Hampton Roads June 2022 – Key Take-Aways
- The Portsmouth Economic Development has both an Economic Development division and a newer Workforce Development Side. Workforce Development assists residents with career opportunities in a variety of industries. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- The Portsmouth Economic Development aims to be the first stop with a potential project or business opportunity and to provide a full concierge service. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- Portsmouth has a lot of momentum building that hasn’t been seen before and it’s happening in every part of the city. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- The Rivers Casino will be the first casino in the state and should be open in early 2023. It’s projected to be about 7% of GDP and will create a lot of new jobs. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- Offshore Wind is a new sector in the area. There are turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach now that have performed better than expected. Expect to be the hub of offshore wind on the east coast. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- Lineage Logistics is the largest global cold storage provider and are now in Portsmouth. They repurposed an old chemical plant to develop state-of-the-art cold storage that is 6 stories tall and fully automated. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- Fairlead Integrated is a maritime company with headquarters in Portsmouth and includes a submarine fleet partially assembled in Portsmouth. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- SIMIS, Inc Micro Data Center is the first data center in Portsmouth. It’s 30K sq ft, built out of an old furniture store that sits next to a newly installed fiber optic line. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- Hampton Roads Community Health Center partnered with the Portsmouth Economic Development for a new 20K sq ft health center. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- There is a lot of residential development, with both single and multi family housing under development throughout the city. (Brian Donahue – Portsmouth Economic Development)
- There is still a lot of activity, but things seem a little less busy. Some larger projects are getting reconsidered, which is a challenge. Submitting a lot of proposals but not getting a lot of healthy numbers back. (Richard Crouch – Vandeventer Black LLP, Dawn Best – Vansant Gusler)
- The Fed met yesterday and raised rates by 75 basis points. There is a lot of talk of recession, though we may be in a recession already. Changes from rates in the 3s/4s to the 5s/6s in only six months. (Keith Slattum – Dollar Bank)
- Inflation has reduced the purchasing power of people and businesses. It’s unusual not to have large unemployment, but they’re starting to see some of that in the tech sector. (Keith Slattum – Dollar Bank)
- The industrial market remains strong but there has been a bit of a slow down for the first time since Coviid. Amazon announced they’re going to slow things down. Rising interest rates may help cool the industrial investment market, but also might help curb inflation that is driving up construction costs. (Ben Anderson – Colliers)
- Port of Virginia is ranked #1 in North America and #23 in the world. (Ben Anderson – Colliers)
- Many companies can’t wait any longer to make decisions about space. Landlords are willing to get creative and lock in rates they can handle for several years. Some extra creativity is sometimes needed to make a win-win situation for both parties. (Don Crigger – Colliers)
- Rents have stayed up and occupancies have stayed up, but there may be a shoe about to drop. Numbers indicate that things are fine, but no new construction and still a latent vacancy. (Don Crigger – Colliers)
- There has been some activity with higher ed projects in the last few weeks. (Dan Shelton – Whiting-Turner)
- It may be good to be cautious about the strain on the construction industry as a whole. Tradesmen are burning out and it’s important to have realistic expectations. (Dan Shelton – Whiting-Turner)
- Lead times don’t seem to be lessening but don’t seem to be growing as dramatically. Most companies are learning how to adapt. (Dan Shelton – Whiting-Turner)
- Inflation and cost of materials has had a big impact on construction, but there are also concerns about over supply in the future. (Dawn Best – Vansant Gusler, Keith Slattum – Dollar Bank)
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