Midtown Shopping Center
The Midtown Shopping Center at Wards Corner, also known as The Martone Property or The Dalis Property, is assessed by the City for $6,822,900. It is zoned C3, it is 262ft from the nearest fire hydrant, and the property is 4.6 acres.
It has five (5) active code enforcement cases and the last follow-up inspection was July 23, 2009. The property’s last public health code enforcement case was handled on January 10, 2008 based on a complaint of solid waste and rats.
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Wards Corner Now - Wards Corner, Norfolk, Virginia 
hmmmm, almost a $1.5 million per acre assessment? it ain’t worth nearly as much as the assessed value. at 4.6 acres it is too small for a major development and too big for many other uses. there is little demand from big box retailers as most of them are already in the market and economic circumstances have taken care of all other demand. use the blighted structure code, remove this eyesore, land bank the dirt until a suitable use presents itself, and in the meantime use it as greenspace. of course this is only my opinion but what the heck do i know?
Mr. Hadjikakos,
Your last sentence is correct. I invite you to come to our Greater Wards Corner Business Association meetings and learn more about the Wards Corner business district. This propery is a goldmine. If the owner would sell it, I know investors would pay $6,822,900 for it. The fact is that the owner is not selling.
I own the Book Exchange and can tell you that my business has increased here year after for the 6 years I have been a tenant. The location is at the busiest intersection in Norfolk. Nearly every week, owners of high quality established businesses approach me and tell me that they want to lease one of the empty spaces. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the landlord does not want to lease the spaces. My store has never had a leak or any other serious problems. The building is sound and functional and there is plenty of parking. One day, the entire property will turn around. In the meantime, I invite you to my store. I can assure you that any of the hundreds of Wards Corner families that regularly shop in the Book Exchange would tell you that it is not an eyesore and they would be pretty unhappy if it were “removed”.
This side of the tracks or the other would make a great Light Rail Transit station. This site would make a great ‘Gateway to the Southside’ after coming across the third crossing from your train ride down from areas North-West. We could get Va.Beach and Norfolk to team up and pay for something nice to welcome people to our area. Or you could transfer to the express train to the Naval Base to go to work and not have to sit in that traffic everyday going through the HRBT. A train station and a book store could be a good match.
That’s down the road aways but John is right, if the Martone Property was in different hands and you find more Retailers like John that see Wards Corner for what it could be, we would be complaining about the parking lots being full and the city would be trying to figure out how they could get the other retail areas in Norfolk to be more like Wards Corner. I could even see this area becoming a 21st Street Part 2.
john and tim
sorry that my response was not more prompt. we have been rather busy redeveloping a couple more properties in willoughby since the two of you responded. during my brief run for the ward 1 seat, my vision was to embrace and accentuate the train tracks to the rear of the site by creating a train transfer station and incorporating it into the retail improvements (or mix-use) redevelopment for the site. this would be a novelty, add excitement & atmosphere, and funnel more people with money to spend in the neighborhood with regards to whatever redevelopment would grace this well-located site.
john, by the way, i have shopped in your store and like it very much