Elizabeth Cooper Archives - Page 7 of 11

The art of growth

A few years ago, Ed Beardsley was looking out the window of his downtown Suffolk restaurant, wondering whether a new business would move into the empty storefront across the street.

Once Suffolk’s main commercial corridor, downtown was facing a downward spiral about five years ago. Despite restaurants like Beardsley’s The Plaid Turnip, a new courthouse being built and other businesses setting up shop, downtown paled in comparison with other areas of the city, especially the bustling Harbour View development in North Suffolk.

“Downtown has always struck me as having a great feel to it, but a lot of people looked at downtown as being neglected,” Beardsley recalls. “They were waiting for [Suffolk] City Council to fix the problems. Then I thought, ‘Why don’t I do something about it?’ It was put up or shut up.”

Beardsley’s resolve led him to create SPARC — Suffolk’s Prime Arts Retail Cultural initiative, which uses art to engage and enhance the community and its economy. Since its founding in 2017, SPARC (not to be confused with the Richmond nonprofit performing arts school with the same acronym) has grown to include about 70 artists who either display their work downtown or have converted vacant properties into studios. Many of them sell their work in the SPARC Shoppe, which Beardsley hopes to combine with One Past 7, an artists’ studio space he opened on the first floor and mezzanine of the former Suffolk Professional Building.

He sees the downtown arts scene as a new start for the venerable city. “A common element of underperforming areas of cities or downtowns that have deteriorated and been revived is public art that revitalizes and helps develop community pride. It all builds in a positive way.”

City leaders are supporting Beardsley’s endeavor. The Suffolk Economic Development Authority awarded the SPARC Shoppe a $15,000 grant to enlarge its space. And in October, City Council is expected to adopt new guidelines for public art displays, which Beardsley says will open the door for the formation of a downtown arts and cultural district. “It’s a huge marketing tool to attract new businesses.”

He believes art, such as painting family-friendly murals on the sides of downtown buildings, will be key to attracting more people downtown. Property owners have offered to host murals, and painting is expected to begin next spring. “This is a huge, inclusive, strong, community-building project,” Beardsley adds. “It definitely will be a conversation starter. It’s very exciting. I think of it as a new start.”

Growing but still small town
To spur economic development and community pride, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development designated Suffolk a Virginia Main Street community more than 30 years ago. That led to the rehabilitation of older downtown structures along with new investments, including the transformation of the former Suffolk High School into the Suffolk Cultural Arts Center and the construction of the Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center.

This time, development is focused on a new, $21.1 million, 45,305-square-foot downtown library to replace the Morgan Memorial Library. It’s expected to open in 2021.

“We welcome the next wave of downtown redevelopment,” says Kevin Hughes, Suffolk’s economic development director. “It’s time to put on a fresh pair of glasses and take a new look at downtown. We have to see how we can best plug in people and attract them and keep them interested in the area.”

Although it wants to attract new residents and businesses, the 430-square-mile city also is determined to maintain its small-town, community atmosphere, even as its populace mushrooms. Suffolk is one of Virginia’s fastest growing municipalities, and its population has steadily increased each year since 2012.

With more than 92,500 residents, the city is the only Hampton Roads locality projected to grow by at least 10% each decade between now and 2040. City leaders attribute Suffolk’s growth to its accommodating business environment, high standard of living, many amenities and central Hampton Roads location.

“Suffolk is very diverse,” Hughes says. “We’re very rural to the south and west. We’re able to preserve that because we have so many pockets of opportunity for development within the core city.”

Last year, when Marie DePrado decided to open additional locations of her Virginia Beach businesses, World Class Realty and Pourfavor Coffee, she considered Norfolk and Portsmouth before checking out downtown Suffolk. “I fell in love with the place,” she says. “There’s something special about Suffolk.

It’s so traditional, so humble. The people are so nice, and the culture is amazing.”

Since opening her new locations in the 19th-century Luke House last fall, DePrado has become convinced Suffolk’s downtown is on an upswing. “More people are coming to downtown events,” she says. “They’re hungry for more businesses, economic development and community events. The money is staying here.”

Mixed-use mecca
Downtown is one of four significant mixed-use development projects underway in Suffolk. A few miles away, the former Louise Obici Memorial Hospital site sat vacant for more than a decade after the hospital moved to a new facility in 2002. But the construction of Meridian Obici apartments there in 2016 spurred commercial development, culminating with Cinema Café’s plans to build a seven- to eight-screen, 35,000-square-foot movie theater, restaurant and bar at Obici Place. The mixed-use community includes the apartments and an Aldi grocery store. The theater is expected to open in 2022.

Several mixed-use projects also are in the works in the burgeoning North Suffolk area. The Point at Harbour View includes 55 acres of the former Tidewater Community College site, which will be developed into apartments, town homes, condominiums, shops, office space and hotels. TCC sold the property to the Suffolk Economic Development Authority about 15 years ago. The college’s real estate foundation owns the remaining acreage, which it plans to market for development this fall.

Hughes is excited about the site’s prospects. “This one is definitely unique and one we’ve been thinking and dreaming about for a very long time,” the economic development director says. He adds that the location, off Interstate 664, is ideal, with about 80,000 cars driving by it daily. “Development is heading that way.”

Also off I-664, Chesapeake development firm BECO is spearheading Bridgeport as a community-centric development for North Suffolk and the Bridge Road corridor, one of the city’s most heavily traveled highways. Old Dominion University’s E.V. Williams Center for Real Estate named Bridgeport as one of the region’s top five 2019 retail developments.

BECO founders Burt Cutright and Eric Olson envision Bridgeport as a walkable community that will feature more than 700 luxury apartments, boutique shops, offices, an outdoor entertainment venue and a social club. It is slated to be completed within four years.

“The Bridgeport project really aligns with the comprehensive plan we have,” Hughes says. “Folks are interested in walkability and more amenities surrounding where they live.”

Attention-getting
Bridgeport’s first phase will feature 288 one- and two-bedroom apartments in five buildings, with the bottom levels of four of the buildings containing shops, a boutique fitness club, restaurants, a financial firm and an upscale salon. Called 3800 Acqua, the apartments are expected to open this fall.

The second phase will include the 159-unit apartment complex, Royal Sail at Bridgeport, one of the nation’s first 55-and-older communities in a mixed-use development. “Senior communities are not really common in mixed-use communities,” says Julie Gifford, BECO’s public relations director. The final phase will include building more than 280 apartments in a yet-to-be named complex. BECO has not announced when construction will begin on Royal Sail at Bridgeport, but the project is slated to be completed in four years.

“We’re getting lots of interest,” Gifford adds. “This area is not only the fastest-growing area in Hampton Roads, it’s one of the fastest-growing in Virginia.”
Across Bridge Road from Bridgeport, BECO is constructing the Harbour Breeze Medical Center, which it expects to be completely occupied by the end of the year.

Health care is a growing industry in North Suffolk, with two of the region’s major providers in fierce competition. The Virginia Department of Health approved Bon Secours’ request to build a $77 million, 75,000-square-foot hospital on its Harbour View campus, tentatively scheduled to open in 2021. However, the department denied Sentara’s bid for a 24-bed hospital at its Sentara BelleHarbour facility in North Suffolk, which this year opened a second medical building with an ambulatory surgery center.

Hughes welcomes the new medical offerings to the city’s growing northern corridor. “The winners at the end of the day are our citizens because they will have more specialty care than they’ve ever had before.”

Art projects
And, if Beardsley and SPARC are successful, the city’s arts community will also win, as they envision a Suffolk with more art on display than ever before, with the downtown initiative expanding citywide.

“Downtown is the nexus of the whole thing,” Beardsley says, “but I really believe we can have an arts presence in each borough. I see it stitching together all of Suffolk and becoming a great identifier that shows the power of art and creativity.”

Art also will be a prominent part of Bridgeport, Gifford says, noting that BECO hopes to replicate SPARC’s efforts in downtown Suffolk. “We want to have artwork throughout the property and are in early conversations with SPARC about bringing the arts district out there.”

In addition, Bridgeport will host Suffolk’s first “LOVE” sign. The Virginia Department of Tourism has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of its “Virginia is for Lovers” theme by placing more than 150 of its large LOVEworks signs around the state, with the life-size letters serving as photo backdrops. “People will be able to stand on [it] and get their pictures made,” Gifford says.

There also will be photo opportunities at the three silos BECO plans to refurbish into an artistic, unique bar or restaurant on the former farmland. “Those are going to attract attention from all over,” she says.

Artistic endeavors like these also will help promote community pride, Beardsley adds. “Suffolk should be proud of and celebrate local art and artists. We’re very much promoting the idea that art and artists are celebrating the community and vice versa.”

Groups partner to build world-class workforce

Business leaders across eastern Virginia are demonstrating how cooperation can bridge skills gaps between the current workforce and job openings in local industries.

After forming the Southeastern Virginia Regional Workforce Collaborative last fall, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council and the Greater Peninsula Workforce Board funded a report this year on the region’s workforce demographics, the supply-demand gap in work skills and a workforce strategy to improve the talent pipeline.

Delivered in June, the Talent Alignment Strategy report notes that the region has a labor shortage and is operating at close to full employment, echoing the national employment rate. As a result, the gain of 30,000 jobs over the past five years has outpaced growth in the working-age population of 9,600 people. Information technology is at the top of the industries seeking qualified employees.

The report notes that a single regional talent development strategy “will be key to Hampton Roads’ ability to create a robust workforce and world-class talent development system.”

Serving approximately 4,500 businesses and employers, the new regional collaborative is working with local school systems, community colleges, technical schools, apprentice programs and four-year colleges and universities to identify needed skillsets and develop programs to meet those needs.

It’s also working to address regional labor shortages, especially in high-growth fields such as shipbuilding and ship repair, health care, information technology and hospitality.

Additionally, the collaborative will work to encourage military veterans to remain in Hampton Roads and to convince millennials that the region’s employment opportunities, lifestyle and other amenities are on par with areas such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Northern Virginia. “Young people look for a certain style and quality of life,” says William Mann, executive director of the Greater Peninsula Workforce Board. “We have to work really hard to make the case for millennials that this is the place to stay.”

In a region long plagued by fragmentation, the collaborative also seeks to be a template for the formation of other alliances. “We’re probably setting a really good example for how other organizations in the area might consider working together,” Mann adds.

“We’re speaking with one voice when meeting the needs of the business community in Hampton Roads,” says Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “It shows we’re unified when it comes to workforce development for businesses looking to come into our area.”

Casting a wider net

Updated Aug. 28

From frozen foods to massive offshore wind-turbine components, the Port of Virginia is stepping up efforts to attract new and diverse cargo, bolstered by expanded terminal capacity and a long-awaited project to deepen Norfolk’s commercial shipping channels.

“Part of our plan is to be an economic engine,” says John Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. “We’re fortunate to play on fields where opportunities exist.”

The third-largest port on the East Coast behind New York/New Jersey and Savannah, Georgia, and the fifth-largest in the U.S., the Port of Virginia is one of the commonwealth’s dominant economic drivers. More than 160 port-related business announcements have been made over the past four years, with almost $4 billion in investments and 15,000 jobs created throughout Virginia. In fiscal year 2019, the port played a role in generating 2,800 new jobs, developing nearly 3 million square feet of space and driving $2 billion in investment across the commonwealth. The port has handled a record 3 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent containers) of cargo this year, up from 2018’s annual volume record of 2.85 million TEUs.

Since Reinhart took the port authority’s helm in 2014, the port has set yearly cargo volume records and will have invested almost $1.5 billion through 2024 for terminal expansion, dredging and infrastructure improvements. “We’ve been growing every year,” he says. “We want to grow faster than the market at large. If market growth is forecast at 3%, we’re trying to grow [by] 5%.”

Diversifying cargo is part of the port’s overall strategic plan to enhance volume in multiple areas of business as a way of building strength in good trade environments, while offering stability during uncertain times.

Providing direct service to more than 45 countries and two-thirds of the U.S. population, the port is positioning itself as both a point of origin and destination for cargo the world over, including freight from emerging economies such as Africa, India and Latin America. According to the International Transport Forum, an intergovernmental think tank, global demand for cargo transport is expected to triple by 2050. “The world is continuing to get connected,” Reinhart adds, noting that ocean carriers calling at the port provide regular services to both emerging and established ports and economies.

‘Wider, Deeper, Safer’
A $700 million expansion project at the port’s two largest terminals, Virginia International Gateway (VIG) in Portsmouth and Norfolk International Terminals (NIT), will increase the facilities’ annual container throughput capacity by 46% by 2020 and position Virginia as the East Coast’s main container shipping port. VIG’s upgrades include an 800-foot wharf expansion, four 170-foot-tall ship-to-shore cranes (the largest in the Western Hemisphere), 26 additional rail-mounted gantry cranes, four extra inbound gate lanes for trucks, almost 20,000 feet of new rail track and 13 additional container stacks. NIT is getting 60 rail-mounted gantry cranes, 30 semi-automated container stacks and two new Suez-class ship-to-shore cranes. The upgrades and increased capacity have already led to record-setting volumes in fiscal year 2019.

“Before our modernization and expansion of Virginia International Gateway and Norfolk International Terminals, there was not a lot of footprint to work on diversification of cargo,” Reinhart notes. “Now we have the capacity.”

Then there’s the port’s $350 million Wider, Deeper, Safer project to deepen and widen the Norfolk harbor. Engineering and design work are underway, with construction slated to begin in early 2020. When completed in 2025, the main Norfolk shipping channel will be 55 feet deep, while the Thimble Shoal Channel will be 1,400 feet wide, allowing the Port of Virginia to reclaim its status as the deepest port on the East Coast and making it easier for the ultra-large container ships already calling at the port to navigate through its shipping channels.

On the same page
Along with the upgrades, the port has been working more closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership on marketing endeavors. “We see the Port of Virginia as one of the most important economic assets in the commonwealth of Virginia,” says VEDP President and CEO Stephen Moret. “Its increased capacity makes it one of the most advanced ports in the world.”

Moret sits on the port’s board of directors, and Reinhart is a member of VEDP’s board. It’s an arrangement both say has increased collaboration between the organizations.

“Our strategies are aligned,” Reinhart says, adding that port representatives regularly travel with VEDP officials on overseas trade missions. “We call on some of the same customers to try to attract them to the commonwealth.”

That’s a big shift from just a few years ago when the port sent representatives on an overseas visit without knowing that VEDP staffers were visiting the same country a few days later. “Now we share notes, work projects and regularly talk about how to support each other,” Moret says.

Each organization also has staff embedded in the other’s offices, and they are working together on the commonwealth’s first-ever international trade plan, an effort to increase the number of Virginia companies involved in global commerce, help expand into new markets and attract programs associated with significant international trade. The plan is slated to be published this fall.

“The port is knocking it out of the park,” Moret says, noting that it is one of Virginia’s strongest economic selling points, particularly for the manufacturing and distribution sectors.

Cold comfort
So far, the expansion at VIG and NIT has resulted in a 66% increase in refrigerated cargo capacity. Reinhart seeks to position Virginia as an export and import center for refrigerated cargo. Earlier this year, the port completed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southeast In-Transit Cold Treatment Program, paving the way for Virginia to compete with Northeastern U.S. ports for refrigerated cargo. Through the program, containerized imports can enter the port directly after completing a two-week cold-treatment process to safeguard against pests.

That paid off for Virginia this April when the commonwealth beat out Georgia in landing Preferred Freezer Services’ new cold-storage warehouse. It will be branded as Lineage Logistics, the Michigan-based warehouse and logistics company that acquired Preferred Freezer Services in May. Lineage is investing $60 million to build the 200,000-square-foot cold facility in Portsmouth. Meanwhile, InterChange Cold Storage is building a cold-storage and blast-freezing facility in Mount Crawford, 90 minutes south of the Port of Virginia’s Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal.

As an offshoot, more equipment and jobs related to the cold-storage industry could be making their way to the region, including refrigerated containers and workers to maintain them, as well as additional USDA inspectors.

“We’re the U.S. East Coast’s leading vegetable exporter, and this designation positions us to achieve the same success with imported fruit,” Reinhart notes. “Refrigerated import and export freight are opportunities for strong growth for us.” The port also handles refrigerated cargo on its thrice-weekly Richmond Express barge, which connects Hampton Roads terminals to the Richmond Marine Terminal via the James River.

The port launched the James River barge service in 2008. Last year, carriers shipped almost 30,000 containers from Norfolk cargo terminals to the Richmond terminal via the barge, a record volume. More than a dozen ocean carriers also list Richmond as the destination or origin for cargo. The port added a second barge in 2016 for refrigerated containers.

“We have refrigeration and freezer space all over the commonwealth,” Reinhart says. “More refrigerated containers are going up to Richmond and back by barge. People want these products close to where they are.”

Freight increased last year by 31.5% at the Richmond Marine Terminal and by 7.8% at the Virginia Inland Port. The Richmond terminal is investing $570,000 to purchase new top loaders for moving containers on and off tractor-trailer trucks. The Port of Virginia is investing $36 million in two projects at the inland port to improve traffic flow and safety on a local road and to expand the terminal’s overall cargo-handling capabilities. The port is funding the road project through a U.S. Department of Transportation BUILD (Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development) grant. Inside the terminal, the port is investing $3.3 million to be matched by $7.7 million from Virginia’s Rail Enhancement Fund. The $11 million project will expand capacity and improve cargo flow at the inland port.

Growing with the wind
Along with refrigerated cargo, the port is setting its sights on the nascent offshore wind-energy industry. Between 2,000 and 3,000 wind turbines could be installed off the East Coast over the next two decades, and the port is marketing itself as a logistics and staging center for the construction and maintenance of the massive turbines. Dominion Energy is working with Denmark’s Ørsted Energy on a $1.1 billion project to build two 6-megawatt wind turbines about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Slated to be up and running next year, the 600-foot-tall turbines are projected to power about 3,000 homes with emissions-free energy. They will be the first to be built in U.S. federal waters and the first to be operated by a regulated utility. (A private energy development group owned by Ørsted operates a five-turbine offshore wind farm in state waters off Rhode Island.)

Reinhart notes that the port is only 35 miles from federal waters where the wind turbines will be erected and has no bridges or overhead obstructions to hinder the movement of turbine components, including massive towers and blades. “When you look at the strategic logistics and natural attributes of the port, we can evolve to be an important player in the offshore-wind supply industry, and be a good central point for wind farms north and south of here,” he adds. “But we have to be ready to dip our toes in the water in 2020.”

‘An offshore-wind super port’
A 2018 report produced by consulting firm BVG Associates cites Virginia’s central location on the mid-Atlantic seaboard, as well as its pro-business environment, deep-water port free of overhead obstructions, large maritime workforce and dock capacity as advantages in driving the offshore-wind supply chain.

After evaluating 10 Virginia terminals for their readiness to accommodate offshore-wind manufacturing and construction, BVG Associates determined that Portsmouth Marine Terminal and Newport News Marine Terminal are the best-prepared port facilities to meet the demands of offshore-wind activities. Container traffic is shifting to the upgraded and expanded NIT and VIG facilities, leaving the Portsmouth and Newport News terminals with ample space to store the wind turbines’ massive foundations before they’re shipped to the offshore construction sites. BVG Associates concluded that each terminal will require up to $10 million in upgrades to be prepared for use as logistics centers for offshore-wind operations.

Portsmouth Marine Terminal would be especially well-suited for housing components because of its 287-acre footprint, says George Hagerman, a senior project scientist in Old Dominion University’s Center for Coastal and Physical Oceanography.

“Portsmouth Marine Terminal has the potential to be an offshore-wind super port,” Hagerman says. “There’s nothing that has that large of an area and access to the open sea without a bridge in the way. There’s probably nothing like it on the East Coast.”

However, the terminals’ ground-bearing strength would have to be reinforced to withstand the weight of the colossal components. “That could take up to 24 months to see what would be required and then to do it,” he adds.

Global offshore-wind project developers, procurement and logistics specialists, foundation and substation fabricators and offshore platform builders have visited the port over the past two years to scope out its potential as a staging ground for building wind farms. Port officials have pointed out to the visitors that the Port of Virginia is the only East Coast port with federal authorization to dredge channels to 55 feet deep.

“Offshore wind is definitely picking up speed,” Hagerman says. “But there’s still a risk that there is not going to be a steady demand for the product. That’s the real challenge for everybody looking at that investment.”

Strategic military asset
Meanwhile, the port is also expanding its military cargo. Over the last five years, PMT, NIT and Newport News Marine Terminal have been used about a dozen times to load and offload military vehicles. In addition, the army unloaded approximately 400 vehicles at the port in August. Last year, the port began working with the U.S. Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) to strengthen its role as one of the nation’s 16 strategic ports for deploying military personnel and equipment. The port has run several test trials for the SDDC involving the shipment of military kit vehicles.

“We exercise the capabilities at East Coast ports to determine the flexibility to use multiple ports to move cargo as fast as possible,” explains Lt. Col. Altwan Whitfield, commander of the 841st Transportation Battalion in Charleston, South Carolina. “During the test runs, we send vehicles, including track vehicles, which are larger, bulkier and awkward in size and shape. We look at cranes, stevedores and rail to determine maximum capacity and which port would be best to use. Each port has its own oddities, but everyone must be on the same sheet of music.”

Whitfield says the SDDC has an excellent relationship with the port, which has also deployed airplanes used in Afghanistan military operations: “It’s a great partnership that allows us to do our job. Overall, the Port of Virginia provides us the capacity we need to get our military as far forward as fast as possible by being available to us.”

Seeking new opportunities
The Virginia Maritime Association also has joined forces with the port and the VEDP to aggressively market the port for other new lines of cargo business.

“Opportunities to diversify the port are important to us,” says David White, the association’s executive vice president. “It’s not just about positioning ourselves to be attractive to steamship lines but positioning ourselves to get more cargo traded through our port and use our port as a gateway to the global marketplace.”

However, Virginia faces stiff competition from other East Coast ports for certain freight such as automobiles. “Baltimore and Jacksonville, Florida, are large auto ports, but there are opportunities for Virginia [to expand],” White notes.

However, Moret of the VEDP contends that the port’s ability to capture automobile freight has to some extent been constrained by Virginia’s lackluster past economic development efforts surrounding the automobile industry.

“We need to reset our economic toolbox,” Moret says, pointing out that recent automobile assembly plants opted to set up shop in Georgia and South Carolina. To capture that business, Moret says, the state must offer corporate incentives, customized workforce training, marketing solutions and site development plans. The General Assembly and VEDP have been addressing these issues over the last few years, he adds, with the legislature allocating $2 million to the VEDP this year for site characterization plans.

And that is starting to pay off, according to Reinhart. “I’m tickled with where we’re sitting,” he says. “I think some other ports will be surprised at how efficient we’ll be with the peak season coming up. It’s all coming together at the right time.”

Working toward a common goal

Its economy is growing, its diverse municipalities are making inroads on that elusive thing called collaboration, and it could soon be home to the nation’s first urban surf park.

Now, to deal with that pesky problem of how best to identify the Southeastern Virginia metropolitan region.

Hampton Roads, the moniker applied to the sprawling region more than three decades ago, just doesn’t cut it, business and community leaders say. People outside the 2,500-square-mile region don’t know what or where Hampton Roads is, while few of its 1.7 million residents call it by its official name or have an affinity to the identifier. And, that hampers the local economy, especially tourism, one of Hampton Roads’ top economic drivers.

“The brand of any region is either an enabler or an inhibitor,” says Bryan Stephens, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a sense of place. It’s who you are as well as where you are. It has to resonate with everyone. Hampton Roads doesn’t do that. It’s old, stale and stagnant.”

One of Stephens’ goals for this year is to create a new brand identity for the region, one that evokes a sense of place for both locals and people outside the area. The chamber has organized a committee to lead a collaborative effort to rebrand the region. The process will include focus groups, roundtable discussions and surveys. “We hope to unveil and start socializing the new name by the end of the year,” Stephens says.

While names such as Coastal Virginia and Norfolk-Virginia Beach have been bandied about for several years, Stephens says his group is starting fresh. “We’re being very careful not to presume any name or start with a laundry list of possible names. We’re starting with a clean slate and want this to be collaborative and the process to work.”

Whatever the rebranding committee comes up with, Stephens stresses that the new identity will celebrate Hampton Roads’ assets. “Its history, water, beaches, family activities, the food scene — things that make it attractive to all people who want to live and work here as well as visit on vacation.”

Shedding its cumbersome moniker is the first step in getting Hampton Roads’ story front and center and ensuring the region is on par with similar areas, Stephens says. “If you think about other regions, there’s the ‘it’ factor that’s representative of a great place to live and work and to raise a family,” he adds. “But they really don’t have anything we don’t have. Hampton Roads has history, waterways, beaches, urban areas, farmland and diversity of cultures. We’re just not telling our story well enough.”

Stephens and other regional leaders believe collaboration will help with that. They say signs point to the region’s 14 cities and counties at long last banding together as rivalries slowly are relinquished. With four of the five South Hampton Roads cities coming under new mayoral leadership in the past three years, a renewed emphasis on working together appears to be crossing municipal lines.

“There’s a lot more collaboration going on now than we’ve seen in the past,” Stephens says. “Elected officials understand the power of collective impact and realize that what’s good for one municipality is good for all municipalities.”

Atlantic Park project
As community leaders debate a new regional brand, Virginia Beach developers are betting the name Atlantic Park will become one of Southeastern Virginia’s best-known identifiers. That’s the name given to the 10.35-acre entertainment, commercial, residential and recreational development to be built at the oceanfront on the former Virginia Beach Dome site.

The project’s centerpiece will be a surf park. Venture Realty Group, the company developing the property, points out that surf parks typically stand alone.

The Atlantic Park surf park, however, is only one component of the $325 million mixed-use development.

There also will be a 3,500-seat live entertainment venue, with a potential outdoor section bringing total seating to 5,000, more than 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 150,000 square feet of office space, 426 apartment units and parking for more than 1,900 vehicles.

Entertainer and producer Pharrell Williams, a Virginia Beach native, is one of the partners in the development, which is expected to create 2,000 jobs when it begins operations.

The project reflects a push by the city to become more of a year-round destination.

Another new attraction in the region is the new Ikea store in Norfolk.

The 331,000-square-foot store, which opened in April, is Ikea’s second in Virginia and 50th in the U.S. The other Virginia store is in Woodbridge. Ikea sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories.

Ikea officials say it already has a large number of customers in Hampton Roads and they expect the Norfolk store to attract shoppers from other parts of Virginia as well as North Carolina.

The store will employ about 250 workers in a mix of full- and part-time positions.

Teambuilding at HREDA
Those developments are examples of the increased economic interest in Southeastern Virginia, says Steve Herbert, interim president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, the agency charged with coordinating all business leads coming into the region. “We are actually working on 15 different projects. We’re encouraged by that.”

Herbert took over the reins of the HREDA in January after previous CEO Rick Weddle retired. A former Suffolk city manager and Virginia Beach deputy city manager, Herbert wants the cities and counties that make up the alliance to consider themselves a team. “We want to make sure we’re all working together,” he says, adding that the region’s struggles to work collaboratively will not be solved overnight. “But we’re committed to working on it. That’s been our message to each of our 11 community partners. It’s teambuilding. If you’re going to build a team you have got to get everybody on board.”

To do that, the HREDA is asking that each member locality approve a master economic development agreement for how the organization conducts business. “This is the first time it’s ever been more than a handshake agreement,” Herbert says. “We’re all working together. I’m very encouraged by the level of teamwork with the individual economic development directors. That is going to help a lot to make economic development activities in the region more productive.”

The alliance, whose members include Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, Franklin and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties, also is refining its marketing efforts to increase its productivity. So far, approximately 40 marketing trips in the U.S. and overseas have been scheduled for this year. Herbert says representatives from alliance members will join the HREDA staff on these journeys. “That’s where more leads and potential marketing activities come into Hampton Roads, and all of Hampton Roads gets looked at.”

In addition, the HREDA has reached out to other regional organizations interested in economic development, including Reinvent Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which recently documented the region’s infrastructure investments. “There are billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure investment in the region,” Herbert notes. “That’s unprecedented in other regions we compete with.”

Norfolk Southern’s departure
A recent decision by Norfolk Southern to move its headquarters to Atlanta in 2021 is far from good news for a region with only two other Fortune 500 companies (Huntington Ingalls Industries and Dollar Tree), but Herbert believes the railroad company’s departure represents an opportunity. “We are short on that kind of office space,” he says, referring to Norfolk Southern’s 22-story office tower in downtown Norfolk. “To have that building in the middle of a prosperous, bustling downtown is a huge asset for us. Nobody is happy about losing Norfolk Southern, but we will aggressively work to market that building.”

Old Dominion University economist Vinod Agarwal agrees that Hampton Roads will survive Norfolk Southern’s exodus. “We will lose between 500 and 700 employees,” he notes. “There are about 800,000 jobs in Hampton Roads, so the economic impact of Norfolk Southern leaving is not going to be significant.” Agarwal adds, though, that the company’s strong involvement in philanthropic activities throughout the region will be missed. “Their presence has been very meaningful.”

Agarwal, who is director of ODU’s Economic Forecasting Project, says Hampton Roads’ economy is strengthening. “For the first time in several years, we’re seeing the job market improve significantly,” he adds. “The labor force is growing, and the unemployment rate is going down. That’s really good news.”

Much of that improvement comes from increased Department of Defense spending, as well as growth at the Port of Virginia, which is operating at near capacity. Agarwal, however, emphasizes that the region still needs to diversify its economy, which has long been dependent on defense industries. Like Stephens and Herbert, he emphasizes that regional collaboration is key to economic growth.

“We need to realize we are a regional economy that is heavily connected, and we need to work together as a region. If we look at a regional approach, it doesn’t matter where jobs are created as long as they are in Hampton Roads,” Agarwal adds. “Collectively, we need to start thinking of Hampton Roads as a region, not a fabrication of cities and counties. Unless that happens, our growth will be slower.”

Upwind opportunity

An influx of wind turbines is planned for the U.S. East Coast, and Virginia could be a key player in a supply chain producing these massive structures.

Wind turbines already are spinning off Rhode Island, where the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, the first U.S. offshore wind project, has operated since 2016.

Two years later, the offshore wind industry on the East Coast is poised to take off.

Experts say that 2,000 to 3,000 wind turbines could be installed in East Coast waters during the next two decades, with the first offshore-wind projects ramping up in the Northeast. The cost to produce offshore wind power is plummeting, and many Northeastern states have set renewable energy goals that include big contributions from that source.

At the end of last year, agreements were in place to build wind farms off the East Coast generating a combined 2 gigawatts of power, with purchase agreements for another 3 gigawatts expected this year. Maryland and Massachusetts already are moving ahead with their first commercial offshore wind projects, while Rhode Island has another project underway.

But U.S. projects currently rely on a European supply chain to produce and deliver wind farm components. The components are massive. The 5-megawatt wind turbines at the Block Island Wind Farm are 180 meters tall, or twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.

“Today, the only sources for the components used in the wind industry are manufactured in Europe,” says George Hagerman, a senior project scientist in Old Dominion University’s Center for Coastal and Physical Oceanography. “But it’s very expensive and risky to ship turbines, blades and towers from Europe. Virginia is a lot closer to New England. Even though our offshore wind industry is five to 10 years from being developed, we can provide certain components, particularly foundations, at more cost-effective prices than anyone else.”

As more commercial wind farms come online, a U.S. supply chain is expected to emerge. Virginia could create thousands of jobs building components such as foundations and offshore substations, according to a 2018 report produced by the consulting firm BVG Associates. The report cites Virginia’s pro-business climate, deepwater ports free from overhead obstructions, maritime workforce and dock capacity as its advantages in becoming a major industry player.

Like Hagerman, John Warren, director of the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMEE), characterizes the commonwealth as a prime location for the nascent industry. “Virginia has a robust infrastructure with its port and deep harbor,” he says. “The ports up north are more constrained.”

Virginia is exploring ways to collaborate with other states to create a multistate supply chain, Warren adds. “We have the perception that the industry wants a wide net with a lot of flexibility. Instead of saying, ‘Come to Virginia, we’ll give you everything you need,’ we say, ‘Come to Virginia, and we’ll let you spread out requirements to as many states as you need.’”

Hagerman agrees that collaboration is the way to go, especially for mid-Atlantic states awaiting their turn to install offshore wind projects. “Every state has the capacity to create anywhere from 1,000 to several thousand jobs supplying components that are unique to that state,” he says.

For example, steel produced in North Carolina and Maryland plants would become wind-turbine foundations in Virginia. “So, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia have the potential to collaborate,” Hagerman says. “There’s such big industry in every state. Virginia doesn’t need to make everything. We can make what we’re best at and do it collaboratively.”

But those partnerships need to be formed soon. “By the end of summer is the optimal time for a Virginia-based joint venture to start the process if we really want to get in on the ground floor of the market,” Hagerman adds. “It could be a great win-win outcome, but we’ve got to get together and take the risk.”

A Virginia wind farm?
Large-scale offshore wind farms are expected first to develop in the Northeast. “The New England states are where the first offshore wind projects in the U.S. are likely to be the most economical,” says Hagerman. “Wind speeds on average are higher off Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York than they are off Virginia, and New England customers pay twice as much for electricity as those in Virginia, so offshore wind has a better chance of being economically competitive in that market.”

As turbines are built in New England waters during the next five or six years, offshore wind projects will begin to move south, Hagerman believes. “That’s when Virginia is likely to be economical,” he says. “By then, the industry will be more mature, and everybody will be more efficient.”

But it won’t be long before Virginia sees two massive turbines in its waters. Dominion Energy Virginia is set to become the first electric utility company to own an offshore wind project in the U.S. The facility will be used as a research project.

Dominion has contracted with Danish firm Orsted Energy, one of the world’s largest wind-energy developers, to construct two 6-megawatt research wind turbines 27 miles off Virginia Beach in 2,135 acres of federally owned waters leased to the DMME. Dominion will start onshore construction this spring, with Orsted expected to install the turbines in summer 2020. Projected to be operational by the end of next year, the turbines would produce 12 megawatts, enough to serve 3,000 Dominion customers.

Dominion’s endeavor will be the second offshore wind project in the U.S. and the first to be built in waters leased from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The company plans to use information gleaned from the permitting, construction and operation of the project to develop additional turbines in an adjacent, 112,000-acre commercial wind-energy site. Those turbines could be deployed as early as 2024, says Mark Mitchell, Dominion’s vice president for generation construction.

The utility estimates that Virginia’s offshore wind can support up to 2,000 megawatts, providing enough energy to serve 500,000 homes. “Offshore wind produces good opportunities, and we’re very optimistic that the offshore wind industry will be a good resource to be developed,” Mitchell adds. “It’s a large viable generated resource that is sitting right off our coast.”

Creating a supportive atmosphere

Old Dominion University welcomed the largest freshman class in its history last fall, and its online and transfer enrollment numbers are surging, but officials at the Norfolk-based school say it remains determined to treat its more than 24,300 students as individuals.

With 26 percent of its undergraduates over age 24 and 26 percent attending school part time, ODU realizes a cookie-cutter approach does not lead to academic achievement. Offering 91 bachelor’s, 41 master’s and 22 doctoral degrees, the school prides itself on meeting the needs of a diverse student body.

“We’re becoming more of a destination campus for those in Hampton Roads and beyond, but we individualize how we serve our students,” says Ellen Neufeldt, the university’s vice president for student engagement and enrollment services.

For example, students affiliated with the armed services are plugged into ODU’s Military Connection Center, while online students have campus coaches who regularly touch base with them. Male minority students are encouraged to participate in the campus chapter of Brother 2 Brother, a national mentor organization.

Students enrolled in similar degree programs can join one of the university’s living learning communities. Also, about 1,000 of the university’s more than 3,100 freshmen participate in a student success coaching program in which they explore careers, receive assistance with coursework and are encouraged to make the most of their first year at ODU.

The aim is to create a supportive atmosphere inside and outside the classroom, a key factor in Old Dominion’s growth. In addition to its largest freshman class on record — 3,100 — the university has seen enrollment in STEM programs escalate to the second-highest percentage among Virginia’s doctoral institutions, expanded residential housing and student extracurricular programs and conferred a record number of degrees — more than 4,000 — during last spring’s commencement.

“Along with a wide offering of academic programs, we have a variety of support for students of all ages and backgrounds,” says Jane Dane, ODU’s associate vice president for enrollment management. “Our students recognize that care and support.”

Transfer students
Nontraditional students have long found a niche at ODU, which currently has more than 8,100 transfer students. Many come from two-year schools such as Tidewater Community College and Thomas Nelson Community College, which send more students to ODU than to any other Virginia school. Old Dominion has more than 200 program pathway agreements with Virginia community colleges — the most in the state — ensuring students can seamlessly transfer credits. “Historically, Old Dominion University has been a place for degree completion,” Dane notes. “It’s just been part of our history to support nontraditional students.”

The university recently signed a new transfer agreement with TCC allowing non-traditional students to parlay their work and military experience, knowledge, training and technical skills into college credit and advance their careers. After earning an associate degree in technical studies at TCC, students can transfer into ODU’s industrial technology program in the Darden College of Education to complete their bachelor’s degrees.

Long involved in distance education, ODU, along with George Mason University and the Virginia Community College System, formed the Online Virginia Network. It allows students who left college before completing degrees to finish without setting foot on campus. More than 6,000 ODU students are engaged in online learning. “The concept is to encourage them to return to college and complete their bachelor’s degree and increase the college-educated workforce in Virginia,” Dane says.

Nursing school move
Aside from online learners, most students attend classes at Old Dominion’s Hampton Boulevard campus. The School of Nursing, however, moved to the university’s Virginia Beach Higher Education Center last fall where it plans to increase enrollment and expand clinical labs and simulation spaces. The move brings 850 additional students and 62 faculty members to the center while creating additional synergies with the health-care institutions in the VABeachBio Corridor, such as Sentara Healthcare, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, LifeNet Health and Operation Smile.

“It’s important for academic institutions like Old Dominion University to be part of the future of health-related programs in Virginia Beach to interact with those organizations,” says Karen Karlowicz, chair of the nursing school.

In its new space, the school emphasizes its growing telehealth initiative, using technology to connect health-care providers with patients in remote and underserved areas. “It takes the technology that we all have and uses that to collect and assess data about patients’ conditions and transmit that information to the health-care provider giving guidance for patient care,” Karlowicz explains. “Our graduate students had been receiving training in telehealth, but now, with the new space, telehealth training is being incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum.”

With its plans to open a telehealth education and research center at the Virginia Beach Center, ODU has jumped to the forefront of training in that field. “Very few schools in the U.S. educate students across the board in telehealth,” Karlowicz says. “Our school is very forward thinking. We’re not afraid to try new things. We looked at the future of health care and realized that telehealth is the wave of the future.”

In addition, nursing students and faculty, as well as those in other health-sciences disciplines, may soon be able to treat patients at a university-run health clinic in Virginia Beach. ODU is working with the city to determine the best location for a clinic focusing on underserved populations. “We’re looking at all the options out there,” says Bonnie Van Lunen, dean of the College of Health Sciences. “We want to use it as an education and research center as well as a clinic.”

School of public health?
On its main campus, Old Dominion is awaiting state appropriations to build an $80 million health-sciences facility that would house programs in dental hygiene, medical diagnostic and translational sciences, physical therapy and athletic training, and community and environmental health. The college also plans to implement an occupational-therapy program in the next three to four years to meet the demands of a growing career field.

A school of public health — the first in Virginia — is also on the drawing board. “It’s definitely one of our goals in the next five years,” Van Lunen says. “It would be a community resource and would allow the College of Health Sciences to consolidate program offerings, pursue additional funding opportunities and attract more students and faculty.”

Because of the reputation of its graduates, ODU is a prime location to house public-health programs, Van Lunen adds. “Our students perform their clinicals in Hampton Roads medical facilities, so providers have an opportunity to test drive the students and see the quality of education our students are getting.”

Along with improving health in Hampton Roads, the college’s Center for Global Health has an international focus. It aims to implement innovative educational programs that enhance awareness of global health issues. “The world is changing, and everything is more strongly connected,” says Muge Akpinar-Elci, the center’s director. “If something happens to one country, it impacts other countries.”

The center offers a graduate online certification program in global health, teaching basic health concepts to students in all disciplines, including education, engineering and communications. “For example, we work with engineers to help them understand the health piece so they can find solutions to a country’s drinking water problems,” Akpinar-Elci adds. “It gives them a broader perspective.”

STEM fields
While the College of Health Sciences waits for the green light to begin construction on its new facility, ground was broken this winter for the College of Sciences’ $75.6 million chemistry building. The 110,500-square-foot facility, featuring a 120-seat digital theater, research labs and a planetarium, is projected to be completed in late 2020.

“For students who want to do chemistry, they are not going to find better facilities anywhere,” says Gail Dodge, dean of the college.

Last summer, the National Institutes of Health awarded the college a $1.5 million Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) grant to help underrepresented minority undergraduates in STEM fields pursue biomedical and behavioral sciences research careers. About 33 percent of ODU’s undergraduates are classified as underrepresented, including those in STEM programs.

“This is not the kind of grant any university can get,” Dodge says. “It requires a lot of institutional support, but the college has a robust commitment from the university as well as a diverse campus with a strong minority population.” In addition to increasing opportunities for undergraduate research, Dodge says, ODU also wants to boost the number of minority faculty members in STEM fields.

Providing that encouragement sets Old Dominion apart, Dodge adds. “We have departments at ODU where undergraduate students don’t get lost. They can come here and feel like they’re in a small institutional department where people know them.”

Football stadium renovation
Although most of ODU’s recent construction has focused on academic buildings, the university recently broke ground for the Hugo A. Owens House, a residence hall slated for completion in spring 2020. Named for a local civil rights leader who was the first African-American rector of ODU’s board of visitors, the $62 million project will add 470 beds to the university’s housing inventory. The hall also will include a learning commons area and classrooms, with the majority of residents enrolled in STEM, health, cybersecurity and entrepreneurial programs. “Faculty can come in and conduct courses and interact with students,” says Gregory DuBois, ODU’s vice president for administration and finance.

Meanwhile, contractors are working on an accelerated schedule to renovate the S.B. Ballard Stadium in time for the ODU football team’s home opener on Aug. 31 against Norfolk State University. Funded by private monies, the $67.5 million project will give the 82-year-old facility 21,500 seats, modern amenities and improved traffic flow. “The stadium was past the end of its useful life and didn’t meet the standards when it came to fan comfort,” DuBois notes. “By renovating it in one season, we’re saving about $5 million and avoiding unknown inflation costs and lengthened disruption from construction.”

That scores a win for the university and its growing student population.

Legal longevity

One hundred thirty-five years after newly minted attorney Floyd W. Hughes began representing seafaring clients in Norfolk, Vandeventer Black LLP has evolved into an international business and litigation firm while also ranking as the state’s largest maritime law firm.

With its main office in the World Trade Center — a few blocks from where Hughes hung his shingle in 1883 — Vandeventer Black’s practice areas today range from commercial real estate to cybersecurity and data privacy. The firm credits its longevity to an ability to adapt to fast-paced technological changes while adopting an entrepreneurial approach. “We’ve made the firm open to changes in the marketplace and industry,” says Michael L. Sterling, Vandeventer Black’s managing partner.

One of Hampton Roads’ oldest continuously operating law firms, Vandeventer Black has 54 attorneys and about 50 other staff members. In addition to Norfolk, the firm has U.S. offices in Richmond and Kitty Hawk and Raleigh, N.C. The firm also has an office in Hamburg, Germany, which is staffed by lawyers who travel overseas to meet with clients as needed. Vandeventer Black lawyers represent clients in administrative proceedings, litigation and appeals, commercial transactions and dispute resolutions. “Our firm is focused on trying to bring premium services to clients at a fair price,” Sterling adds. “That’s a big deal to us.”

Sterling joined the firm in 1985 after serving as a law clerk the previous year. At the time, Vandeventer Black had recently moved to the World Trade Center and was one of the first offices in Norfolk to install a cable machine to communicate with overseas clients. “There was value here when I first joined, and we try to hand down that value to everybody who joins the firm,” he adds.

Today, Vandeventer Black attorneys rely heavily on voice mail, email and electronic records. “We’re very digital,” Sterling says, adding that digital records have replaced many of the paper documents and books in the firm’s legal library. “We make sure our lawyers are technologically proficient to meet our clients’ needs and have built more efficiencies into the practice of law and have passed that on to our clients.”

However, face-to-face meetings are still valued, especially with new clients. “We make sure we meet them and shake hands,” Sterling says. “Oftentimes after that, it’s mainly electronic communications like videoconferencing.”

Wide-ranging experience
Along with technological proficiency, Vandeventer Black emphasizes its attorneys’ experience, which often transcends the legal profession. Many, for example, have degrees in disciplines such as civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, and they worked in those fields before pursuing law degrees. Others have MBAs or advanced degrees in legal areas such as taxation and environmental law. “That extra knowledge helps our lawyers understand and analyze client needs in specialty areas,” Sterling notes.

The firm also seeks out attorneys who have served in the military or worked for the government. “We look for attorneys with useful life experiences,” Sterling says.

Virtually every lawyer at Vandeventer Black has been recognized for professional accomplishments, and many are arbitrators and mediators for the American Arbitration Association. The firm is listed in Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms. In addition, Best Lawyers named three of the firm’s attorneys — Edward J. Powers, William E. Franczek and Stephan F. Andrews — Lawyers of the Year for 2019 based on receiving the highest peer reviews in their practice areas in the region.

Along with individual clients, the firm represents businesses and private and public entities, including Virginia International Terminals and the Norfolk Airport Authority. “We’re team members with the port,” Sterling says. “The port is a symbol of why we are here — a gateway of commerce.”

Vandeventer Black also works with companies to bring new jobs and technologies to Hampton Roads. “We love that,” Sterling says. “We like to help bring that business to town because it means new jobs and new opportunities.”

Currently, the firm is assisting Global Technical Systems, a homegrown company that is building a $55 million electro-mechanical energy storage system manufacturing operation projected to create 1,100 jobs in Virginia Beach. “We’ve worked with GTS since they started the business and helped encourage them to remain in the region,” Sterling adds.

Volunteering and philanthropy
Outside of the office, Vandeventer Black attorneys and staff members can be found supporting a variety of nonprofit organizations and charitable causes, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeast Virginia, ForKids Inc., Elizabeth River Project, Louise W. Eggleston Center Inc., Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, Special Olympics and Fisher House Foundation in Richmond. The firm established The Vandeventer Black Foundation to provide endowments for current and future charitable needs.

“Philanthropy is an important part of what we do,” Sterling says. “We especially try to work with local charities to provide financial as well as physical support.” For example, Vandeventer Black lawyers and staff members grill hot dogs for athletes participating in Hampton Roads Special Olympics and spruce up Eggleston Services’ Camp Civitan each spring.

Barron Black, who joined the firm in 1923 and remained active until his death in 1974, emphasized community involvement. “He would ask, ‘What are you going to do for the public good?’” Sterling recalls. “That’s a question we still ask of new lawyers joining the firm.”

As Vandeventer Black approaches its 150th anniversary, the firm is encountering new challenges and opportunities, including representing an increasing number of businesses held by shareholders instead of family members. “Twenty or 30 years ago the bulk of our business was from people we knew,” Sterling notes. “That’s still a great source of business, but we have to have a more active effort to locate clients and offer our services to potential clients. We’re always looking for opportunities to expand.”

Making more history

Editor's note: Charles E. “Chuck” Rigney Sr. was named Hampton's director of economic development in late September. The appointment is effective Oct.8.

On a trip to the Outer Banks, Carlyle Bland and Christina Bauhof were lamenting their inability to afford a home in Washington, D.C., when they stopped for lunch in Hampton. Two decades later, the married couple is still there. They own not only a home in Hampton but also three downtown restaurants.

“We saw this beautiful waterfront with affordable housing and realized this is a great place,” Bland recalls. “It’s a really walkable downtown, easy to live in, and everybody knows everybody.”

Bland, the president of the Downtown Hampton Development Partnership’s board of directors, is one of the city’s most enthusiastic boosters. He organizes the annual Blackbeard Pirate Festival, as well as quirky events such as the Freaky Kon-Tiki build-your-own-raft race and the Rolling of the Bulls, in which horn-adorned women on roller skates chase runners through downtown streets in a takeoff of Spain’s famous Running of the Bulls.

“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Bland says.

The 408-year-old city, however, takes redevelopment efforts seriously. Several neighborhoods are in the midst of revitalization, while makeovers are on tap for others. “This is an old city,” notes Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck. “It’s 98 percent built out. You really have to have redevelopment.”

Overhauling Hampton’s neighborhoods is not a new venture. Master plans conceived in the early 2000s were put on the back burner when the recession hit 10 years ago. With the economy recovering, redevelopment is back on track as Hampton tries to attract more visitors, millennials and higher-income residents. “We’re trying to regain that momentum,” Tuck says.

As the region’s oldest city and the nation’s oldest continuous English-speaking city, Hampton has a long, storied history. Under the leadership of Capt. Christopher Newport, colonists founded the present-day Hampton in 1610. Nine years later, the first Africans arrived in British North America at Old Point Comfort, a site that became Fort Monroe in the 19th century. Hampton University was established after the Civil War to provide education for former slaves and local Native Americans. In the 20th century, astronauts trained for space missions at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

“History is all over our city,” Tuck says. “It’s a quaint town with a lot of assets. When you think about this area and our nation, Hampton is central.”

That history sets Hampton apart from other cities, adds Steven Lynch, the city’s interim economic development director. “Not many places can sustain themselves this long and prosper and grow.”

Lynch credits Hampton’s endurance to a strong, engaged community, as well as current and previous city councils that have pushed for renewal projects that retain the city’s legacy.

Downtown project
One of those projects is being touted as a transformative downtown development. In June, City Council unanimously approved selling nine parcels to WVS Cos. and Saunders + Crouse Architects.

The developers are planning a $35 million project, which will include more than 700 new residences plus retail and commercial space. The first phase — including shops, offices, apartments, town houses and a centerpiece waterfront restaurant — could get underway early next year.

“This is something the city has had on the slate for a long time,” Lynch notes. “It’s about finding and partnering with the right people, and we have two good partners in WVS Cos. and Saunders + Crouse.”

In addition, the General Assembly has approved funding for a new downtown facility for Virginia Tech’s Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center. The waterfront center provides educational scientific and technical support to the U.S. commercial seafood and aquaculture industries. “That’s a heavy hitter,” Bland says. “It’s going to be at the forefront of studies going into microplastics and climate change.”

Bland, who spent his high school years in Hampton, is optimistic about the redevelopment. About 2,000 people now live downtown, with 4,500 new residents projected in the future. “We have to get that core density,” Bland says. “This is a really exciting time. The onus is upon us to get the word out.”

Makeovers in other Hampton neighborhoods complement downtown’s redevelopment. Buckroe Beach, one of the oldest recreational areas in the U.S., is getting new housing, a hotel and commercial space and an entertainment venue.

Phoebus’ revival
Meanwhile the Whitmore Co. is developing the 162-unit Monroe Gates Apartments in Phoebus, a Hampton neighborhood battered by the Great Recession and the 2011 decommissioning of nearby Fort Monroe as a military installation. Monroe Gates will be built on a 5-acre site that previously housed a manufacturing facility, with completion targeted for spring 2020.

New and expanded restaurants and a hard cidery also are drawing people to Phoebus. Helping that effort are Nzinga Teule-Hekima, Lakesha Brown-Renfro and Tanecia Willis, whose Mango Mango Preserves gained national attention when they appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” Five years later, their Phoebus businesses include a restaurant, Mango Mangeaux; a boutique hotel, Simply Panache Place; and Simply Panache Nail Bar & Pedi Spa. “Phoebus has been on fire,” Lynch says. “With Monroe Gates, we’re going to give them additional people to serve through those businesses.”

Next door in Fort Monroe, a nearly $8 million visitor and education center is planned for the former military installation as Hampton prepares to commemorate in 2019 the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans. About 90 percent of the historic residences at the fort are occupied, and numerous businesses have set up shop there. “It’s still in the process of becoming the asset to the community that we believe it will be,” Lynch says.

Peninsula Town Center
Meanwhile, the 9-year-old Peninsula Town Center is adapting to an era in which consumers increasingly shop online. “Town Center has met and exceeded expectations,” Lynch says. “It continues to evolve to be the best retail hub the community is looking for and has done a good job reacting to changes in the retail world with a changing mix of stores.”

This fall will see the opening of a Floor and Décor store and Sky Zone Trampoline Park in a new 97,000-square-foot building in the mixed-use development. The Floor and Décor store is the company’s second location in Hampton Roads and its first on the Peninsula.

Also, a three-story Element Hotel is scheduled to open this fall at Town Center. The first of its kind in Virginia, the 120-room hotel will include meeting areas, a rooftop terrace and extended-stay rooms. The state is investing more than $17 million through its Tourism Development Financing Program to help the project.

Nearby, the Hyatt Place Hotel also is expected to open this fall. City officials say the hotels will strengthen efforts to boost tourism and attract more business to the Hampton Roads Convention Center. “We need additional business-class properties,” says Mary Fugere, director of the Hampton Convention and Visitor Bureau. “As we go after associations and meetings, it just gives us an added tool in our tool belt.”

Fugere’s wish list includes another hotel to complement the Embassy Suites hotel adjacent to the convention center. “In order for the convention center to be everything the city intended it to be, a second full-service hotel would help us deliver,” she adds. “The better equipped we are, the more competitive Hampton will be.”

Academies of Hampton
As Hampton neighborhoods undergo redevelopment, its public schools also are being transformed. Under the Academies of Hampton program begun last year at the city’s four high schools, students can choose from 44 career pathways. They also will continue to take core courses, including English and math, with teachers in those classes partnering with pathway instructors.

The academies already are successful, school officials say. “We’ve seen an increase in student achievement, increased attendance and fewer suspensions,” notes Donna Woods, executive director of school leadership for Hampton Public Schools. “It’s been an overwhelmingly positive reaction. The students are excited about the changes, and we’re helping to grow Hampton’s workforce and encourage its competitive economic base.”

Achieving those objectives would augment the city’s economic development efforts, which have focused on expanding existing businesses while attracting economic development prospects in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, professional services, retail, health care, homeland defense and security. Companies in those industries complement the city’s growth pattern, Lynch says.

“Our boundaries limit growth,” he adds. “Having development area is precious here. When we do it, we want to do it right because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

International connections

Stumping for a seat on Virginia Beach City Council in 2014, Ben Davenport drew puzzled looks when he talked about making the city a hub for the burgeoning data-center industry.

“At town hall meetings, I said the city needed to attract data centers and become a technological ecosystem,” Davenport recalls. “People looked at me like I was crazy.”

Nonetheless, Davenport won the election and became chair of Hampton Roads’ first broadband taskforce. The group has been cataloging the region’s tech assets and exploring opportunities. Now a candidate for mayor of Virginia Beach, Davenport is touting the city’s ascension as a digital port.

“A lot of times people talk about our region as somewhat of a cul-de sac,” Davenport says. “But with our coastline, we’ve become a viable alternative to New York/New Jersey and South Florida as a cable landing site.”

In fact, subsea cables are making their way across the Atlantic and landing on Virginia Beach shores. Microsoft, Facebook and Telxius, a Telefonica subsidiary, teamed up to install MAREA, a 4,000-mile, super-speed internet cable stretching from Bilbao, Spain, to just off Camp Pendleton in the southern end of the resort area. It went into operation last year.

Telxius also is constructing a second cable, BRUSA, from Rio de Janeiro to Virginia Beach that is expected to begin operating by fall. Meanwhile, South Atlantic Express International Ltd. is partnering with ACA International to install a third cable connecting Virginia Beach to South Africa.

Trumpeting the city’s new status as a digital port, officials are negotiating to land additional cables. “We will be one of the most connected cities in the U.S.,” Davenport predicts.

That designation is attractive to companies that transmit large amounts of data, including those in financial services, data-analytics, biomedical and cybersecurity. “Virginia Beach is one of the most aggressive cities in the U.S. in pursuit of data centers,”

Davenport says, noting that the city is the only cable landing site between the New York/New Jersey region and Florida. “Virginia Beach is a very pro-business city. We’ve tried to remove as many hurdles as we can.”

Diversifying the economy
City Council has done its share to clear the way for data centers, creating incentives such as reduced business property tax rates on computer and peripheral equipment, rebates on business license taxes and reimbursements for development and water and sewer connection fees. The city also is working with the U.S. Department of Defense to establish the first U.S. offshore cable protection zone for transatlantic telecommunication cable landing locations.

The city’s drive to attract new industries could help diversify a regional economy long dependent on tourism, the military and defense spending. “This is very exciting for Virginia Beach and Virginia,” says Warren Harris, Virginia Beach’s economic development director. “We see us as a significant gateway for the movement and transmission of data in a way that has never been experienced before.”

The 325-acre Corporate Landing Business Park, located on the southwest side of Naval Air Station Oceana, has emerged as the prime location for data centers. Fitted with an ultra-high-speed network infrastructure and fiber-access hubs, the park is a Dominion Energy-certified data center site, the only one in Southeastern Virginia.

“This corridor of the city is poised to be the host of a number of potential investments regarding data centers and potential data center development,” says Harris. “It’s opened a whole new industry for Virginia Beach and the region. Data centers support almost all businesses.”

Telefonica constructed a 24,000-square-foot cable landing station in Corporate Landing to support MAREA and BRUSA, while ACA International, based in Fauquier County’s Vint Hill, is building a cable landing station and data center to house its corporate headquarters.

Globalinx Data Centers is also moving into Corporate Landing. The homegrown company expects to complete a 150,000-square-foot data center this fall that will include a large “meet-me room” of interconnections from cable-service providers. Globalinx also will be the first in the city to offer network providers and other businesses direct access to the subsea cables landing in Virginia Beach.

“There will be opportunities for local businesses to utilize our facility in a secure, non-redundant environment,” says Greg Twitt, the company’s founder and president. “Instead of having their own server rooms, they will utilize ours. The amount of private providers that can connect into our facility to take advantage of the subsea cables will help create an ecosystem.”

Twitt believes that Virginia Beach can secure a prominent spot on the digital map. “We’re extremely well located in the mid-Atlantic,” he notes. “Storm-wise, we’re in a very safe area — much safer than where a lot of subsea cables come in such place as Miami and Jacksonville, Fla.” Other advantages, according to Twitt, include lower land prices, a good, continuous electric supply and a receptive local government. Plus, the city is less than 200 miles from Ashburn’s “Data Center Alley” in Loudoun County and just over 100 miles from Henrico County, where Facebook is investing $1 billion in a data center.

“We would like to be the alternative that subsea cables can look at instead of New York, New Jersey and Florida,” Harris adds. “If you do business with Europe, South America or South Africa, it’s beneficial to be in Virginia Beach to connect with those continents.”

The ‘tip of the iceberg’
All of this makes for an exciting time in Virginia Beach’s 55-year history as a municipality. In addition to being a landing site for subsea cables, the city is upgrading its broadband infrastructure to support the next generation of telecommunications systems. The city’s 126-linear-mile municipal fiber network offers connectivity throughout Hampton Roads. With the super-speed connections, Harris expects Virginia Beach will see a significant amount of additional capital investments along with advanced-technology jobs.

“This is a unique emerging ecosystem,” he says. “This is the tip of the iceberg with regard to multiple economic benefits.”

The city also is partnering with the Center for Advancing Innovation on the VABeachBio Innovation Challenge. Focused on enhancing the city’s biomedical ecosystem, the challenge will launch startup companies striving to improve the health of military veterans. City officials say the program could lead to the creation of approximately 2,000 knowledge-based jobs.

Many of those jobs would be based in the new VABeachBio Innovation Park. The 155-acre site is near health-care, biomedical and educational facilities, including Sentara Princess Anne Hospital, LifeNet Health, Operation Smile, the Virginia Beach Advanced Technology Center, the Virginia Beach campus of Tidewater Community College and the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center, which provides on-site classes through Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities.

Old Dominion will expand its footprint at the higher education center this fall by introducing upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in nursing and the opening of the Center for Telehealth Education and Research. The programs will complement the university’s health-sciences offerings at its Norfolk campus.

With the growing biotech presence in the city, the timing is right to boost ODU’s health-science offerings, says Austin Agho, the university’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “On average we receive 300-plus applications a year for the nursing school, but we can only admit 60 to 65 students. With the expansion, we will be able to increase the class size to 80.”

ODU also is working with the city to secure a location for a clinic offering primary-care services, speech and physical therapy, and mental health counseling for students and the public. “It will be a site for students to gain hands-on training and for faculty to conduct research,” Agho says.

Meanwhile, Regent University plans to open its College of Healthcare Sciences this fall, offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, master’s degrees in health-care informatics and health-care administration, and doctoral degrees in nursing practice.

Officials believe the expanding education offerings and the city’s technological strides will help Virginia Beach solidify its reputation with high-tech industries. “This is the start of attracting 21st-century industries,” Davenport says. “We are showing that we can be successful. We are extremely agile and aggressive, and people are taking notice.”

Missing from the map?

Thirty-five years after Southeastern Virginia branded itself Hampton Roads, the rallying cry has gone out for a new moniker that will put the region front and center on maps as well as the short lists of business prospects.

“Subject-matter experts in the tourism industry and economic development professionals are telling us the name Hampton Roads is not working,” says Bryan K. Stephens, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber. “It doesn’t resonate with people outside the region. You have to explain what Hampton Roads is.”

Stephens and other local leaders favor going back to the drawing board and rebranding the region. “If something is not working, you should probably change it,” he says.

But what should the region call itself? Coastal Virginia draws the support of tourism officials, who say the name aptly describes the region’s location. (Hampton Roads, on the other hand, denotes the channel through which the waters of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.) Other leaders back Southeastern Virginia as the region’s moniker, while some business leaders prefer Greater Norfolk Region, an identifier that calls to mind the area’s links to commerce, shipping and the military.

“It should be Norfolk,” says Deborah K. Stearns, senior vice president of JLL, a global real estate services firm. “We need an identity that people can find on a map. Coastal Virginia is a great tourism label, but it’s not on a map, and it doesn’t say business.”
Stearns recalls the time a New Jersey-based JLL colleague could not determine the location of Hampton Roads. “He was looking for a city on the map,” she adds. “That happens a lot. Having a name that can be found would help our economic strategy.”

While Stearns contends that Norfolk is the most logical catchall name for the region, she’s not opposed to adding Virginia Beach to the label. “Norfolk-Virginia Beach would also be beneficial, but Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News is way too long.”

Considering that the 17 localities that make up Hampton Roads often have jockeyed for position, would designating the entire region “Norfolk” diminish those local identities and hamper future collaborative efforts?

Stearns answers by pointing to New York City’s five boroughs. They each have a strong name identity and culture, but together, all are marketed as New York. She believes the same scenario could play out locally. “Hampton Roads cities would not merge or give up their individual identities.”

Improving transportation
Stephens believes revamping the regional brand could be a litmus test for future collaborative efforts among Hampton Roads cities and counties. “We need a cultural change in Hampton Roads,” he says. “Sometimes our own individual bias is so ingrained that it’s hard to understand the collective impact when the entire region comes together. We have to understand that we live, work and raise our families in the region and not just one municipality.”

Many, if not most, Hampton Roads residents live in one locality, work in another and shop or dine in yet another, often all on the same day. Traveling throughout the region’s network of highways, bridges and tunnels long has been a source of frustration. As multiple infrastructure projects come on line, however, the ability to get around is steadily improving. “We are building more transportation projects in the next six years than we have in three decades,” says Robert Crum, executive director of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization.

Those projects include widening 21 miles of Interstate 64 on the Peninsula, with the first segment completed late last year. Phase two is scheduled to wrap up in spring 2019, and the third phase is slated for completion in summer 2021. On the Southside, work is underway to improve the I-64/I-264 interchange, the second busiest in Virginia, while construction to widen nearly nine miles of I-64 in Chesapeake is set to begin in June.

In addition, a new Hampton Roads crossing is just one aspect of plans to expand the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT). The largest road project the state has ever tackled, the endeavor covers a 12-mile corridor from I-664 on the Peninsula to I-564 in Norfolk, one of the region’s most congested areas. “It’s the key project to help strengthen connections between the Southside and the Peninsula,” Crum says. “We’re really excited about that.” The construction contract is set to be awarded early next year, with a targeted completion date of 2024.

Funding for the transportation projects has bolstered regional collaborations. “The 17 localities identified projects that are the most beneficial to the region and its residents,” Crum says. “It’s a model for regional cooperation.”

Improving Hampton Roads’ infrastructure also will spur regional development, adds John Utterback, a district administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation who’s set to oversee construction at the HRBT. “Increased mobility in Hampton Roads helps with tourism and is appealing to businesses considering locating to Hampton Roads.”

Reinvent Hampton Roads
James K. Spore retired as Virginia Beach’s city manager in 2015 and immediately became president and CEO of Reinvent Hampton Roads, an initiative that supports traditional business sectors while attracting new employers, entrepreneurs and industries to the region. “There’s a real difference of opinion in terms of what’s the best way to go,” he says of rebranding Hampton Roads. “That’s something that will take real time and energy to be pursued.”

In the meantime, Spore believes Hampton Roads must market itself more effectively. “We have enormous assets in this region, but we need to do a better job of marketing what we’ve got.”

Reinvent Hampton Roads is targeting certain industries — such as cybersecurity, tourism, advanced manufacturing and port logistics — that could bring more higher-paying jobs to the region. “Traditionally, Hampton Roads has had three major industries — military/defense, the port and tourism,” Spore notes. “We want to add that fourth leg of the table and grow startup jobs.”

Promoting the region’s entrepreneurial spirit is the mission of 757 Angels. Since 2015, the angel investment network of 120 Hampton Roads business and community leaders has injected more than $22 million of capital into 14 companies. 757 Angels is one of the fastest-growing and largest networks of its kind in the country, says Monique Adams, its executive director. “Great momentum is building in Hampton Roads’ entrepreneurial ecosystem, and 757 Angels is a key player,” she adds. “As companies grow, jobs will be created, and the economy will become more diversified.”

Diversification is critical for a region whose economy stalled while the rest of the nation continued to recover from the Great Recession. Reinvent Hampton Roads and 757 Angels advocate diversity through entrepreneurial ventures. “We want Hampton Roads to be known as an entrepreneurial, innovative region that encourages startups,” Spore says.

Local startups often evolve from work at established pursuits. For example, Reinvent Hampton Roads funds an entrepreneur-in-residence at NASA Langley Research Center who works with scientists to parlay their research into marketable businesses.

Reinvent Hampton Roads also has partnered with Martinsville-based consulting firm GENEDGE on Industry Cluster Scale-Up, a program designed to accelerate the growth of local small and midsize businesses. “We’re emphasizing advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity,” Spore says. “Those are two we think have the highest potential.”

Tackling workforce shortages
Hampton Roads has had a shortage of workers in cybersecurity and information technology, but Spore says programs at Old Dominion, Regent and Norfolk State universities are helping to close the gap. Earlier this year, ODU’s Virginia Modeling Analysis & Simulation Center (VMASC) was approved to receive nearly $1.3 million in funding from the Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity (GO Virginia) to develop the Hampton Roads Cyber Collaboration Laboratory focusing on cybersecurity, data analytics, autonomous vehicles and virtual technologies markets.

With another almost $1.3 million in GO Virginia funding, ODU also is developing the Virginia Digital Shipbuilding Workforce Program. The program will train about 8,500 craftsmen, engineers, designers and IT professionals to work in digital manufacturing while supporting the region’s advanced-manufacturing and shipbuilding industries.

“We’re really excited about both of these programs,” Spore says. “They are going to be state-of-the-art national models.”

Local colleges and universities also will play a role in sustaining Hampton Roads’ tourism industry. Demand for tourism workers spiked with the recent openings of of The Main hotel and the revitalized Waterside District in downtown Norfolk and Virginia Beach’s refurbished Cavalier Hotel. “With major new hospitality facilities opening, it’s been difficult to find qualified workers to fill those jobs,” Spore says. “We need more and better-trained folks.”

Business and political leaders, including Gov. Ralph Northam, believe that could be accomplished by opening a hospitality school in Hampton Roads. With the region adding 4,000 tourism jobs annually, a hospitality school would fill a substantial need, Spore says. Reinvent Hampton Roads is working with ODU and Tidewater Community College to develop what he calls a “world-class hospitality school.”

Overall, Hampton Roads’ labor force is one of the region’s strengths. “There is a wonderful mix of individuals within the Hampton Roads region,” Stearns says. “This is a wonderful place. It’s one of the best-kept secrets on the East Coast.”

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byline: Elizabeth Cooper