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Sunday, 26 August 2007 08:09 |
 The
50,000-member American Canoe Association is paddling south this spring,
and it's going to mean big things for regional tourism.
The
50,000-member American Canoe Association is paddling south this spring,
and it's going to mean big things for regional tourism.
The ACA
board decided last week to relocate its landlocked headquarters in
northern Virginia - a leased facility in Springfield - to a brand new
site along the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg that it eventually
will own.
Upstream in
Culpeper County, near Remington, the ACA also will have full, mostly
free access to developer Bob Currier's riverfront property, pending
county approval.
The
facility would include a 68-acre campground, a mile-long walking trail
along the river, an outdoor amphitheater and office space.
The
combination of the two offerings - one in an urban setting and the
other rural - made staying in Virginia a no-brainer for the ACA.
"The
enthusiasm and sincere desire expressed on the part of the
Fredericksburg team was very compelling," said ACA board member
Constance Blackwood. "It was the entire team effort that gave the nod
to the Fredericksburg proposal."
In
addition, the ACA, founded 1880, sought a "smooth transition" for its
Virginia staff, Blackwood said, making offers for relocating its
headquarters to New York and North Carolina not as appealing.
The ACA plans to move to Fredericksburg in April, when its lease in Springfield ends.
"Both sites
on the Rappahannock and the Rapidan rivers will be excellent venues for
training, events and races," she said. "The ACA tenets - stewardship,
education and recreation - will be well served in the area."
The canoe
association's dedication to river stewardship is what prompted Currier,
a Culpeper developer, to make the offer in the first place.
For years,
canoeists, hunters and others have trashed the banks of the river,
hosting "bizarre beer parties or hunting raccoons in the afternoon,"
said Currier, who lives in an old farmhouse on the riverfront property.
"Their
whole interest is in river stewardship," he said of the ACA. "These
people are very serious about water-quality issues and they are worried
about environmental issues. I am real happy that it went through."
What's next
Because the 68-acre site, directly off U.S. 29, is zoned for
agricultural use, the proposal still has to make its way through the
Culpeper County Planning Commission, then earn approval from the Board
of Supervisors.
Currier
said he already is working with the county's planning staff to develop
an overall master plan for the project and would like to start
construction as soon as he gets the official go-ahead, likely in early
2008.
He also has
separate, but coinciding plans, to build a bed and breakfast in the
area and to sell 80 acres along the highway for commercial use.
The canoe association is also receiving big perks from Fredericksburg.
As part of
the deal, developer Silver Companies will give the ACA 1 acre in
Celebrate Virginia South - an "eco-tourism" campus near the
Fredericksburg Expo Center - two year's free rent and help build the
its headquarters, not far from the Rappahannock River.
In
addition, the Fredericksburg Department of Economic Development will
finance the construction project with tax-exempt financing through
Wachovia Bank.
The
Fredericksburg offer is worth an estimated $1.2 million, according to
Kevin Gullette, director of the city's economic development and tourism
office.
"We are
really excited about it - obviously we put a lot of hard work and
effort into this, and obviously this is a good move for them," he said.
Regional tourism
Gullette hopes the arrangement will form a partnership between the two localities.
"I think
that regionalism is what people are looking for," he said. "Having that
regional approach shows the strength of what they would be coming into."
Carl Sachs,
director of the Culpeper County Department of Economic Development,
also envisioned a strong result of brining the ACA closer to the area.
"It will
bring a lot of people to Culpeper who otherwise would never come," he
said. "And the footprint they will leave behind will be very small -
not a lot of infrastructure will be built. The river is the primary
draw."
Sachs, who used to whitewater kayak before his knees got bad, knows the significance of nabbing the ACA.
"There is a
certain amount of notoriety in having the ACA headquarters nearby in
Fredericksburg, and the association with the put-in at Remington is
even better," he said. "Anybody involved in water sports recognizes the
ACA as the premier water sport association in the country."
Its
relocation to the area will attract "casual" and "fanatical" canoeists,
Sachs said, and its members will likely wander into Culpeper after a
long day on the river to shop and eat, boosting the local economy.
"We are very excited," he said.
So is Sandra Stevens, Currier's business partner.
"We offer something that Fredericksburg doesn't offer, and
Fredericksburg is offering the headquarters site that they wanted in an
urban setting - which our site isn't - so I think that complements each
other beautifully," she said.
"Put in with us and end up in Fredericksburg."
Article Source: starexponent.com
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