out there?'” said David Freeman with the City of Norfolk Neighborhood Planning Department.
