After receiving its final federal approvals in January, Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project remains on track for completion in late 2026, at which point the 2.6-gigawatt project could power up to 660,000 homes.
“CVOW is on budget, on time, and we’re gearing up for construction and excited about getting it to this point,” says Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton.
At the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, Dominion had 24 monopiles — the roughly 272-foot-long foundation posts for the massive 800-plus-foot-tall wind turbines — staged in late February, and 12 additional monopiles were scheduled for an April delivery. Dominion plans to begin installing monopiles 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast on May 1 and expects to have about half of the 176 posts installed by Oct. 31.
Because of federal protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales, the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility can’t work on installing the foundations from November through April. With that restriction, Dominion plans to install the remaining foundations in 2025 and begin turbine installation, which can take place year-round, in the 113,000-acre area of the Atlantic Ocean it’s leasing, Slayton says.
The project also includes three offshore substations, manufacturing on which began in fall 2022, although installation of the first substation’s topside foundations is set for late 2024 or early 2025 because the structures require underwater work first.
Onshore, Dominion is working on the electric transmission route and electrical infrastructure that’s scheduled to be operational in late 2025, although some work will continue into 2026. Drilling is set to be complete later this year for two separate portions of the project — the pipes where the offshore cables will come ashore and the underground transmission line.
On Feb. 22, Dominion announced it had reached an agreement with investment firm Stonepeak to sell a 50% noncontrolling stake in the project for nearly $3 billion. The deal, which requires approval from Virginia, North Carolina and federal regulatory agencies, is expected to close by the end of this year.
At the deal’s close, Dominion expects to receive $3 billion, minus a withholding amount of $145 million. If construction costs remain $9.8 billion or less, excluding financing costs, Dominion will get back $100 million from the withholding amount. But if construction costs total more than $11.3 billion, Dominion will not receive any of the withheld amount, and if the project costs reach that threshold, Stonepeak and Dominion would each contribute half of the additional capital costs.
Meanwhile, the National Legal and Policy Center, a Falls Church-based nonprofit conservative watchdog group, filed a federal lawsuit in March aiming to stop construction of CVOW, claiming it would pose a risk to North American right whales. Dominion said in a statement that the arguments raised in the lawsuit “have no merit.”
Creating a hub
Hampton Roads leaders expect the CVOW project to be a catalyst for economic development in the region.
Each year during construction, CVOW could support 900 direct and indirect jobs, about 60% of which would be in Hampton Roads, according to Dominion. Its ongoing operations could support about 1,100 jobs in the region annually.
However, not all is sunshine and roses.
In November 2023, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy canceled its plans to build the United States’ first offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, a $200 million project expected to create 310 jobs. The Spanish-German company said it couldn’t meet “development milestones” to establish the plant, although Siemens Gamesa said it would fulfill its production obligations for CVOW.
Nonetheless, Mike Hopkins, managing director of Fairwinds Landing, a $100 million maritime operations and logistics center in Norfolk, says his company is “very bullish on … offshore wind, and we’re confident this industry is going to take off and Hampton Roads is going to be a hub for offshore wind.”
Construction is underway on an offshore wind monitoring and coordination center for Dominion at Fairwinds Landing, and several other tenants are involved in aspects of the industry. Also, maritime companies operating in the region have announced workforce expansions, like Norfolk-based Lyon Shipyard, which said last year it plans to add 134 jobs as it increases work on commercial ships and vessels servicing the wind farm project.
At the Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth terminal, where the wind farm’s monopiles are received and staged, construction is underway on $220 million in upgrades, expected to be complete by the end of 2025.
Virginia Port Authority Board Chair Aubrey Layne Jr. says the port has to reinforce 72 acres to be used by Dominion, “basically so [the area and facilities] can handle the weight.”
Dominion starting construction on the wind farm in May is “fantastic for the state of Virginia, and our ability to attract suppliers,” adds Matt Smith, Hampton Roads Alliance’s director of energy and water technology.
“As the industry builds out,” he adds, “the things that make Hampton Roads attractive” — such as its port infrastructure, maritime workforce and favorable business environment — “are going to continue to be so.”
Over the years, scientists have warned about sea-level rise, especially in Norfolk, which has the highest rate on the East Coast.
“Norfolk is very flat. When you see a small increase in water levels, a wide part of land floods in response,” says Molly Mitchell, a researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which issues annual sea-level report cards for 32 coastal communities in the United States.
Hampton Roads as a whole will probably see between 1 and 3 feet in sea-level rise by 2050, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Mitchell says that’s just the beginning. “Change [in the rate of sea-level rise] is happening more rapidly. Between 4 and 6 feet of sea-level rise by 2100 is considered pretty likely.”
It’s hard for non-scientists to picture the overall impact of oceans even a foot above where they are now, but researchers recently produced the Global Maritime Trends 2050 report, which forecasts that about a third of the world’s 3,800 ports will be unusable by 2050 due to sea-level rise — particularly those in Houston, Shanghai and Mexico. The report, which was produced in collaboration with Economist Impact, recommends that ports step up efforts to decarbonize and boost infrastructure resilience and efficiency.
While the Port of Virginia was not singled out in the report, Norfolk International Terminals, its largest maritime facility, is vulnerable to storm surge flooding. Mitchell contends that everything on land at the port has the potential to flood, including buildings and roads leading to the port.
“Part of the solution is to identify where the problems could occur and look at ones that are easily fixed, such as raising low-lying roads on the way to the port,” she says. “Flooding is not just an issue for the Port of Virginia, but sea-level rise is higher at the Port of Virginia than at the Port of Charleston, so they will have to deal with that sooner.”
Officials at the Port of Virginia say they’re working on the issue, although so far, sea-level rise has not raised significant concerns among port customers.
“That’s not to say that we don’t take sea-level rise seriously,” says Cathie J. Vick, the port’s chief development and public affairs officer. “Our assessment is that sea-level rise will have minimal impacts on our operations because there is already ample space between the projected median high-tide line and the decks of our berths. We currently do not experience tidal flooding at our terminals, but from time to time may have standing water from prolonged rain events.”
After conducting critical infrastructure surveys, port officials raised power stations to protect them from flooding events, such as sea-level rise, tidal surges and torrential rain. “We have very specific construction guidelines to ensure our investments will remain viable over the long term,” Vick says. “We are very fortunate because we are not in a position to have to begin planning a retreat from any of our terminals or offices.”
Instead, the port is focused on slowing climate change and its effects, such as sea-level rise. According to NOAA, moving to more renewable energy sources is starting to slow sea-level rise. “We have committed to becoming a net-zero [carbon] operation by 2040 and are taking deliberate actions to use clean fuels to move cargo and power our operations,” Vick notes.
This year, the port became the first major U.S. East Coast port to run its entire operation from all carbon-free energy sources. The power purchase agreement with Dominion Energy, in cooperation with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, will allow the port to offset its carbon footprint by reducing carbon emissions 45% per container.
“From the big ship-to-shore cranes to the forklifts in the shops, more than 50% of the equipment we use is electric or hybrid-electric,” Vick says. “This effort and investment will continue until we have hit our 2040 goal [of becoming carbon neutral].”
Plans in place
In addition to the port, the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach are also fully involved in flood management to protect their assets.
The issue is particularly acute in Norfolk. With Norfolk’s risk of flooding and damage from coastal storms on an upward trajectory, the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are collaborating on the Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, a combination of structural, nonstructural and natural measures to counteract flooding that will be implemented over the next decade. Known as Resilient Norfolk, the
$2.6 billion project includes storm-surge barriers, almost 9 miles of floodwalls and levees, 11 tide gates and 10 pump stations, as well as home elevations, basement fills, oyster reefs, wetlands mitigation and living shorelines.
“We have $40 billion worth of real estate in the city, including the Port of Virginia, the Naval Base, universities and the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, that will benefit from these measures,” says Kyle Spencer, Norfolk’s chief resilience officer. “For every $1 million we do in flood projects, we will typically see $6 million back in benefits.”
The city will fund 35% — or $931 million — of the project, while federal funds, including $400 million awarded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will pay for 65%.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin included $73.85 million for Resilient Norfolk in his 2024 budget, but the General Assembly reduced that allocation to $25 million, although the state’s 2024-26 budget won’t be finalized before mid-May at the earliest.
Molly Mitchell is a researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which issues annual sea-level report cards for 32 U.S. coastal communities. Photo by Kristen Zeis
“We’re working with the governor’s office to find additional state funds,” Spencer says. “That’s a continuous effort, but the cost of not doing anything is far worse. It’s not just about property damage. There’s a huge amount of risk to personal safety.”
Currently under design, the first phase of Resilient Norfolk will include a system of floodwalls with a levee and surge barriers from downtown to Ghent. Construction of a downtown floodwall is slated to be completed in the early 2030s. In the second phase, floodwalls and barriers will be installed to decrease storm surge from entering Pretty Lake at Shore Drive. The design portion is expected to get underway this year, with construction continuing through early 2028.
Flooding impacts at the port will be addressed in phase three when a storm surge barrier will be installed from Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) to Lambert’s Point, where construction of the Fairwinds Landing maritime operations and logistics center is underway. Construction on the storm barrier, meanwhile, is expected to begin in late 2027. The city is also working with the port to develop shoreline projects to mitigate wave activity against NIT.
“That will be designed to stop catastrophic flooding from going into the Lafayette River and flooding Hampton Boulevard and key port assets,” Spencer notes. “The port is a working waterfront, so we can’t really put a floodwall up, but we can raise equipment off the ground and build deployable floodwalls to put in place before storms and put them around critical equipment like water pump stations and electric substations.”
Phase four will include construction of floodwalls, storm surge barriers and tide gates to diminish storm surge from entering Broad Creek at I-264. In the final phase,homes and other structures will be elevated and basements filled in flood-prone areas of the city, including southside Norfolk and Willoughby.
After residents in some of those areas questioned why their neighborhoods would not be protected with floodwalls, the city asked the Army Corps of Engineers to re-evaluate the plan. The reevaluation will take three to five years at a cost of $4 million to $6 million.
Spencer notes that Resilient Norfolk, while accounting for sea-level rise, is primarily designed to deal with catastrophic storms. “We’re overdue for one of these large storm events,” he adds. “We’re seeing the environment changing and rainfall happening at a faster rate, and we need to adapt.”
Flooding makes beachhead
Resilience is also a priority in Virginia Beach where high tides in low-lying areas can lead to flooding even on sunny days, a situation known as recurrent flooding. In 2021, voters overwhelmingly approved a $568 million bond referendum to install tidal gates at West Neck Creek, the Lesner Bridge, Rudee Inlet, Elizabeth River and Back Bay, pump stations and pipes to improve stormwater drainage and minimize inundation from heavy rains and tidal flooding, and restoration of the Elizabeth River shoreline. The 10-year plan also includes about
$2.6 billion worth of improvements, from elevating roads to converting the 100-acre Bow Creek Municipal Golf Course into a stormwater park to mitigate flooding in surrounding neighborhoods.
In addition, Virginia Beach plans to construct a marsh terrace on Back Bay to restore about 300 acres of wetland lost over the last 350 years. Designed to prevent erosion, the berm will be the first of its kind on the East Coast.
“They’ve done a lot of these on the Gulf Coast, but it’s never been looked at before on the East Coast,” says C.J. Bodnar, technical services manager for the Virginia Beach Stormwater Engineering Center. “It will recreate lost wetlands and could lead to a slight reduction in flooding.”
Along with the bond referendum, Virginia Beach has obtained more than $40 million in grants. “We continue to look for state and federal grants to help with the cost of these projects,” says Mike Tippin, the stormwater engineering center’s administrator.
Mitigating sea-level rise isn’t “just about property damage. There’s a huge amount of risk to personal safety,” says Kyle Spencer, Norfolk’s chief resilience officer. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Despite the costs, Tippin and Bodnar stress that the city cannot put off addressing sea-level rise.
“If we don’t do anything, we’ve got the city of Virginia Beach becoming the island of Virginia Beach,” Bodnar says.
Overall, Virginia has led the Southeast U.S. in adapting to climate change, but there’s still much to accomplish, says Jessica Whitehead, executive director of Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience. “The state has been moving forward and taking action despite not having endured a major storm to force everyone to the table. That says something about the scale of climate change — that we have so far to go.”
Whitehead adds that multiple strategies are needed to address sea-level rise and other climate change issues and build resilience. “There’s never a single project that will fix 100% of the problems. You have to figure out the menu of options and choose what’s feasible depending on how much funding you have.”
In the past year, Amazon.com continued its march across the commonwealth, announcing plans to build a 650,000-square-foot fulfillment center and a 219,000-square-foot delivery station in Virginia Beach, which are collectively expected to produce more than 1,000 jobs.
About 60% the size of the Pentagon, Virginia’s second largest building belongs to Amazon — a 3.8 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk that opened in October 2022. The e-tail giant says it has invested more than $109 billion in Virginia since 2010, creating more than 36,000 jobs and contributing more than $72 billion to the state’s gross domestic product.
Amazon opened its first Virginia fulfillment center in 2006 in Loudoun County. With the Virginia Beach facilities, the Fortune Global 500 company will have 14 fulfillment centers and 17 delivery stations in the state, as well as its Arlington County-based HQ2 East Coast headquarters campus, 15 Whole Foods Markets, five Amazon Fresh stores and three Prime Now Hubs.
Amazon Web Services, meanwhile, spent nearly $52 million between 2011 and 2021 to set up data centers in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties, and in 2023 pledged to invest an additional $35 billion to build more data centers in the state by 2040.
Not surprisingly, economic development officials love Amazon, especially as its influence spreads beyond Northern Virginia.
Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance, says the Virginia Beach Amazon jobs help “cement the region’s dominance in fulfillment and technological innovation within the distribution space.”
The new delivery station is expected to open in time for the 2024 holiday season, and the fulfillment center is expected to come online in late 2025, an Amazon spokesperson told Virginia Business in March. About 1,500 workers work at Suffolk’s $230 million fulfillment facility in Northgate Commerce Park. While there’s no specific push for hiring right now, there are open positions there, Amazon says.
Smith, who was previously Norfolk’s city manager and served as deputy city manager for Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, views Amazon’s investments in Hampton Roads as a net positive.
“Not only is Amazon already employing thousands of Hampton Roads residents and raising awareness of our strategic location for distribution, through their robotics fulfillment centers they are empowering workers to learn about the latest in robotics and automation,” Smith says. “Amazon offers tremendous workforce development and upskilling services in conjunction with our state and local partners, and these skilled employees will attract not only more logistics companies but also emerging industries like robotics and uncrewed systems manufacturing.”
Economist Vinod Agarwal, deputy director of Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, sees Amazon as filling a gap left by Norfolk Southern, the Fortune 500 railroad company that moved its headquarters from Norfolk to Atlanta in 2021.
Norfolk Southern’s departure, he says, caused some companies to question whether to locate in Hampton Roads, but Amazon’s increasing presence helps reassure businesses, especially companies with similar warehousing and logistics needs.
“Anytime you can have firms of significant importance, known quantities so to speak, come to this area, that obviously has effects on other companies for their decision-making processes,” Agarwal says, noting that Amazon coming to Hampton Roads is “a big plus.”
Speculative buildings are under construction for the first time in Suffolk, following Amazon’s activity and the Port 460 Logistics Center’s development by Matan Cos. and Rockefeller Group, which also builds interest, Agarwal notes.
“We’ve always asked, ‘If we build it, will they come?’ Well, they’re here, so the answer is, yes, 100%,” says Gregg Christoffersen, who heads JLL’s industrial market for the region.
Port 460, a 5 million-square-foot industrial warehouse complex, is being developed on 540 acres in Suffolk near U.S. routes 460 and 58, with construction expected to begin this summer. According to Matan, the first phase will include about 2.4 million square feet of space, costing between $300 million to $350 million, with expected delivery in 2025. The Virginia Port Authority announced in January it will give the City of Suffolk $1 million to improve Route 460, part of an $86 million initiative to widen the road.
Agarwal notes that Hampton Roads localities working together — rather than competing against each other — is starting to pay off in terms of attracting big companies like Amazon to the region. But the Port of Virginia, he adds, is a big factor, too.
Although Amazon isn’t the only player in town when it comes to Virginia’s industrial market, it has had an outsized impact on industrial commercial real estate in Virginia Beach, Suffolk and other parts of Hampton Roads, says Christoffersen.
As Agarwal puts it, after companies like Amazon enter a region, they “expect lots of other businesses to come in.”
Virginia Beach developer and NFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith is vying for the chance to develop a casino in Petersburg and has joined forces with Cordish Cos., the Baltimore-based entertainment company that has already made inroads in Virginia.
There’s just one obstacle facing Smith and other prospective developers, including Bally’s, Penn Entertainment, Rush Street Gaming and D.C.-based Warrenton Group: a piece of legislation awaiting action by the Virginia General Assembly. Virginia State Senate Bill 628 replaces Richmond with Petersburg in the state’s list of cities eligible to host a casino, clearing the way for a casino referendum to be held in Petersburg.
However, the House of Delegates added a reenactment clause to the bill’s wording at the last minute, which would require next year’s General Assembly to take up the bill and vote for it a second time before Petersburg can move forward with a referendum vote — a move that would delay the development of a casino there by at least a year.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin removed the reenactment clause and sent the bill back to the legislature, which will vote on his amended bills April 17. If the General Assembly leaves the bill as-is, Petersburg will likely hold a referendum this fall — and that’s what Smith hopes will happen. He says Petersburg is ready and needs the economic benefit of a casino sooner rather than later.
“Now’s not the time to play politics with the people of Petersburg,” Smith said this week in an interview with Virginia Business, directing his remarks toward House Speaker Don Scott. “They need this economic development opportunity — more so than any other city in the state of Virginia. This is a critical time. That is costing the city money [and] jobs, trying to alleviate the problems of food deserts [and] underfunded schools. We can’t allow folks to say one thing and do another. The time to act is now, and all we’re asking for is to … take the reenactment clause right out of the bill.”
The former defensive end for the Buffalo Bills and Virginia Tech Hokies plans to unveil details of his and Cordish’s casino proposal Sunday at the Petersburg Public Library. The proposed casino will be similar to a $1.4 billion development submitted in 2022 by Cordish and approved by Petersburg City Council in a nonbinding agreement — which became null and void because Petersburg did not receive legislative support to hold a casino referendum that year. Smith, who collaborated with Cordish on a failed Richmond casino proposal in 2021 but was not part of the 2022 Petersburg bid, said the new proposal is “similar, with some tweaks.”
While he will disclose more details Sunday, Smith said “the structure of the deal in itself” will be different. “I will discuss those details on Sunday at the town hall, and they will be groundbreaking — and I think it will be breaking news.” Smith said he became interested in working in Petersburg after a visit with other NFL all-stars a few years ago to a local school and seeing room for economic improvement.
As in the 2022 proposal, the Cordish resort would be built on 90 acres at the intersection of Wagner Road and Interstate 95, and the casino would be “just one component in this massive development,” Smith said, including a 3,000-seat theater among residential, office and retail buildings on the site. He says his team expects to create 7,500 jobs total, including construction jobs, and produce about $2.8 billion in economic impact for the city over the casino’s first 10 years in operation, according to a CNBC interview he gave about the venture this week.
Smith says that his status as a born-and-bred Virginian — having grown up in Norfolk, graduated from Virginia Tech and moved to Virginia Beach to start his real estate business — is a major point in his favor.
Bruce Smith Enterprises, based in Virginia Beach, has previously developed hotels in Washington, D.C., and Virginia Beach in partnership with Armada Hoffler, and Smith is involved in projects slated for Virginia Beach’s Rudee Loop and a 287-unit apartment complex in Norfolk.
He also says that his development team would focus on making sure there is robust local participation in the project, noting that in some majority Black cities that host casinos, participation from investors of color is minimal. “Historically, when opportunities for major developments have taken place, Virginians have either been shut out, or given such a small percentage, even in areas that are disenfranchised,” he said. Petersburg’s population is about 77% African American, Smith notes.
“First and foremost, this is about the citizens and the city of Petersburg, a city that has been ignored and disenfranchised for three generations, to be quite honest,” Smith said. “A city with historically high unemployment, poverty, food deserts [and] underfunded schools, just to name a few problems. This city needs this economic engine more than any other city. It’s time to put Virginians first.”
Meanwhile, the Smith-Cordish plan is not the only one under consideration; four other prospective developers have applied for consideration:
Bally’s is a major national player in the casino industry and has previously vied for the Danville casino (which Caesars Entertainment ultimately won), but according to news reports, the company also is struggling to raise capital for a new resort in Chicago;
Rush Street Gaming is the Chicago-based company that operates the Portsmouth Rivers Casino, the first permanent casino to open in Virginia;
Penn National Gaming is based in Hollywood, and its focus is on “community casinos,” as opposed to those based in Las Vegas and Atlantic City;
The Warrenton Group is a Washington, D.C.-based business developer that has an agreement with casino operator Delaware North, but the Warrenton Group itself is a new entrant to the casino industry.
Rendering of a proposed Petersburg casino from 2022 that is expected to be similar to the 2024 proposal. Image courtesy The Cordish Cos.
Cordish pitched a $600 million hotel and resort casino in 2021 in Richmond’s North Side that would have featured a live music hall, but ultimately a plan proposed by Urban One on the city’s South Side won approval from the city. Cordish also sued the City of Norfolk in 2021 for $100 million alleging the city government breached its contract with the company, in which Cordish said it agreed to develop the Waterside District in exchange for the exclusive right to develop and operate a casino in Norfolk — although at the time casinos were not yet legalized in Virginia.
Instead, Norfolk reached a deal with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe to develop the HeadWaters Resort & Casino with Tennessee billionaire investor Jon Yarbrough. Cordish’s lawsuit was dismissed by a Norfolk circuit court in 2022, and the state Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision last month, but there is still a possibility that another entity will take control of the long-delayed HeadWaters project.
According to an April 4 Virginian-Pilot story, Norfolk city leaders are considering the possibility of partnering with a developer other than the tribe and Yarbrough. Under the casino referendum passed by city voters in 2020, the development team is required to obtain a gaming license within five years, or by November 2025. To do so, developers needed to begin construction of the permanent casino by this spring, a casino spokesperson said previously. Smith said it’s possible that he and Cordish would enter the running if the city opens the field to other casino developers.
“If there’s an opportunity that exists in Norfolk, in my hometown, after we take care of Petersburg, we will certainly address that opportunity if it arises,” Smith said, while noting, “first and foremost, our focus is on Petersburg.”
Virginia Beach-born-and-bred entertainment superstar Pharrell Williams will film a movie this spring and summer in Virginia based on his childhood, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.
There had been rumors about the musical film project, called “Atlantis” in movie trade publications recently, but Youngkin confirmed the feature is being made in Central Virginia and Hampton Roads, and will be co-produced by Williams.
According to its IMDB page, the movie will be directed by Academy Award winner Michel Gondry and include among its stars Halle Bailey, Kelvin Harrison Jr., 2024 Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Portsmouth-born Grammy winner Missy Elliott, Grammy winner André 3000 and Mary J. Blige, a two-time Oscar nominee and Grammy winner. Williams is not expected to appear in the Universal movie.
Bailey, a Grammy nominee, starred as Ariel in Disney’s 2023 live-action musical “The Little Mermaid,” and Harrison played B.B. King in the 2022 “Elvis” biopic and starred in “Chevalier” the same year. Gondry won an Oscar as co-writer of the original screenplay for 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which he also directed, and he started his filmmaking career by directing music videos for many artists, including the Chemical Brothers, the White Stripes and Bjork.
Gil Netter, Mimi Valdés and Williams will produce “Atlantis” through their respective companies, Gil Netter Productions and I Am Other, Williams’ umbrella company for his creative endeavors, including music, film and the Billionaire Boys Club clothing line. The script for “Atlantis” was written by Martin Hynes, scriptwriter for “Toy Story 4,” and Steven Levenson, a Tony winner who wrote the script for the 2021 musical drama film “Tick, Tick…Boom!”
Williams grew up in the Virginia Beach housing project known as Atlantis Apartments, and the film is set in a neighborhood inspired by Atlantis in summer 1977, although it’s a fictionalized account based on the 51-year-old Williams’ life, according to the governor’s office.
“This high-profile project will place a global spotlight on Virginia as both an incomparable place to visit and as a preferred destination for investment from this growing industry,” Youngkin said in a statement. “The project will provide high-wage jobs, help retain our trained [film] production workforce, and deliver an immediate economic impact shared across a variety of sectors, from construction to hospitality. We warmly welcome Pharrell and the team behind this groundbreaking project to Virginia.”
In 2017, Entertainment Weekly and other publications reported that Williams would produce a musical based on his childhood, with Tony-winning director Michael Mayer set to direct the film, at the time a 20th Century Fox project. However, the pandemic and, later, the actors and writers’ strikes in 2023 led to delays for the project. Gondry has been developing the musical since 2022, and the Virginia Film Office has been working on the project for about six years, director Andy Edmunds said.
Virginia has hosted some high-profile film and TV projects in recent decades, including Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film “Lincoln,” the 2019 film “Harriet” and 2020’s “Wonder Woman 1984.” Television productions made in Virginia include the Hulu miniseries “Dopesick,” which starred Michael Keaton and was filmed in Richmond and Clifton Forge in 2021, Apple TV’s “Swagger,” a two-season drama based on NBA player Kevin Durant’s childhood and filmed in Richmond in 2021 and 2022, and AMC’s “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” filmed in Richmond in 2019.
“Atlantis” will be eligible to receive a Virginia film tax credit or grant, according to the governor’s office. The exact amount will be based on the number of Virginia workers hired, goods and services purchased, and deliverables, including state tourism promotions.
The film announcement comes after a failed push to pass the “Lights, Camera, Jobs Act” through Virginia’s legislature this year. Sponsored by Del. Charniele L. Herring, D-Alexandria, and Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, in the House of Delegates and the Virginia State Senate, the twin bills would have raised the state’s film incentives cap from $11.5 million a year to $46.5 million annually, but both measures stalled during the 2024 General Assembly session.
“We have essentially committed all allotted tax credits for work that has already occurred through 2026 … between ‘Dopesick,’ ‘Swagger,’ ‘Walking Dead,’ etc.,” Edmunds said Friday.
According to news reports, Virginia’s cap is considerably lower than other states’ incentives allowances, including neighboring Southern states. Georgia has no cap on film tax credits and certified more than $1.2 billion in credits in 2023, although legislators proposed a limit on tax incentives because they view them as a risk to state finances. However, the bill failed during its state legislative session. West Virginia also has no cap on film tax credits.
North Carolina’s annual cap is $31 million, and Kentucky’s is $75 million.
David O’Ferrall, business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union Local 487, which covers Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., said that “Atlantis” was expected to film last year in Virginia but was postponed because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes, which ended last fall. The longer lead time allowed “Atlantis” to qualify for state tax incentives before another project could lay claim to benefits, O’Ferrall said Friday. The amount of incentive “Atlantis” will receive is based on the production’s final spending in Virginia, Edmunds says.
O’Ferrall expects about 100 IATSE workers — many from Virginia — to be employed on the “Atlantis” set in behind-the-scenes roles like set design, sound and other technical jobs. Actors and writers are covered by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, known collectively as SAG-AFTRA. According to O’Ferrall, IATSE workers on “Atlantis” will be paid between $33.93 and $41.12 an hour based on national standards, and higher rates if they work overtime.
Edmunds anticipates that the film will employ as many as 300 to 350 people in cast, crew and background artists, and will shoot around Central Virginia and Virginia Beach, although the filmmakers declined to disclose exact locations and dates.
Pembroke Square will begin the next phase of demolition Monday on the former Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach, as part of a $200 million mixed-use redevelopment project.
The roof and columns of the mall’s structure will be removed at the northeast entrance, north of Kohl’s on the Constitution Drive side of the former mall. A portion of the mall’s interior was already been demolished in preparation for the next phases of development.
“Over the last several months, we have been doing selective demolition inside, basically scraping out the contents of the area we will be demolishing,” said Ramsay Smith, asset manager for Pembroke Square Associates and president of Pembroke Realty Group. “It doesn’t look like we’re making progress, but in fact, we are.”
What begins Monday is the demolition of the actual structure itself.
A senior living community that’s part of the redevelopment, Aviva Pembroke, at the corner of Jeanne Street and Constitution Drive, is under construction with plans to open this October. Aviva Pembroke will be seven stories with 153 units. It is expected to have 121 independent units, 20 assisted living units and a dozen memory care units. The building has been topped out, and the company is sequencing exterior finishes right now, Smith said.
The second phase of the redevelopment project will include a Tempo by Hilton hotel in partnership with The Landmark Group that will open in 2025. Plans for the hotel were scaled back to seven stories last year and it’ss under a full redesign, Smith said. Developers reconsidered the hotel plans after interest rates shot up and construction costs escalated. Smith said ground could break on the hotel possibly in December, but more likely in the first quarter of next year. It will have 163 rooms and take 22 to 24 months to build.
There’s also a residential portion of the project, and like the hotel, the plans for that apartment building have been scaled down from 12 stories to seven stories. Predevelopment work is being completed before developers finish a new design. Development of the apartments is running about six months behind schedule, Smith said, and a groundbreaking is likely to take place in mid-2025, with a 22- to 24-month schedule for construction. The yet-to-be-named building will have 272 apartments and an adjacent parking garage with 611 spaces, instead of being located under the building as originally planned.
Another area of the property could handle an office tower, Smith said, but plans for that are on hold amid a decline in office demand, so it would need to be a build-to-suit opportunity.
Pembroke Square Associates first announced plans for the redevelopment of the aging mall’s 54 acres in November 2021. Groundbreaking for its first phase took place in December 2022.
Laura Hayes Chalk is leaving Virginia Beach’s economic development department to become the executive director of Virginia Beach Vision, a business advocacy group in Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach Vision announced Tuesday.
Chalk, who will start July 10, succeeds Martha McClees, who announced her retirement in November 2023.
Virginia Beach’s deputy director of economic development, Chalk joined the city in July 2019. Prior to that, she spent about seven years working for the Hampton Roads Alliance.
The executive director of VBV serves as the organization’s chief executive and works with its 130-member board of directors, which is comprised of business executives. Virginia Beach Vision focuses on seven areas: business development, comprehensive plan, crisis recovery, flood resiliency, member development, resort development and sustainability.
“Laura’s extensive experience in economic development and her deep commitment to the Hampton Roads region and in particular the city of Virginia Beach, makes her the perfect choice to lead Virginia Beach Vision into its next chapter,” Virginia Wesleyan University President Scott Miller, president of Virginia Beach Visions’ board of directors, said in a statement. “Her innovative approach and passion for community engagement are exactly what we need to drive our mission forward.”
A Williamsburg native, Chalk earned her bachelor’s degree from Roanoke College and a master’s from Old Dominion University.
A nonprofit conservative watchdog group based in Falls Church filed a lawsuit Monday against Dominion Energy, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Department of the Interior and other government bodies, aiming to stop construction of Dominion’s offshore wind farm expected to begin this spring 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast.
The National Legal and Policy Center and its co-plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction against the federal government’s approval of Dominion’s $9.8 billion, 176-turbine Commercial Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, claiming the massive wind turbines pose a risk to North American right whales under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit also claims that the BOEM and other agencies illegally overlooked risks to the endangered whales in approving the wind farm — while also criticizing President Joe Biden’s January 2021 executive order mandating an increase in clean energy production, including offshore wind energy.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is also named as a defendant; the lawsuit asks for a court order setting aside an opinion issued by the NMFS regarding the wind farm’s risk to the endangered whale species, part of the BOEM’s approval process.
Construction on the turbines and three offshore substations in a nearly 113,000-acre area is expected to begin in May.
Defendants in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, include U.S. Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo; U.S. Interior Sec. Deb Haaland; Elizabeth Klein, the BOEM’s director; and Janet Coit, director of the NMFS. In addition to NLPC and its co-founder and chairman, Peter Flaherty, the plaintiffs are Washington, D.C.-based Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization advocating for free market solutions to environmental issues, and its founder, Craig Rucker; and Illinois-based The Heartland Institute, a libertarian and conservative think tank known for climate change denial.
“The CVOW project — during its construction, operation and decommission phases — will adversely affect the federally listed [North American right whale], which uses the waters within and near the CVOW project area for migration, feeding and other key life history events,” the complaint says, claiming that there are only 340 North American right whales in existence. The NMFS reported in 2022 that there were approximately 360 of the whales, and that since 2017, there have been more than 120 whales injured or killed by “unusual mortality event[s].”
In February 2023, a male North American right whale washed up in Virginia Beach, in which the whale was determined to have died after a blunt force injury likely caused by a collision with a vessel, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Two dead whales washed ashore in Virginia Beach earlier this month, but they were juvenile humpback whales, which are not endangered.
Dominion, which received final federal approvals to start construction in January, responded to the lawsuit with a statement: “The issues raised in this lawsuit have no merit. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has done an extraordinarily thorough environmental review of the project and carefully considered potential impacts to marine wildlife and the environment. The overwhelming consensus of federal agencies and scientific organizations is that offshore wind does not adversely impact marine life. We’ve put in place strong environmental protections for this project, and are confident the North Atlantic right whale will be protected.”
NLPC was started in 1991 by Ken Boehm and Flaherty, and reports on ethics of public officials and corporations, as well as issuing some legal challenges. Over the years, the organization has filed election law complaints against former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters and former U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan. The group also filed a complaint with the Department of Defense’s inspector general in 2003, producing evidence that a DOD procurement officer had sold her house to a Boeing executive who was working on a tanker deal with the Pentagon, a scandal that led to the firing of Boeing’s chief financial officer, Michael M. Sears, and the procurement officer, Darleen Druyun, who also received federal prison sentences.
Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow will retire from real estate firm Armada Hoffler’s board of directors, the Virginia Beach company announced this week.
Snow, 84, has served as a director since Armada Hoffler went public in 2013 and served as lead independent director from 2013 to 2019. He was treasury secretary for President George W. Bush’s administration. Snow was also chairman and CEO of Jacksonville, Florida-based transportation company CSX from 1986 to 2003 and served on several other boards and councils.
Armada Hoffler’s board of directors recently approved an amendment to its corporate governance guidelines that directors older than 80 will no longer run for re-election.
“I have greatly enjoyed my time with ArmadaHoffler and am proud to have served on the board since the IPO. I am delighted by the growth the company has seen since going public and have every confidence in the company’s future and the new leadership team,” said Snow, who as a Bush Cabinet member steered the 2003 Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Act, shaping domestic and global economic policy.
“John has been a dedicated and valuable member of our board of directors, and we are deeply grateful for his guidance, leadership and service,” Lou Haddad, CEO of ArmadaHoffler, said in a statement. “John has been instrumental in shaping this board and its future. We wish him well.”
Armada Hoffler is the real estate giant behind Virginia Beach’s Town Center. The firm’s flagship project was built as part of a public-private partnership. As of last fall, it had 51 large-scale commercial assets and had developed more than $800 million in new projects. It has operations in seven mid-Atlantic states and also provides general construction and development services to third-party clients. It was founded in 1979 by Dan Hoffler.
Doug Smith isn’t surprised Amazon.com has extended its reach in Hampton Roads.
The Hampton Roads Alliance president and CEO says Amazon’s expansion in the commonwealth has been a constant since the global e-commerce behemoth announced in 2018 that it would locate its East Coast corporate headquarters, Amazon HQ2, in Arlington County.
The latest push includes two new Virginia Beach facilities — a fulfillment center and a delivery station — announced in September 2023 that will total $350 million in investments and are projected to add more than 1,100 full-time jobs to Hampton Roads.
Amazon says it plans to open the 219,000-square-foot delivery station at the intersection of Harpers and Dam Neck roads in time for the 2024 holiday shopping season, while the company plans for its robotics fulfillment center to come online in late 2025 in an adjacent space. The announcement is tied for the largest jobs announcement in Virginia in 2023, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Construction has started on both projects.
“I’ve seen [Amazon] officials say, ‘Now that this is our home, we’re going to invest significantly in our home,’” Smith says. “So, I think you’re seeing that.”
Small items like books, electronics and toys will get picked, packaged and shipped from the 650,000-square-foot robotics fulfillment center.
The announcement is just the latest for Amazon, which counts more than 30 fulfillment centers and delivery stations in Virginia, including this announcement. These will be the first of each for Virginia Beach.
Amazon opened its first Virginia facility in Sterling in 2006, and the Seattle-based Fortune Global 500 retailer has been an ongoing boon for the state’s economy. Amazon has invested more than $109 billion in Virginia since 2010, creating more than 36,000 jobs, according to VEDP. The state is also home to Amazon’s Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh stores, Prime Now hubs and Amazon Web Services data centers.
“Virginia is a great state for business,” says Amazon spokesperson Ian Allen-Anderson. “For more than a decade, Amazon has called the commonwealth home and is committed to continuing investments in Virginia with our time, resources and community dedication.”
In addition to the jobs it’s created, more than 11,000 independent sellers in Virginia operate through Amazon’s market place, according to the company, and its investments have accounted for more than 200,000 indirect jobs and $72 billion contributed to Virginia’s gross domestic product since the company opened for business in the state. The company is the fifth largest private employer in Virginia, according to the Virginia Employment Commission.
“Amazon’s cutting-edge fulfillment centers generate major capital investment and thousands of jobs and strengthen Virginia’s position as a logistics industry leader on the East Coast,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said when announcing the Virginia Beach expansion. “We see Amazon’s expanding footprint impacting economic growth and innovation across the commonwealth, and we will continue to compete for additional investment in Virginia.”
For Amazon executives, Hampton Roads’ maritime industry and area workforce were globally competitive standouts, says Suzanne Clark, VEDP’s managing director of communications. Amazon’s recent commitments in the region include a 3.8 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk with 1,500 full-time employees.
Allen-Anderson points to the region’s strong transportation infrastructure and Virginia Beach’s proximity within 25 miles of the Port of Virginia as major factors in the company’s site location.
That comes as no surprise to Smith, whose regional economic development organization worked to secure the Amazon deal alongside VEDP and the city, which last year approved $22.5 million to support public road and stormwater improvements around the project’s location.
“Our basic DNA is we are a maritime industrial economy, and so, you play to your strengths,” Smith says.
The region’s highly trained workforce is no secret to companies like Amazon, Smith says. More than 13,000 graduating college students and 18,000 graduating high school students join the area’s workforce annually, according to estimates from the National Center for Education Statistics.
But unlike other areas with a comparable workforce of recent graduates, Hampton Roads also sees an annual boost from around 12,000 to 15,000 exiting military members — a yearly number that can jump significantly when including spouses and other family members.
“We’re a regional workforce,” says Norfolk Director of Economic Development Sean Washington. “Companies see what it looks like to leverage the whole [metropolitan statistical area]. They look at talent from the whole MSA, which is why we all continue to communicate with our partners in other cities.”
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