Spend "A Saturday with Santa" at Peninsula Town Center
Center to Host Holiday Event Following Coliseum Central's Parade on November 22
Peninsula Town Center's 2009 Grand Opening may still be a few months away, but the Hampton, Virginia project is already living up to its Mall Properties, Inc. / Steiner + Associates pedigree by offering the kind of exciting, community-centered special events and celebrations that have earned Steiner projects a reputation as true live, work and play destinations.
Peninsula Town Center will serve as the 2008 host and title sponsor for the Coliseum Central Business Improvement District's annual Holiday Parade, including a free on-site outdoor post-parade event and an innovative horse-drawn carriage tour through the nearly completed site.
The event, "A Saturday with Santa," which will take place on Nov. 22 from 12-4 p.m., will provide kids and their families with an opportunity to not only meet Santa Claus, but also enjoy a free holiday horse-drawn carriage ride around the property. The celebration will take place in a large tent in the parking lot near J.C. Penney on Coliseum Drive immediately following the parade.
With many portions of the project virtually completed, participants in the carriage rides will get a sneak preview of what Peninsula Town Center will soon be unveiling to the general public. With some landscaping and finishing details still to come, and a route that winds it way through some portions of the project that are still under construction, the tours will also provide guests with a unique opportunity to see a real-life work-in-progress "snapshot" of an exciting mixed-use development as it takes the final few steps in the journey from blueprints to ribbon-cutting.
Ever since this high-profile redevelopment was first proposed, enthusiasm and anticipation among local and regional residents has been in abundance. Steiner + Associates' development executive Justin Leyda explains that one of the reasons that the 1 million-square-foot project has generated so much regional buzz has to do with its already-growing status as a community space: "The bottom line is, Hampton-area residents are very excited to have a resource like this, and events like the holiday parade, Saturday with Santa, and the horse-drawn carriage tours are a great way to get that relationship off to a great start."
Since its inception a decade ago, The Coliseum Central Holiday Parade has been a major Hampton holiday event. Last year, the parade attracted more than 17,000 revelers from throughout Hampton Roads and featured 75 holiday-themed units. "We are so proud of Peninsula Town Center's title sponsorship of the Holiday Parade," says Billy Hobbs, President of the Coliseum Central Business Improvement District. "Their commitment to development in this area is unmatched, and the fact that they've remained so involved in the community while under construction says a lot about what we can expect from them in the future."
And with this year's holiday festivities just the first in a three-year Peninsula commitment, innovative events like horse-drawn construction tours demonstrate that commitment to the local community, and suggest that the future looks to be very bright, indeed.
