Henrico using $1M grant to prep site for development

A $1 million state grant will soon be used to prepare roughly 220 acres near Richmond International Airport for development, as the Capital Regional Airport Commission and Henrico County Economic Development Authority move to position the site for future airport-related industrial uses.

Next month, the eastern Henrico airport’s officials plan to finalize an agreement with the county EDA to prepare properties southeast of the airport for development. In August 2025, the Henrico EDA received a $1 million grant from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership through its Virginia Ready Sites Program, which partners with localities and state agencies to fund infrastructure improvements and make property ready for industrial construction.

The airport commission owns three plots of land that make up the 220 acres: a 165.4-acre parcel at 6201 Beulah Road zoned for general industrial use, a 2.9-acre agriculturally zoned parcel at 6101 Beulah Road, and 53.9 acres at 5900 La France Road, which is zoned for light industrial use.

Although a future user has not yet been chosen, airport spokesman Troy Bell said the airport hopes the site can attract a user in the aerospace field. Potential uses include aviation manufacturing, assembly of unmanned aerial vehicles or other advanced aviation activities. The airport plans to retain ownership of the land and lease it to a developer, Bell said.

He described the site as “an outstanding location,” given its size, proximity to the airport and proximity to Interstates 64 and 95. “We’re really thinking about someone that might put together devices at this airport — actually doing the assembly work,” Bell said.

The grant-funded work will move the roughly 220-acre site from Tier 2 to Tier 3 under the state’s site-readiness classification system, which ranks sites up to Tier 5, the most development-ready level.

“Not only does this allow us to advance it in the tier system, but we’re knocking off a year plus for any future construction activities to occur, and time is money for any type of development,” said EDA Executive Director Cari Tretina. “And so what we’re doing is we’re adding back an expedited construction process for the future user of the site, which is invaluable to most, to most economic development site selectors.”

Jason Smith, a business manager with the EDA, said the Beulah site will undergo two phases of preparation through the grant. The initial phase, which will likely last around six months, includes about $320,000 in due diligence work, such as topographical and cultural reviews, wetlands delineation, traffic and geotechnical studies, preliminary utility studies and master planning. The additional $680,000 in phase two funding could be used for site clearing, limited grading and other remediating work depending on the findings of the first phase. He said the effort eliminates risks from the site to the end user.

“There’s no risk to the site selector, they can confidently say, because we have permits and everything in hand, ‘Hey, this is a ready-to-go site you could be moved in by the time the county approves your permitting,’” he said.

Tretina said the county and VEDP have already been working to market the property to potential buyers, and having the $1 million grant will further increase the site’s visibility.

“This grant is going to help us increase our competitiveness throughout the commonwealth of Virginia,” she said. “I mean, it’s going to be on par with, if not more so, to Dulles of what we’re able to attract right here in Central Virginia from an economic development perspective. So we’re really excited that the state saw the same value and opportunity that we and the airport commission saw as well.”

The commission was initially scheduled to vote this week to enter into the agreement with the EDA, but its monthly meeting was canceled due to winter weather and roadway conditions. The commission is now expected to take up the matter at its Feb. 24 meeting.

As for when construction could actually begin on the site, Bell says it all hinges on what the eventual developer proposes.

“We would love to see some interest in this,” he said. “We’d love to see that property go under contract. And if that happens, you know, within the next couple of years, I think we’d all feel pretty good about it.”