Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Tourism: New attractions open, break ground statewide

Virginia gained several tourism attractions in the last year, from casino resorts to sports facilities, and saw more projects get underway.

In 2024, Virginia’s three casinos brought in about $732.2 million in adjusted gaming revenues, up nearly 32% from 2023. Part of that increase can be attributed to the Caesars Virginia casino in Danville, which opened its temporary facility midway through 2023 and its permanent casino in December 2024.

The Danville casino’s grand opening followed that of the permanent Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol in November 2024, creating the second and third permanent casinos in the state. (The first, Rivers Casino Portsmouth, opened in January 2023.)

And more are on the way. The development team for the delayed Norfolk casino held a groundbreaking Oct. 30, 2024, shortly after receiving Norfolk City Council approval. And in Central Virginia, more than 80% of Petersburg voters approved the city’s casino referendum in November 2024, greenlighting Cordish Cos.’ $1.4 billion proposal. Meanwhile, a contentious proposal to hold a casino referendum in Fairfax County appeared stalled in the General Assembly.

Other entertainment venues gained headway last year and are expected to open in 2025. Richmond’s 7,500-seat Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, a project from Live Nation and Charlottesville’s Red Light Ventures, started construction in January 2024 and is set to open in June. In Virginia Beach, The Dome, a 3,500-seat concert venue with space for an additional 1,500 people outdoors, will open in May. It’s part of Atlantic Park, a $350 million mixed-use entertainment venue and surf lagoon project backed by music icon Pharrell Williams and Venture Realty Group.

Atlantic Park’s 2.67-acre surf lagoon isn’t the only facility designed to attract sports enthusiasts. Part of the $2.4 billion Diamond District redevelopment, the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ new baseball stadium, CarMax Park, is expected to be ready for the 2026 season. The team held a ceremonial groundbreaking in September 2024.

Neighboring Henrico County announced in April 2024 that Shamin Hotels will build two hotels and two restaurants beside the 185,000-square-foot Henrico Sports & Events Center, which opened in 2023. Not to be left out, Chesterfield County opened The Diamonds at Iron Bridge, with six renovated baseball and softball fields at Harry G. Daniel Park, in June 2024. In November 2024, the county completed four new turf fields at its River City Sportsplex, giving the facility a total of 16 fields.

Officials from the three Historic Triangle localities held a groundbreaking in August 2024 for the Williamsburg Sports and Events Center, which will house a turf field, various courts and a climbing wall when complete in 2026.

Nearby, Norfolk’s emerging plans for the former Military Circle mall property include a mixed-use redevelopment that would center on a tournament-caliber ice rink complex. The city also plans to renovate the 10,000-seat Scope Arena, with $4.5 million earmarked in 2025 and 2026 for design and $54 million, beginning in 2027, for renovations.

Eastern Va. Big Deal: Chesapeake’s LS GreenLink plant will have high profile

Soon, the tallest building between Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina, will be located not in an urban center but on the banks of the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake.

Groundbreaking is expected to begin as early as March on LS GreenLink USA’s $681 million offshore wind subsea cable manufacturing facility, the first in the United States. Its 750,000-square-foot production facility will include a 660-foot tower, which is necessary to support the production of massive cables that can be “tens of miles long,” says Patrick Shim, the company’s managing director.

Announced in July 2024, the company is a subsidiary of South Korea’s LS Cable & System and is expected to employ more than 330 people, including about 250 who will work in manufacturing. The announcement represents the largest economic deal in Chesapeake’s history, says Steven Wright, the city’s economic development director.

“There’s an opportunity for a lot of people in Chesapeake and Hampton Roads to work for a wonderful international company that’s setting up shop in our city,” Wright says. “So, we could not be more thrilled about it.”

While the announcement helped to raise the visibility of the city, Wright says, it’s also validated the collective work by the region to become recognized as a leader in the offshore wind industry, adds Matt Smith, director of energy and emerging technology for the Hampton Roads Alliance, a regional economic development organization. Smith points to projects, including expansions at the Port of Virginia and Dominion Energy’s $10.8 billion, 2.6-megawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, that are taking shape off the coast of Virginia Beach, as well as workforce training for industry jobs.

“In order to develop a domestic supply chain, you need that kind of pipeline of projects,” Smith says.
Hampton Roads is in a unique position to be able to offer sizeable tracts of land that combine deep water access with the ability to develop, Smith adds. LS GreenLink purchased 100 acres for its development, and Smith says the region has two or three more spots where it hopes to land more anchor companies. The decision by the company to locate in Hampton Roads “also provides a focus for us to kind of go after additional suppliers that may want to be located near LS [GreenLink],” Smith adds.

“It’s a major achievement and kind of an anchor that we plan to build around, but then also fits into what we want to be more broadly, in that we’re a region that wants to support the offshore wind industry as a whole on the East Coast,” he says.

LS GreenLink is already in high demand as the company arrives in Chesapeake. It has a yearslong backlog, with a wait time that can stretch as long as eight years, Shim says.

“It’s not something that someone can just order today and get it tomorrow,” Shim says.

The company is eager to get moving.

LS GreenLink expects to be in full operation here in early 2028, Shim says, and is already in the process of hiring its first employees, including an accounting manager and front office staff. While most of the hiring is expected to occur in 2027, the company is nonetheless accepting resumes through a website set up through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, an incentive through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

LS GreenLink’s new tower will also offer a vantage point across Hampton Roads, with a conference center or event space planned at about 640 feet up, Shim says. The company is working closely with the Navy out of the military branch’s concerns about surveillance and protecting its operations, he adds.

And while President Donald Trump has promised to kill offshore wind projects, Shim says the company is not worried. The new facility will take several years to build, and its cables are “not tied to any existing projects,” he says, adding he believes the new administration will come around to see the value in offshore wind as the country seeks new energy sources.

Looking ahead, LS GreenLink’s new facility will comprise only about 45% of its property, hinting at growth to come.

“There are future development plans, and we’re already planning on expansions we just haven’t announced,” Shim says.

Roanoke/New River Big Deal: Framatome expands for a small modular future

The future is small, modular and very bright, according to Framatome, the nuclear energy company that is one of Lynchburg’s largest employers.

A presence in the city since the 1980s, Framatome broke ground in April 2024 on a $49.4 million, multi-year expansion and renovation at its Mill Ridge Road facility, one of the company’s two locations in the city. The North American subsidiary of the French nuclear equipment, services and fuel producer, Framatome has a third site nearby in Campbell County.

Along with the expansion, Framatome plans to hire 515 workers, adding to about 1,250 employees it already has around Lynchburg.

“It’s a transformational project for the city,” says Marjette Upshur, Lynchburg’s director of economic development.

The Lynchburg expansion is part of Framatome’s preparation for what it hopes is nuclear power’s next major growth area: small modular reactors, or SMRs. Quicker and cheaper to construct than the larger, standard reactors, SMRs are widely heralded as an answer to ever-growing demands for electricity and a key to decarbonization.

One hiccup: No power-generating SMRs have yet been built in the United States, although construction began in July 2024 on a demonstration reactor in Tennessee.

Even so, Dominique Grandemange, vice president of operational support for Framatome’s installed base business unit in North America, says he expects a wave of SMRs around 2030. In October 2024, Amazon.com and Dominion Energy Virginia entered into an agreement to explore potential development of SMRs at the North Anna Power Plant in Louisa County, and Appalachian Power said in November 2024 it plans to build an SMR in Campbell County.

Framatome, which provides maintenance services for nuclear power plants, sends teams to help maintain nuclear plants for months at a time, usually in the spring and fall, off-peak seasons for power generation. The Lynchburg expansion is part of Framatome’s plan to ready a corps of technicians who will be ready to service the new plants. The expansion will include a replica SMR where technicians can train and test equipment.

“This is going to be very unique for the SMR market,” Grandemange says. “This is really going to position Framatome well.”

Besides the SMR training center, Framatome’s expansion includes a new two-story office building and major renovations to the present facility. The company hopes to finish the new building in the second quarter of 2025 for a June move-in.

After workers shift to the new building, the existing offices, built in the early 1990s, are to be overhauled with new HVAC, a new roof, and other changes. The renovation could be finished in mid-2028, Grandemange says.

By the end of 2024, about 200 people had been hired, according to Grandemange. The new ranks include technicians and engineers who will be based in Lynchburg but sent to nuclear plants for stints of about three months at a time. About 90% of the new hires probably will go to plants in the United States, while others could be sent to Canada, South Africa, South Korea, and countries in Europe — for certain specialized tasks, even France, Framatome’s home country, Grandemange says.

For some new hires, training will include classes at Central Virginia Community College, which recently revised the training program it has run with Framatome for years. After 25 years of being restricted to Framatome workers, the college program opened in 2023 to all students.

The community college now offers an associate’s degree in nuclear technology. Framatome usually sends 15 employees to the college each semester, covering tuition and other costs while also paying full-time wages and benefits for the workers to take classes.

After a semester in the classroom, the Framatome employees return to regular duties, then come to school again the next year.

With a semester on, then a semester off, it takes Framatome workers four years to earn a degree, according to Marcella Gale, CVCC’s mechatronics faculty and program head. That’s faster than the typical student in the program, who studies around full-time work and, on average, needs six years to finish, Gale says.

Recently, the company had 128 applicants for its 15 class spots, according to Gale. A Framatome technician who graduates from the community college program will have a minimum pay rate of $28 per hour, according to a company spokesperson.

Framatome has had numerous applications for jobs tied to the Lynchburg expansion, according to Grandemange. “We are enjoying every moment of this growth.”