SEPTEMBER 2004
Shoring Up Investment (cover)
Along the Shore
Serious Bridge Work
Coastal Virginia the Ultimate Point of Entry
Wilmington HQ Focal Point for MBNA, Others
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MID-ATLANTIC STATES
Coastal Virginia the
Ultimate Point of Entry
Ultimate Point of Entry
The potent combination of military, geographic and national security infrastructure has made points up and down the Virginia coastline prime sites for industrial and high-skills expansion. The trend extends all the way up the Potomac, where Loudoun County, Va., is the fastest-growing county in the nation, with a nearly 31-percent spike in population between 2000 and 2003. But the trend is also evident in recent moves by two of the nation's largest defense contractors.
In Suffolk, part of the Hampton Roads region, Lockheed Martin is building a $30-million, 50,000-sq.-ft. (4,645-sq.-m.) "network-centric technology" facility called the Global Vision Integration Center, which will employ 50 specialists by 2005.
"The Hampton Roads area is home to a number of national security customers who are defining new transformational concepts that rely on network-centric systems," said Albert E. Smith, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Solutions, in October 2003.
In Woodbridge, just south of the D.C. area on the Potomac, Virginia-based General Dynamics is investing $2 million and creating 150 jobs at its technical center.
Educational infrastructure is seeing its own coastal facility development. Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Chesapeake announced in June 2004 the construction of the new 30,000-sq.-ft. (2,787-sq.-m.) Regional Automotive Technology and Workforce Development Center, the first development in the city's 115-acre (47-hectare) Oakbrooke Business & Technology Center. The center will triple the physical size of TCC's Automotive Technology Program.
Chesapeake has also recently welcomed the new HQ of Hampton Roads-based ABNB Federal Credit Union, whose 143 employees had outgrown its 13-year-old facility nearby. The organization will invest $7 million and hire 150 people. Chesapeake's logistics strengths have also inspired a 186,000-sq.-ft. (17,279-sq.-m.) spec distribution project from New Jersey-based West Essex Management Corp., as well as a new shipping terminal for Maersk.
In Suffolk, part of the Hampton Roads region, Lockheed Martin is building a $30-million, 50,000-sq.-ft. (4,645-sq.-m.) "network-centric technology" facility called the Global Vision Integration Center, which will employ 50 specialists by 2005.
"The Hampton Roads area is home to a number of national security customers who are defining new transformational concepts that rely on network-centric systems," said Albert E. Smith, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Solutions, in October 2003.
In Woodbridge, just south of the D.C. area on the Potomac, Virginia-based General Dynamics is investing $2 million and creating 150 jobs at its technical center.
Educational infrastructure is seeing its own coastal facility development. Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Chesapeake announced in June 2004 the construction of the new 30,000-sq.-ft. (2,787-sq.-m.) Regional Automotive Technology and Workforce Development Center, the first development in the city's 115-acre (47-hectare) Oakbrooke Business & Technology Center. The center will triple the physical size of TCC's Automotive Technology Program.
Chesapeake has also recently welcomed the new HQ of Hampton Roads-based ABNB Federal Credit Union, whose 143 employees had outgrown its 13-year-old facility nearby. The organization will invest $7 million and hire 150 people. Chesapeake's logistics strengths have also inspired a 186,000-sq.-ft. (17,279-sq.-m.) spec distribution project from New Jersey-based West Essex Management Corp., as well as a new shipping terminal for Maersk.