Newport News Development

[adctvmonkey]

That building did look highly suspicious

Then again, CMSS did design City Center, so recycling is their status quo haha. I also apologize for not putting that news in the City Center thread .

[vdogg]

Any info on when it'll start? I didn't get the chance to read the article.

2010

[metalman]

The Belmont- http://www.cmssarchitects.com/belmont.php

[PeninsulaKiddo]

I'm trying to get a fix on where this is located, what it's orientation will be toward the roadway. Any insights?

[metalman]

http://www.citycenteratoysterpoint.com/overview/index.html

It's definitely going in the upper right hand corner where is says "Future Residential".

I hope the link works to google maps here. Also in the upper right corner on the corner of Lakefront Commons and Cannon Blvd.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=701+Town+Cen...mp;t=h&z=17

You can see the little strip of water to the north. The rendering on CMSS's site show a little black bridge

[burt]

Newport News to get huge Northrop Grumman project bringing 540 jobs.

From today's inRich:

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-co...10-24-0118.html

[varider]

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/oyster-poi...partments-hotel

New proposed mixed use development for Oyster Point. Same developer as Short Pump in Richmond. Retail, Condos, and Office Space.

T

he development firm and the college said a contract to purchase the land for $18.5 million will go through if the rezoning is approved. Construction could begin as early as the first quarter of next year, Garrison said.

"The site is really one of the best sites I've ever been involved in," he said. "It's the transition point between the retail corridor to the office corridor. That's a perfect spot for a mixed-use and lifestyle development."

S.J. Collins, based in Fairburn, Ga., built an 88,000-square-foot shopping center in Short Pump, near Richmond, and is developing a 470,000-square-foot center in Charlottesville. The company was founded in 2007.

Despite the troubled economy, Garrison said he doesn't expect any problems securing financing for the project.

If approved, the Newport News site would also include a 150-room hotel and 50,000 square feet of office space.

Garrison said the development firm is in final lease negotiations with several tenants but would not release the names of the retailers.

"We are always looking for sites for our core retailers," Garrison said. "One of our retailers has been eyeing this market for a number of years."

[adctvmonkey]

Newport News: A Bright Light in a Dim Economy

This is over a week old, but an interesting look at the prosperity of Newport News during tough times. It was written by the AP.

Filer's study shows that by 2012, the incoming jobs will add $162 million in new compensation, and its ripple effect will yield tens of millions of dollars more. The new jobs will pay so well, Filer's study estimates, it will boost the average weekly wage on the Virginia Peninsula from the present $711 to $916.

[ronsmytheiii]

NEWPORT NEWS — A $50 million development including luxury apartments and retail stores is coming to the heavily congested corner of Jefferson Avenue and Bland Boulevard.

A unanimous City Council vote on Tuesday that rezoned the property paved the way for Jefferson Market Place. The owners of developer Jeff Bland LLC said traffic concerns were addressed by having the parking lot for the apartments accessible only from Boykin Lane.

Don Smith, one of the partners for Jeff Bland, said the revised plan is better for traffic than the original zoning, which would have allowed a massive retailer. The zoning changed from retail to mixed-use.

"If you had stuck a big-box store there, the traffic wouldn't have worked," Smith said.

But Joan Minarik, who lives near the proposed development, said that no matter what, many extra people living there will add to the congestion problems on Jefferson Avenue. "It's a big problem for the whole area," Minarik said.

Good, with more congestion means much more of a case for light rail in newport News

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_blandboulevard_0113jan13,0,510702.story

[calwinston]

The U.S. Department of Energy is embarking on a $76.3 million dollar expansion of the Jefferson Lab in Newport News by 100,000sq ft. This is seperate from the $310 million electron beam accelerator construction already allocated for the site.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_jlab-expansion_0410apr13,0,5659286.story

[mlsimons]

The U.S. Department of Energy is embarking on a $76.3 million dollar expansion of the Jefferson Lab in Newport News by 100,000sq ft. This is seperate from the $310 million electron beam accelerator construction already allocated for the site.

http://www.dailypres...nsion_0410apr13,0,5659286.story

This is really good news for the local economy!

This provides "export" (basic) employment with a high multiplier effect, with a high propensity for a local industry clusters to emerge, thus creating higher economies of agglomeration which create cost savings for the lab (due to backwards & forward linkages) and a higher economic spillover effect for the region. Also these wages pay very high and help reduce the "brain drain" for any local scientists in this field, as well as promote more research related academic ventures among our local institutions of higher education. This also creates wage-competition for related academics who have the good fortune of choosing to either work at the lab or with a nearby university. Lastly ventures like these could possibly be linked with workforce development programs (which have shown to be successful for pharmaceutical-related research industries in Boston). This venture also further diversifies the economic base and gives temporary stimulus to the local contractors, builders and local folks associated with soft-costs.

I only mentioning all of this because we often act like we need all of these activities in our area and maybe are sometimes unaware of their very existence.

[calwinston]

Northrop Grumman has received a contract from the Navy to produce 30 submarines over 25 years. This contract will increase jobs at the Northrop Grumman Shipyard in Newport News from 3500 to 4500 and double the capacity of submarine building at the yard with a 200 million dollar investment.

Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to increase the number of workers on its submarine-building program by up to 1,000 and invest more than $200 million in facility improvements to prepare for building two subs per year starting in 2011.

"The ramp-up to two-per-year production is a great opportunity for the Virginia Class program and Northrup Grumman," Stewart said. "It will provide more stability in our production schedules, more stability for our vendors and more jobs."

To prepare for the doubling of production, the yard will spend more than $200 million on the construction of a 70,000-square-foot outfitting building, a materials facility and new tools and equipment, Stewart said.

The outfitting building, called the Supplemental Module Outfitting Facility, is expected to open in October 2012. Stewart said it is "an essential component" in meeting cost and schedule goals, as it will allow the yard to increase indoor production capacity and boost efficiency.

http://www.dailypress.com/business/ports/dp-nws-northrop-hiring-20100705,0,813007.story

[calwinston]

Northrup Grumman is building a new apprentice school in Newport News to support its opreations at the shipyard.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has selected Armada Hoffler as the developer to build its new Newport News Apprentice School. Based in Virginia Beach, Armada Hoffler will design and build a replacement facility for the 90-year-old school. The complex will include classrooms, a dormitory and parking garage. It will be built on a site near the Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard. Armada has done major projects across the state, including Town Center of Virginia Beach and the Williams Mullen tower in downtown Richmond.

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/news/article/commercial-real-estate-round-up-7-6-10/242414/

[PeninsulaKiddo]

Northrup Grumman is building a new apprentice school in Newport News to support its opreations at the shipyard.

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/news/article/commercial-real-estate-round-up-7-6-10/242414/

I saw this in the newspaper awhile back (a blurb or something, nothing overly specific). The city (as articulated by someone -- I don't recall exactly) is hoping this school will become a catalyst for further development downtown; eventually shops and restaurants will combine with apartments near the school. I don't anticipate downtown Newport News will exactly explode with development... but it can't get much worse, really, so I welcome it. Plus, the influx of all that money into the city's economy can't hurt either.

[calwinston]

Northrop Grumman has received a contract from the Navy to produce 30 submarines over 25 years. This contract will increase jobs at the Northrop Grumman Shipyard in Newport News from 3500 to 4500(for submarine building)(over 20000 total work at the shipyard) and double the capacity of submarine building at the yard with a 200 million dollar investment.

http://www.dailypres...,0,813007.story

Interactive tour of the Virginia class submarines being built at Newport News Shipyard!

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/03/interactive-tour-virginiaclass-attack-submarine-uss-new-mexico?cid=posld

[calwinston]

Call me crazy!! Would i be wise if the new spin-off of Northrup Grumman built super tankers for shipping and did naval contracts on the side! This would be a great way for Hampton Roads to ween off just being a welfare community of the Government! Im sorry if i offended anybody! But when you have 30000 jobs in the area directly and in directly related to the military or supporting the federal government in some matter then you need a reality check! This is just one of many suggestions and food for thought!

P.S. The government will be spending less!!!

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/03/budget-delay-sinks-4-hampton-roads-shipyard-projects

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/03/sec-approves-spinoff-deal-northrop-grumman

[PeninsulaKiddo]

http://www.dailypress.com/news/newport-news/dp-nws-jefferson-marketplace-20110709,0,3880596.story

Here's my favorite (ahem...) quote from this Daily Press article about Jefferson Marketplace, a mixed-use, retail/residential development near the Newport News airport:

Carol Meredith, the city’s assistant development director, said that despite vacancies on other strip malls along Jefferson Avenue, it’s not the government’s role to pick the winners and losers.

“There’s something to be said for allowing the private sector to work,” Meredith said. “Let them figure out where the supply and demand is at.”

I wrote an extensive criticism of the article -- and of the lack of a comprehensive development plan for the city -- here, but I'll replicate the upshot in a little less-verbose form. This might be the dumbest thing I've ever read from a city planner. Translation: "I'm a visionless city planner, so let the market decide what is built, when, where, and how, since they seem to know better." With all due respect to Ms. Meredith, she needs her head examined and her position with the City of Newport News should be reconsidered.

Implicit in her words, Carol Meredith is arguing that (re)development should be dictated by the market, not the city. Is that not what the last decade of urban development across the US precisely did, with rather disastrous outcomes from Las Vegas to Miami, the valleys of California to Atlanta? Lack of regulation in housing markets and a lack of comprehensive, controlled urban planning proved just as disastrous as the lack of financial market regulation; left to their own devices, private interests have far less interest in the public good than in their own bottom line -- and, frankly, appropriately so. I'm not making a negative value judgment about the perils of private motives but rather making an argument that the role of city planners is to ensure the public good, guiding private development toward that end, rather than allowing private development to run rampant. Private development "run rampant" very succinctly describes the last decade of development for the City of Newport News and I hope they give serious reconsideration to not only Ms. Meredith's position with the city, but the overall (lack of) vision for the future.

Edited July 10, 2011 by PeninsulaKiddo

[VBIllini13]

http://www.dailypres...0,3880596.story

Here's my favorite (ahem...) quote from this Daily Press article about Jefferson Marketplace, a mixed-use, retail/residential development near the Newport News airport:

I wrote an extensive criticism of the article -- and of the lack of a comprehensive development plan for the city -- here, but I'll replicate the upshot in a little less-verbose form. This might be the dumbest thing I've ever read from a city planner. Translation: "I'm a visionless city planner, so let the market decide what is built, when, where, and how, since they seem to know better." With all due respect to Ms. Meredith, she needs her head examined and her position with the City of Newport News should be reconsidered.

Implicit in her words, Carol Meredith is arguing that (re)development should be dictated by the market, not the city. Is that not what the last decade of urban development across the US precisely did, with rather disastrous outcomes from Las Vegas to Miami, the valleys of California to Atlanta? Lack of regulation in housing markets and a lack of comprehensive, controlled urban planning proved just as disastrous as the lack of financial market regulation; left to their own devices, private interests have far less interest in the public good than in their own bottom line -- and, frankly, appropriately so. I'm not making a negative value judgment about the perils of private motives but rather making an argument that the role of city planners is to ensure the public good, guiding private development toward that end, rather than allowing private development to run rampant. Private development "run rampant" very succinctly describes the last decade of development for the City of Newport News and I hope they give serious reconsideration to not only Ms. Meredith's position with the city, but the overall (lack of) vision for the future.

Technically, Ms. Meredith is not a planner, but an employee in the city's [economic] development department. Economic development and planning sometimes work hand-in-hand, but in some cities, they do not. It is not the responsibility of any government entity to keep a struggling business alive. In the specific case of the department of economic development, their job is to attract businesses, jobs, and revenue-generating events to the city and keep jobs or businesses wanting to move. Again, Ms. Meredith is not a planner. She works in economic development, which is a separate department.

[PeninsulaKiddo]

Technically, Ms. Meredith is not a planner, but an employee in the city's [economic] development department. Economic development and planning sometimes work hand-in-hand, but in some cities, they do not. It is not the responsibility of any government entity to keep a struggling business alive. In the specific case of the department of economic development, their job is to attract businesses, jobs, and revenue-generating events to the city and keep jobs or businesses wanting to move. Again, Ms. Meredith is not a planner. She works in economic development, which is a separate department.

The planner-economic development employee distinction is an important one that I failed to make, but I did not make the case that it is the city's responsibility to keep struggling businesses alive; rather, I do believe it is the city's responsibility to pursue development that is responsible rather than errant, that follows a comprehensive vision rather than allows developers to run amok. I would also still argue that her words counter her job description as a city development employee; if her job is to attract businesses, jobs, and revenue-generating events to the city, I fail to see how signing off on every proposed project in the city (irrespective of location or quality, which has been a mainstay of Newport News development) achieves that. Even though that responsibility is not hers -- she's probably an administrator, not a major driving force behind the city department's long-term work, though she may coordinate with city officials who do sign off on projects -- she still implicitly defended that lack of long-term design and planning vision that has been the hallmark of the city's development patterns. Moving businesses from strip mall to strip mall does not really count as attracting businesses. Also, if Ms. Meredith doesn't view her job as even remotely overlapping with urban planning, she should not have made the commentary she made that alludes to issues of comprehensive city planning (or the lack thereof; RE: discussion of vacancies along other Jefferson strip malls -- she made the discussion about the city government picking "winners and losers," which I do not believe reflects reality or the point of the reporter's question, which had more to do with how Jefferson Marketplace fit into the broader retail market of the city, an increasingly vacant market that is begging for redevelopment rather than new development on untouched land -- and I don't think that is the same as "picking" winners and losers, but rather setting realistic bounds for the pattern of growth which, given negligible population growth over the last decade in the city, should be a major consideration for the city. The city simply doesn't have to approve projects that don't coincide with a long-term plans for the city, whatever vision that might be that they haven't filled us in on.). I came down rather harshly on Ms. Meredith, personally, which reflects an unfair assessment of her role in the city, but also a growing cumulative frustration with the wasted potential of the city of Newport News.

Edited July 13, 2011 by PeninsulaKiddo

[vaceltic]

I have to admit, its a little disturbing that the propaganda used to advertise this project calls it "mixed-use". Having a large parcel of land that contains two separate uses on it does not constitute a mixed-use development. Most of this property will be surface parking and circulation for cars and the apartments don't relate to the retail portion in any way. Seems like Thalhimer and Finley Design should hire some real urban planners.

[mikeas]

http://articles.dailypress.com/2011-03-16/news/dp-nws-toby-keith-city-center-20110315_1_muviville-restaurant-tax-increment-financing-tax

Toby Keith is supposed to be opening a restaurant in the Newport News City Center area. Sounds like there are talks of another movie/bowl/restaurant place.

[PeninsulaKiddo]

A few announcements and groundbreakings in the very near future for Newport News:

 

First, CNU is finally replacing its old Administration Building - the oldest building on the "Great Lawn" - with a new student success center, bringing various administrative and student-related services offices under one roof. The school is also seeking proposals for the construction of a bell tower, diagonally across the Lawn, between the existing Forbes and McMurran buildings. The Daily Press discusses both projects at greater length, and includes the school's official video, here. 

 

 

A rendering of the $45 million, 81,000 sf structure, anchoring the eastern edge of the Great Lawn. 

 

The City of Newport News, in cooperation with W.M. Jordan CEO John Lawson, are also moving ahead with a $250 million mixed-use, research and development-oriented project at the corner of Jefferson and Oyster Point in midtown. Here is the rendering, also via Daily Press:

 

 

The 100-acre project features a mix of retail, commercial, and research office spaces along with apartments and the City's first Whole Foods grocery store. Build-out for the first phase of the project (pictured) would last 18-24 months, following groundbreaking in October of this year, while the research center would take as long as a decade. 

 

Mr. Lawson assured the City that "none" of the retail or commercial portions of the project will duplicate existing stores in Port Warwick or City Center, insisting that he is pushing for a "greater Oyster Point" with this development. The full DP story is here. 

 

I see a number of pros and cons to this development. First, it's absolutely worth noting that the entire project - including infrastructure improvements and a comprehensive "research campus" - will be privately funded. Also, I think bringing high-tech business in contact with the incredible R&D resources, staff, and faculty at J Lab obviously stands to benefit the City tremendously. 

 

My misgivings are pretty consistent with any and every major development in Newport News, particularly in the Midtown area -- it's distant from the other two "new urbanist" developments already in the area, Port Warwick and City Center, meaning that the only means of getting from one to the other is via car. Moreover, like Port Warwick and City Center, the design of this development is inwardly-focused, relying upon limited access points from already severely-congested roadways (Jefferson Avenue and Oyster Point Road). Given the leasing challenges of similarly high-end apartment communities in a 5 mile radius, I have serious doubts about the viability of an unspecified number of "very high end" apartments in this location. At a minimum, it would've been nice to see a mix of apartments targeting different socioeconomic groups in the City. Since the project still requires a rezoning approval (tentatively scheduled for next month, but with private financing, I doubt that will be a problem), I hope additional information will come out shortly.

And, of course, there's the aesthetic quality of the first phase of the project. Glad to see the creeping spread of Patrick Henry's surface parking lots will continue unabated into the next decade as well. (/end sarcasm)

Edited June 22, 2013 by PeninsulaKiddo

[PeninsulaKiddo]

For the Tech Center, as it is called, here is the official page: http://www.vttechcenter.com/

[vdogg]

Nice sized development but that sea of parking is killing me! Did they try to make it urban at all? Here's hoping for a few revisions to the design.

[PeninsulaKiddo]

Nice sized development but that sea of parking is killing me! Did they try to make it urban at all? Here's hoping for a few revisions to the design.

 

Agreed completely. I have some hope that, even if they don't revise the plan as it is, there is the option to redevelop the parking lots at a later date. I am concerned that the shape and infrastructural design of the project makes that inherently more difficult -- but, from my newfangled San Francisco point of view, odd-shaped lots and blocks can be a blessing in terms of architectural design creativity  (Keeping things a little more positive today hah!)

 

And, on that positive note, the R&D oriented design of the "campus" section is something I am very, very interested in seeing. I always thought J Lab was underutilized as a major opportunity for the city and region, so cheers to finally realizing that at least. Fingers crossed!