Virginia Natural Gas breaks ground on $50M Chesapeake HQ

Virginia Beach-based Virginia Natural Gas on Tuesday broke ground on its $50 million operations headquarters in Chesapeake.

The operations headquarters will be built on a 30-acre property at 401 Clearfield Ave. and will feature 39,000 square feet of office space and a 30,000-square-foot warehouse. Once the facility is complete, about 150 employees currently working at the company’s corporate headquarters in Virginia Beach, near Mount Trashmore, and depot in Chesapeake will move to the new site.

Virginia Natural Gas spokesperson Morgan Chase said the goal of the new facility is to have these employees “under one roof.”

“This will be our main hub for if there’s a service call on the south side … they would muster and leave from this new facility,” Chase said.

Virginia Natural Gas was founded in 1850, under a different name, and today serves more than 310,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Southeast Virginia. The company has about 400 employees and 600 contractors. It is one of four natural gas distribution companies under Southern Company Gas.

The company currently runs its administrative functions and operations out of the Virginia Beach corporate headquarters. But Chase says that as the company has grown, it’s been “bursting at the seams” at the Virginia Beach location. The new Chesapeake site will result in the company having separate corporate and operations headquarters.

“We are excited to embark on this new chapter with the groundbreaking of our operations headquarters in Chesapeake,” Virginia Natural Gas President and CEO Shannon O. Pierce said in a statement. “This investment underscores our dedication to the community and our role in supporting economic growth and sustainability in the region. As VNG celebrates our 175th anniversary this year, we look forward to continuing to serve the families, schools, hospitals, small businesses, large employers and military installations in Chesapeake and in the region.”

Chase says the company anticipates completion of the Chesapeake facility in the fourth quarter of 2026.