No events, no tenants, no construction — but the management of a new Virginia Beach arena are putting suites on sale for members of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
Yes, it is rather early for an arena to put suites on sale. For example, the Milwaukee Bucks opened a suite-sales office near their new ballpark, but a) the new arena certainly has an anchor tenant in the form of the NBA team and b) the arena is under construction.
In Virginia Beach, United States Management is offering interested parties to put down a deposit on a suite — and sorta pushing the issue, asking members of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce to put down an application and a deposit by Aug. 17 (yeah, that’s this coming Wednesday). From the Virginian-Pilot:
In an interview, [USM President Andrea] Kilmer said the early-bird special is a way to show appreciation to Hampton Roads business owners who have supported the arena.
“We had been asked by a lot of those people, ‘When can I buy?’ ” Kilmer said. “We wanted to reach out to those friends as a way to say, ‘Thank you.’ “
By late Friday afternoon, she said USM had gotten phone calls from interested buyers and a few had signed forms, although she did not name them. The suites will not be available to the public for several more months, Kilmer said.
Early? Yes, aggressively so, especially when we don’t even know when construction will begin on the new $210-million facility.
The 18,000-seat arena could open in 2018.
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