Youngkin to propose $350M for site development

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will propose allocating a new $350 million investment for industrial site development next week, the governor said in a speech delivered Friday at the Virginia Chamber’s Virginia Economic Summit & Forum on International Trade.

In the 2022-24 budget, which Youngkin signed in June, the state allocated $150 million for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Business Ready Sites program, which would also receive the proposed $350 million. If approved by the General Assembly in its 2023 session, the new allocation would bring the state’s total recent investments for site development to $500 million.

“To support the recruitment of high-growth companies, and to enhance Virginia’s ability to win, the commonwealth requires massive investment to create project-ready sites,” Youngkin said.

Industrial development officials generally define project-ready sites as those ready for construction to begin in 12 to 18 months.

“I want ‘made in America’ to mean ‘made in Virginia,’” Youngkin said.

From 2016 to September 2022, Virginia missed out on more than 52,000 jobs and $120 billion in capital expenditures at least in part because companies were unable to find acceptable ready-to-build locations in the commonwealth, according to a September analysis by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Within that shortage, Virginia lacks large, 250-or-more-acre sites that can attract megaprojects. From January 2015 through September 2022, 121 new industrial projects requiring an estimated 250 or more acres were announced in the Southeast U.S., according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Combined, those projects generated more than $25 billion in capital expenditures and an estimated 58,000 jobs. But Virginia won just one of those 121 projects — the planned $1 billion Lego Group factory in Chesterfield County, expected to create more than 1,760 jobs.

“We are behind. We are not closing the gap, and those most competitive states continue to pull away,” Youngkin said Friday.

Virginia currently has two megasites. The 3,528-acre Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill, owned by the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facilities Authority, has 1,900 acres that are easily developable and is pad-ready. And in Chesapeake, the City Council approved the rezoning of the 1,420-acre Coastal Virginia Commerce Park, which will allow development to begin once the Chesapeake Economic Development Association purchases the property.

In early November, Site Selection magazine named Virginia No. 1 in its 2022 Business Climate Rankings, a jump from 10th place.

During his speech Friday, Youngkin also spoke on other aspects of state competition, including state tax structures and workforce development.

“Competing to win starts with taxes, and that’s both corporate and individual taxes,” he said.

He touted Virginia’s 2022-24 budget, which provided $4 billion in tax cuts, including an increase in the standard income tax deduction and the elimination of the statewide grocery tax, although not the local levy. “I am committed to do even more. Otherwise, we will find ourselves relegated with those high-tax, high-cost states that are being left behind,” Youngkin said.

Youngkin’s administration also is working to restructure the way government delivers workforce support, he said, by consolidating workforce development programs, which includes the community college system: “Workforce development is currently spread out over six Cabinet secretaries, 12 state agencies, 25 workforce programs with over 1,500 training programs, spending roughly $485 million in federal and state resources.”

“Our upcoming budget,” he said, “will prioritize expanding these career pathways for students by launching multiple dual-enrollment acceleration programs in partnership with our community colleges and local schools,” so that more students, and eventually all Virginia students, can graduate with industry-recognized credentials.

The General Assembly will convene Jan. 11, 2023.