Rudee Loop hotel owner eyeing sale ahead of Oceanfront project in Virginia Beach
Bob Yoder’s family built The Schooner Inn on 3rd Street and has owned the hotel for decades. Yoder, an architect, worked on the preliminary design in 1971. The six-story hotel with 89 rooms is the hotel closest to the jetty at the south end of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, overlooking the Boardwalk and a popular surfing area.
The Schooner Inn also backs up to one of the most coveted parcels of undeveloped land on the East Coast: Rudee Loop.
Virginia Beach is beginning to consider several proposals to redevelop Rudee Loop, and Yoder, 71, wants to be a part of its future.
“We’ve been waiting for over 25 years for the city to decide to develop the property around us and quite frankly, take advantage of that,” Yoder said last week.
Now, Yoder’s property is in the middle of a bidding war between private developers, and that’s caught the attention of some city leaders.
Mike Standing, who owns several restaurants and other property in the resort area, confirmed that he made an offer on The Schooner Inn earlier this summer. He heard another developer was interested in it and wanted to throw his hat in the ring.
“Anything in the resort that’s available, I try to purchase it because it’s where I’ve spent my whole life,” said Standing, 53, a member of the Virginia Beach Development Authority.
He declined to say how much he offered. Standing’s wants to eventually redevelop The Schooner Inn into a hotel that would appeal to surfers and anglers.
“It would compliment ultimately what the city decides to do there (at Rudee Loop),” Standing said.
Another developer, Manan Shah, of Pashm Global, which owns several hotels at the Oceanfront and in the Hampton Roads area, also confirmed that he made an offer this summer on The Schooner Inn but Yoder rejected it.
“The offer was significant,” said Shah by phone this week. “I don’t know what we’re doing wrong.”
Yoder said “the right negotiations haven’t happened.” He wants to make a deal with the city to control the future of the less than an an acre of land that The Schooner sits on, he said.
“We want to be a part of anything that happens at the loop,” said Yoder. “We don’t want to sell to an individual company that’s going to build a 20-story monster that’s going to cast a shadow on the beach.”
Yoder said he has turned down offers on his hotel in the past, and that he’s talked with Councilman Linwood Branch about his desire to sell to the city.
Branch said the public engagement process on Rudee Loop is just beginning. A few years ago, a group that represented civic leagues, business organizations and other stakeholders developed an action plan for the resort area. The committee agreed that surfing and fishing at Rudee Loop needed to be maintained and that open space should be enhanced.
“That was a unanimous recommendation from that group,” said Branch.
Future decisions about Rudee Loop will have lasting effects and should be shaped by public input, Branch said.
“One hundred years from now, that site’s going to be what it is based on decisions made today,” Branch said.
The Schooner Inn property could be a pivotal piece, Branch said.
“It could greatly impact how the site would work,” Branch said. “For me, it’s definitely something I’d like to take a good look at.”
Gold Key | PHR’s proposal for the redevelopment of Rudee Loop — one of four ideas the public will consider soon — includes a new hotel on the site of The Schooner Inn.
The City Council would need to approve a real estate acquisition after a public presentation, according to a city spokeswoman.
Yoder hasn’t received an offer from the city yet, he said.
He’s still patiently waiting.
“We love the property and want to see it part of something bigger than just another hotel,” he said.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
