Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston is investing $70 million to construct a new acute care hospital to replace its aging predecessor, with completion set for late 2025 or early 2026.
The new hospital will be about a third the size of the existing 300,000-square-foot facility, which is licensed for 192 beds. Sentara Health determined a replacement was more cost-effective than spending an estimated $180 million needed to renovate the older building.
The facility has been the subject of local speculation, with a Town Council member in February publishing an open letter alleging that Sentara planned to replace the hospital with a walk-in clinic.
The reality, says Dr. James Priest, the hospital’s chief medical officer, is that “the current hospital is 70 years old and will not sustain us going into the future, and unfortunately is failing us now from a facilities perspective.”
Just replacing systems like the hospital’s power plant and HVAC systems would cost $50 million alone, according to Sentara.
“The new hospital will allow us the opportunity to align the space for the services needed and modernize our building,” Priest says.
The hospital’s patient volume has decreased in recent years due to a shrinking and aging local population, Sentara says. The rural facility has also faced physician recruitment and retention challenges.
The new hospital will include inpatient medical and surgical beds, a cardiac catheterization suite, an emergency department, an intensive care unit, imaging services, a surgical suite and lab, among other departments. It will eliminate childbirth services due to a significant decrease in area births in recent years.
Sentara has not confirmed how many beds will be at the new hospital, which is still in the design phase.
“We’re really hoping to have a more robust outpatient service program,” says Brian Zwoyer, the hospital’s president. “As we move into the future, we really want to figure out how do we provide the same services that we’re providing, but at an easier, more efficient level of care.”
Zwoyer adds, “It is the first step in allowing us to really take a look at our campus and figure out how do we push care out into the community, because ultimately within the next five to 10 years, we would love to be able to have a health care campus versus just a hospital.”
When BB&T recruited Thomas Ransom, a Black economics student at Hampden-Sydney College, to join its management development program in the late 1990s, he quickly had to pick up the world of banking and its culture.
The Urbanna native says he’d never met a banker before starting at BB&T and certainly didn’t know what moves to make to climb the corporate ladder. He had no one in his family he could talk to about work. But he leaned into his differences, forged professional relationships and learned how to “get comfortable being different.”
Today, as Virginia regional president for Truist Financial Corp. — the Charlotte, North Carolina-based megabank formed in 2019 by the merger of BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. — it’s important to Ransom that Truist helps people who look like him succeed.
“If you haven’t been in that environment, or [you are] in a room where you’re the only one that looks like yourself, it can be a challenge,” he says.
Since 2020, after nationwide outrage following the police murder of George Floyd, a Black man living in Minneapolis, the banking and credit union industry — like much of corporate America — has taken a critical look at itself and how it can broaden its reach in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. Progress has been made, both in leadership positions as well as across the workforce, but in an industry that has been historically run by white male executives, there’s still work to be done, industry executives acknowledge.
In Virginia, three of the largest nation’s banks have Black men as market leaders — Ransom at Truist; Jermaine Johnson, Greater Washington, D.C., and Virginia regional president for Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank; and Victor Branch, Richmond market president for Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp.
“Companies that are more diverse in their workforce and their management … tend to perform better,” says Virginia Bankers Association President and CEO Bruce Whitehurst. “It’s a smart thing.”
A 2020 study from global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found companies in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity on their executive teams were 36% more profitable than those in the bottom quartile.
Being intentional
Whether establishing talent pipelines at universities, internal leadership development programs or cultural changes, banks and credit unions are working to broaden their workforces.
“I have seen the industry grow and evolve and change and move in the right direction,” says Branch, adding that Bank of America’s leadership is “committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workspace.”
Bank of America’s 14-person board now includes five women and two Black men. Additionally, 55% of the bank’s national management team includes women and people of color, up from 50% in 2020. About 50% of its workforce of about 217,000 are women. And 49% of the overall workforce is racially or ethnically diverse, up from 45% in 2020, according to the bank’s 2022 annual report.
At Truist, Ransom has played a key role in establishing scholarships, internships and other partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, such as Virginia State University, where he delivered the fall 2022 commencement speech.
Truist has set a goal of increasing female leadership by 20% and ethnically diverse representation in leadership by 20% by 2025. Additionally, it has set a goal of raising its percentage of ethnically diverse senior leaders to 17.2%.
The bank’s 21-member board of directors of 14 men and seven women includes two Black men, two Black women and one Hispanic woman. In 2021, Truist’s workforce was 62.8% white, 18.7% Black, 10% Hispanic and 5.7% Asian, according to data analytics consultancy GlobalData. Women in 2021 made up 63.5% of all Truist workers but only 28.6% of senior leadership, up from 22.1% in 2019.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc. also is focused on increasing diversity.
In 2020, PNC held two major leadership forums, convening hundreds of the company’s Black executives, during which the company set goals, such as hiring a corporate social responsibility officer.
After the forums, PNC provided more opportunities for mentoring and advocacy and became “more intentional around giving people of diverse backgrounds an opportunity,” Johnson says. Of the leaders who attended the first forum, 25% have been promoted in the past three years, Johnson says, calling it a “real, tangible result” of the bank’s intentions — and success — in diversifying its leadership.
“The word that stood out to me is ‘intentionality,’” he adds. “I think all of our leaders need to be intentional … [to] broaden the workforce, broaden the experience of people who contribute to our effort each and every day.”
In November 2022, PNC’s board established its Special Committee on Equity and Inclusion to assist with oversight of management’s equity and inclusion efforts, externally and internally.
PNC’s 12-member board, which has four female directors, is 25% racially or ethnically diverse, with members including one Black woman, one Hispanic man and one Indian woman. (Another Black director, former Microsoft Corp. executive Toni Townes-Whitly, stepped down from the board this year after she became CEO-elect for Reston-based Fortune 500 government contractor SAIC Inc.)
PNC’s workforce diversity increased slightly from 2020 to 2021, according to a filing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 2021, the bank’s 58,599-person workforce was 59.58% female, with a diversity mix of 65.6% white, 14.8% Black, 10.7% Hispanic and 6.4% Asian in 2021. The year before, PNC had more than 7,000 fewer workers, and its diversity mix was 70.2% white, 14.2% Black, 6.83% Hispanic and 6.3% Asian.
By comparison, the largest bank headquartered in Virginia, McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp., has three Black male directors and three women on its 12-person board. Women made up just under 51% of its 55,943-person workforce in 2022. Capital One’s workforce diversity profile last year was 48.5% white, 20.3% Asian, 18.4% Black and 9.5% Hispanic. The bank’s percentage of Asian employees rose from 18.66% in 2020, while other demographics remained essentially flat.
In 2021, Capital One won numerous national awards recognizing its diversity, inclusion and belonging efforts, including support for workers with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ+ employees, people of color, women and millennials. The credit card giant’s outreach efforts that year included increased partnerships with HBCUs and expansion of a program aimed at engaging first-generation college students with skills-building.
Reflecting communities
Community banks and credit unions also are stepping up diversity efforts, with many, like Suffolk-based TowneBank, creating internal councils devoted to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“We recognize that the look of banking in general was that of white men, and so, [it was] really saying we are going to … [focus] on why aren’t we attracting a diverse representation to the bank,” says Denise Counce, the bank’s senior vice president and diversity and inclusion officer.
While there is progress being made, bank officials know there’s still much work to do. At the end of 2022, about 16% of TowneBank’s workforce was racially diverse, up from 15% in 2021, according to a bank proxy report.
In 2020, Newport News-based BayPort Credit Union created a DEI council “to ensure that workplace diversity and inclusion is understood,” says CEO Jim Mears. The credit union also has an employee experience specialist who runs programs in leadership development, a mentoring program and guides education sessions about personal and professional development.
BayPort’s leadership and workforce is becoming more diverse, Mears notes. The bank’s 11-member board is more than 45% racially diverse. Employees of color rose this year to 210 out of 508, or 41%, up from 163, or about 35%, in 2020. Promotions among people of color have increased as well, with more than 50% of promotions going to employees of color this year, up from 27% of 41 promotions in 2018.
Bank workers should reflect the communities they serve, says John Asbury, CEO of Richmond-based Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp.
Atlantic Union had a DEI program before 2020, but after George Floyd’s death, it became clear that it wasn’t enough, Asbury says, so the bank created a DEIB council (the ‘B’ is for belonging), which he chairs. The council manages the bank’s efforts to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace.
Just one of Atlantic Union’s 12 directors is racially or ethnically diverse, according to its 2023 proxy statement. While the bank has not made its workforce demographics public, Asbury says it’s making progress, but acknowledges, “This is a journey.”
Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster contributed to this story.
Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson, a one-time GOP presidential hopeful and also chancellor, founder and CEO of Regent University in Virginia Beach, died June 8 at age 93.
Robertson started CBN in 1960, revolutionizing religious broadcasting with its flagship program “The 700 Club,” a syndicated evangelical newsmagazine show he hosted for 60 years. During his tenure at CBN, Robertson occasionally made headlines for his controversial and provocative pronouncements about LGBTQ+ people, Muslims and Democrats. In October 2021, he stepped down as the show’s host, passing the baton to his son Gordon, who became CBN’s president and CEO in 2007.
In 1977, Pat Robertson also founded Regent, a private Christian university that has produced notable conservative alumni such as former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, now dean of Regent’s Robertson School of Government.
Robertson ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. He is credited with starting the Christian Coalition, a grassroots conservative political organization.
A graduate of Yale Law School and Washington and Lee University, Robertson also earned a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary.
“Dr. Robertson was a titan of the Christian faith, and he will be dearly missed by millions around the world,” former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a distinguished professor of law at Regent, said in a statement.
Robertson is survived by his four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. His wife of 67 years, Dede Robertson, died in 2022.
Asked last year by Virginia Business how he wished to be remembered, Robertson said simply, “I hope my legacy will be this: ‘He served God and his generation.’”
In early June, Norfolk City Council members approved plans for the city to purchase the struggling MacArthur Center downtown mall for up to $18 million.
The 23-acre mall is owned by Wells Fargo & Co., which holds the mall following a loan default by MacArthur Center’s previous owner, Connecticut-based Starwood Property Trust.
MacArthur Center was listed for sale in January by JLL, though no price was listed at the time. The mall includes 914,751 square feet of leasable area. Current anchors are Dillard’s Inc., with 253,616 square feet, and Regal Cinemas, with 80,210 square feet. Another 160,000-square-foot anchor spot is vacant. The property also has a 4,000-space, multistory parking garage.
In recent years, the mall has lost major tenants such as Nordstrom, in April 2019, the Apple Store, in 2021, and restaurants Texas de Brazil and California Pizza Kitchen.
The city will now own everything at MacArthur Center except for the Dillard’s building, which is owned by the retailer.
Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander says that buying the mall would enable the city to “play an active and strategic role” in the property’s future. In the short term, the city plans to continue operating MacArthur Center as a mall and planned to hold discussions with mall tenants in what Alexander said in early June was to be a “seamless” transition. The city did not initially release any long-term plans for the mall.
The mall’s most recent assessment was nearly $25 million — $20.7 million in land value and $4.2 million in improvement value. That’s down significantly from its
July 2022 assessment, when it was valued at $51.8 million, including $24.8 million for the land, city records show.
According to the purchase agreement, the city was to pay $11.05 million for the mall, with the rest of the city allocation going to cover consulting, legal and other fees. The deal was expected to close by August.
The mall is now more than half vacant, according to JLL. Starwood Property Trust bought the mall in 2014 for $265.5 million from Michigan-based Taubman Centers Inc., as part of the $1.4 billion purchase of seven shopping malls. However, Starwood defaulted on a $750 million loan in 2019, and MacArthur Center is now owned by Wells Fargo and managed by Syracuse, New York-based Spinoso Real Estate Group.
Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander has a vision for his city that includes increasing revenue without creating additional taxes for residents.
His focuses in achieving that goal include tourism, hospitality and entertainment — familiar parts of neighboring Virginia Beach’s economy. However, unlike Virginia Beach, he points out, Norfolk doesn’t have a reliable seasonal tourism base. It also doesn’t have the same kind of beachfront tourism infrastructure as Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront district.
Another challenge to Norfolk’s revenue, Alexander notes, is the fact that while the city is 97% developed, about a third of that property is occupied by entities that are exempt from real estate taxes, such as universities and the military.
So, the city’s strategy has been focused on redevelopment and economic development to fill the gap.
In the past few years, the city has seen some major projects announced, including the Pamunkey Indian Tribe’s planned $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino on the Elizabeth River near Harbor Park, as well as the city’s proposal to redevelop the former Military Circle Mall into an arena-anchored mixed-use development. But both of those developments have stalled due to changing economic conditions and other factors.
Other projects are on track, though, including expansions of the Nauticus maritime museum and the Chrysler Museum of Art, upgrades to Norfolk International Airport and Carnival Cruise Line’s increase in stops in the city, with a goal of year-round service out of Norfolk.
Additionally, Norfolk City Council voted in June to allocate $18 million to purchase the struggling MacArthur Center mall, which sits atop a 23-acre chunk of city-owned property that is prime for redevelopment.
Alexander wants to see the city attract more meetings, conventions and concerts, all generating taxes paid by non-city residents. But that’s no easy feat. It takes not only a thought-out vision but cooperation from many stakeholders — public and private — and time.
Nauticus plans to finish its $21.5 million renovations in time for Carnival Cruise Lines to begin year-round service to Norfolk in 2025, says the museum’s executive director, Stephen Kirkland. Photo by Mark Rhodes
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where [the city needs] to be investing heavily,” Alexander says. “Investing in hospitality, entertainment, travel and leisure allows [Norfolk] to generate the money to invest in schools and public safety as long as possible and keep the city beautiful.”
Work in progress
Once touted as one of the city’s biggest projects in recent memory, the redevelopment of Military Circle Mall has seen little progress over the past several months.
Norfolk’s Economic Development Authority purchased the failed mall and an adjacent hotel for $13.4 million in 2020. Demolition is underway, having started in April, with the main mall building set to be razed in late summer. It’s not clear what will wind up being developed on the cleared land, although there are hints.
The EDA solicited redevelopment proposals for the mall property in 2020, ultimately narrowing the pool to three finalists that were invited in early 2021 to submit plans for large mixed-use developments centered around multiuse entertainment arenas.
Then, without formally making or announcing a decision, the EDA opened talks in July 2022 with one of the finalists: a high-powered joint venture led by music superstar Pharrell Williams, Virginia Beach-based Venture Realty Group and California arena management company Oak View Group. (The same trio is developing the $350 million Atlantic Park project at Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront.) Their proposed Wellness Circle project calls for a 15,000-seat arena, 1 million square feet of office space, a 200-room hotel and 1,100 housing units.
Last November, when discussing the status of the project during his Mighty Dream Forum event in Norfolk, a slightly exasperated-sounding Williams said of the Wellness Circle proposal that the “ball’s in their court,” referring to city officials. Little has been shared publicly about the project since then.
Sean Washington, Norfolk’s interim economic development director, says the EDA is still negotiating with the Wellness Circle team, but some issues have come to the surface.
Alexander says some unanswered questions remain about Wellness Circle’s plans, including who will pay for parking garages and infrastructure upgrades, as well as potential environmental impacts of the project. The mayor notes too that Norfolk-based Sentara Health owns about 15 acres of the land around Military Circle and two buildings there — 6015 Poplar Hall Drive and 824 N. Military Highway, the former JCPenney building — so that must also be incorporated into plans.
Another challenge is the prospective arena, and whether it is needed or wanted in Norfolk — and how much the city would have to pay in associated costs for it.
“The public participation required for that asset is potentially more than the city would prefer to absorb,” says Washington, who became interim director in August 2022. Parking and infrastructure improvements would be part of the package if an arena is built, and “figuring out the actual end game” for the arena’s use — such as whether it would accommodate sports events, music acts, etc. — have slowed the process, he adds.
However, many city officials acknowledge that the 52-year-old Norfolk Scope arena is getting long in the tooth and isn’t big enough to accommodate larger modern music acts that bypass Norfolk for Washington, D.C., Charlotte, North Carolina, and other cities.
Norfolk’s slate of pending development projects was the result of “very, very strategic” efforts, says Sean Washington, the city’s interim economic development director. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Alexander says an alternative to building a new arena would be renovating the Scope so it can host “world-class concerts, collegiate basketball tournaments” and other high-profile events. Tearing down the Scope, he adds, is not being considered, even if Wellness Circle builds a new arena.
The mayor wants to make sure whatever replaces Military Circle is “the highest and best use of the land,” especially since the property is the physically highest ground in Norfolk — a big deal in a city threatened by flooding and sea-level rise.
He expects to have more answers about Military Circle’s future by the end of this year.
“We’re looking for development that will have some density there, because as we move from low-lying areas … we want to put everything on Military Circle,” including residential, commercial and industrial users, Alexander says.
Change in casino plans?
Meanwhile, plans for the HeadWaters Resort & Casino — a partnership between the King William-based Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough — have changed significantly.
When voters approved the project in a November 2020 referendum, its developers were pitching a $500-plus million resort casino with a 300-room hotel, restaurants, an entertainment venue, a rooftop pool, thousands of slot machines and as many as 150 table games. Later, HeadWaters’s developers announced plans to open a 45,000-square-foot, single-story temporary casino with hundreds of slot machines in the Harbor Park parking lot as soon as March 2023, while the permanent casino was under construction.
The temporary casino didn’t materialize, however, and the casino project seemed to be in limbo until mid-June, when developers submitted plans to the city for a development certificate for the permanent casino —announcing simultaneously that they were scrapping plans for the temporary casino.
“We have changed our approach and gone with a first-class experience from the get-go,” says Jay Smith, spokesperson for HeadWaters Resort & Casino.
According to the plan filed with the city, the permanent resort casino will be built in two phases. The first will focus on the casino, including a 45,000-square-foot gaming floor, restaurant and parking garage. While the plan doesn’t include details on the project’s second phase beyond renderings, Smith says phase two will include a hotel, outdoor pool, additional restaurants, an entertainment venue and other amenities.
HeadWaters’ developers plan to get the casino built and operational before moving on to the second phase, Smith says.
As submitted to the city, Alexander says, the casino plans fell short of what he was expecting. “Although it may be constructed in phases, I was not expecting them to turn [the plan] in phases,” Alexander says. The mayor adds that he was concerned by the lack of concrete details in the plan, as well as a lack of communication from developers on the casino’s application status with the Virginia Lottery, which must approve its operating license.
“We continue to ask them for the same information over and over again,” Alexander says. “I want all the details to accompany the pretty pictures. Submit the supporting documentation.”
However, in a March letter sent by the city to the casino developers, the city requested only conceptual details for the future phases of development, while it required details such as architectural renderings, building elevations and a site layout for the first phase, all of which were provided.
While the casino project moves forward, another city property — MacArthur Center — could also provide dividends.
The struggling downtown mall, built in 1999, is more than half empty and went up for sale in January. In a similar move to the city’s purchase of Military Circle mall, Norfolk City Council voted in early June to buy MacArthur Center for $18 million. (See related story.)
“We recognize the center is an important component of our downtown,” Alexander says. “The purchase will enable the city to take an active role — an active and strategic role.”
There has not been public discussion about what comes next, other than MacArthur Center continuing to operate as a mall as the city planned to reach out
to the mall’s tenants.
The mall has nearly 1 million square feet of leasable area and a multistory parking garage with about 4,000 spots.
Strategic investments
Norfolk International Airport is another asset in the city that’s setting itself up for growth and change. More than 4 million passengers traveled through the airport last year, marking the busiest period in its 84-year history, and Norfolk Airport Authority CEO Mark Perryman knows accommodating more aircraft and processing more passengers is taxing its operations. A $30 million project is underway to rehab the airport’s main runway, renovations have been made to parking garages, and the terminals and concourses also will be modernized. Seven new gates will be added beginning next summer, along with a modern jet bridge, a central Transportation Security Administration Authority checkpoint and consolidated ticketing and baggage screening areas. Additionally, moving sidewalks are being reinstalled across a pedestrian bridge this summer, largely funded by $5.4 million from the Federal Aviation Administration. The original people mover was removed in 2017 instead of being repaired.
Perhaps the biggest change at the airport will be preparing for an on-site hotel, which will ease a citywide shortage of hotel rooms. In May, the airport put out a request for proposals, with a June 30 deadline, for the design, construction and operation of a hotel with around 150 rooms.
Another major announcement at the end of 2022 was the increase of Carnival Cruise Line’s 26 sailings from Norfolk, up from 11 seasonal sailings in October and May. That number will increase further in 2025, and ultimately the cruise line expects to offer year-round weekly departures from Norfolk, bringing an estimated 200,000 unique passengers into the city in 2023 and about 300,000 by 2025.
By that time, the Nauticus maritime museum will have completed its $21.5 million refresh, with five new museum galleries, including exhibits on sea life and Elizabeth River fish species set to be open in late June. In October 2024, the museum will open galleries focused on the Navy, the Port of Virginia and a STEM-focused sailing exhibition.
Nauticus Executive Director Stephen Kirkland, who also oversees the cruise program, says the museum’s board knew they needed to make a major investment in their “core product,” adding that the expansion has been in the works since 2018, although the pandemic delayed completion.
Also downtown, the Chrysler Museum is getting some shine, as it expands its Perry Glass Studio by 18,000 square feet, a two-phase process expected to cost $55 million and conclude in fall 2024. The expansion will triple the size of the Perry Glass Studio and double its educational and programmatic offerings.
Having all these improvements and new facilities arriving at the same time is helping to solidify plans for decades ahead for Norfolk’s arts and cultural scene — as well as the city’s economy, says Washington.
“Some people may think that all this investment is happening by coincidence at the same time,” he says, “but I would argue that it’s very, very strategic.”
Norfolk at a glance
Harbor Park Photo courtesy Virginia Tourism Corp.
Located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk’s vast waterfront acreage has earned it the nickname of “the Mermaid City.” Home to Naval Station Norfolk — the world’s largest naval base — the city has capitalized on its strategic location as a hub for both defense and international shipping. However, Norfolk has grown beyond its maritime roots, developing a vibrant food and entertainment scene. The third most populous city in Virginia (behind Virginia Beach and Chesapeake), Norfolk is also a higher education powerhouse, home to Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Tidewater Community College, ECPI University and Tidewater Tech.
Population 242,742
Top employers
U.S. Department of Defense (10,000-plus employees)
Sentara Health (7,500 to 9,999 employees)
Norfolk Public Schools (7,500 to 9,999 employees)
Norfolk city government (2,500 to 4,999 employees)
Old Dominion University (2,500 to 4,999 employees)
Major attractions
Tourist attractions in the Mermaid City include Nauticus maritime museum and the Battleship Wisconsin. Norfolk Botanical Garden, undergoing a $30 million renovation, the largest in its 85-year history, has 60 different gardens and offers a popular holiday lights display. The Chrysler Museum of Art, the Barry Art Museum at ODU and the Glass Light Hotel & Gallery collectively have the largest collection of glass to be viewed for free in the world.
Top convention hotels
Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel 466 rooms, 42,210 square feet
of meeting space
Norfolk Waterside Marriott 407 rooms, 68,879 square feet
of meeting space
Hilton Norfolk The Main 300 rooms, 60,000 square feet
of meeting space
Professional sports
Norfolk Tides Minor League Baseball
(Baltimore Orioles affiliate)
Developers broke ground Thursday morning on the Fairwinds Landing maritime operations and logistics center supporting Hampton Roads’ offshore wind, defense and transportation industries.
The development project at Norfolk Southern Corp.’s Lambert’s Points Docks in Norfolk is being spearheaded by Fairwinds Landing LLC, a partnership between The Miller Group, Balicore Construction and Fairlead Integrated. The developers plan to collectively investing $100 million to develop the 111-acre site.
Fairwinds Landing’s Monitoring and Coordination Center (MCC), an offshore wind energy monitoring and coordination center, will occupy 7.5 acres of the site, which has deepwater access to the Elizabeth River and is across from Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Expected to be completed in 2025, the MCC will support more than 200 construction and engineering jobs.
The MCC will include two buildings — a 31,167-square-foot operations and maintenance center and a 17,280-square-foot warehouse. The operations center will be used by Dominion Energy Inc. to monitor maritime activities, analyze asset performance, provide strategic planning and ensure regulatory compliance around the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project under development off the coast of Virginia Beach.
Dominion will have more than 45 shore-based personnel and 60 vessel-based personnel based who will be deployed to the offshore wind farm. The MCC will feature 950 linear square feet of pier frontage for offshore wind support and crew vessels.
Fairwinds Landing Monitoring and Coordination Center rendering courtesy Fairwind Landings LLC
“We’re excited to be the first tenant of the nearly 48,500-square-foot monitoring and coordination center located right here, across from the Portsmouth Marine Terminal,” said Diane Leopold, Dominion Energy’s executive vice president and chief operations officer. “Fairwinds Landing is an important step in establishing an offshore wind supply chain in Virginia. It is also about recognizing the partnerships that are helping to make Virginia a hub for offshore wind and it’s about the revitalization of the former Lambert’s Point.”
Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander said the center will be a catalyst for business in Norfolk and Hampton Roads.
“Today’s historic groundbreaking solidifies the City of Norfolk and the Hampton Roads region as the hub of innovation leading the charge of offshore wind energy in the commonwealth and the East Coast,” the mayor told the crowd of regional officials gathered for the groundbreaking. “This important partnership between Fairwinds Landing and Dominion Energy bolters Norfolk’s and the region’s commitment to workforce development and brings confidence to other offshore wind suppliers and manufacturers that we are the real deal, the ideal place to invest in advanced technology.”
The entire Fairwinds Landing site has two 10-acre piers with more than 6,000 linear feet of deepwater access, scarce attributes that are in high demand, Alexander noted.
Jerry Miller, CEO of Fairwinds Landing and The Miller Group, described finding a “diamond in the rough” in the site two-and-a-half years ago and being intrigued by its potential for development.
“Fairwinds Landing is proud to be the homeport for Dominion Energy’s operations and maintenance activities for their CVOW project,” Miller said in a statement. “The MCC development is integral to our strategic plan to transform the Fairwinds facility into a world-class marine logistics center. Robust port infrastructure is critical to the emerging offshore wind industry in the United States and will be a catalyst for economic growth in Hampton Roads.”
Tidewater Community College has kicked off the expansion of its Skilled Trades Academy, adding more space and more courses to its Portsmouth facility.
The academy opened in 2019 with 20,000 square feet of space, and currently has three classrooms at 3303 Airline Blvd., which is enough room to hold three to six courses at a time. With the addition of 12,000 square feet, the academy will have seven classrooms and be ready for more students in January 2024.
“We are growing because we want to address our workforce needs in the community,” TCC President Marcia Conston said in a statement. “Students come here with no background in the skilled trades and leave with skills that enable them to provide for their families long term.”
Programming at the academy focuses mainly on maritime skills, including marine coating, pipefitting, pipe laying, welding, carpentry, roofing, sheet metal, wind energy and electric vehicle repair.
With the expansion, TCC plans to add programs in building maintenance, heavy equipment operation, logistics, shipfitting, electrical and HVAC skills.
“When we started looking at where our gaps were, the biggest gaps were in infrastructure-related areas and behind the scenes in maritime … that require hands-on lab space and classroom time,” said Laura Hanson, interim vice president of workforce solutions for TCC.
Additional classroom space means courses can be offered more frequently, and training can be completed in a shorter period of time. Most classes are about three to eight weeks long.
“I think the biggest challenge we face in [the] workforce is getting them into the employment space quickly, giving them the training they need to enter the workforce without taking a financial hit,” Hanson said.
This year, the academy offered 69 classes via open enrollment (meaning open to everyone, not just certain companies who did customized training programs). After the expansion, it will be able to offer 29 more classes.
Major employers, including the Port of Virginia and Newport News Shipbuilding, have acknowledged the need for skilled trades workers in the shipbuilding and repair industries. According to a 2022 Virginia Economic Development Partnership report on Hampton Roads’ maritime industry, the region needs thousands of skilled maritime employees as many workers retire. Meanwhile, the pressure is on to train prospective workers as quickly as possible.
The shortest courses currently offered at TCC’s academy, like forklift operation, take 15 hours total. Foundational courses, such as construction fundamentals, are bigger commitments and are prerequisites for more specialized courses. With more space, TCC’s goal is to shift those course offerings to more than three or four weeks for 20 to 30 hours per week.
“What we’ve learned over the last couple of years doing courses is that’s the timeline that works for folks to go quickly through, but [it] also gives them enough time to absorb the information,” Hanson said.
The expansion will also allow more evening sessions for people working full-time jobs who are looking to either gain skills needed for promotions, or to switch industries. TCC also plans to add more full-time instructors instead of relying on part-time ones. That hiring would take place over the next year or so.
The academy also currently offers customized classes for employers in need of workers with particular skills, including ship repair companies and the Port of Virginia.
The key is to help people gain access to employment opportunities and find pathways to careers, not only through the classes but also through community resources, Hanson said. “We can get them the skills they need, we can connect them to the community resources that will help overcome any hurdles they’re experiencing during their training and then we have established partnerships and relationships with employers.”
Pembroke Square, the $200 million redevelopment of Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach, is moving forward but at a smaller scale, according to the president of Pembroke Realty Group.
Pembroke Square Associates LLC first announced plans for the redevelopment of the aging mall’s 54 acres in November 2021, with groundbreaking for its first phase having taken place in December 2022. Workers started demolition on the former SunTrust Bank building last week. The bank building, at the entrance to the property on Virginia Beach Boulevard, is being demolished to make way for apartments, retail space, a hotel and a senior living community.
However, the hotel will now be seven stories instead of 14 and will be a single-branded Hilton, instead of a dual-branded hotel, Ramsay Smith, asset manager for Pembroke Square Associates and president of Pembroke Realty Group, told Virginia Business on Monday. The hotel was originally slated to be one of the first Tempo/Homewood Suites by Hilton.
The scaling back is due to escalation of construction costs, as well as higher interest rates and labor costs, Smith said. This part of the project is under redevelopment and redesign, and they hope to start construction in the third or fourth quarter of 2024, he added.
The situation is similar with the multifamily luxury apartment community, phase three of the project. Instead of 12 stories, it will be seven stories, but the number of apartments has not been determined because this project also is being redesigned. A parking garage will be beside the apartments, instead of beneath it. Construction will likely start in the fourth quarter of next year.
Work continues on Aviva, the seven-story, 153-unit senior living community, in partnership with Beth Sholom Village, which is scheduled to open in September or October 2024. The community will have 121 independent units, 20 assisted living units and 12 memory care units, and work has started on the second level, Smith said.
A fourth phase is planned, but details are scarce. Smith mentioned plans to begin demolishing the interior part of the mall later this year to prepare for an entertainment venue behind Latitude Climbing + Fitness, but developers are now working with the unannounced tenant on plans.
Meanwhile, exterior tenants, including Kohl’s, Latitude Climbing + Fitness, DSW and other retailers, are still open for business.
“We’re a little behind in terms of schedule, but overall, it’s the uses that matter,” Smith said. “We still have the right use mix.”
He added that the development team is looking to potentially construct a build-to-suit office “or some other use that will be complementary.”
The Breeden Co. has completed construction on an 10-building apartment community in Albemarle County and has broken ground on a Virginia Beach apartment complex, and its subsidiary, Breeden Construction, has finished apartment communities in Chester and Petersburg.
Completed in June, Berkmar Landing apartments in Albemarle has 261 units: 53 one-bedroom units, 172 two-bedroom apartments and 36 three-bedroom units. About 94% have been rented, according to the company.
Construction on the $54.6 million project began in December 2020. It’s the first Breeden property in the Charlottesville area and is located at 1100 Monacan Lane.
In Virginia Beach, the developer broke ground earlier this month on Ascend at Hilltop, a $46 million multifamily project. Breeden Construction is the general contractor on the project and Breeden’s property management division will manage it once construction is finished.
Located off Laskin Road, the community will have 115 two- and three-bedroom apartments, ranging from 1,128 square feet to 1,416 square feet. The first units are expected to be completed in fall 2024.
Breeden Construction finished work on The Station, a luxury apartment community at 4101 Runner Loop in Chesterfield County that it served as general contractor on. The $27.5 million project began in March 2021 and has five buildings with 65 one-bedroom apartments, 126 two-bedroom units and 10 three-bedroom apartments, all ranging from 650 square feet to 1,300 square feet. The complex also has a 4,000-square-foot clubhouse, pool with cabanas and outdoor fireplace and grilling station.
In May, Breeden Construction finished a $16.8 million affordable housing project in Petersburg for the Petersburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Construction began in 2021 at the community located at 37 Slagle Ave.
Pin Oaks Estates has six buildings, with 98 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments, along with a clubhouse, on-site management office, a fitness center and computer lab.
Ninety-two of the original 150 apartments in the complex were demolished to make way for the new ones.
The Port of Virginia Distribution Center, a two-building, 334,881-square-foot industrial portfolio in Chesapeake, has changed hands.
Chesapeake Industrial Park LLC acquired the property at 2620-2626 Indian River Road for $24 million, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, which represented the seller. Phoenix Chesapeake Industrial Investors LLC was the previous owner, according to Chesapeake property records. Phoenix purchased the property in 2018 for $8,825,000.
The buildings are located on 11.28 acres near the Elizabeth River and are 100% leased to five tenants, including Fortune 500 government contractor CACI International Inc., defense contractors with ties to a nearby Navy base, third-party logistics firm Kalman & Co. and a food distribution company.
Sale negotiations were handled by Bo McKown and Eric Robison, both of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group, along with industrial specialist Ellis Colthorpe of Thalhimer’s Hampton Roads team, who provided market leasing assistance.
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