Williamsburg area is showing it has more to offer than history

by Donna C. Gregory
for Virginia Business
July 2005

More people visit Williamsburg than any other Virginia city. And why not when the area offers theme park thrills, world-class golf and a restored 18th-century Colonial capital — the state’s busiest attraction and a nationally known tourist destination.

About 3.5 million people visit The Historic Triangle — Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown — every year, generating $1.8 billion for the local economy. In fact, more than half of Williamsburg’s city budget comes from taxes on meals, lodging and retail. The much-anticipated Jamestown 2007 celebration is an opportunity to push tourism revenues even higher.

So there’s no question that tourism remains the Williamsburg area’s most valuable industry. But it hasn’t been as dependable in recent years, forcing local leaders to take a fresh look at what draws tourists and to diversify the area’s economy. Besides tourism, new retail and residential developments are sprouting, and Williamsburg is gaining in reputation as a retirement mecca.

Since 2000, ticket sales to Colonial Williamsburg have fallen by about 20 percent. Last year’s tally of 708,000 visitors represented a 40-year low. “Colonial Williamsburg has been like virtually every other history museum. We have been facing a decline in visitorship,” acknowledges Tim Andrews, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s director of public relations.

The public’s waning interest in history and fallout in the travel industry after the 2001 terrorist attacks of September 11 are reasons cited by Andrews for the steady drop. “People are much more content to stay at home, surf the Internet, and watch ‘The Simple Life,’” he says. “ … People are not being given any compelling reason to be interested in history, let alone to go out and learn about it.”

The foundation is hoping to reverse that trend next year when Colonial Williamsburg launches a new interactive “education for citizenship” initiative. Dramatic scuffles, public debates and other re-enactments will re-energize Colonial Williamsburg’s quiet streets. “One of the things our guests have told us is they want to become part of the experience,” explains Andrews. “They want to be engaged. They want to become part of the action. …We are going to be much more deliberative in our activities moving forward.”

While declining ticket sales are partially driving the new interactive programs, Andrews says the more critical force is educating the public about our nation’s founding. “Americans are not thinking about their country’s history as we would like, and many younger Americans are almost ignorant of our country’s history,” he says. The 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in 2007 — a statewide event expected to draw large crowds — provides a golden opportunity for the area to pump up its historic appeal and showcase its interactive events.

Two new tourist attractions may also boost visits to the region. In May, Yorktown opened Riverwalk Landing, a $12.5 million waterfront development of shops and restaurants intended to attract tourists to the town while also boosting the offerings of the Historic Triangle. Yorktown is home to the Yorktown Victory Center and the Yorktown Battlefield where the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in the last major battle of the Revolutionary War secured America’s independence. “The project on the waterfront adds a lot to Yorktown, and I think it makes it a full day’s experience,” says Jim Noel, York County’s director of economic development.

York County also scored big when Great Wolf Lodge, a $62 million indoor water park resort, opened last April in the Lightfoot area. The resort has already made plans to expand, adding 100 rooms. These openings and upgrades to area hotels are partially being made in anticipation of Jamestown’s 2007 commemoration. “This is the 400th anniversary of America. … a tremendous opportunity for the commonwealth to put this area back on people’s radar screen in a way that it deserves to be,” says Jeanne Zeidler, executive director of Jamestown 2007 and mayor of Williamsburg.

About $68 million in new facilities, including a new exhibition wing and a restored riverfront interpretative area, are planned for James-town Settlement (a state park), and another $60 million is projected at Historic Jamestowne with the construction of a new visitor’s center, archaeology exhibit area and new storage facility for excavated artifacts. In addition, Colonial Williamsburg has started construction on a new conference center in hopes of drawing more conventions.

So far, however, corporate interest in sponsoring America’s 400th birthday has been tepid. The steering committee planning the event had hoped to win over about a dozen corporate sponsors at the $3 million to $5 million level. But only two have signed on so far: Colonial Williamsburg and Norfolk Southern Corp.

Management disputes and a confusing sales pitch may have thwarted early fund-raising efforts. “The folks in charge have not hired the right management to bring on the corporate sponsorships,” complains Ivor Massey Jr., president of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and a Jamestown 2007 steering committee member. “The window of opportunity is very rapidly closing to make the 2007 commemoration a major national celebration as opposed to a regional event.”

Massey predicts Jamestown 2007 activities will be scaled back, and that Virginia’s taxpayers will shoulder the cost of the commemoration. “My guess is they will come back to the legislature for additional funding,” he says. But Ziedler is keeping a positive attitude. She hopes a new marketing plan, which promotes the commemoration nationally, and an upcoming movie about Jamestown, starring Colin Farrell and set for a November release, will rejuvenate interest among potential sponsors.

“There’s lots of competition, but we have a very unique and exciting product to sell. We’re going to pull everything off with whatever we have,” predicts Ziedler.

Regional leaders are looking for opportunities to capitalize on the future as well as the past. Several retail and housing developments are in the works. The most anticipated is New Town, a 380-acre mixed-use development in James City County that follows the principles of new urbanism, combining residential and commercial development in a pedestrian-friendly environment. “New Town is absolutely the new Main & Main, and the new financial center for Williamsburg,” says Dawn Griggs, an associate with Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield. “There have been these tiny pockets [throughout greater Williamsburg] where people have located, and now they’re all coming to one location.”

New Town’s center will have a quaint feel, catering mostly to smaller boutiques and restaurants with some shops featuring second-story lofts. SunTrust, Kauf-man & Canoles, and Williamsburg Environ-mental Group have already reserved spots in New Town’s business district. The residential component will feature 1,000 units, including a mix of single-family homes on small lots, condominiums and apartments.
For entertainment, Consolidated Theaters will open the area’s first stadium-style 12-screen movie theatre in August. “There really isn’t a true downtown in Williams-burg, so this is a way of creating that kind of atmosphere,” says John McCann, executive dir-ector of New Town Associates, LLC.

The city of Williams-burg is also planning two mixed-use developments: Quarterpath, a 350-acre project developed initially by Riverside Health Care Systems, and High Street Williamsburg. High Street Williamsburg on Richmond Road will include 500 high-end apartments and condominiums anchored by 250,000 square feet of retail space. “Right now that strip of Richmond Road is the major hotel and restaurant corridor of the community, and we want to cement that corridor as a viable and healthy retail and entertainment corridor,” says Jackson Tuttle, Williamsburg’s city manager.

In recent years, commercial development has gravitated toward suburban areas in York and James City counties. Demonstrating this trend is Williamsburg Marketcenter in the Lightfoot area of York County. Lowe’s and Wal-Mart both have “big box” stores in the area, and in 1999 Marketcenter completed its first phase anchored by Home Depot. As part of its second phase, Ukrop’s — a Richmond-based supermarket chain — plans to open its second Williamsburg-area location there in November 2006. Sentara Community also expects to open a new hospital in Lightfoot next spring.
“That corridor in Lightfoot is really our economic future. We started working on this over 10 years ago. There was not much out there, but trees and I-64,” says Noel. There’s little vacant land left for development in York County’s southern half, because of residential and commercial spillover from Hampton Roads. “From an economic development standpoint, our future is in the northern part of the county, because that’s where the vacant land is. How it will completely build out remains to be seen.”

Meanwhile, the Williamsburg area continues to draw retirees. They come for the temperate climate, the area’s highly regarded golf courses (nearby Kingsmill Resort & Spa hosts the annual LPGA Michelob Ultra Open) and its mid-point location on the Eastern Seaboard.

While tourism still drives The Historic Triangle, its growing economic diversity means that its future will be less dependant on its past.