By EMILY BATTLE
The Silver Cos. is moving forward with roads, signs and agreements to bring more attractions to the Fredericksburg side of Celebrate Virginia, a planned 544-acre tourism and entertainment complex between Fall Hill Avenue and the Rappahannock River.
It's the southern component of a development that also includes housing and golf courses across the river in Stafford County.
Representatives from the Silver Cos. briefed Fredericksburg City Council members last night on their work. The meeting comes nearly one year after the council approved a slate of agreements with Celebrate Virginia that include key guarantees on how the development in Fredericksburg will take shape, and on what Silver will contribute to the roads and other public infrastructure around it.
A major part of that agreement states that Silver will contribute $1 million toward widening the portion of Fall Hill Avenue that lines Celebrate Virginia, if the city gets a contractor lined up to proceed with it by July 31, 2010.
The city has planned for that project to be constructed using a state law that allows private consortiums to partner with local governments to build roads.
Council members adopted a set of guidelines for accepting proposals under the terms of that law late last year, and Jud Honaker, Silver's president of commercial division, indicated that a consortium that includes Lynchburg-based English Construction Co. should be ready to submit a proposal soon.
Honaker mentioned that discussion is going on to determine if MediCorp Health System, the owner of Mary Washington Hospital, would contribute to some of the cost of the road.
Honaker also said Silver representatives are still talking with state transportation officials about the possibility of building an exit into Celebrate Virginia off southbound Interstate 95 through the visitors center near Fall Hill Avenue. He said they've been telling state officials that such an exit would help relieve congestion on State Route 3, but nothing is moving fast.
"At one point, I would have thought things were going pretty good, but they seem to have bogged down in the bureaucracy," Honaker said.
Chris Hornung, a vice president with the Silver Cos., told council members the developer expects to make announcements soon on new attractions coming to Celebrate Virginia.
He mentioned that this development has taken longer to come to life than Central Park, largely because Silver is having to seek out partners and put together financing for many of the planned attractions for the campus itself.
With Central Park, he said, things happened faster, because Silver was dealing with national franchises and companies who would finance and build their own projects.
Hornung said Silver is talking with Performa Entertainment Inc.--a Memphis-based company that created a successful entertainment in that city--about plans for an entertainment district that would make up much of the middle of the loop of Carl D. Silver Parkway that goes through Celebrate Virginia.
He presented a conceptual plan for that roughly 18-acre district that showed a 2,000-seat performance theater at the end of a strip of music-themed venues designed to look like a downtown pedestrian mall.
"We are very confident that this project will move forward," Hornung said.
At the other end of that strip would be the water-park hotel Silver has long talked about for Celebrate Virginia. That is a separate project, and one that Hornung said Silver is still working on financing for.
Hornung pointed out other requirements from last year's agreement that had been accomplished. They include:
Silver has conveyed to the city an acre and a half on Fall Hill Avenue, near Bill Buttram Photography for the city to build a fire station.
The developer has been working on a system of wayfinding signs that will direct visitors from I-95 to the attractions in Celebrate Virginia. The agreement with the city also calls for Silver to contribute $100,000 to a new signage plan the city is working on.
Hornung said Silver still plans to build a gondola across the Rappahannock River to connect the Stafford and Fredericksburg sides of Celebrate Virginia, but is waiting until more attractions are up and running on the Fredericksburg side before moving forward with those plans. Last year's agreement with the city gives Silver until 2009 to build the gondola.
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Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com