RICHMOND, Va. — After a few lawmakers missed time during the session due to COVID-19, Del. Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News, said she was thrilled to see all 100 members of the House unanimously pass a bill requiring hotels to provide human trafficking training for employees.
“It was really exciting for me to watch the vote because I didn’t know how it was going to go,” Simonds said. “We haven’t had 100 to zero very often.”
House Bill 258 will authorize the Department of Criminal Justice Services to create a free online mandatory course to help hotel employees better recognize and report human trafficking. After passing through the House in February it passed the Senate 36-4 on March 11.
Anyone employed by a hotel as of July 1 has to complete the required training course by Dec. 31.
In a survey conducted by the Polaris Project, 75% of human trafficking survivors reported coming into contact with hotels at some point during their trafficking situation. The Polaris Project collects data on and works to combat human trafficking, in addition to maintaining the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Robert Melvin, director of government affairs for the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association, said that organizations like the Polaris Project have helped to develop onboard training courses for major brands like Marriott International and Hilton Hotels.
The hospitality industry has made combating human trafficking a priority, Melvin said.
“It’s something that we take very seriously,” Melvin said. “We’ve worked really hard to curtail on our own as an industry.”
A provision in the bill states that hotel employees can use alternative online or in-person training courses like those already required by major brands, if approved by the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Simonds said that the bill will help raise all hotels to the standards of those with training courses already in place.
“I think that there are smaller hotels that aren’t part of these large chains that need support and need a way for their employees to complete this training,” Simonds said.
The Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association worked with Simonds to create a provision that expedites the process of getting major brands current training courses approved by the DCJS, according to Melvin.
DCJS would need to approve or disapprove the use of an alternative course within 60 days of it being submitted for approval, according to the final version of the bill.
The bill could also help smaller hotel owners become part of larger brands quicker by already having the standard of human trafficking training courses required for employees throughout the state, Simonds said.
“In order to move up and become a Holiday Inn you need to show that you do have certain standards,” Simonds said. “This is going to lift up the standards for everyone in the hotel industry.”
Sen. Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, asked Simonds in a Senate committee hearing if hotel proprietors would have to pay any cost to the DCJS. Lawmakers substituted the bill to state that it would be free for hotel owners and their employees to take the course.
Simonds proposed almost $233,000 each year for the next two years in the budget to implement an online training platform. General Assembly members return next week to approve the final budget.
Questions were raised during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about which employees would be required to complete the training. Simonds added a substitute to restrict the required training to public facing employees, including housekeepers, bartending staff and management.
“Training housekeepers could be the most important part of this bill,” Simonds said. “Because they see things.”
An estimated 1,500 hotels and over 116,000 hotel employees would be subject to the requirements, according to the bill’s impact statement.
Despite the substitutions, the bill still serves its purpose of empowering bystanders to report human trafficking, Simonds said. She said she hopes to pass similar legislation next session focused on short-term rental properties like Airbnb and Vrbo.
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.
February hotel revenues in Virginia were 6.1% lower than those recorded in February 2019, according to data released Monday by STR Inc., a division of CoStar Group Inc. that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.
Hotel rooms sold decreased by 5% last month, compared with 2019 levels. The average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms decreased 1% from 2019 to $96, but revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell to $42, a 7% decrease from February 2019.
In February 2021, Virginia’s RevPAR was $34.84, and the ADR $80.34.
Hotel revenues in Hampton Roads were 18% higher last month than February 2019 levels. Virginia Beach had the largest increase, with revenues up 25%, and the Chesapeake/Suffolk submarket followed with a 24% increase. Newport News/Hampton had a 7% increase in revenue.
For Northern Virginia, hotel revenue was 33% lower than in February 2019. The Northern Virginia market is essentially responsible for the decline in state revenue numbers, according to a press release from Old Dominion University’s Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. In 2019, it accounted for 43% of the state revenues.
The only other markets to see declining revenues were Roanoke, down by 5.9%, and Bristol, Virginia, down 1.1%. The Richmond market saw a 6.9% increase in revenue, and Charlottesville revenues were up 18.6%, which might be partly because of basketball season, said Dragas Deputy Director Vinod Agarwal.
In Northern Virginia, the number of rooms sold last month decreased by 24% compared to the number sold in 2019. The Bristol, Virginia, market saw an 11% decrease, and the Roanoke and Newport News/Hampton markets sold 8% fewer rooms.
Rooms sold increased by 3% in Richmond, 10% in Charlottesville and 12% in the Chesapeake/Suffolk submarket.
Ravi Patel watched as gas prices began their upward spiral and responded accordingly.
To help offset fuel surcharges for deliveries, Patel, CEO of Sina Hospitality, placed larger orders for the linens, toiletries and other dry good items that his employees need to stock the Richmond-area hotels his company operates. “Kind of like everybody’s stockpile during COVID,” Patel said Wednesday. “Same thing with us, you know — the gas prices are higher, we know they’re higher and so the right thing to do is to stockpile as much as we can.”
Gas prices continue to surge as Russia’s war with Ukraine results in mounting sanctions coupled with Tuesday’s ban on Russian oil imports announced by the Biden administration. The average price of regular unleaded gas in Virginia hit $4.18 per gallon Wednesday, topping the record set only a day earlier, when the cost increased to $4.10, according to AAA. While Virginia lags slightly behind the national per-gallon price of $4.25, prices in Northern Virginia were among the highest in the state, with Fairfax County hitting $4.31 Wednesday.
Chris Thompson is vice president of business development for Harrisonburg-based third-party-logistics firm InterChange Group. In addition to warehousing, the company operates about 60 tractor-trailers. InterChange negotiates fuel charges with customers on a sliding scale, which have increased along with fuel prices.
“Fuel for a trucking company is one of our single largest expenses,” Thompson said. “When you start seeing fuel – I saw it locally here today over $5 – that starts to get extremely expensive. Before long, if those prices continue to inch up, you’re looking at nearly $1 a mile to run a truck.”
That’s a cost that might ultimately get passed along to the consumer, Thompson said.
If high fuel prices drag on into the spring and summer months it could have a drastic impact on the already struggling travel and leisure industries, which are still continuing their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association President Eric Terry.
A more immediate effect might be borne out on the supply chain. Food prices have already increased dramatically with inflation; Terry said he’s concerned that food suppliers will also see dramatic increases.
“I think it has a potential to kind of have a one-two punch on the industry,” Terry said.
Nick Patel is president of Kalyan Hospitality, which operates several limited-service hotels along Interstates 95, 64 and 81. Higher gas prices have historically translated to lower occupancy, and with spring break approaching, he’s witnessing a similar trend. He’s also bracing for additional surcharges for supplies. If those keep up over the long term, he anticipates having to compensate by raising nightly room rental rates.
“It’s a trickle-down effect for everything,'” he said. “Goods, I mean, A to Z, it’s gonna affect us everywhere.”
Ravi Patel is also bracing for price increases for supplies. Sina is constructing a hotel in Chester, which it expects to open in June, and has three other hotels under development. Freight quotes that were good for seven days are now good for about 24 hours, he said. Increasing costs could force the company to expand budgets.
While he said it’s difficult to say if decreases in current occupancy are the direct result of gas prices, Patel said he’s fearful that prolonged high prices could lead families to halt summer travel.
“A family of four, you’re not going to go to the beach, or go up and down 95 if you can go five minutes from your house and go do something outside,” he said, “You’re not going to stay at a hotel because all your hotel money is gonna get eaten up in gas.”
Amid the ongoing pandemic, Virginians have escaped to the outdoors, enjoying the commonwealth’s varying recreational activities.
“Since the pandemic started, people have wanted to get out of their homes and explore,” says Virginia Tourism Corp. Communications Manager Andrew Cothern, “and there’s so much to do in Virginia that outdoor recreation was a natural thing that people gravitated toward, so whether it was biking trails, hiking trails, ski resorts — whatever they’re interested in — there’s a lot of opportunity for them to get out.”
In 2021, Virginia State Parks saw 6.3 million day visits and a total visitation of 7.9 million people — a 1.5% increase over 2020 and a 15% increase over 2019. Virginia also opened Machicomoco and Clinch River state parks last year.
Last fall, Virginia Tourism Corp. received $50 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to assist the state’s 133 localities with destination marketing.
Cycling and hiking are Roanoke’s focuses, says Catherine Fox, Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge vice president of destination development. The organization markets the region as a “metro mountain adventure,” and it sees the most visitor interest in the Blue Ridge Parkway and the hiking “triple crown” of the Virginia Appalachian Trail — McAfee Knob, Dragon’s Tooth and Tinker Cliffs. In January, the Team Twenty24 pro women’s cycling team, which has earned 14 Olympic and Paralympic medals over the past 17 years, announced that it would relocate from Idaho to Roanoke and rebrand as VBR Twenty24.
Virginia’s rural regions have seen the largest increase in outdoor recreational tourism, Cothern says.
AJ Robinson, Tazewell County’s director of communications and tourism, says, “In general for our region, we’re just attracting people who want to be in rural areas [with] clean air [and] lots of space, who are just kind of getting away.”
Converted railroad trails such as the Virginia Creeper Trail have brought tourists to rural Southwest Virginia and aided development in towns like Damascus, which in January hired a recreation program director and a recreation project manager to grow outdoor tourism.
Former Gov. Ralph Northam included $245 million for outdoor recreation in his outgoing budget proposal, part of which would fund the establishment of the Shenandoah Rail Trail — a 48.5-mile former Norfolk Southern railroad corridor running from Broadway to Front Royal. As of early February, the General Assembly had not approved the next state budget.
“It will be a game changer for people being able to even get more safe activities through the towns,” says Brenda Black, Shenandoah County’s tourism and economic development coordinator.
Shenandoah just ended its “Find Your Way Back” social media campaign, with the tagline “to wide open spaces.” One of its visitors centers saw more than 35,600 people in 2021.
Other increasingly popular trails are those that accommodate all-terrain vehicles and other motor vehicles. In October 2021, Northam and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan rode ATVs on the Spearhead Trails network during the Appalachian Regional Commission’s annual conference. In January, the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority awarded a $50,000 grant to the Southwest Regional Recreation Authority for renovations to the Spearhead Trails Adventure Recreation Center in Coeburn.
Tazewell County’s main attractions are the Spearhead Trails and the 32-mile Back of the Dragon, Virginia’s only designated motorcycle route. From 2020 to 2021, the county saw a 10%-12% increase in overnight guests who came for its ATV trails alone.
Outdoor offerings have proliferated. In Shenandoah County, disc golf took off, Black says. Adventure parks offering climbing and ziplining in Virginia Beach have become popular, says Erin Goldmeier, Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s public relations director. While in Buchanan County, Breaks Interstate Park and Southern Gap Outdoor Adventure offer elk viewing tours.
Mark Spadoni took on the role of managing director at The Omni Homestead Resort to help restore the iconic hotel, which turns 256 years old this year.
“It’s a great responsibility,” he says. “We want to maintain the past but make it relevant to moving forward. The goal is to set it up for the next 100 years.”
Founded in 1766, The Omni Homestead Resort is one of the nation’s oldest continuously operated resort hotels. TRT Holdings Inc., the private equity firm that owns Omni Hotels & Resorts, purchased The Homestead in 2013, knowing the property needed renovation and restoration.
“We recognize the historical importance and future potential of such an outstanding property,” says Clint Gulick, senior development project manager for TRT Holdings Inc. “By repairing ancient and failing infrastructure and restoring the interior and exterior components of the building, we can give The Homestead a fresh start and restore her historic beauty.”
Work on the resort’s exterior began in November 2021 and is expected to be completed in early 2023. It includes the restoration of 978 original wood windows and hundreds of doors, as well as repairs to all stucco, terracotta, limestone and brick masonry. In addition, work will be completed on the terraces and balconies in the garden and west wings, the tower and presidential suites, restoring them to their original luster.
Plans also call for building a new 4,000-square-foot pavilion for weddings and special events. “With everything we are doing, we want to make sure we don’t do anything that takes away from the property,” Spadoni says. “All of the new buildings are designed to match the existing buildings.”
As for the renovation plans, it’s more than just making everything look nice. “You can take something old and modernize it, but we are taking something in need of repair and making it watertight and updating the structural integrity so we can bring it back to its previous grandeur,” says Leta Hardy, vice president of Complete Property Services, the Tampa, Florida-based company chosen to do the exterior work on the resort. “Every part of the exterior is being touched, even the hands on the clock.”
Restoration of the 978 original guest room windows includes sealing the windows and installing storm windows. “The windows will maintain the same look and feel,” Hardy says. “Guests won’t see the extra pane of glass.”
Guestrooms in the main building, as well as the tower, east, west and garden wings, will all be updated with a design in keeping with the vintage style. Martha’s Market, the property’s grab-and-go café, will be entirely remodeled and will open into the updated Washington Library. The Lobby Bar will expand into the Georgian Room with a new speakeasy-style lounge.
Interior work is scheduled to begin by the end of March. “The five different wings will all be done independently,” Spadoni says. “We will stay open during the renovation, but there will be minimal inconvenience to guests. Hopefully we will have all the guest rooms in service before summer season 2023.”
Another key component of the project is the construction of a new residential building for employees, some of whom are coming to Bath County on temporary work visas. Located in downtown Hot Springs, the building will include 50 two-person units and community facilities, as well as a basketball court and a picnic area. Construction of the building began earlier this year and is set to be completed in spring 2023.
Another project associated with The Homestead — the Warm Springs Pools, formerly named for Thomas Jefferson — are under renovation by Roanoke’s Lionberger Construction Co., which expects to finish the job late this year.
Working on the oldest section of the main hotel is exciting, Hardy says. “No one has modernized the building, so anything our workers touch was done by the original craftsperson.”
The Homestead is a “community itself,” says Amy Steen-Humble, senior interior design manager for TRT Holdings. “By restoring this national treasure, we’re restoring the community and allowing new faces to come along. Virginia has more history than any other state in the U.S., and we’re proud to contribute to its preservation.
RICHMOND, Va. — Legislators raised a few questions with a measure that would deploy hotel staff to help combat human trafficking.
The bill introduced by Del. Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News, was heard Thursday in a House subcommittee.
House Bill 258 would authorize the Department of Criminal Justice Services to create an online mandatory course to help hotel employees better recognize and report human trafficking.
The bill would require employees to complete the training within six months of employment and become recertified once every two years. Simonds worked with representatives of the hospitality industry to clarify that staff employed when the bill goes into effect will need to complete training by the end of the year.
“Our friends in law enforcement need folks in hospitality and everyone in the community to help combat this horrible problem,” Simonds said to the panel.
Committee chair Del. William Wampler, R-Washington, asked to revisit the bill after questions were raised.
Del. Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, requested that an attorney look over the bill to determine whether the word hotel also encompasses motels, lodges and campgrounds, or if the bill should identify each individual lodging term.
Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Hopewell, echoed Brewer’s sentiment and asked if the bill could be amended to allow employees up to a year upon start of employment to complete the training rather than the proposed six months. Coyner said giving employees a year will help from having too many people cycling through the training at once due to staff turnover.
Coyner said that her local police department does in person training with hotels on human trafficking and she is concerned the online option would prevent employees from getting “in depth” training.
Coyner asked Simonds to determine how different localities currently conduct training through law enforcement. Simonds said she has been in close contact with the DCJS who she believes are in contact with law enforcement but that she would further communicate with DCJS on the bill.
Coyner also wanted clearer language regarding how the DCJS would keep records of employees so that they would not have to complete the course again if they moved hotels and would know when the recertification process was due.
Simonds said she remains optimistic about the bill and will work on the suggested items.
“The issues that people were bringing up, I think we can work with,” Simonds said in an interview after the meeting.
Patrick McKenna, co-founder of the Virginia Coalition Against Human Trafficking, voiced support for the bill. It is important for hotel employees to understand “what they’re seeing and what to do when they see it” in order to help discourage trafficking, McKenna said.
Legislators approved a bill last year requiring casino employees who deal with the public to complete a training course in how to recognize and report human trafficking. Simonds sponsored the legislation, which went into effect July 1.
Human trafficking is an ongoing issue in the state that is nearly impossible to quantify, according to a 2019 DCJS report. The General Assembly has passed several bills in past years to combat the human rights issue. Legislators created a statewide Sex Trafficking Response Coordinator position in 2019. The coordinator is tasked with creating an annual report for addressing sex trafficking in Virginia.
The DCJS noted in its recent annual report that more funding and resources are needed for training.
Simonds is also working on a bill to add a common definition of human trafficking to the state code.
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.
“Cooperation” is a word Jim Noel uses a lot these days when speaking about the Greater Williamsburg region, which encompasses the city of Williamsburg and York and James City counties.
As York County’s economic development director, Noel has watched as one of the most historically significant areas of the nation has worked to revive and diversify its economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on tourism.
In 2020, overnight visitation to Virginia declined by 33%, shrinking from 44 million visitors in 2019 to 29.3 million visitors, according to the Virginia Tourism Corp.
The Williamsburg region performed even worse.
“Williamsburg is still one of the lowest occupancy markets in the state,” says Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association (VRLTA). The major reasons, Terry says, are fewer visitors and shorter stays at Colonial Williamsburg.
“I think it’s a little more challenging to sell historic tourism these days,” he notes. “Vacations have now become four-day weekends, as opposed to weeklong.” Also, new hotels and resorts — which Williamsburg lacks, compared with nearby Virginia Beach, for instance — often tempt vacationers.
In October 2020, Williamsburg’s occupancy rate was 31.2%, the lowest of the 13 Virginia markets surveyed, according to VRLTA data. It rose to 52.5% by October 2021, but was still ranked lowest among markets surveyed and was below the state average of 64%.
Also, notes Old Dominion University’s 2021 State of the Region report, June 2021 hotel revenue in Williamsburg was at $17.7 million, a 514% increase from the previous year but 6% below June 2019. Some of this is due to lower per-room prices that sank to an average of $88 per night in July 2020. Prices rose to $163 in July 2021, with 67% occupancy, says Ron Kirkland, executive director of the Williamsburg Hotel and Motel Association.
But group and business travel are still lagging, Kirkland says, because many people aren’t yet ready to convene in large groups. Barring any further setbacks, he thinks it will be another year to 18 months before tourism and occupancy rates fully recover.
Colonial Williamsburg, historically one of the bellwethers of the Williamsburg region’s tourism industry, has seen a precipitous drop in ticket sales since a high point of 1.2 million tickets in 1988. By 2018, tickets sales plummeted to 550,171, the lowest point since the 1960s. And in 2020, due to the pandemic, the living history attraction was closed from mid-March to mid-June, reopening under state capacity limits for nearly a year.
“I’m happy to report that visitation to Colonial Williamsburg’s historic area and art museums has been strong through the summer and is gradually returning to pre-COVID-19 visitation levels,” notes Ellen Peltz, public relations manager for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, although she declined to provide current numbers on visits, financial data and employment.
Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association President Eric Terry says sports tourism could help diversify and boost Williamsburg’s hospitality sector. Photo by Mark Rhodes
From COVID to cooperation
Regional cooperation is seen as part of the path toward recovery and diversification in the region.
The city of Williamsburg and York and James City counties have shared interests that encourage cooperation, says Noel with York County: “We work together a lot, and it makes sense. Our economies are intertwined and while we have a mixed economy, the hospitality industry is important to all three of us.”
Food and drink and good times never seem to lose appeal, and Williamsburg-area localities are excited about the Edge District, a developing hospitality- and entertainment-driven area on the borders of the three localities, sited along Second Street, Merrimac Trail, Capitol Landing Road and the Virginia Route 143 corridor.
The district has drawn support from local governments and in short order has become an example of increasing regional cooperation in the face of economic adversity.
Robby Willey, who co-founded The Virginia Beer Co. brewery in 2016 on Second Street, is the Williamsburg Economic Development Authority liaison for the district. “The municipalities put their money where their mouth was,” he says, including setting up a website promoting the district to the public. Also, businesses in the area are planning to form an association to work on securing signage and infrastructure to attract more people to the district, he says.
Noel began promoting the Edge District in 2019 when he started thinking about ways to spur economic development on a regional level.
“It occurred to me that this is a real cool corridor,” says Noel, who took the idea to his local economic development counterparts, who also were enthusiastic about the concept. So were owners of restaurant and beverage businesses, which were hit harder than other sectors during the height of the pandemic and have encountered hiring difficulties during the widespread labor shortage.
“Both from an EDA and business perspective, we couldn’t do what we do without our visitors,” Willey says, noting that the localities’ marketing encourages residents and tourists to “step out of their comfort zone,” and try out new businesses.
Although the three local economic development authorities each donated $2,000 to create a starter fund for the Edge District, the big push came after the Environmental Protection Agency announced in June 2019 that it was awarding the Greater Williamsburg Partnership a $600,000 brownfields grant, which would be used to conduct environmental assessments in the Edge District, Grove, Tabb Lakes and Lightfoot, and make properties suitable for redevelopment.
“Redevelopment and revitalization” is the primary goal of the brownfields grants, says Tom Laughlin, a senior associate with Draper Aden Associates, the Blacksburg-based engineering, surveying and environmental services firm that was hired to manage the brownfields grant. The firm also hired Consociate Media of Gloucester to brand and market the Edge District.
Part of the grant funds an assessment process that identifies any potential hazards such as lead paint, asbestos or underground tanks so that potential buyers or developers of a distressed property know what they might face.
The grant also provides for conceptual designs and renderings of what a distressed property could look like after rehabilitation.
York County Economic Development Director Jim Noel has led regional efforts to promote the Edge District, which features 20 restaurants. Photo by Mark Rhodes
About a dozen projects have been examined so far, but Laughlin says he isn’t able to discuss them yet. Nevertheless, he adds, “projects are in motion, and we expect tangible evidence in a year or two.”
“We are excited to see this budding foodie/shopping destination get the attention that it deserves,” Yuri Adams, Williamsburg’s acting economic development director, says of the district.
“Chef-driven restaurants and destination boutique shopping are the central focus of the Edge District, and we wanted to create a way to market and celebrate all that these businesses offer our community — not just through the products they offer, but also through the community development and philanthropic efforts they provide our Greater Williamsburg region,” Adams says.
Growth through collaboration
Industrial development is another area where the Greater Williamsburg localities are finding opportunities for collaboration.
In 2018, the three principal Williamsburg-area localities, as well as seven other localities, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News and Poquoson, formed the Eastern Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority (EVRIFA).
“What a RIFA does is to allow localities to invest in an economic project and share the revenue,” Noel says, “but not everyone has to participate.” In 2020, the Eastern Virginia RIFA approved the $1.35 million acquisition of a 432-acre one-time naval fuel depot in York County, property formerly owned by the state.
The site, which is accessible to Interstate 64, will be occupied by a solar farm and an industrial park. CI Renewables of New Jersey, formerly known as KDC Solar, was slated to pay $1.35 million to EVRIFA for the site in a deal that was expected to close in mid-December 2021. In addition to building the 20-megawatt solar farm, CI Renewables will lease about 180 acres of the property for the construction of Kings Creek Commerce Center, a light industrial park.
Another potential cooperative effort between the localities is a proposed indoor sports complex. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has offered its underused, 100-acre regional visitors center property as the site for the project.
Williamsburg city government has been discussing the idea of an indoor sports complex since 2014 and more recently broached the idea of forming a Historic Triangle Recreational Authority with James City and York counties that would oversee the complex. In November, the counties officially joined the authority.
The localities also have cooperated on other objectives, but the proposed sports tourism complex would represent the largest intergovernmental project ever undertaken by the three governments.
Utah-based Victus Advisors, a consultant hired by the city, recommended in March 2021 that the facility be at least 150,000 square feet, which would accommodate 12 basketball courts that would convert into 24 volleyball courts. The project’s cost and timeline for construction and opening are still under study, according to a Williamsburg official.
Terry says sports tourism could be a big help to diversify and boost Williamsburg’s hospitality sector, especially during off-seasons, as it has in other localities.
“As we’ve seen the facilities built around Hampton and Virginia Beach, it’s been a real shot in the arm for them,” Terry says.
In October 2020, for example, Virginia Beach opened the $68 million Virginia Beach Sports Center, a 285,000-square-foot facility near the Oceanfront with seating for 5,000 spectators.
Rick Overy, chair of the Williamsburg Economic Development Authority, emphasizes the need for diversity in the economy and reiterates the growing importance of sports tourism.
“To host large athletic tournaments — that’s something [we’re] hoping to build on and not just rely on the historic tourism, which has been the stalwart of what we’ve had for 50 years,” he says. “When everybody thinks of Williamsburg, they think of historic tourism, so we’re trying to diversify that.”
Formed in 2016, the Greater Williamsburg Partnership is a yet another example of regional cooperation to attract business and industry to Williamsburg and York and James City counties.
James City County Economic Development Director Christopher Johnson says the partnership celebrates no matter what regional locality is selected for a new business or expansion. “It benefits us all.”
With the ongoing expansion of Interstate 64, the buildup of the Port of Virginia and the $3.8 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion, Johnson says cooperation will benefit the entire region.
“Development is a long game,” says Johnson, “not just a quick win.”
“When everybody thinks of Williamsburg, they think of historic tourism, so we’re trying to diversify that,” says Rick Overy, chair of the Williamsburg Economic Development Authority. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Overy also sees a higher degree of cooperation between Colonial Williamsburg, the city of Williamsburg and William & Mary.
Williamsburg City Council has asked the EDA to help make Williamsburg a Virginia Main Street community and to establish a downtown business association.
“We are seeking to unify not just businesses but also interested individuals, nonprofits — anyone who cares about our downtown,” Overy says.
“There aren’t that many areas that have a national college [and] a national museum in a historic city and they all try to work together, and that’s one of the strengths that Williamsburg has that we’re all trying to build on,” he adds. “That cooperation is now as good as it’s ever been in my 40 years in Williamsburg, and that bodes well for the future.”
Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.
On a September afternoon, Stuart Wright was trying to persuade a tourist to bring her son back to visit the town of Damascus in Washington County.
“Bring that little boy down here and he can play in the river, he can hike, he can bike the trail,” Wright coaxed. “Bring him where he’s got something to do.”
Wright, who owns a number of vacation cabins in the area, along with a lodge, an inn and an RV park, serves as the unofficial cheerleader for tourism in Damascus, his hometown.
Back in the 1970s when Washington County leaders first started talking about converting an abandoned 35-mile Norfolk and Western Railway corridor into the Virginia Creeper Trail, a hiking and biking destination running from Abingdon through Damascus to the Virginia-North Carolina line, Wright wasn’t on board.
“I fought to keep the train here,” he recalls. “I thought we needed the train but, boy, I was wrong.”
Even amid a pandemic, Wright says, tourism thrives in Damascus, a town once known for its now-departed timber and furniture industries. As proof, he points to Brinkwaters, the downtown boutique hotel that began welcoming guests in August. It sits near the Appalachian Heritage Distillery, which will open a tasting room and store in October not far from the new Appalachian Trail Center scheduled to open during Damascus’ Trail Days celebration in May 2022.
“Damascus is the poster child for what tourism can do for a community,” Wright says.
Trey Waters had listened to his buddy Wright kvetch so much about having to turn away potential guests because his properties were always booked that Waters, a pharmacist and real estate developer, decided to transform a downtown building he owned into the Brinkwaters hotel, which he says is more accurately described as “a big box of Airbnbs.”
Waters, who splits his time between Montana, North Carolina and Damascus, partnered on the project with his friends Eric and Emily Brinker, who own a Raleigh-based construction company. Brinkwaters is a combination of the partners’ last names.
In addition to sleek modern furnishings, some of the hotel’s 13 suites include full kitchens and sleeping lofts. A bike rack sits in front of the building for guests who come to pedal the Virginia Creeper Trail.
Word about the hotel seems to be out. “We’ve been at capacity for the last several weekends,” Waters says. “That’s tremendous.”
The downtown Richmond Marriott has a new general manager.
Lars Friedriszik has been named general manager of the 410-room hotel, which is managed by White Lodging and owned by Apple Hospitality REIT Inc.
Friedriszik was previously the assistant general manager at the hotel in 2018, but left to serve in other management roles at White Lodge properties. He served as the assistant general manager at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe in Teaneck, New Jersey, before arriving at the downtown Richmond Marriott as assistant general manager in 2018. Friedriszik served as the general manager of the Courtyard & Residence Inn Richmond downtown since 2019 before returning to the Richmond Marriott, which completed an extensive multimillion-dollar renovation in December. The hotel also opened a comfort food restaurant in September.
Friedriszik earned his degree in hospitality operations management from George Brown College in Toronto and a certificate in culinary arts from Yukon College, in Yukon, Canada. He also holds certificates in hotel management, restaurant review management and leadership for the hospitality profession from the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology in Ireland and eCornell, the online education program of Cornell University.
The 18-story hotel is connected to the Greater Richmond Convention Center via skywalk and has more than 26,000 square feet of event space.
The Omni Homestead Resort has started work on a property-wide revamp expected to cost $120 million, the resort hotel in Bath County announced Monday. Some renovation work will begin late this month, and an event pavilion will be added to the hotel, which opened in 1766.
The Homestead project is likely to be the largest historic tax credit project since the state program was established in 1997, according to Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and state historic preservation officer. The renovation of the historic hotel is “as large or larger than” the renovation of the former Miller & Rhoads department store in downtown Richmond, which was previously the largest qualifying project.
Facade improvements, including window restoration and painting, are scheduled to begin at the Homestead in late October, and the project will include a refresh of all guest rooms in the resort’s main building and the tower, east, west and garden wings; a remodeling of Martha’s Market café, and expansion of the lobby bar into the Georgian Room with a speakeasy-style lounge. Also, a 4,000-square-foot event space with capacity for 225 people plus a bridal suite and prep kitchen will be built, extending the resort’s convention and function space to 76,000 square feet.
The project also will include a new residential building for employees in downtown Hot Springs, with 50 units that can house two people each, as well as kitchen, dining, laundry and fitness facilities. Construction will begin in early 2022 and be completed in spring 2023, according to Omni.
Interior of a forthcoming event pavilion at The Omni Homestead Resort. Rendering courtesy Omni
Complete Property Services, a Tampa, Florida, company, has been awarded the contract to restore 978 original wood window frames and hundreds of doors, as well as stucco, terracotta, limestone and brick masonry on the hotel and spa exteriors, and the roof above the great hall. There will also be balcony work done throughout the property, including porches and terraces. In all, the exterior work is expected to take 16 months. Arnold & Associates Interiors, based in Louisiana, is doing the design work, and California-headquartered Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo will oversee architectural and interior design segments of the project.
“We have amazing plans for this resort but first, we want to keep it looking historic. This renovation is about restoring a piece of American history. This iconic resort in the hills of Virginia is going to be restored to its grandeur that it once was,” Peter Strebel, president of Omni Hotels and Resorts, said in a statement. “We have hired some of the top historic preservation and rehabilitation teams to ensure that we preserve this grand dame.”
Lionberger Construction Co. in Roanoke has started restoration of the historic Warm Springs Pools, formerly known as the Jefferson Pools, a short distance from the resort. The Gentlemen’s Pool House, erected in 1761, is believed to be the oldest spa structure in the nation. Work on the property, which will restore the two poolhouses to their 1925 appearance, is expected to finish by late 2022.
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