Posted By HR Partnership on February 7, 2010

It was the early 1980s. Hampton Roads as a distinct geographic region was nothing more than a concept.

Then a bunch of community leaders, including media giants on both sides of the water, got the idea that maybe – just maybe – all the localities on both the Southside and the Peninsula could turn into a region, if not in practice, at least on paper.

Think of it: one region, one U.S. Census area, one voice and, best of all, one unit for national advertising dollars.

Leaders lobbied Congress. They traveled to Washington, D.C., and talked to anyone who would listen.

In 1984, after years of pushing the concept, the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Statistical Area was born, combining the Southside and the Peninsula into one economic and demographic hotbed.

Last year was the 25th anniversary of the MSA.

Thomas Chisman, former president of Hampton television station WVEC, instigated the push for one MSA, according to Jim Babcock, retired chair and CEO of First Virginia Bank.

“The idea was his,” Babcock said.

Dale Bowen, owner of The Bowen Group, said Carl Mangum, then an executive with Landmark Communications Inc., also pushed for one MSA.

Whoever instigated the plan, it was meant to lift the region into the top 50 metropolitan regions in the country.

Before that, the Peninsula was ranked above 100 and Southside, above 50.

Needless to say, the region’s schizophrenic economy and demographics never registered with corporations, which considered the top 50 MSAs for advertising dollars.

So many local leaders, especially in the business community, pushed to merge the two areas.

“That was the idea,” Babcock. “That was the kernel.”

Many business leaders backed the plan. When the two areas merged, the MSA ranked 27th.

It was known then as the Norfolk-Newport News-Virginia Beach MSA and was based on population. Later, the MSA was changed to the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News MSA, which also included portions of eastern North Caroina.

“What were the results?” Babcock said. “Strength in numbers. By having a larger population, we combined organizations. We put the two planning district commissions together and made them stronger. We had a stronger staff. We had a larger legislative caucus. That began to foster an attitude among so many people to cooperate regionally.”

“In a nutshell what I remember about it was that it was intended to move us up,” said Jack Hornbeck, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. “By combining MSAs, based on history and geography, we moved up on the list.”

Hornbeck said the merger of the MSAs was all about the attention larger MSAs got when companies were wanting to relocate or looking to spend money on advertising.

It boiled down to attracting more advertising dollars because the region was a larger market, Hornbeck said.

“That was it: to put Hampton Roads on the map,” Hornbeck said.

“Prior to the merger, it was a statistical concept,” Bowen said. “Prior to the merger, people didn’t understand the size and scope of the area.

“We weren’t in the top 50 markets,” Bowen said. “Everyone knows that if you are not in the top 50 markets, you’re not anything. We slept and breathed it for six years.

“We made speeches, we wrote books,” Bowen said. “We did so many things.”

Bowen said the merger of the two areas was the only merger among diverse geographic regions in 1984 in the nation and the only one since.

But not everyone was convinced.

“The Peninsula fought us tooth and nail,” Bowen said. “They had this fear they would be gobbled up by Norfolk. We assured them, you will benefit.”

That was despite Chisman’s efforts to merge the two areas.

“We had a time with the politicians,” Bowen said. “We made speeches over there. It still took years to convince them. A lot of political groups didn’t want to give up power.”

“It’s hard to believe its been 25 years ago since we dealt with the MSA,” said Gordon Gentry, who was chair of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce in 1983. “I think it’s made a difference. It’s a way of projecting the economic power of our region to the rest of the country.

“By itself it doesn’t do an awful lot,” said Gentry, who is now chair of TowneBank on the Peninsula. “But you still have to carry the attributes of the region through your messages and through your activities conducted by such organizations as the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance.”

In addition to the higher profile among corporations, Bowen said the area could compete for federal dollars as one group instead of two.

“I really thought if we got the area merged, everything else would follow,” Bowen said. “That didn’t happen.

“When we applied for the name, we applied for it in the name of Hampton Roads,” he said, adding that the federal government assigned the names of cities to the MSA instead of one geographic name. The change to one MSA “brought the communities together and made them look more at working together,” Bowen said. “I think it created regionalism.”

“The greatest achievement that came out of that was the Virginia Port Authority,” Babcock said.

The Virginia Port Authority unified the three facilities in Portsmouth, Norfolk and Newport News under one banner in 1983 and 1984. But Babcock, referring to other issues, said the region hasn’t taken advantage of the strength of one MSA “as much as it could have.”

Babcock said that the region still doesn’t get a fair share of dollars for highway construction and maintenance.

“The latest example of how we haven’t used our latent strength is high-speed rail,” Babcock said. “We are the largest MSA between New York and Miami. We are the only MSA left out of the high speed rail.”

Babcock said that the state should go for federal dollars for high-speed rail for Richmond and Hampton Roads rather than the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, which would leave out Hampton Roads.

by Philip Newswanger, originally published on January 29, 2010 in the Hampton Roads Business Weekly, Inside Business

More stories about the Hampton Roads MSA

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Tags: Hampton Roads, Sense of Place