boardwalk and pier in resort area of Virginia Beach
Source: US Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District Image Gallery
boardwalk and pier in resort area of Virginia Beach
Source: US Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District Image Gallery
Since 1950, the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier at the end of 15th Street has given tourists an opportunity to look back at the sandy beach and shoreline strip without having to get into a boat. Major storms damaged the pier in 1962, 1985, 2003. The private owners, the Lachman family, regularly repaired and reopened the wooden structure. The annual franchise fee was $20,000.
In 2016 a separate group of investors proposed assuming the city's franchise for the pier and building a new concrete structure, with a Ferris wheel on top. By 2018, the private parties had joined together and proposed the city pay for the new pier. Costs were estimated at $250,000.1
The city responded by issuing an Invitation to Bid, giving everyone an opportunity to develop a new pier. Two bids were received, but the city declined to award a lease to either bidder. Instead, it reissued the invitation in 2018 with more clarity on how the city would evaluate offers.
The city offered lease a 250-foot wide stretch of its land between 5th and 40th streets at the Oceanfront. Bidders would have to construct a new concrete pier at least 880 feet in length, but the city would grant rights to the submerged land for up to three miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. In a public-private partnership, Virginia Beach agreed to pay as much as $25 million for the pier and new parking on the Oceanfront.2
the 2018 proposal to replace the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier with a new concrete structure included a Ferris wheel
Source: City of Virginia Beach, 15th Street Pier Proposal
The city anticipated that the new pier would be a signature component of a project to redevelop land at the oceanfront. Ideally, the end result would create a mixed-use lodging, restaurant and entertainment complex at 15th Street, not just a new concrete pier sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean.
the unsolicited pier replacement proposal in 2015 included a hotel and vacation ownership resort
Source: City of Virginia Beach, 15th Street Pier Proposal