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Tag: Hampton

Under construction

Atlantic Park

Virginia Beach

Proposed in 2017 by music icon Pharrell Williams and Venture Realty Group, Atlantic Park finally got underway in March with a groundbreaking on the first phase of the $350 million surf park project. Phase one will involve 10.95 acres, including 309 multifamily units, 10,000 square feet of office space, a 70,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor entertainment venue and a 2.67-acre indoor lagoon — the first Wavegarden Cove facility in the nation — and two public parking decks. Various components of the project are estimated to open between December 2024 and March 2025, developers expect. The second phase will consist of additional attractions, retail, public parking and residential space. A conceptual plan has been in place for Phase Two for quite some time, and the development firm is in the process of finalizing the plan.

Photo courtesy Virginia Department of Transportation

Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel

Hampton and Norfolk

Work continues on the $3.9 billion transportation project — Virginia’s largest ever — in all areas along the nearly 10-mile corridor of Interstate 64. As of July, the project was more than 50% complete. In early March, construction crews completed the first traffic shift onto the temporary I-64 East south trestle, and contracting group Hampton Roads Connector Partners continues to work on the three other marine trestles that connect both Norfolk and Hampton to the islands. Mary, the project’s tunnel boring machine, has been digging two new tunnels between Norfolk and Hampton at a rate of 50 feet a day since April. The twin tunnels will take more than two years to complete, and the machine must be reconstructed when it reaches the North Island, before it can turn around and dig the second tunnel back to the South Island.

Crews have finished construction of the Slurry Treatment Plant, dubbed Katherine for late NASA Langley Research Center mathematician Katherine Johnson. The four-story treatment plant, which processes and removes dirt and other tunneling byproducts, is the largest of its kind in North America. Mining operations began in late April and, to date, have mined more than 500 feet and installed 91 rings for the tunnel construction. The contract completion date for the HRBT project is November 2025 — although work is behind schedule by more than a year. Nonetheless, the Virginia Department of Transportation continues to work closely with HRCP to mitigate delays and reach project milestones.

 

Photo courtesy Dominion Energy

Fairwinds Landing

Norfolk

On June 29, developers held a groundbreaking event for Dominion Energy’s two-building Monitoring and Coordination Center (MCC). It joins Newport News Shipbuilding as the two largest tenants to date in Fairwinds Landing, a maritime operations and logistics center supporting Hampton Roads’ offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. Set to occupy the 122-acre Lambert’s Point Docks, the $100 million project is expected to be home for other major tenants, officials say. Fairwinds Landing is beginning to see an increase in vessels berthing at its facility that are supporting Dominion’s
$9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm, under development 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. A limited liability corporation, Fairwinds Landing is a partnership between The Miller Group, Balicore Construction and Fairlead Integrated. Developers continue to predict the project will be largely completed in three to five years, with the MCC ready by 2025 and accommodating 200 construction and engineering jobs.

 

Photo courtesy Stihl Inc.Photo courtesy Stihl Inc.

Stihl Inc. headquarters

Virginia Beach

Last year, Stihl Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the German chainsaw and outdoor power equipment manufacturer, announced a $49 million expansion, adding 26,000 square feet to its 60,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in Virginia Beach. The company plans to increase its capacity to manufacture chainsaw guide bars by a third, creating 15 jobs.
The site for the guide-bar facility expansion was cleared in October 2022, and the building structure was completed in February. The construction is currently in the commissioning phase, with all machines expected to be installed by the end of this year. Production is estimated to begin in early 2024, the company said in June. Stihl is also expanding its battery manufacturing operations, with plans set to be announced later this year.

 

Photo courtesy Fairbanks Morse Defense

Fairbanks Morse Defense

Chesapeake

Fairbanks Morse Defense, which builds, maintains and services naval power and propulsion systems, opened its newest training and service center campus in Chesapeake on May 17. FMD moved 40 jobs from its former service center in Norfolk to Chesapeake and also added
10 jobs. The $13 million, 45,000-square-foot facility offers fully integrated service and technology solutions to the Navy, Military Sealift Command and Coast Guard fleets. The move to Chesapeake came after the Navy informed FMD it was interested in increasing the number of field service technicians and having the training facility close by. All equipment can now be serviced in the 25,000-square-foot service area in Chesapeake, and training across all products sold by FMD can be completed at the new facility’s 20,000-square-foot training space, instead of in Wisconsin, where it was previously conducted.

 

 

Education 2023: LT. GEN. DARRELL K. WILLIAMS (U.S. ARMY, RET.)

When Williams was a freshman at Hampton University in 1979, the school’s president was William R. Harvey — who retired last year after 44 years leading the private historically Black university. That’s a tough act to follow, but Williams, who became HU’s 13th president in July 2022, has an impressive résumé of his own.

A retired Army lieutenant general, Williams was the first Black director of the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency and later served as vice president for Leidos’ U.K. operations. He received master’s degrees from Penn State, the Army Command and General Staff College, and the National War College. The recipient of a Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit, Williams also led the Fort Lee Army post and the Army Combined Arms Support Command.

Williams is the founding board chair for the Mary S. Peake Fellowship, an organization providing recent college graduates, veterans and military spouses with workforce leadership training. A 19th-century Black educator, Peake taught enslaved people in Hampton to read, which was illegal in Virginia before the Civil War.

Founded in 1868, Hampton University had 3,244 students enrolled in fall 2022.

Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: CLAYTON TURNER

Turner reaches for the stars every day. A 30-year NASA veteran, he is at the helm of NASA’s celebrated Langley Research Center as scientists work to send astronauts back to the moon by 2025 and prepare for the momentous manned mission to Mars.

For the past three decades, Turner has served in various engineering and leadership roles leading the agency’s contributions to the Space Shuttle program’s return to flight, the flight test of the Ares 1-X rocket, and the entry, descent and landing segment of the Mars Science Laboratory, among other projects.

A 1990 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, he began his NASA career as a design engineer. In 2019, he was named director of the center, where he leads a team of 3,400 scientists, engineers, researchers and staff. Turner’s many awards include the Presidential Rank Award and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.

PERSONAL MOTTO: Reach for new heights, to reveal the unknown, for the benefit of humankind.

FIRST JOB: Stock boy at Sears

ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Be more united. Sometimes it feels like there are four Virginias.

Hampton Roads warehouses sell for $8.4M

A portfolio of three warehouses in Hampton Roads sold for $8.4 million in mid-May.

Tidewater Fleet Supply, an independent distributor of fleet, truck, trailer and heavy equipment parts, leases the properties.

Located at 3666 Progress Road, the Norfolk warehouse sold for $6.03 million, according to city property records. The parcel is approximately 4.82 acres. At 1324 Lindale Drive in Chesapeake, the approximately 1.6-acre property sold for almost $1.8 million, property records show. The warehouse in Hampton on 2502 58th St. is on roughly 0.51 acres.

B&D Acquisitions LLC bought the properties from Parrott Properties LLC. Ricky Anderson and Chamie Burroughs with Colliers International represented the buyer.

$130M mixed-use development planned for Hampton

A proposed $130 million development will bring 118 townhomes, 284 luxury apartments, 96 senior apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail space to Hampton.

The project, called The Olde Hampton Village, will span 16 parcels across nearly 23 acres near downtown Hampton, at the former site of the Lincoln Park housing development, on LaSalle Avenue, off Interstate 64 and near Langley Air Force Base and NASA Langley.

The former housing development closed and was demolished in 2016, according to the city’s staff report on the project. The proposal went in front of Hampton City Council on Wednesday night, seeking rezoning and use permits, and earned the council’s approval.

The Olde Hampton Village is a joint venture between Virginia Beach-based Axis Global Enterprises Inc. and Virginia Beach-based EDC Homes, and has been in the works for four years, according to a news release from the developer.

A rendering shows the pool and clubhouse area.
Courtesy Axis Global Enterprises Inc.

The townhomes would each be three stories and the developers are proposing four multifamily buildings, each four stories high. The development will also have park space, a pool, a dog park and washing station, a clubhouse and a fitness center. It could also include a child care facility, hair salon and coffee shop.

The developers expect to break ground on the project in late summer 2023, after all site and building plans are approved and finalized. The project will be built in phases and is expected to be completed in 28 months,  a spokesperson for Axis told Virginia Business.

“The Olde Hampton Village development is an opportunity to revitalize the gateway to the Olde Hampton community, which is rich in history for our region,” Ross Vierra, president and CEO of Axis Global Enterprises, said in a statement.  “Bringing this vision to life has been a long road which we have been dedicated to ensuring the highest quality designs to honor the heritage and inspire a new generation of residents and businesses. Service is at the heart of our development process and this vote from the Hampton City Council permits our team to bring this transformational gateway project to life.”

The site was once a Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority housing project that was too old to rehabilitate, according to a news release from the city. The housing authority has approved the sale of the land.

 

Fort Monroe development moving forward

Apartments, a 250-person event center, a boutique hotel, a 500-seat restaurant, a marina and a firing range will soon dot the landscape at Fort Monroe with the help of historic tax credits, public funds and private investment.

Hanover County-based Echelon Resources Inc. was named master developer by the Fort Monroe Authority for four concurrent parcels. The first two are in the design stage and will be converted into 65,000 square feet of apartments, with flexibility for commercial use, according to owner Edwin Gaskin, who is hopeful construction will begin in 2023. Gaskin estimates the four parcels will eventually include 250 to 300 apartments.

Smithfield-based Pack Brothers Hospitality LLC is investing $45 million to build a marina, renovate two existing historic buildings into conference space and a restaurant and hotel over the water, akin to its Smithfield Station development. The new development will be called 37 North at Fort Monroe.

“With both of these developers, we wanted to focus on an understanding that the sites would be developed as part of Fort Monroe — and not become an island within an island — and both Echelon and Pack Brothers embrace that concept,” FMA Executive Director Glenn Oder explains, stressing the mixed-use focus of the 565 acres comprising Fort Monroe, a national historic landmark and former Army installation decommissioned in 2011.

The marina will accommodate 300 slips, spaces for super yachts, a pool and possibly a boardwalk connecting to the fort’s 7-mile trail along Fenwick Road. Pack Brothers Principal Randy Pack says construction could start in fall 2024. The marina and restaurant are anticipated to open in fall 2025. The hotel and conference center, in the third phase, would be completed 12 to 18 months later, Pack says.

The former post’s commissary, which has sat vacant for years, will be a new firing range and training facility for Hampton Police and Joint Base Langley-Eustis officers, made possible through a $7.6 million Department of Defense grant coupled with $3.7 million from the city of Hampton, says Bruce Sturk, the city’s director of federal facilities. Fort Monroe is owned by the state and the National Park Service and managed by the authority and NPS.

In September 2022, NPS issued a request for proposals for the nearly 24,000-square-foot former Paradise Ocean Club, which has been vacant after unsuccessful lease negotiations with the former tenants.  

VersAbility Resources lands $140M Air Force contract

Hampton-based VersAbility Resources Inc. has received a $140.7 million contract to support mail and postal service center support at Air Force installations across the U.S., the Pentagon announced Friday.

The firm-fixed-price, indefinitely delivery contract was a sole source acquisition and work is expected to be complete by Jan. 17, 20s3.

Founded in 1953, VersAbility Resources serves more than 1,800 people with disabilities and their families annually with a variety of services, including employment programs and business partnerships that provide staffing solutions.

 

New NASA tunnel could boost Va. space industry

As NASA pushes the reaches of space exploration, a new wind tunnel at the agency’s Hampton-based Langley Research Center will serve an important role in journeys beyond Mars and could also boost Virginia’s space industry.

In August, NASA broke ground on its new 25,000-square-foot Flight Dynamics Research Facility (FDRF), which will house the 130-foot-tall vertical wind tunnel that will aid researchers and scientists designing unmanned spacecraft expected to journey to Venus between 2028 and 2030 and to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2034. The General Services Administration awarded Birmingham, Alabama-based BL Harbert International LLC a $43 million design-build construction contract for the FDRF in September 2021.

Scheduled to be operational in late 2024, the FDRF will be NASA Langley’s first major new wind tunnel in more than 40 years. The tunnel combines the functions of the 12-foot Low Speed Tunnel built in 1939 — which re-creates takeoff and landing conditions — and the 1941-era Vertical Spin Tunnel, which helps researchers understand how aircraft perform during stalls. However, NASA says the FDRF will operate more efficiently and with less turbulence.

As those 20th-century tunnels aged, maintenance costs increased as parts became difficult to replace. Moreover, flooding concerns grew as both tunnels sit near water.

“Both have seen countless aircraft and spacecraft, all types of aerospace vehicles for military and civilian testing,” ranging from space capsules and shuttles to supersonic and commercial aircraft, says NASA spokesperson David Meade. “It’s a testament to the original construction and design and how well they’ve been used.”

NASA’s space technology and aerospace teams will use the new tunnel, and most of the world’s major aerospace companies also frequently conduct testing at Langley. Meade says it’s too early to tell which contractors will use the tunnel, but he expects a lot of interest.

“It’s going to be a new, state-of-the-art facility that everybody’s going to want to use for research,” he adds, “and that will bring a lot of attention and customers to our center to use the facility.”

Ted Mercer, CEO of Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, a state organization started to attract space industry businesses to the commonwealth, agrees. “Bringing in a new wind tunnel will bring in more quality jobs to the region and expand the workload for NASA.”

Under construction

Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel

Hampton and Norfolk

Construction is underway along 10 miles of the Interstate 64 corridor from Hampton to Norfolk on the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project. In June, crews on
the South Island began reassembling Mary, the 430-foot, $70 million tunnel boring machine (TBM) that was delivered to the Port of Virginia last November. As of late summer, crews were completing work on the TBM’s launch pit on the island, and Virginia Department of Transportation officials anticipate boring to begin in spring 2023, excavating about 50 feet a day and taking approximately a year to cross the harbor. In mid-July, workers poured 14.5 million pounds of concrete in a 24-hour period, one of the largest continuous concrete pours in VDOT’s history. Meanwhile, manufacturing of the tunnel segments is underway in Cape Charles, where roughly 500 rings (or 4,500 tunnel segments) of the 2,388 rings were completed as of August. Nearly half of the 1,200 piles for the new bridge trestles across have been placed above and below water in the Norfolk Harbor.

Rendering courtesy Pembroke Realty Group

Pembroke Square

Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach’s 1966-era Pembroke Mall is rebranding as Pembroke Square, as Pembroke Square Associates and its partners (including Landmark Hotel Group LLC and Castle Development Partners) conduct a $200 million redevelopment of the 54-acre property. The 14-story, 209-room Tempo/Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel is set to open in summer 2025, and groundbreaking is set in October for the 153-unit Aviva Pembroke Senior Living Community, a partnership with Beth Sholom Village. In early 2023, work is set to start on a 324-unit, five-story apartment building, with opening scheduled in fall 2025.

 

 

Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center

Chesapeake

In August, Amazon.com Inc. opened its inbound cross-dock fulfillment center in Chesapeake on Portsmouth Boulevard, the first center of its kind in Virginia for the e-commerce giant. The 640,000-square-foot processing center created 1,000 full- and part-time jobs, and it expands Amazon’s operations and logistics network in the state. A similar facility is set to be completed later this year in Stafford County. Amazon’s presence in Hampton Roads has mushroomed, with its $230 million, 3.8 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk expected to open in September and a 60,000-square-foot delivery station nearby that opened in February. Norfolk and Hampton also have delivery facilities, and Amazon has a career center in Chesapeake.

 

 

Photo by Mark Rhodes

Fairwinds Landing

Norfolk

The $100 million Fairwinds Landing project is underway, as an entity connected to The Miller Group signed a 30-year lease in August for the 122-acre Lambert’s Point Docks property owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. It has 20 miles of rail infrastructure, high-volume transload facilities and 1.1 million square feet of industrial warehouse space, and the plan is to turn the property into a maritime operations and logistics center to support offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. Construction is expected to begin later this year, and the center is expected to produce more than 500 jobs. Multiple phases of the project will be completed over the next five years.

 

Photo courtesy The Breeden Co.

Avant at Huntington Pointe

Newport News

In May, The Breeden Co. broke ground on the $33 million Avant at Huntington Pointe apartment project in Newport News, which is set to include 176 units between 672 and 1,517 square feet each. Breeden Construction is serving as general contractor, and the company’s property management arm will manage the apartments. The first units are slated to be completed by late summer 2023, with full completion by next fall or winter.

 

 

Siemens Gamesa offshore wind blade factory

Portsmouth

Announced in October 2021, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A. expects to start infrastructure work in 2023 on the nation’s first offshore wind turbine blade facility on leased property at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, with production scheduled to start in 2025. The Spanish company, which is partnering with Dominion Energy Inc. on the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) farm, will produce blades for 176 turbines that will be erected 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Siemens intends to spend $80 million for new buildings on 80 acres that are part of the Port of Virginia, part of an overall $200 million investment. Construction on CVOW is expected to start in 2024, with completion set for 2026.

Hampton University names next president

A Hampton University graduate and retired Army lieutenant general will be the next president of Hampton University.

Darrell K. Williams will succeed William R. Harvey as Hampton’s next president. Harvey announced his retirement in December 2020. His last day will be June 30.

“Running a university is complex, as was made evident by the global pandemic. When President Harvey told us of his decision to retire, we knew we wanted to build upon what he has accomplished,” said Board of Trustees Chairman Wes Coleman in a statement. “We embarked on a search for a proven strategic leader. The skills Lt. Gen. Williams is bringing to Hampton encompass what institutions of our size need. In a global world increasingly dependent on technology, this kind of strategic leadership expertise and knowledge can only help to move our institution forward over the coming decades.”

Williams, of Alexandria, graduated in 1983 and now works for Leidos Holdings Inc. He serves as Leidos United Kingdom vice president and managing director of the U.K. Ministry of Defence Logistics Commodities and Services Transformation Programme. He retired from the Army in 2020 after 37 years. He was the first African American and 19th director of the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency, where he oversaw 26,000 civilian and military members.

From 2015 to 2017, Williams led the Army Combined Arms Support Command and Fort Lee, Va.

A native of West Palm Beach, Florida, Williams earned his bachelor’s degree at Hampton and then earned three master’s degrees: an MBA from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in military art and science from the Army Combined and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and a master’s in national security strategy from the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.

The Hampton University Board of Trustees selected Williams on March 30 and he accepted the position on April 8, according to the university.

“I love Hampton and bring a wealth of strategic leadership experiences, including management of large global organizations, as well as the academic and nonprofit experience necessary to successfully lead the university,” Williams said in a statement. “I am thrilled to have been selected as the next president. I will work tirelessly with students, faculty, staff, alumni and the broader community to prepare our graduates for today and for the continuously evolving, technology-driven workforce of tomorrow.”

Harvey is one of the nation’s longest-serving university presidents and will retire after 44 years at the historically Black private university. When he announced his retirement, he was the eighth longest-serving university president currently serving a term.

Some of Harvey’s most notable accomplishments include overseeing the creation of 92 academic degrees, including 12 doctoral programs, the construction of 29 new buildings and the growth of the university’s endowment from $29 million to more than $300 million.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.