Officials envision new life for shuttered state campus

Summary

• CVTC closed in 2020, costing the region 1,600 jobs and $87M.
• Redevelopment plan envisions housing, retail, and light industry.
• Site includes 98 outdated buildings, many with asbestos.
• State allocated $6M for demolition to attract developers.

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Lynchburg-area leaders want to see a second act for about 386 acres that were once home to the Central Virginia Training Center, a sprawling state campus that housed people with intellectual and developmental disabilities for decades until the state shut it down in 2020.

The center’s closing also dealt an $87.1 million regional economic blow, according to Megan Lucas, CEO and chief economic development officer of the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance.

“When the training center closed, we lost 1,600 jobs,” Lucas says. “We lost contracts the state paid for to support the residents of the training center, including food services, laundry services, maintenance of the complex, security and health services. The people who worked at the training center lived in the area, and spent money on housing, groceries and various services. The closure of the training center was a significant economic loss.”

The center’s closure ended a dark chapter of eugenics-driven policies that began 110 years prior and included decades of forced sterilizations in the early 20th century.

In 2022, the alliance, Amherst County and other partners released a redevelopment plan for the CVTC, envisioning the property being transformed into a mixed-use walkable neighborhood with room for light industrial use, commercial buildings, including restaurants, and housing, including multifamily and single-family homes.

Real estate and investment management firm JLL is selling the CVTC property for the state. The property listing describes the facility as “a prime redevelopment opportunity with extensive James River frontage and views of downtown Lynchburg.”

In March 2024, the state listed CVTC for sale, but didn’t attract the right buyer, according to Lucas. “We found in that first round that qualified developers weren’t responding because the site is filled with 98 buildings that are outdated,” she says.

The complex includes numerous buildings, totaling more than 900,000 square feet, built between 1912 and 1989, but because most contain asbestos, they won’t be candidates for preservation. In fiscal 2023, the state earmarked $6 million to help the property’s eventual developer with the demolition cost.

To make the property more desirable, this year the state agreed to give the $6 million instead to the Virginia Department of General Services to perform demolition work on the complex’s oldest buildings. “Any day now they’re going to start,” Lucas says.