Hampton Roads grows warehouses, industrial projects

Despite a nationwide slowdown in industrial growth, Hampton Roads has major projects in its pipeline.

In Virginia Beach, Amazon is wrapping up work on its five-floor, 3.2 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center, the second part of a $350 million project that includes a 219,000-square-foot delivery station that opened last year. At the site, robots will move and store items, pick and pack orders for shipment, and work alongside human workers.

Amazon spokesperson Sam Fisher says the center is expected to open before the year’s end. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in 2023 that the fulfillment center and delivery station would create more than 1,000 full-time jobs.

Recent projects

In May, California-based flooring, countertop, wall tile and hardscaping products supplier MS International (MSI) opened a $61.6 million, 548,000-square-foot distribution facility in Suffolk, creating 80 jobs.

That same month, Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development announced that e-commerce fulfillment, warehousing and logistics provider Cirro Global would be the first tenant to move into Hampton’s $113.8 million Phenix Commerce Center.

The project is a two-building, 840,000-square-foot industrial facility that was completed in January. As of early September, NorthPoint has not announced other tenants.

Construction is progressing on the $35 million speculative Greenbrier Commerce Center, located at 521 Woodlake Circle in Chesapeake. The first 90,720-square-foot building was completed in August, and the 98,280-square-foot second building is expected in early 2026. Construction on a third building is scheduled next year.

Clay Bales, development director for Hoffler Land Solutions, the Virginia Beach-based company building the center, says his company is trying to attract tenants in the distribution/logistics, manufacturing or defense sector.

“There is a lot of demand,” says Daniel Hoffler Jr., Bales’ business partner and son of Armada Hoffler founder Daniel Hoffler. “We’re in a unique position being right in the heart of Greenbrier, with the most interstate exposure in the region.”

W.M. Jordan Co. in August wrapped up construction on 460 Commerce Center, a 352,000-square-foot spec industrial facility in Isle of Wight County, located within the county-owned 1,200-acre Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park. Construction on the building started in early 2024. Lang Williams, an executive vice president at Colliers, says it is the largest logistics building built in Isle of Wight in over 15 years.

In the pipeline

Site work has begun on the Lovett 64 Commerce Center in James City County, a 328-acre industrial park that will eventually provide 2.24 million square feet of industrial space across six buildings. Developer Lovett Industrial plans to begin construction of Building 1 and Building 2, speculative buildings that are 221,000 and 436,240 square feet, simultaneously at the beginning of next year, with construction expected to wrap up in late 2026.

Ellis Colthorpe, a senior associate with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, the firm listing the property, expects the tenants will be Port of Virginia users.

At the Hampton Logistics Center, a $70 million project, Turnbridge Equities and Manekin are building two Class A warehouses totaling more than 500,000 square feet. According to Gregg Christoffersen, a JLL managing director responsible for leasing the buildings, the first building was scheduled for completion in September, and the second is set to be complete by January 2026. The developers say both buildings will have LEED Gold certification.

Meanwhile, Suffolk’s 500-acre Port 460 Logistics Center, a venture between Rocke-feller Group and Matan Cos. estimated at $420 million, is on track to finish its first phase by October, according to Christoffersen. That phase will deliver 2.4 million square feet across five buildings, with a subsequent phase bringing the total to 5 million square feet.

In an announcement, the governor said he expects the project will support over 9,000 jobs upon full development. Geoff Poston, a senior vice president and managing broker with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer says a post-pandemic spike in construction led to numerous developments being delivered at once, pushing vacancies up in both Hampton Roads and the country as a whole.

That’s caused some developers to hit pause on future projects, except those that were already under construction, notes Poston. Meanwhile, higher tariffs and changing trade policies under the Trump administration have also made developers cautious.

Still, Poston notes that Hampton Roads’ smaller development pipeline compared to markets like Savannah, Georgia, or Charleston, South Carolina, has kept vacancy levels balanced. Thalhimer forecasts an industrial vacancy rate of 4.9% for Hampton Roads in 2026.

Projects delivered this year are largely the result of work that began years earlier, but Poston notes tenant activity has improved this year compared to last and that the region’s tenant activity is better than “most” other regions.

“Once we see a couple leases get signed up, that’ll trigger some of the developers …to get back in the game and get building,” he says.