Crossroads & Buckroe
By Sandra Canepa
Daily Press
March 18, 2007
I applaud the Hampton City Council for considering everything the new Crossroads entertainment complex is expected to do for Hampton. The Daily Press reports that Hampton is looking for Crossroads to be "an attempt to make Hampton a destination" and is "looking for people to come in." ("Hampton's $200M plan," Feb. 15)
Buckroe Beach and Lots B have been the goose that has laid, and continue to lay, golden eggs in the form of attracting thousands of people and thousands of dollars in revenue to a proven destination. Now the council wants to cut up, sell off and destroy this known attraction in hopes its "new goose," the Crossroads complex, will lay the golden eggs for Hampton in the future.
How much more sense would it make for Hampton to have two major attractions to tout; one tried and true, but improved into a magnificent bayfront park with ample off-street parking, and the other, new and untried but needing all the help possible to compete with the other six entertainment complexes in the area.
The council is doing the XL Development Group a huge disservice by not doing all it can as the hosting city to help ensure it a success. Why would the council destroy one financially proven "one-of-a-kind" destination spot to lay all the onus on an unproven Crossroads in "an attempt to make Hampton a destination" when together the two certainly would be a winning ticket and better for everyone involved?
Doesn't it make good business sense for the council to reconsider its earlier vote on Buckroe's Lots B (view Option B at www.buckroebeach.org.)?
Contact the council at 727-6315 or council@hampton.gov, and let them hear your thoughts on developing Buckroe along with the Crossroads complex.
Sandra Canepa
Hampton
