Shenandoah University creating tech hub

Shenandoah University is connecting the future to the past.

It’s renovating an armory on its main campus in Winchester where National Guard soldiers once trained before D-Day, turning it into a Hub for Innovators, Veterans and Entrepreneurs — the HIVE.

“This building will be a game changer for economic development in the Northern Valley and for Shenandoah University and its partners,” says Shenandoah’s president, Tracy Fitzsimmons.

The HIVE will house a veterans’ center, job training, a business incubator and community gathering areas, all centered on technology fields ranging from cybersecurity to augmented and virtual reality to data analytics and artificial intelligence. It will create pathways to “emerging technologies and jobs that we can only imagine in a space with a deep history,” says Provost Cameron McCoy.

The HIVE will serve as the information technology anchor for the area, building on partnerships already in place, says Frederick White, an executive fellow at the school and an analyst with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

The university already converted the armory’s detached garage into an e-sports arena.

The $8 million to $10 million renovation of the main armory building should be completed in 2024, with work to begin late this summer or in early fall. Through private donations and local, state and university funds, SU has raised about $3.5 million. It’s seeking a $5 million state grant through Winchester city government.

A ceremonial groundbreaking is planned for Veterans Day to mark the armory’s historic significance. The brick structure — once Virginia’s oldest active armory — opened in 1940 and housed the Virginia National Guard unit (116th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion) that participated in D-Day.

“From this armory, guardsmen served in World War II and every major international conflict since then,” Fitzsimmons says. “It’s where you dropped off your loved ones to serve our communities and country.”

The university acquired the armory in 2006 from Winchester and allowed the National Guard to continue using it until a new armory opened in Frederick County in 2009. 

The renovation includes a yearlong effort to stabilize the 18,000-square-foot building, remove asbestos and install new systems. The design will feature open, flexible spaces with glass cubicles to encourage collaboration and will preserve architecture and historic pieces.

“The design will honor the past and cast a vision to the future,” says Wendell D. Brown, lead architect on the armory project and principal with Nashville-based ESa. 

Editor’s note: This article has been amended to correct Shenandoah University’s sources of funding for the project. The earlier article stated county and state funds.