Listening can be difficult; that’s often an early lesson learned and hopefully one paid better attention to as life goes on. I’ll admit that’s been the case for me.
Listening is especially important in business. Customers, co-workers, suppliers and vendors all have points of view that are worthy of consideration. Listening is probably the most cost-effective form of research. Listening to family members is always helpful, too. That said, it’s surprising what you can hear.
Not long ago, a family member told me that COVID was like the flu — never mind that it has killed more than 4.6 million people globally in less than two years. The flu doesn’t even come close to that. Others will say they don’t want to get vaccinated because they don’t know what’s in the vaccine. Really? Do you know what’s in your fast food diet? Has everyone suddenly become a scientist or epidemiologist? More likely, they’re grasping for excuses to justify their behavior.
Beyond the vaccination problem, the magical thinking that what one chooses to believe makes it so can become even more extreme. Secret space lasers are causing wildfires? Bill Gates is using vaccines to implant the world’s population with computer chips? Who believes this stuff?
It seems as if there is now a global conspiracy theory for anyone willing to believe such things despite an overwhelming lack of any proof. Just because something can be found on the internet doesn’t make it true.
On Sept. 9, the Capital Region Business Forum, a joint effort of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce, featured a panel discussion with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser. When asked what the business community could do to help the economy get back to normal, these leaders were in broad agreement that vaccinations are a top priority. As Northam put it, “We are engaged in biological warfare and the enemy is COVID.”
The same day, President Joe Biden issued a new mandate for all companies with 100 or more employees to require vaccinations or proof of recent negative COVID tests.
Why is that a big deal? Some would say such mandates infringe upon individual liberties or that businesses should decide such matters for themselves.
Frankly, it is a relief for the business community to have the government taking a more proactive role in solving what has become a pandemic among the unvaccinated. Why should the business community have to take on the role of government? We already have our hands full trying to keep companies running under unusually difficult circumstances.
The individual liberties argument also falls flat. If you want to drive, the government requires a driver’s license. For safety reasons, there are posted speed limits. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), under which the vaccine mandate falls, has always set standards for workplace safety. Helmets, sturdy work gloves and steel-toed shoes have long been required for certain types of jobs. This is nothing new.
The U.S. just marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Since that time, the Transportation Security Administration has required everyone entering the concourse of a U.S. airport to be ticketed, show proof of identity, pass through a metal detector and subject their baggage to searches.
Battling the virus is about the safety of our health. In that regard, the vaccine mandate is no different from any other workplace or transportation safety policy. It is a legitimate role for government to play. Public safety should not be an individual or business choice. It is just the right thing to do.
It is time to move beyond magical thinking. Private industry should not usurp the role of government. That’s the only way we will ever get back to business.
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 the nascent carbon-neutral energy sector. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that offshore wind farms under development off the East Coast will support up to 86,000 jobs and provide up to $25 billion in economic output by 2030.
Currently, the projects rely on a European supply chain for their massive turbines, blades, generators and foundations, but shipping those mechanisms overseas to the United States is expensive, time-consuming and risky. That’s why East Coast states are eager to cut out the middleman by manufacturing the components in the U.S. and delivering them to offshore wind projects along the Atlantic seaboard.
Hampton Roads’ deep, wide harbor, free of air-draft restrictions posed by bridges and other overhead structures, combined with its abundance of terminal facilities and waterfront industrial sites, as well as a large workforce skilled in shipbuilding and ship repair, give the region strong selling points for enticing companies involved in manufacturing, installing and maintaining offshore wind components. Plus, the state offers pro-business incentives such as lower taxes and labor costs and fewer regulations.
“Right now, the industry is being born in the U.S., and all states that have [offshore wind] projects have ambitions to gain economically,” says Matt Smith, director of offshore wind business development for the Hampton Roads Alliance. “We have a lot of advantages in Hampton Roads with the port structure and workforce, but we have to compete to have offshore wind become the fourth pillar of [the region’s] economy,” after the military, the Port of Virginia and tourism.
According to an economic impact analysis by Glen Allen-based Mangum Economics, the East Coast offshore wind industry would support approximately 5,200 Virginia-based jobs — primarily in Hampton Roads — as businesses help develop one gigawatt of new offshore wind energy generation annually. Cultivating offshore wind at that pace would generate $270 million in pay and benefits, as well as $740 million in regional economic impact, including $21 million in local government revenue for Hampton Roads and $18 million in Virginia state tax revenue.
Center stage
Many of those benefits will be derived from Dominion Energy Inc.’s planned 2.6-gigawatt, $7.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Slated for completion in 2026, the offshore wind farm will include about 180 massive wind turbines erected in federal waters 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. About 900 jobs will be created during construction and 1,100 for operations and maintenance during the project’s approximately 30-year lifespan. That could lead to roughly $210 million in local economic impact.
In addition, Hampton Roads is poised to support development of Avangrid Renewables’ 2,500-megawatt project off the coast of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That project is expected to produce more than 800 jobs, with a $2 billion impact on Virginia and North Carolina economies over the next decade.
About 625 job titles exist in the offshore wind industry, with more than 120 unique to the field, says Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “It’s all [skill] levels, from high school graduates to community college and four-year graduates. It really does run the gamut,” he says.
Engineers and scientists, along with skilled tradespeople like welders and electricians, will be needed to support offshore wind farms.
About 90% of the skills required in the offshore wind industry match those in other local maritime industries. “Hampton Roads is built on those skill sets,” Avery says. “We’ve got a lot of assets to make us the prime location for the offshore-wind supply chain hub.”
Earlier this year, the state launched the Mid-Atlantic Training Alliance at Virginia Beach’s Centura College, the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy and Martinsville’s New College Institute, all of which will provide wind-related training courses certified by the Global Wind Organisation. Community colleges and universities also offer similar training opportunities.
Last year, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland formed a partnership to promote the Southeast and mid-Atlantic as the hub for offshore wind’s supply chain. “Each state plays on each other’s strengths and works together so companies see us as a group of states that provide a cross section of strengths,” Smith says. “That makes us more competitive as a whole.”
With a satellite office in Germany, the Hampton Roads Alliance markets Hampton Roads’ assets to European companies considering manufacturing wind turbines and blades in the U.S. “We have a very robust business attraction,” Smith says. “We make sure companies understand our strengths as a region and can position themselves to be part of the supply chain.”
Smith notes that a study prepared earlier this year for the North Carolina Department of Commerce gave high marks to Portsmouth Marine Terminal and Lambert’s Point Docks Inc. for their readiness to support offshore wind manufacturing. Denmark renewable energy company Ørsted is already leasing part of Portsmouth Marine Terminal from the Port of Virginia to stage materials and equipment for its offshore wind projects in six states. And in August, Dominion reached an agreement with the port to lease part of Portsmouth Marine Terminal as a staging and pre-assembly area for the turbines needed for its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
Wind trade
Hampton Roads is also looking to capitalize on homeporting Dominion’s $500 million, 472-foot wind component installation vessel, Charybdis. Currently under construction in Brownsville, Texas, the ship is expected to enter service in 2023, when it will transport materials to two offshore wind farms under construction in New England. Charybdis is the nation’s first offshore wind vessel in compliance with the Jones Act, which requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be carried on American-built ships. “Being the homeport for the U.S.’s only wind turbine installation vessel is just one thing that can help us become the center of gravity for the industry,” Smith says.
With tremendous economic benefits on the line, the next three years are critical to attract companies and develop the region as a supply chain hub, says Robert Crum, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
This summer, the HRPDC board approved a resolution encouraging the General Assembly to create a $30 million economic development fund to help companies offset expenses for worker training and certifications, new product development and equipment upgrades. “Sometimes the process for businesses to migrate to supporting the supply chain costs money and is time-consuming,” Crum notes. “We think this fund will help companies offset costs.”
Companies checking out Hampton Roads’ offshore wind industry have an entry point into the region through the Virginia Offshore Wind Landing, a workspace in downtown Norfolk for maritime and offshore wind companies interested in establishing a presence in Hampton Roads to collaborate and access resources. The space is a partnership between Virginia Energy (formerly the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy); the Hampton Roads Alliance; and Old Dominion University’s OpenSeas Technology Innovation Hub.
“It’s a very convenient setup,” says Nancy Grden, executive director of ODU’s Hampton Roads Maritime Collaborative for Growth & Innovation. “Interested companies can come together and learn about what’s available here.”
Jerry Cronin, executive director of the OpenSeas tech hub, agrees, saying, “If we do our job right, we will see the growth of new companies, and existing companies will create new lines of business and attract new companies.” Formed to address challenges and opportunities in the maritime industry, the hub will help firms commercialize offshore wind innovations.
“There are broader implications,” he adds. “Something done with offshore wind could be useful for the ports or the Navy. Hampton Roads is where the game is happening.”
As Norfolk prepares for some sizable development projects, city officials don’t plan to forget the strong business base that positioned the area for such investments.
“We’re really focused on business expansion and our primary employers,” says Jared Chalk, Norfolk’s director of economic development. “That’s been our focus this year and it’s paid off really well for us.”
Chalk points to this year’s announcements of expansions and new businesses locating in Norfolk as proof that this plan is working. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Norfolk had eight economic development announcements representing nearly $140 million in new investments during the first half of 2021. Six of the projects were expansions of businesses currently in the city. The remaining two — Atlantic Wind Transfers and Breeze Airways — were new to the city.
“We’ve been doing really well with business expansion and retention projects,” Chalk says. Lyon Shipyard, for instance, announced in June that it’s undertaking a $24 million expansion that will increase the ship repair company’s capacity from 120 to 165 ships a year. Lyon also plans to add about 120 jobs. Likewise, international shipping company CMA CGM announced in February that it will invest $36 million to expand its Hampton Roads operations and its headquarters in Norfolk as well as establishing a business incubator in Arlington County. In total, CMA CGM is expected to add 415 jobs in the state.
Crossroads Partnership LLC proposes a “wellness development” and 15,000-seat arena. Renderings courtesy City of Norfolk Economic Development
While those announcements were widely lauded, the biggest buzz in the Mermaid City right now surrounds the proposals for redevelopment of Norfolk’s Military Circle Mall area. The Norfolk Economic Development Authority purchased the aging mall and an adjacent hotel, then selected development groups to submit proposals for revitalizing the area. In early August, the city released details and renderings from the three development groups that are in the running to oversee the project and asked for public input on the proposals.
“Probably the biggest thing on my plate… is the redevelopment of the Military Circle corridor,” Chalk says. The mall is located near Interstates 64 and 264, about four miles from Norfolk International Airport. It is 13 feet above sea level, which makes it the highest ground in Norfolk and raises its importance as a site for future growth.
Star power
NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith and Grammy Award-winning music superstar Pharrell Williams, along with many well-known Hampton Roads developers, are in the mix of investors vying to be selected to recreate the area as a multiuse destination. Their proposals all call for some type of sports or entertainment venue in addition to housing, retail, lodging, offices and green space.
Wellness Circle LLC’s plan is backed by music superstar and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams. Renderings courtesy City of Norfolk Economic Development
Crossroads Partnership LLC, a group led by Virginia Beach-based S.B. Ballard Construction Co. and Emmitt Smith’s real estate company, is proposing a “wellness development,” anchored by a 15,000-seat arena. Smith has ties to the area through his wife, Patricia, a Chesapeake native and former Miss Virginia. The Crossroads proposal includes a Sentara Healthcare office campus; a 128-room extended stay Hyatt House hotel; an indoor sports complex; nearly 1,000 market- and lower-priced residential units; retail shops; a park; and a walking path with exercise hubs encircling the area. Crossroads also plans to work with cultural and educational partners. Its three-phase development proposal would cost more than $900 million and be completed by late 2029.
Norfolk MC Associates LLC, a group that includes Virginia Beach hotel developer Bruce Thompson’s Gold Key | PHR hospitality company and another Virginia Beach developer, The Franklin Johnston Group, envision a project called “The Well,” which would have a 9-acre lake and more than 40 acres of park and open space as its centerpiece. The $663 million development would include an 8,000-seat outdoor amphitheater; a Sentara Wellness Village office campus; a 200-room hotel; 864 units of multifamily housing; and retail and entertainment space. The Norfolk MC proposal calls for an expansion of Norfolk State University with a business center focusing on startup companies and other interests, and it also incorporates the use of renewable energy.
The third proposal under consideration is from Wellness Circle LLC, a group that includes Virginia Beach native Williams and concert company Live Nation as well as Virginia Beach developers Armada Hoffler Properties and Venture Realty Group. The $1.1 billion Wellness Circle proposal includes an arena with at least 15,000 seats; a walking path and green space; 1 million square feet of office space including medical offices; a 200-room hotel; retail and restaurant spaces; and a variety of multifamily housing units, including low-income housing. It also would include at least one school from Williams’ Yellow nonprofit, which serves children from low-income families. The first of several planned Yellow schools, called Yellowhab, opened this fall in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood.
Chalk says the Military Circle proposals are all from strong development teams with exciting plans. “We’re hoping to make a final selection by the end of the year and move forward with one of them in the first quarter of 2022,” he says.
Norfolk MC Associates LLC’s “The Well” proposal comes from Virginia Beach developers Gold Key | PHR and The Franklin Johnston Group. Renderings courtesy City of Norfolk Economic Development
Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance, says that major projects like the redevelopment of Military Circle help Norfolk market its strength at placemaking — creating new neighborhoods where people want to live, work and play. “It becomes so important for a region,” Smith says.
Virginia breeze
Norfolk also is primed to benefit from the blossoming offshore wind industry taking off in the Hampton Roads area, spurred on by a massive $7.8 billion, 180-turbine offshore wind farm that Dominion Energy Inc. plans to build 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast by 2026.
The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project will be the largest offshore wind farm in the United States and also one of the world’s largest wind farms. The 800-foot-tall offshore wind turbines will generate 2.64 gigawatts of power — enough to power 660,000 homes. The wind farm is a key part of Dominion’s plan to generate all of its energy from carbon-free sources by 2045, as mandated by the General Assembly. Dominion has already erected two pilot offshore wind turbines that generate enough electricity to power 3,000 homes.
“There’s a lot going on here, in terms of supply chaining, to assist in that emerging industry,” Chalk says. “We have a big project we’re going to announce soon related to offshore wind.”
In August, the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s International Partnering Forum (IPF) hosted its second annual conference in Richmond, sharing industry developments and one-on-one networking opportunities for North American companies involved in offshore wind.
Smith with the Hampton Roads Alliance invited conference participants to visit Hampton Roads and get a feel for what it offers. “We think Virginia, and Hampton Roads in particular, has some really unique advantages when it comes to offshore wind,” he says. There is open land, a marine workforce and unobstructed water access to the offshore turbines, he says, and Norfolk is poised to gain employers as this industry expands.
Another major economic growth opportunity for Norfolk is the $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino under development by the Pamunkey Indian Tribe alongside Harbor Park, overlooking the Elizabeth River.
Virginia’s Pamunkey Indian Tribe is developing the $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino alongside Harbor Park, overlooking the Elizabeth River. Rendering courtesy HeadWaters Resort & Casino
“I’m confident that this project will exceed the expectations of everyone. It will be the destination of choice for gaming in Virginia,” Robert Gray, chief of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, said in April, when the tribe unveiled updated renderings for the development, the first phase of which is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. “We are living up to every promise we made and are determined to make this a project of which Norfolk can be proud,” Gray says.
Jay Smith, a spokesman for the resort casino, says development will get underway as soon as the casino’s gaming operator’s license is approved by the Virginia Lottery.
“We are heavily immersed in the design phase right now,” Smith says, but “we can’t put shovels in the ground until we get that license.” The Norfolk casino is expected to draw about 6.2 million visitors to the city a year, he says.
Tourism has long been a substantial part of the Norfolk economy. City officials believe that draw will be strengthened by the developments to be completed in the next few years, and by expanding air travel options. The redevelopment of the Military Circle Mall area, the upcoming casino and the entrance of Breeze Airways into the market with seven nonstop flights to popular destinations all serve to bolster an already strong tourism base, Chalk says.
“All of these things speak to diversifying the area in terms of tourism,” he says. During the pandemic, hotel occupancy in the Hampton Roads region was much stronger than in most parts of the country, Chalk says. “We led the nation in occupancy rate for many consecutive months.”
People weren’t traveling by air as much as they normally would, and therefore destinations that could be reached by car were popular. “They were coming down to this market from the Northeast,” Chalk says. The trend was encouraging at a time when many inland markets experienced devastating hotel occupancy rates.
Chalk adds, “We think Norfolk is a unique market for a two- or three-day trip.”
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 combined $11.5 billion in annual revenue, was called off in June.
“We realized that each of our communities and key stakeholders require support and commitments from our respective organizations that are better served by remaining independent,” Sentara and Cone Health said in a joint statement.
Health care systems are in better shape financially this year than in 2020, when Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order prohibited nonemergency surgical procedures for several months. But at the same time, officials are fully aware of the possibility of future instability, even after COVID-19 vaccines have been broadly available.
This summer brought renewed concerns about increases in COVID hospitalizations as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus spread primarily among unvaccinated people. Virginia’s COVID positivity rate jumped to 10% in late August, up from 1.5% in June.
“We are hopeful about the financial outlook for Sentara but understand that COVID-19 is with us for the long haul and has changed every aspect of the way we live, work and care for others,” former Sentara spokesperson Brittany Vajda said.
Newport News-based Riverside Health System modeled its 2021 budget after its 2019 plan, says CEO Bill Downey, although revenue is still not back to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, Riverside has seen treatments and services return to close to normal activity this year.
Partnerships among hospital systems and universities continued over the past
12 months. The Hampton Roads Biomedical Research Consortium, a collaboration among Sentara, Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School, launched in late 2020. Sentara also pledged $4 million toward the establishment of Virginia’s first school of public health, a joint initiative between EVMS, ODU and Norfolk State University. The schools signed a memorandum of understanding in August, solidifying plans for the school.
Sentara is among a group of 14 health care systems nationwide that formed a new company, Truveta, which will offer data insights for patient care, the systems, including Bon Secours, announced in February. Truveta is creating a data platform using artificial intelligence and machine learning that will let health care systems learn from one another and provide larger study samples than each could accomplish individually.
In May, Sentara also became among the first health systems in Virginia to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour, joining UVA Health, which implemented the $15 minimum wage in January. (The federally mandated minimum wage is $7.25; Virginia’s state-mandated minimum wage is scheduled to rise to $11 on Jan. 1, 2022.)
The wage increase impacted about 5,700 Hampton Roads-area workers, Sentara said last year. The health care system employs more than 28,000 people in Virginia and North Carolina.
“From a business perspective, one of the important things is that we have great talent in the commonwealth,” Becky Sawyer, executive vice president and chief people officer for Sentara Healthcare, told Virginia Business in May. “The recruiting process is very expensive. It is much more cost-effective to pay a person a reasonable salary.”
Before last year’s pandemic shutdowns, 24-year-old Julia Swanson had been commuting from Newport News to her job as a civil engineer for the Virginia Beach office of Kimley-Horn, a national engineering firm headquartered in North Carolina.
It could take 35 minutes to an hour and a half traveling only one way, and Swanson says she often pulled up Google Maps to see what she could expect.
Sometimes she took the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, while other days she chose the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.
The region’s average commute time in 2019 was just over 24 minutes one way, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and it has remained fairly steady over the past decade.
While that doesn’t sound so bad, the Census also estimated that 12.4% of people living in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metro area have a regular round-trip commute of 45 minutes or longer. Nearly 2% of that group is on the road for 90 minutes or longer on workdays.
For four glorious months in 2020, Swanson’s commute was not an issue. Her gas costs dwindled to nothing, she walked everywhere, and she could still get all her work done. “It was really nice. I was able to work out, I was able to do stuff for my life, I was planning a wedding,” she says.
But in July 2020, Kimley-Horn asked workers to return to the office. Because she was new, Swanson decided to go back full time, instead of taking advantage of a flex option to work occasionally from home.
Old Dominion University public affairs and media relations lecturer Brendan O’Hallarn lives in Williamsburg, his wife’s hometown, and puts in a 42-mile one-way daily commute to Norfolk that sometimes takes more than an hour.
It was brutal for his first eight years on the job, driving “into the teeth of rush hour,” O’Hallarn says, until 2017 when he was able to set his own teaching schedule. He learned that a 10-minute difference in departure time could determine what he would face on the road. “I felt like traffic was in control and that was just a byproduct of where I chose to live and where I chose to work.”
Like Swanson, the pandemic shutdown was an oasis of sorts for O’Hallarn. “The difference between a commute of 9 feet from my bedroom to our office and 42 miles is significant and something I’ve been thinking about,” he says.
Many people like Swanson and O’Hallarn are now pondering what it would be like with a more flexible work schedule — this time for good.
“I think if you can do your job effectively and efficiently at home, there should be an option for every day to be [working] at home,” Swanson says. “If you can do your job effectively, completely at home, you eliminate the traffic.”
While O’Hallarn loves being on a college campus, he is less patient about traffic than he used to be and uses Zoom for meetings on days he doesn’t teach.
Although employers are deciding whether to require in-person work vs. a remote or hybrid approach, workers hope that more options will lessen their commuting headaches.
That could wind up affecting Hampton Roads’ traffic planning as well.
Road work, of course, is a near constant in the region.
Over the next 24 years, the Hampton Roads region expects to receive $30.7 billionfrom federal, state, regional and local sources to invest in the region’s transportation system. Of that, $17 billion is to maintain the existing system and $13.7 billion is to improve it. The majority of the funds for new and additional capacity construction, such as new interstate lanes, comes from the regional Hampton Roads Transportation Fund, which is funded with proceeds from regional surcharges on sales and use taxes and fuel taxes.
Among the region’s major road projects is the largest transportation infrastructure project in state history — the $3.8 billion expansion of the HRBT, which was started last October. Additionally, the Virginia Department of Transportation is widening Interstate 64 on the Peninsula and the southside, adding a two-lane tunnel to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and making improvements to the I-64/I-264 interchange.
Projects such as these are guided by the Hampton Roads Long-Range Transportation Plan, the 20-year blueprint updated every five years to reflect changing conditions, such as population and employment growth, anticipated travel demand, new technology and environmental changes. The 2045 plan was just adopted this summer.
One change, says Dale Stith, a principal transportation planner for the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, was a shift toward incorporating plans for different scenarios, including sea-level rise and autonomous vehicles. But significant numbers of people working from home was not part of the group’s considerations, Stith notes.
If the Hampton Roads region sees a big change in the number of people working from home over a longer period, Stith says, traffic planners will take that into account in the future.
“So many different drivers can change how we get around and how we travel,” she notes. “This pandemic has highlighted another potential that changes travel behavior — working from home and not going to an office space.”
It’s no secret that the hospitality industry is hurting from the ongoing pandemic. Although widespread shutdowns are in the past, hotel executives are now challenged by the sector’s labor shortage and the slow recovery of business travel. In July, hotel revenues were down 3% compared with the same month in 2019, according to data from STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.
Although tourism travel returned to pre-pandemic levels in Virginia Beach this summer, business and government travel continues to lag, notes Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association President Eric Terry.
Hotels continue to adapt, though, adding technology to enable hybrid meetings and updating safety protocols, with many hotels and conference centers focusing on outdoor meeting areas that are considered safer by public health officials. Many also have continued with renovations and grand openings despite the current challenges.
Here’s the latest around the state:
Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront seaside terrace
Central Virginia
The 18-story downtown Richmond Marriott’s multimillion-dollar renovations were finished in December. The 410-room hotel has a skywalk to the Greater Richmond Convention Center and offers six event rooms and 24 breakout rooms. Its meeting space totals 26,700 square feet, and the largest space holds 2,000 people. The ballroom can be set up for virtual meetings. On Sept. 23, comfort food restaurant Fall Line Kitchen & Bar opened in the hotel.
In eastern Albemarle County, Keswick Hall was set to reopen in October following extensive renovations. The hotel has 80 guest rooms and suites, a golf course, a new spa and a new restaurant, Marigold, from French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The resort’s boardroom can accommodate 20 people and teleconferences, and the ballroom can be divided to hold a general session and breakout space for up to 200 people.
Hampton Roads
The $125 million Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront opened in June 2020 as part of Gold Key | PHR’s Cavalier Resort, an expansion of the Historic Cavalier Hotel & Beach Club. With 305 guest rooms, 11 meeting rooms and a total of 20,300 square feet of event space, including a ballroom overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the hotel is a prominent addition to the Oceanfront area. The hotel’s amenities include a business center, boardroom and breakout room. The resort’s outdoor spaces — seven lawns and the beach — have grown in popularity, Gold Key CEO Bruce Thompson says, as have team-building exercises.
“They do everything from different athletic-type events to scavenger hunts to meetings on the lawns to all types of activities,” Thompson says. “We give them little metal detectors and they go out and try to find things on the beach that we plant or coins or something like that.”
Gold Key’s properties — the two hotels at The Cavalier Resort and Hilton Norfolk The Main — offer three conference options, a mixture of in-person and virtual meetings. Both locations require employees to either have proof of vaccination or wear masks.
The six-story Sheraton Reston reopened Aug. 6 after completing renovations to its nine event rooms and 12 breakout rooms that total 18,600 square feet. The largest space can hold 550 people. Additions include a courtyard, a new 1,800-square-foot gym and a media room and studio.
Located 12 miles from Washington Dulles International Airport, the Landsdowne Resort and Spa in Leesburg recently renovated its ballroom and meeting spaces. The resort offers 55,000 square feet of meeting space, including an outdoor pavilion, and leisure activities like golf and spa treatments.
Shenandoah Valley
The 483-room Omni Homestead Resort in Bath County reopened in June 2020 after closing for three months due to the pandemic. One of the state’s oldest businesses, The Homestead has been open since 1766 and was purchased by Omni in 2013. After a couple of years’ delay and following extensive renovations, the hotel’s former Jefferson Pools — now known as the Warm Springs Pools — owned by the Homestead are expected to reopen in late 2022.
The 2,300-acre resort offers 23 meeting rooms with a total of 72,000 square feet, although John Hess, Homestead’s director of marketing and sales, says that its outdoor venues have become more popular in the past year, as have team-building activities. Hotel staff also worked with organizers to host virtual meetings.
Blue Ridge Conference Center at Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center
“It seems that the desire to get out and travel is currently outweighing any fears that are out there of holding a meeting during this pandemic,” Hess says, “but I think that dynamic is starting to shift,” as cases rise due to the coronavirus’ delta variant.
Roanoke/Southwest Virginia
The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, completed the $3.6 million renovation of its Pine Room Pub and 1882 Lobby Bar in September 2020. The hotel has 63,000 square feet of meeting space composed of 34 meeting areas and a 14,400-square-foot ballroom. A significant chunk of the budget — $480,000 — went into updated infrastructure and equipment to allow hybrid meetings.
In Bristol, the Nicewonder Inn is expected to open in late fall at the Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards. A 28-room lakefront boutique inn, the property is focused on fine dining (with James Beard-nominated Chef Travis Milton opening a restaurant, Hickory, on premises) and can host 300 or more guests inside or outdoors.
The Nicewonder Inn is expected to open in late fall at the Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards in Bristol.
Southern Virginia
The Bee, a boutique hotel, opened to guests last December in the former Danville Register & Bee newspaper office. The conversion preserved features such as the original wood floors and the spiral staircase that led from the pressroom to the editor’s office. With 47 guest rooms and a rooftop veranda, The Bee offers a mix of old and new in downtown Danville.
Plans for constructing a $1.9 billion, two-track railroad bridge connecting Virginia to Washington, D.C. — doubling the number of tracks going across the Potomac River from the U.S. capital to the commonwealth — are chugging right along.
“We’re now moving forward to advance the engineering design and that should be completed by 2023,” says Jennifer Mitchell, director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT).
Massachusetts-based civil engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. won the $21 million contract to complete preliminary engineering on the Long Bridge project. Construction is expected to begin in 2024 with completion expected by 2030, according to DRPT spokesperson Haley Glynn.
That day can’t come soon enough for riders on commuter and regional passenger rail.
The current Long Bridge, which is 117 years old, is the sole rail connection between Virginia and D.C. Owned and operated by CSX Transportation, the bridge often functions at 98% capacity. When more than two trains need to use the bridge, any additional trains must wait until the tracks are clear, according to Glynn.
The new two-track bridge will be owned by DRPT and will run parallel to the existing bridge, which will be used solely for freight trains. “Separating passenger and freight traffic will help alleviate the rail congestion,” Glynn said in a statement.
Mitchell estimates that with the addition of the new tracks, the corridor will serve 18,000 new freight and passenger train crossings annually — which could take 1 million trucks and 5 million cars off highways each year.
The project will be funded via a mix of state and federal funds as well as through partnerships with Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Amtrak, according to DRPT spokesperson Haley Glynn.
Amtrak has pledged $944 million to the Transforming Rail in Virginia plan, a $3.9 billion initiative designed to expand passenger, commuter and freight rail in Virginia through agreements between the state government, CSX, VRE and Amtrak. Completion of the Long Bridge Project is a cornerstone of the plan, which also includes goals such as doubling Amtrak service in the state.
The federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in August but had an uncertain future in the House as of mid-September, included $66 billion for passenger rail — money that could help fund the Long Bridge project, according to U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine’s office. “Federal funding is still critically needed for this project to move forward,” Kaine says.
As he completed his senior project last spring at Old Dominion University’s Batten College of Engineering & Technology, Kristal Sunuwar researched the development of the global offshore wind industry.
Learning how China, South Korea, Japan and European nations had developed their offshore wind programs, Sunuwar reached an unexpected conclusion: “I was surprised that the USA wasn’t farther ahead” in offshore wind development, he says. He was also struck by how much more cumbersome the governmental approval process for offshore wind projects appeared to be in the U.S. versus other countries.
Now holding a part-time position at ODU in developing offshore wind courses for future workers, Sunuwar says, “If we could make the federal process more streamlined, I think we could get it done a little bit faster.”
Questions such as these are driving work at ODU, in partnership with other educational, government and business entities, to establish a supply chain hub centered in Virginia for the burgeoning offshore wind industry along the East Coast.
In April 2020, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power to generate all electricity for Virginia from carbon-free sources by 2045 and 2050 respectively. Meanwhile, Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. is working through the approval process for its 2.64-gigawatt, $7.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. It will include about 180 wind turbines and produce enough power for up to 660,000 homes when completed by 2026.
Also, in 2019, officials with ODU and the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy —rebranded as of Oct. 1 as the Virginia Department of Energy (Virginia Energy)—signed a memorandum of understanding for the state’s offshore wind projects, including Dominion’s wind farm.
As part of that agreement, ODU has organized the Commonwealth Offshore Wind Task Force, which brings together more than 200 partners from across the state to examine all aspects of building a brand-new industry — from workforce pipeline needs to supply-chain capability, to how offshore wind would interact with Virginia’s existing maritime industries.
Paul Olsen, executive director of programs and partnerships for ODU’s office of research, co-leads the task force with Jennifer Palestrant of Virginia Energy. As a former commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Norfolk District, Olsen sees offshore wind as the next big “megaproject” that will demand the focus of the entire Hampton Roads region.
Matt Smith, who leads offshore wind business development for the Hampton Roads Alliance, says the task force is “probably the longest ongoing effort to focus on different areas that need work to be done to make Virginia one of the hubs of the industry.”
Olsen’s approach to building the task force mirrors work he did to organize university efforts to address sea level rise when he arrived at Old Dominion in 2015. But as he works to raise funds for ODU’s research efforts, Olsen notes that the business case for offshore wind is much clearer.
“Until we monetize the cost of a milli-meter of sea level rise,” he says, it’s harder to make the case for research funding. “With offshore wind, you can monetize your progress, because you can put a price tag on a kilowatt hour.”
A decade in the making
Making the case that offshore wind presents an economically viable piece of the commonwealth’s energy picture has been part of ODU’s role since 2006, when the General Assembly established the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium (VCERC).
Headquartered at ODU, VCERC brought together researchers from Virginia Tech, James Madison University, William & Mary, Norfolk State University, Hampton University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University.
In its 2010 final report, VCERC researchers reported that with carbon reduction measures expected to increase the cost of coal-fired energy, new offshore wind farms could yield lower energy costs than new coal-fired power plants.
VCERC recommended that Virginia apply for a research lease to conduct a demonstration project on the potential for offshore wind off the Virginia coast to be an economically viable renewable energy source.
“Before that, nobody had even suggested that offshore wind should be in Virginia’s energy future,” says George Hagerman, senior project scientist at ODU’s Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography. “That really catalyzed everything that has happened since.”
At the time the report was released, Hagerman was a senior research associate at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute. He says ODU’s strengths in electrical engineering and oceanography were particularly valuable in the offshore wind research.
Hagerman joined the faculty at ODU in 2018.
He teamed with ODU chemistry and biochemistry professor Pat Hatcher — who chaired VCERC — and oceanographer Larry Atkinson, an esteemed member of the ODU faculty who died in January, to make presentations to the Virginia legislature and to Dominion Energy about offshore wind’s potential.
That work helped inform Dominion’s development of the CVOW project — the first offshore wind farm in U.S. federal waters.
Dominion installed a two-turbine, 12-megawatt pilot project off the coast of Virginia Beach in summer 2020. The utility plans to begin construction on the larger wind farm in 2024.
Supporting a new industry
As interest in offshore wind has increased, the capacity to review the construction and operation plans for these giant infrastructure projects has struggled to keep up. This created a backlog of plans at the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
When U.S. Sen. Mark Warner held a meeting on the issue in February, Olsen suggested that BOEM make use of a federal authority that allows the Army Corps of Engineers to provide interagency help for critical infrastructure projects. The idea led to an agreement between BOEM and the Corps that has sped up federal reviews for offshore wind farms.
“This is an ODU contribution that is going to unlock the industry between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras,” Hagerman says.
The university also is helping forge connections as the Hampton Roads business community strives to present itself as an attractive place for wind-energy-related businesses to locate — key to establishing a supply chain that can support offshore wind development along the East Coast.
In May, ODU’s OpenSeas Technology Innovation Hub partnered with the Hampton Roads Alliance and the then-Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to open the Virginia Offshore Wind Landing. A coworking space located in Norfolk’s World Trade Center, Virginia Offshore Wind Landing is meant to be a collaborative space for offshore wind-related companies hoping to learn more about the region.
“It’s really a place where companies who are exploring the market in Hampton Roads have a place to get connected to resources, have meeting space [and] hold events,” says Smith.
He hopes to work with ODU’s Jerry Cronin, who heads the OpenSeas Technology Innovation Hub, to develop programming that can help connect smaller companies with federal agencies and larger players in the offshore wind industry.
“We see the relationship with ODU as a way to promote innovation and thought leadership,” he says.
George Hagerman of ODU’s Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography says Dominion Energy’s twin-turbine pilot wind farm is a fertile ground for research.
Research and education
Hagerman sees the twin pilot wind turbines Dominion installed last summer as a rich bed for research into all aspects of offshore wind in Virginia.
In summer 2020, ODU, in partnership with William & Mary and James Madison University, won a $775,000 Department of Defense grant that will support research to mitigate the effects of wind farm locations on military training, readiness and research.
Hagerman and Olsen both have a long list of research topics for which they’re seeking funding. Their aim is to find ways to help reduce the cost of energy generated from offshore wind farms, to reduce the safety risks to people working on offshore wind projects and to reduce risk to the marine environment.
Olsen is actively seeking funding for research on extending the life of wind turbines, using autonomous vehicles to reduce the risk to wind farm maintenance workers, and optimizing turbine design, placement and positioning to harvest more energy.
“We would love to partner with industry,” Olsen says. “We can solve problems for business that ultimately reduce the cost of the kilowatt hour.”
Momentum around offshore wind also poses a workforce challenge.
To that end, Centura College in Virginia Beach and Thomas Nelson and Tidewater community colleges have begun offering offshore wind technician training courses.
Rema McManus, offshore wind program specialist with ODU’s Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, traveled to the New College Institute in Martinsville in January to earn the Basic Safety Training certification offered through the Global Wind Organisation.
“I wanted to know firsthand what technicians go through,” she says. The experience opened her eyes to the fact that many skills that already exist in the Hampton Roads workforce — such as those needed to operate cranes at the port — could translate to offshore wind.
Both Smith and Hampton Roads Workforce Council President and CEO Shawn Avery say that as community colleges and technical schools train workers for offshore wind industry construction and technician jobs, ODU can play a role in educating people who could become managers and engineers in the industry.
“We are developing a brand-new industry,” Avery says. “What about the management levels, the engineering levels, the human resources behind the companies? That is where ODU will shine.”
Orlando Ayala, an ODU associate professor of mechanical engineering, is working on a National Science Foundation grant proposal to develop a graduate-level program that could train engineers in all aspects of renewable energy — from the mechanics of offshore wind to the business and geopolitical forces that govern its development.
He worked with colleagues to adapt an existing undergraduate course on energy and the environment to include lecturers working on current renewable energy projects in Virginia, including solar, biomass and Dominion’s offshore wind project.
The course debuted this past summer. Ayala’s hope is for ODU to establish a clear pipeline for students who complete technical coursework that brings them into the industry to continue to build their skills with undergraduate and graduate work at the university.
“We have to create courses that adapt to the needs of the industry,” he says.
At a glance
Founded
Old Dominion University was founded in 1930 as an extension of William & Mary and Virginia Tech. The school gained independent status in 1962 as Old Dominion College. Old Dominion began offering master’s degrees in 1964 and doctoral degrees in 1971. It was renamed Old Dominion University in 1969.
Campus
Old Dominion’s 335-acre Norfolk campus is bordered on two sides by the Elizabeth and Lafayette rivers. The school also operates regional higher educational centers in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Hampton.
Enrollment1
Undergraduate: 19,372
Graduate: 4,804
In-state: 21,360 (88%)
International: 617 (2.5%)
Students of color: 11,620 (49%)
Employees
3,062
Faculty
901 full-time
Tuition and fees
In-state tuition and fees: $11,160
Tuition and fees (out of state):
$31,320
Room and board and other fees:
$11,523
Average financial aid awarded
to full-time freshmen seeking
assistance: $11,797
1 2020-21 enrollment statistics
This article has been clarified since publication.
Fortune 500 IT services company DXC Technology is leaving Tysons for a smaller headquarters in Ashburn in November, the company announced this week.
DXC’s new 10,000-square-foot building is located at One Loudoun in Ashburn.
The new corporate headquarters will reflect the shift to a virtual-first mentality. Employees can work from anywhere and use the office as more of a place to come together. It’s designed around collaboration, executives say.
DXC started thinking about being virtual-first before the pandemic, said Chris Drumgoole, DXC’s chief operating officer.
“As I joined just under two years ago…we were really stepping back and saying, ‘Hey, what do we want the future of the company to be and how do we want to attract talent, what do we think our footprint should be environmentally, kind of like the big picture. We’re a technology company at heart and can we act like one?'” Drumgoole said Wednesday in an interview with Virginia Business.
It’s almost entirely meeting and conference space, with offices for key executive officers.
“We are reimagining our new local corporate office in Ashburn to be a modern, open, and inspiring workplace to foster both in-office and remote collaboration among colleagues, and with customers, while providing multiple activity-based spaces and state-of-the-art technology and meeting rooms,” DXC spokesman Rich Adamonis said in a statement.
DXC has several hundred employees in the greater Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia area; some will work on site and others will have access when needed. Fewer will work there on a permanent basis.
“Over the past two years, as we looked at ways to improve employee engagement and experience, we have moved to a virtual first environment locally and globally,” Adamonis said in a statement. “Today, approximately 99% of DXC’s global workforce is equipped to work virtual first. Ours is a now largely distributed, remote workplace where our people throughout the world are enabled to work remotely and flexibly and, when needed, to access purpose-built offices—whatever best fits their needs.”
DXC has more than 130,000 employees worldwide.
The company was founded in 2017 after the merger of Computer Science Corp. and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Corp. In October 2020, DXC finalized the sale of its health business to Veritas Capital for $5 billion, which the company planned to use to reduce its debt by about $3.5 billion. Last week, DXC completed its refinancing actions, according to a news release from the company.
In fiscal 2021, the company had $17.7 billion in revenue.
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