Waterside is a

festival marketplace A festival marketplace is a European-style shopping market in the United States. It is an effort to revitalize downtown areas in major US cities begun in the late 20th century. Festival marketplaces were a leading Central business district, downt ...

on the Elizabeth River in downtown

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

, opened June 1, 1983. While the Waterside Annex was demolished May 16, 2016, the main portion was renovated and reopened as Waterside District in May 2017. Beginning in the late 1970s, mall developer James W. Rouse and the

Rouse Company The Rouse Company was a publicly traded shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. It was founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939. Beginnings: Moss-Rouse Com ...

had developed the festival marketplace concept as an important component to renewing a declining

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

, a seminal catalyst to further development. The concept combined to varying degrees major

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

s, specialty retail shops,

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

s and

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

activities. Like other shopping centers, malls and marketplaces, the Waterside has evolved through numerous

business cycle Business cycles are intervals of general expansion followed by recession in economic performance. The changes in economic activity that characterize business cycles have important implications for the welfare of the general population, governmen ...

s. Originally, Waterside featured mostly restaurants like The Baitshack on the first floor. There were small nautically themed stores as well as an arcade. The balconied second floor featured more niche stores and

kiosks Historically, a kiosk () was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist in an ...

. A second phase was added to the complex in the 1980s, while the mid-1990s saw a decline in business, exacerbated by the opening of nearby

MacArthur Center MacArthur Center is a shopping mall in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, in the center of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. Built by the Taubman Company, the mall is owned by S.L. Nusbaum Realty since August 2023. The mall is adjacent to th ...

. In the early-2000s, the upstairs stores were replaced by entertainment venues, such as

Jillian's Jillian's was a restaurant and entertainment chain with locations in the United States, headquartered in Reno, Nevada. As of December 2018, all former locations have been closed. History Jillian's was founded in 1985 as a billiards club located ...

arcade. The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority purchased the Waterside from its private owner, Enterprise Real Estate Services, in 1999, at the time considered a temporary arrangement. The Waterside delivered approximately $2.2 million in tax revenue in 2007, down $300,000 since 2004. Norfolk subsidized the facility with $1 million in 2008 for studying the next phase of the marketplace's repositioning.

Waterside District

The City of Norfolk and

The Cordish Companies The Cordish Companies (previously The Cordish Company) is a U.S.-based real estate development and entertainment operating company with its headquarters on the 6th floor of the Pratt Street Power Plant in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded ...

broke ground on the new Waterside District in August 2015. The new venue will be in the footprint of the old Waterside and consist of dining and entertainment venues. Its grand opening took place on May 11, 2017. A critical component of Norfolk's ongoing post-World War II revitalization, the complex connects via a cross-street pedestrian bridge to a parking garage, sits at the foot of the

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

terminal, and connects via a waterfront promenade to the downtown, the nearby baseball stadium (

Harbor Park Harbor Park is a stadium, used primarily for baseball, on the Elizabeth River, in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Once rated the best minor league stadium by ''Baseball America'', it is home to the Norfolk Tides Minor League Baseball team. The Tide ...

), naval museum ( Nauticus) and waterfront neighborhood of Freemason Harbor. The venue hosted the traveling SkyStar Wheel from May 19, 2018 until August 19, 2018.

References

External links

* {{Shopping malls in Virginia Shopping malls in Virginia Shopping malls established in 1983 Economy of Norfolk, Virginia Waterside Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States Tourist attractions in Norfolk, Virginia Downtown Norfolk, Virginia