Waterside Marketplace gets makeover

NORFOLK, Va. - The City of Norfolk unveiled plans for Waterside Marketplace and efforts to make it more family friendly. For years now, the city has been wrestling on what to do with the complex and now, the waterfront icon is getting more than a facelift.

Waterside is undergoing a make-over that started two weeks ago. Walking past the area you can hear the sound of construction, which cost about $400,000 of the city's money. It debuted 26 years ago as a festival marketplace drawing tourists, families and others from the community. In recent years, Waterside has lost merchants and foot traffic. The city now wants to change all that and is sprucing up the place.

Lane Brown, Waterside General Manager, told WAVY.com, "We're going to bring Waterside back to the family oriented, vibrant place it used to be that everybody remembers and it's going to be a major plus for downtown and for all of downtown Norfolk."

Construction crews expect to wrap up their work early next month, just in time for Harborfest and July 4th weekend.