Virginia Beach’s former Circuit City building, once proposed as a light rail station, will be demolished

VIRGINIA BEACH — A former electronics store that was once envisioned as a future light rail station will soon be demolished.

The one-time Circuit City building at 110 S. Independence Blvd. in Town Center is owned by the city’s Development Authority. Assessed at $6.8 million, the property has sat vacant for years and was most recently used for city storage.

But keeping the empty building incurs costs including utility bills and staff to remove trash and graffiti, Emily Archer, project administrator for the city’s economic development department, told authority members at a meeting Friday.

The city is hoping the 3-acre site will appeal to a buyer once the structure is out of the way. Demolition is expected to cost between $300,000 and $400,000, Archer said. The concrete slab will remain.

“There seems to always be negotiations about the future of this parcel and this will only make it more attractive,” Archer said.

Authority members agreed to solicit bids to raze it.

Built in 1982, the showroom housed Circuit City until 2009 when the Richmond-based company closed its U.S. stores amidst bankruptcy. The authority bought it from an investment group for $5 million. In 2012, the city also bought a 30-foot-wide strip of land between the former Norfolk Southern right-of-way and the old Circuit City building for $300,000.

The 3-acre property is next to the former Norfolk Southern right-of-way, which was the proposed path of a 3.2-mile extension of the Norfolk-based light rail into Virginia Beach’s Town Center area. The transit system currently terminates at Newtown Road.

Some City Council members opposed the purchase, saying it was premature and wasn’t a wise use of taxpayers’ dollars, according to reports at the time.

In a 2016 advisory referendum, 57% of voters rejected the $243 million extension of The Tide from Norfolk to Town Center. State funds for the proposed project were rescinded.

The Development Authority leased the building to a home appliance company, and later, a car dealership. In 2016, it was briefly considered as a possible site for a new City Hall building. During the pandemic, the warehouse was used to store personal protective equipment, and the fire department has trained in it, Archer said.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com