Fairwinds Landing project breaks ground in Norfolk

Developers broke ground Thursday morning on the Fairwinds Landing maritime operations and logistics center supporting Hampton Roads’ offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. 

The development project at Norfolk Southern Corp.’s Lambert’s Points Docks in Norfolk is being spearheaded by Fairwinds Landing LLC, a partnership between The Miller Group, Balicore Construction and Fairlead Integrated. The developers plan to collectively investing $100 million to develop the 111-acre site.

Fairwinds Landing’s Monitoring and Coordination Center (MCC), an offshore wind energy monitoring and coordination center, will occupy 7.5 acres of the site, which has deepwater access to the Elizabeth River and is across from Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Expected to be completed in 2025, the MCC will support more than 200 construction and engineering jobs. 

The MCC will include two buildings — a 31,167-square-foot operations and maintenance center and a 17,280-square-foot warehouse. The operations center will be used by Dominion Energy Inc. to monitor maritime activities, analyze asset performance, provide strategic planning and ensure regulatory compliance around the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project under development off the coast of Virginia Beach.

Dominion will have more than 45 shore-based personnel and 60 vessel-based personnel based who will be deployed to the offshore wind farm. The MCC will feature 950 linear square feet of pier frontage for offshore wind support and crew vessels.

“We’re excited to be the first tenant of the nearly 48,500-square-foot monitoring and coordination center located right here, across from the Portsmouth Marine Terminal,”  said Diane Leopold, Dominion Energy’s executive vice president and chief operations officer. “Fairwinds Landing is an important step in establishing an offshore wind supply chain in Virginia. It is also about recognizing the partnerships that are helping to make Virginia a hub for offshore wind and it’s about the revitalization of the former Lambert’s Point.” 

Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander said the center will be a catalyst for business in Norfolk and Hampton Roads.

“Today’s historic groundbreaking solidifies the City of Norfolk and the Hampton Roads region as the hub of innovation leading the charge of offshore wind energy in the commonwealth and the East Coast,” the mayor told the crowd of regional officials gathered for the groundbreaking. “This important partnership between Fairwinds Landing and Dominion Energy bolters Norfolk’s and the region’s commitment to workforce development and brings confidence to other offshore wind suppliers and manufacturers that we are the real deal, the ideal place to invest in advanced technology.”

The entire Fairwinds Landing site has two 10-acre piers with more than 6,000 linear feet of deepwater access, scarce attributes that are in high demand, Alexander noted. 

Jerry Miller, CEO of Fairwinds Landing and The Miller Group, described finding a “diamond in the rough” in the site two-and-a-half years ago and being intrigued by its potential for development.