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It’s a seller’s world
Sandra Hood finally went on a much-needed vacation in mid-August. Even so, Hood, the managing broker of Coldwell Banker Traditions in Newport News and president of the Virginia Peninsula Association of Realtors, took advantage of a rainy morning at the beach to open her laptop and get some work done. “It’s the most difficult[...]
Executive insights
Buffy Barefoot President – Virginia Beach, TowneBank, Virginia Beach What is the most pressing issue facing the Hampton Roads region in terms of its economic health? The ability to attract companies offering shiny employment opportunities for young professionals graduating from college. Having one child who just graduated from college and another one in college, it […]
Commercial realty: Demand remains high
Read our residential real estate story. Trends are also pointing in a mostly positive direction for the region’s industrial, commercial and retail real estate markets, according to Ed Kimple, a senior vice president with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. Office vacancy rates were at 9.2% for the second quarter, an increase [...]
Letter from the publisher: Big impact
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the positive role that Hampton Roads plays in Virginia’s economic health. The region doesn’t fit neatly into a single name, location or brand. Is it coastal, is it the beach or is it the Port of Virginia? Is its economy mostly maritime, mostly military, mostly manufacturing, mostly international trade, or […]
An overview of Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the state’s second-most populated region, with approximately 1.75 million residents in 17 localities, including Virginia Beach, the state’s largest city by population with about 459,000 residents, according to the 2020 population count. More than 120,000 active-duty and reserve members of the military, as we[...]
Under construction
Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Hampton and Norfolk In October 2020, crews broke ground on the state’s largest-ever infrastructure project: the expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which is expected to be completed in 2025. Much of the work will not be visible to drivers because it will be taking place underwater, as a ma[...]
Leaders of the pack
Although TowneBank remains at the top of the Hampton Roads’ region banking market, with just over a quarter of local market share, there is a newcomer in the second position: North Carolina-based Truist Bank, created from the SunTrust-BB&T megamerger in 2019. Truist holds nearly 24% of the market and has 72 locations, taking Wells Fargo’s […]
Recovery time
More than a year into the pandemic, the commercial real estate market in Hampton Roads isn’t hurting. “The pandemic wasn’t as bad as we feared it might be for commercial real estate,” says Larry Colorito Jr., chair of the board of directors and a senior managing director for national appraisal firm Valbridge Property Advisors. Geoff […]
Back to the beach
After a strong summer comeback, the Hampton Roads tourism industry is facing uncertainty once again as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers. This summer, Virginia Beach hotels saw slightly higher occupancy rates than in 2019 — a welcome return to normalcy. But an autumn and winter of hospitality industry revenue declines related to e[...]
‘Where the game is happening’
Touting one of North America’s largest ports, congestion-free shipping channels and the nation’s highest percentage of maritime workers, Hampton Roads is charting a course to become the East Coast supply chain hub for the offshore wind industry. Those attributes, say local leaders, set the region apart in the race to build t[...]
Measured steps
Although Hampton Roads health care systems conducted some significant business over the past year, the biggest news was a deal that didn’t happen. Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare’s plan to merge with North Carolina-based Cone Health, which was announced in August 2020 and would have created a 17-hospital system with a combi[...]
