Monthly Archive: February 2010

Feb 19

W&M Assists Business Incubation in James City County

Categories:

Business & Economy

by HR Partnership

by Keith A. Taylor, James City County EDA, originally published January, 2010

The James City County Economic Development Authority (EDA) will join forces with the College of William and Mary to help expand the reach of its business incubator. The re-engineered approach, which will now be managed by William & Mary’s Technology and Business Center (TBC), will broaden the reach of the incubator to select businesses that may not necessarily be technology oriented. The project’s name will also change to the James City County Business and Technology Incubator, officials announced today.

“Our affiliation with a highly regarded university like William & Mary should be a real plus”, said Brien Craft, the EDA’s liaison to the incubator project and General Manager of Walmart’s Import Distribution Center in James City County.  “It will give us better access to the resources of the university and enhance our credibility in the eyes of our future clientele.”

While the incubator, located at 5300 Palmer Lane, had a successful launch during 2007, the number of new technology business clients in Year 3 of the incubator’s operation fell short of the EDA’s expectations.  “We took a long hard look at our business model there and what was and wasn’t working”, remarked Brien Craft, the EDA’s liaison to the incubator project and General Manager of Walmart’s Import Distribution Center in the County. “Upon the recommendation of the former management team, the Hampton Roads Technology Council (HRTC), we decided to broaden both the brand and the operational approach to the business incubator and reach out to other additional kinds of primary business interests.”

A recent example of this is the January arrival of MODU-System America, LLC, as the incubator’s newest resident.  This two-person operation will be the start of the U.S. subsidiary for the Malaysian-based parent company, MODU System, which manufactures and sells multi-flex modular conveyor systems.  According to John J. Douglas, Vice President of Sales for MODU System America, “The geographic location here is strategic to our efforts to penetrate the US market, and the incremental office space approach that the incubator provides gives us the flexibility to grow as our market share and employee needs grow here.  We can also learn more about the in’s and out’s of establishing a foreign-based subsidiary here through the incubator’s advisory services.”

William & Mary’s TBC management team intends to build on this kind of recent success at the James City incubator.  “With the EDA’s support, we intend to provide more mentoring services on a broader variety of core business knowledge needs areas in a more structured approach”, said William E. “Bill” Bean, TBC’s Director.  “Each company selected for incubation will have to satisfy some basic criteria relative to what and where its business model or business plan is in terms of evolution.  We will then customize a menu of program milestones for each of them to achieve in order to graduate.”

Timothy J. Early, HRTC’s Executive Director, noted, “We believe this is the right step for James City County’s EDA to take.  HRTC has offered to continue to provide advisory support to the incubator and its clients as needs warrant.”

The restructured management agreement and approach will run through March of 2011 at which time the EDA and the TBC will collectively evaluate their success in terms of building the client base and client maturation in their respective business endeavors.

Entrepreneurs who would like to find out more about becoming an incubator client should contact Bill Bean.

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Feb 18

Congressional Summit on Modeling, Simulation in Hampton Roads

Categories:

Innovation, Military Bastion

by HR Partnership

High-res display wall prototype for showing medical images.
Click on photo for larger image.
Photo credit: Brian W. Tobin on Flickr

by Andrew Sinclair, Hampton Roads Partnership M & S Program Manger

Several hundred modeling and simulation professionals from around the country braved unusual-for-the-region snowy conditions to meet at the Virginia Beach Hilton on February 1st.  The meeting was organized by the National Training & Simulation Association on behalf of the Congressional M&S Caucus which was founded and is co-chaired by Congressman Randy Forbes.

In its fifth year to be held in Hampton Roads, the M&S Leadership Summit was a great opportunity to showcase the region’s assets and capabilities to elected officials and businesses from outside of the area.  In 2008, the Summit recommended that M&S be declared a national critical technology which was accomplished through the passage of House Resolution 487.  This 2010 summit was focused on how to best use that designation to further grow the industry.

Keynote was Michael Schrage, a Fellow at MIT’s Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business.  Mr. Schrage called for a change in the RFP process from “requests for proposals” to “requests for prototypes” to allow customers to better visualize the solution and achieve better outcomes.  He also called for the creation of a Congressional Simulation Office similar to the Congressional Budget Office which would maintain a list of all government simulations and use simulations to make better decisions.  He cited Proctor & Gamble as an example of a large business which models its entire business processes in order to increase efficiencies company-wide.

Mr. Schrage was followed by a panel discussing current and anticipated future uses of M&S. Hampton Roads’ own NASA Langley Research Center Director Lesa Roe shared NASA’s extensive use of all kinds of models and simulations and its extensive interest in promoting STEM education in K-12 schools.

Hampton Roads’ Congressmen Randy Forbes, Glenn Nye, and Bobby Scott as well as Florida Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas each addressed the group over lunch.  Each of the Hampton Roads Congressmen promoted the success of the region in growing the M&S industry.

The afternoon broke the attendees into four working groups: Research & Development/Technology, Workforce Development, Industrial Development/Organization Relations and Economics/Business Practice.  Each working group was tasked with identifying how to best grow the M&S industry within that area.  The outcomes of those working groups will be discussed by a NTSA committee to create a national M&S strategy.  Hampton Roads is well represented on the NTSA committee including Thomas Reese of VMASC, Tom Frost of JFCOM and Josh Jackson of SAIC.

NTSA cited Hampton Roads’ recently completed M&S Vision 2020 as a regional strategic plan which would support and inform a national strategy.

The presentations – as well as the Working Group briefings – are now available online and can be found at:
http://www.ndia.org/Resources/OnlineProceedings/Pages/01C0-2010ModelingSimulationLeadershipSummit.aspx

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Feb 17

More job losses forecast in Hampton Roads

Categories:

Business & Economy, Military Bastion

by HR Partnership

The pace of economic activity in Hampton Roads will rebound this year but is likely to be more subdued than the nationwide expansion, Old Dominion University forecasters predicted.

The region will continue losing jobs until employers step up their hiring during the second half, said Vinod Agarwal, an economics professor and member of the university’s Economic Forecasting Project. Hampton Roads, he said, is likely to lose about 1,500 jobs this year after losing an estimated 6,000 in 2009.

Click here for larger image

In percentage terms, Hampton Roads’ job losses last year were less severe than those in comparable metro areas, including Richmond (VA), Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte (NC), said Agarwal.

However, Hampton Roads’ unemployment rate, which stood at 6.6% in November, understates the extent of joblessness because it doesn’t include discouraged workers who have left the labor force.

One key ingredient for the region’s economy – defense spending – is likely to grow 4 to 4.5% in Hampton Roads this year, on par with the 4.2% increase in 2009, Agarwal said.

However, retail sales will rise a modest 1.9%, partly because of consumers’ concern about their jobs and the reduced wealth of area households, according to the ODU forecast, which has been compiled annually since 1996.

In the housing sector, an extension of the tax credit for first-time buyers will spur home sales in Hampton Roads again this year, Agarwal said during the program conducted by the Economics Club of Hampton Roads and ODU’s College of Business and Public Administration. But “the impact won’t be as pronounced as it was in 2009,” he said.

The region’s housing market “is still very soft,” and prices will continue falling in 2010, he predicted. One reason is that so-called distressed sales, including sales of homes taken back by lenders, will continue to depress the sale prices of existing homes.

A bright spot in the U.S. economy is the financial strength of large companies, said Gilbert Yochum, director of the Economic Forecasting Project. Because they’ve hoarded cash, slashed inventories and improved their productivity, large companies are much better prepared to expand.

The nation is likely to lose jobs again this year, he said.

Despite the prospect for a 2.8% increase in the nation’s output of goods and services in 2010, “there are lots of problems in the financial markets,” Yochum said. Many of the giant banks that made headlines last year are in much better shape today, but smaller institutions face problems with their portfolios of commercial real estate mortgages, he said.

The deteriorating quality of their loan portfolios, Yochum said, will make it more difficult for many of these banks to lend to small businesses. That will become a problem for small businesses because they lack the borrowing alternatives available to much larger companies, Yochum said. Getting credit to small businesses that need it continues to be a serious economic challenge, he said after the program.

Old Dominion’s forecasting team predicted that the output of Hampton Roads’ goods and services will expand 2.4% this year after shrinking 1.3% in 2009. Two major sectors of the regional economy – tourism and port traffic – are likely to improve after weathering difficulties in 2009.

Room revenue for Hampton Roads hotels is expected to rise 1.2% after declining 5% last year.

In the maritime sector, cargo tonnage will climb 6.3% this year, driven by a recovery in global trade, according to the ODU forecast. In 2009, the volume of cargo handled at Hampton Roads’ terminals plunged more than 16%.

excerpted from Tom Shean, The Virginian-Pilot

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Feb 16

Get involved with Modeling and Simulation

Categories:

Education & Workforce, Innovation, Military Bastion

by HR Partnership

by Andrew Sinclair, Hampton Roads Partnership’s M & S Program Manger

On January 29th, nearly 100 people gathered at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) in Suffolk for the first of a series of quarterly breakfasts.  This breakfast focused on the recently launched regional modeling and simulation strategy: Hampton Roads M&S Vision 2020.  Under Thomas Reese, VMASC’s Director of Business Development and Technology Transfer, the center has renewed its efforts to engage the M&S industry, and these breakfasts will be a key element of that work.  VMASC and its industry membership act as the de facto association for the M&S industry in Hampton Roads.  In fact, it was from the efforts of the industry association that the regional M&S strategy first developed.

The breakfast was designed as an opportunity to continue to reach out to the broader community to create engagement on the implementation of the M&S strategy.  To that end, the M&S Leadership Council, which will lead individual efforts as part of the M&S Vision, was introduced.  The Council will be led by VMASC Interim Director John Sokolowski.  The other members are:

Dr. Sokolowski gave a brief overview of the plan itself and described how someone may participate in the implementation of each goal.  Attendees were asked to identify their area of interest and leave their contact information for additional follow up.  Well over 90% of attendees did so, leaving a strong group of volunteers to support the Leadership Council in their efforts to grow the M&S industry.

More information will continue to develop as the strategy is implemented, and anyone interested in participating should contact Thomas Reese.  The Leadership Council will be contacting volunteers in the coming weeks.

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Feb 15

General Assembly, observations from the hall

Categories:

Government & Citizens, Transportation

by HR Partnership

by Missy Schmidt, Communication Manager, Hampton Roads Partnership

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce met for its annual “Chamber Day” at the Capitol in Richmond on January 27th, an event designed to promote grassroots involvement with the business of the legislature especially in matters that affect commerce and economic prosperity.

Professional lobbyists aren’t the only ones who can have a voice with the General Assembly (GA) in Richmond thanks to the World Wide Web and great online resources like the Commonwealth-provided http://leg1.state.va.us and the privately funded RichmondSunlight.com.

And, groups like the Virginia Chamber help facilitate face-to-face engagement.

 George Washington statue at the Capitol, Richmond VA
George Washington statue, 1788, in the Capitol Rotunda – Richmond, Virginia

I had the pleasure of joining the Hampton Roads Chamber’s LEAD Hampton Roads (LHR) group on their trek to Richmond for the day, the largest of the state’s regional contingents. High speed rail (HSR) and getting Hampton Roads on “The Main Line” was the message for day from members of LHR’s Class of 2010. They lobbied passionately in the halls of the GA to press home the significance of rail to Hampton Roads.

Before LHR hit the halls, Chambers from around the Commonwealth met to hear remarks from the Virginia Chamber’s President Hugh Keough, House Speaker William Howell and our top elected state officials:

Lt. Governor (LG) Bill Bolling explained that with his new position he also serves as the “Chief Jobs Creation Officer.” While there is no separate agency, Bolling has been tasked by Gov. McDonnell with improving the Commonwealth’s economic conditions, overseeing overall economic development programs and progress, insuring emphasis is focused and redundancy is eliminated and assuring Virginia has the tools in place to tell and sell the Virginia story.

LG Bolling said, “We’ve missed opportunities…. New business hasn’t been a priority for state government for some time, and that’s the most important issue facing Virginia today.” With the McDonnell/Bolling Jobs and Opportunities Agenda released the day before, Bolling added, “A rising tide does indeed lift all ships….and we have to spend money to make money.”

“Virginia could be to the East Coast what Louisiana is to the Gulf Coast” in terms of energy resources, said Bolling. Government doesn’t create jobs but can provide an environment that is friendly to job creation according to the LG.

During Q&A that followed, Bolling stated that Virginia needed to get away from a “one-size-fits-all public education model” and to reprioritize and reinvest to promote Virginia students’ attendance in Virginia’s higher education institutions. The LG left us with this: let’s meet this time next year and talk about successes instead of challenges.

Attorney General (AG) Ken Cuccinelli joined us next, assuring the Chambers present that he was not following the “activist” model of some state’s office of the AG, instead focusing on enforcement of the law in a fair and balance way. One area of concentration for the AG is the restructuring of consumer protections, especially as to streamlining processes, reducing duplicated efforts and addressing truly meaningful cases with more attention.

Cuccinelli finished by telling us of his goal to “reassert the sovereignty of Virginia.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell
Governor Bob McDonnell at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Day at the General Assembly in Richmond

Governor Bob McDonnell, who won the Governor’s mansion with a jobs-creation platform, began his comments with “job creation is not a partisan issue; you either have them or you don’t.” Virginia is uniquely qualified to attract investment the tourism, film and biotech industries. “Pennsylvania is way ahead of us in promoting Gettysburg; we have civil war battlefields and need to promote them,” according to McDonnell. “And it’s unacceptable to have films about Virginia filmed elsewhere.”

The Governor also wants to make Virginia the “Energy Capital of the East Coast” adding that we’re already leaders in coal and nuclear and have huge potential for wind, solar, gas and oil business. Establishing Virginia as a “Green Jobs Zone” to incentivize companies to create quality green jobs is a top priority.

It’s also important to have education and transportation systems in place to support job growth, but “there’s a limit to what we can do well at one time,” said the Governor. The crowd supplied a big round of applause when McDonnell said he would stand with Virginia’s citizens to preserve our right-to-work status and promote free enterprise, “the way government ought to work.”

After lunch, Ira Agricola, Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce (HRCC), shared some of his work with the group. In Richmond, Agricola represents the primary strategies of not only the HRCC but the Virginia Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg Chambers as well. He recommended the Chamber’s voterVOICE, software that helps the Chamber implement a smart, proactive approach to grassroots lobbying and political advocacy.

Agricola also reinforced the HSR connection to Hampton Roads as “tangible and doable,” although we’re competing with many other regions of the country for very limited federal passenger rail funds. “Hampton Roads could connect to the main line of the nation’s high speed rail infrastructure for just a little more than the cost of one new interchange on I-64,” said Agricola.

The LEAD Hampton Roads class went to Richmond on this annual Chamber Day with an agenda, a purpose and a model of specific talking points. They learned about the difference between bills and resolutions, how a bill moves through the law-making process and how, at least during this year’s lean “Great Recession” budget period, any bills with Fiscal Impact Statements attached will be tabled.

They met with personally with Senator Yvonne Miller (5th District) and Delegate John Cosgrove (78th), who is also the Chair of the Hampton Roads Caucus, as well as a staffer with the office of Delegate Sal Iaquinto (84th).

And, I learned that with LHR’s growing alumni base, they have another goal in mind: to turn LHR into a political lobbying group to make real impact on public policy. Based on the enthusiasm and professionalism displayed in the halls of historic Virginia law-making today, I’d have to share two of my favorite Thomas Jefferson quotes:

“Every generation needs a new revolution.”

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

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Feb 15

Federal Green Jobs Conference in Hampton Roads

Categories:

Education & Workforce, Government & Citizens, Innovation

by HR Partnership

A Federal Green Jobs Legislative Conference will be presented in Hampton Roads on March 2nd by the Green Economic Alliance and Green Jobs Alliance featuring federal officials from the Department of Energy (DoE) and Department of Labor (DoL) and other key national and state “green jobs” policy makers. These officials will brief the region’s business, labor, government and community leaders and citizens on recent and pending federal legislation directly impacting green economic growth, green workforce training and green job creation.

The conference will be held as three events across Hampton Roads on March 2, 2010.

Two invitation-only events will be held:

  • Peninsula Breakfast ($25/person) at Thomas Nelson Community College-Mary T. Christian Auditorium, 7:30am-10:00am
  • Southside Luncheon ($25/person) at Tidewater Community College-Portsmouth Campus, 11:30am-2:00pm

One Evening Public Event will be held at no charge. This event is driven in large part by community organizations that interact most with the public such as community colleges, Virginia Employment Commission (VEC), career and technical schools, workforce development boards, faith and community groups. DoE, DoL and their state and local counterparts will explain how these green legislative policies translate into reality in their lives including possible jobs, training, certifications and where to find and access the information they need.

For more information:

Green Jobs Alliance (GJA) is a federally registered 501c3 nonprofit.

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Feb 14

Willoughby Spit, it came from beneath the sea

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Tourism, Arts & Culture

by HR Partnership

Photo credit: VirginiaPlaces.org

from Carson Hudson, Tidewater History Examiner

Thousands of commuters and tourists use the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel every day to travel between the cities of Hampton and Norfolk… and sometimes, when the tunnel backs up and comes to a standstill, they sit in their cars and wait for the traffic to move. But few realize that, on the Norfolk side, they are sitting on a thin stretch of sand that came from beneath the sea. It’s called Willoughby Spit and in the late seventeenth century it was initially formed by a hurricane.

Photos credit: SirFin on Panoramio.com

The dictionary says that a “spit” is a long and narrow piece of beach that protrudes out into a body of water. Although the historical records disagree over whether it was 1667 or 1683, according to the generally accepted tale, Thomas Willoughby was living in the area when a “great storm” occurred. The next morning, his wife was apparently the first person to notice that a couple of hundred acres of sand had appeared out of nowhere, thrusting into the area known as Hampton Roads. The new slice of real estate became known as Willoughby Spit.

Over the years, other storms added to the spit and the protected anchorage to the south became known as Willoughby Bay. Just to the east, an area known as Ocean View City was laid out with streets and lots, just before the Civil War. Serviced by both a ferry and later by a narrow-gauge passenger rail line, it became a favorite spot for Sunday outings and early beach goers.

Ocean View City quickly spilled onto Willoughby Spit and around the end of the nineteenth century even more visitors, along with sailors from the neighboring Norfolk Naval Base, began to arrive to enjoy a new boardwalk and amusement park. In the 1920s it all became part of the City of Norfolk.

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel replaced the ferries in 1957, bringing Interstate 64 to the spit, and connecting the Tidewater Peninsula with Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Today, the little piece of beach that was first seen by Mrs. Willoughby in the late 1600s has become a major landmark in the Hampton Roads area. Let’s hope for the sake of all those commuters who sit in traffic while trying to get through the tunnel that a future hurricane never tries to take Willoughby Spit back into the sea.

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Feb 13

Hampton Roads Regional Economic Wins

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Business & Economy

by HR Partnership

The Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance’s (HREDA) marketing efforts are aimed at enhancing global awareness of Hampton Roads (i.e., marketing the region externally) and ultimately encouraging sustainable, inclusive growth benefiting the entire region (i.e., coordinating prospects with our municipalities’ economic development offices).

According to the 2009 Annual Report, HREDA’s team traveled 313,087 miles visiting 25 cities in 11 countries while also attending 30 trade shows, seminars and conferences and hosting 12 special events.

Economic development is a numbers game. And the numbers don’t lie. In 2009, HREDA’s efforts resulted in 57 new projects, 42 prospect visits and 5 new companies in the region totaling $18.75M in capital investment and 294 jobs for our local workforce.

Here’s the highlights:

MASA Group Inc., a high technology company specializing in cognitive artificial intelligence and optimization for logistics, headquartered in Paris, France, MASA adds to the region’s growing international profile. Maintaining and aggressive growth plan, MASA’s location in Old Dominion University’s Innovation Research Park is set to become the core U.S. technical team.

Why Hampton Roads? “We chose to operate in Norfolk due to the development of the new technology park, the proximity to Old Dominion University and the regional commitment to modeling and simulation. We moved to the park to benefit from the university environment and to tap into the student population as we proceeded to hire. The location is close to our customers and the facilities are new and well appointed.” — Mark Phillips, Vice President Business Development

Ipconfigure, is an IP surveillance company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company, which currently holds the largest IP based surveillance project in the world with the U.S. Government, opened its global sales office in the Innovation Research Park on the campus of ODU in Norfolk. ipConfigure is committed to the idea of open architecture and will continue to facilitate the convergence of physical security and IT technologies by integrating both building and life safety systems through a seamless enterprise solution.

Why Hampton Roads? “Locating at IRP allowed us to take advantage of proximity to ODU’s Vision Lab and a ready pool of well-trained, enthusiastic workers. Our goal is to make Hampton Roads the center of video surveillance technology.” — Christopher Uiterwyk, CEO and ODU alum

Cobham Composites, an industry leader in high tech military and civil aerospace composite products, chose Suffolk’s Northgate Commerce Park for its first East Coast plant. Operations are scheduled to begin early 2010.

Why Hampton Roads? “Our reasons for selecting Hampton Roads and Suffolk over all of the competing cities was based on the abundance of a high quality workforce, the great quality of living as well as clearly identified statistics and details of the incentive packages from the city of Suffolk and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Since we made the decision, we continue to be pleasantly surprised by more and more reasons why this was not only the right decision, it was the BEST decision we could ever have made. We could not be more proud to be a member of such a high class, thriving and friendly community.” — Paul Oppenheim, Vice President and General Manager

becker-solutions Corp., a German based hydraulic hose assembler and parts manufacturer, choose Chesapeake’s Riverwalk Commerce Center as the location for its first U.S. sales and distribution office.

Why Hampton Roads? “With a growing number of U.S. clients, I needed a location that could readily support not only our domestic distribution, but international as well. The region’s growing and dynamic international community, cost of living, infrastructure and ideal East Coast location provided the solution and ultimately led us to Chesapeake.” — Fabian Becker, President

Art Institute is a well renowned provider of creative and artistic related educational programs such as web design, video production, and culinary arts. The Virginia Beach campus located in Town Center will initially occupy 35,000 square feet and is designed to accommodate 2,000 students offering bachelor’s degrees in a wide variety of creative curriculums. Operated by Education Management Corp., Art Institute of Virginia Beach, one of 40 similar institutes across the country, is a branch of the Art Institute of Atlanta and is scheduled to begin classes in January 2010.

Why Hampton Roads? “The Art Institutes has a strong commitment to nourish and stimulate creativity in our students and we have historically been drawn to cities and regions that share an enthusiasm for the creative arts. Our decision to open a new Art Institutes location in Virginia Beach is no exception. We believe Hampton Roads has the services, businesses, industries and cultural venues to support our mission of education and professional development.” — John Mazzoni, President, The Art Institutes

To learn more, visit HREDA’s website:

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Feb 12

Local cities slash funding to Hampton Roads Film Office

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Business & Economy, Government & Citizens, Tourism, Arts & Culture

by HR Partnership

Excerpt from WTKR-TV3; Photo credit, IMDB

When it comes to Hollywood stars, there are not many brighter than Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly. In her new movie, she plays a woman named Virginia, who lives in Virginia – Virginia Beach.

The movie takes place in Virginia Beach. It involves a Virginia Beach woman who is in a relationship with the Virginia Beach sheriff. They even spend time on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. However, the film was shot in Michigan.

In Holland, Michigan hundreds of extras lined up to play the people of Hampton Roads.

The film is called “What’s Wrong With Virginia?“

Since the filmmakers snubbed the city, the title has become an indictment on Hampton Roads’ feature film failures.

Why did we miss out on that?

“We missed out because we didn’t have the financial package put together,” said Rita McClenny, state film commissioner [Virginia Film Office].

McClenny says unlike most states, Virginia offers no meaningful incentives. Certainly nothing like North Carolina where moviemakers get a 25 percent rebate on what they spend. That’s why much of “Nights in Rodanthe” was actually shot in Rodanthe. And it’s why television shows like One Tree Hill are based in North Carolina.

And Virginia gives nothing like the 42 percent rebate Michigan used to woo away Jennifer Connelly and company.

“It was a very, very Virginia Beach story that was filmed in Michigan. And it was pretty devastating, frankly,” McClenny said.

It could be even more devastating to Jeff Frizzell. Because Hollywood keeps passing us by, local cities are slashing funding to the four-year-old Hampton Roads Film Office. Frizzell, the commissioner, admits the venture is on the verge of collapse. On this day, Frizzell is trying to pry money out of politicians in Richmond.

Mr. Mathers’ story on WTKR-TV3 is correct, funding for the Hampton Roads Film Office (HRFO) by some cities has been either cut or eliminated all together, but that is where the accuracy ends.

The HRFO received funding from 5 Hampton Roads localities (including Norfolk) and the state for the current fiscal year. This, in combination with in-kind contributions by the Hampton Roads Partnership, allowed the HRFO to have another very successful year.

The HRFO does not define success by sightings of George Clooney or Tom Hanks in Hampton Roads. Major motion picture production does bring in significant economic impact to a region, but so do independent films, television series, commercial work, corporate video, and other types of production. During calendar year 2009, production companies have come to Hampton Roads from networks including MTV, A&E, TLC, BBC, Discovery, The Food Network, The History Channel and others. They have produced shows including the TLC hit series “What Not to Wear”, A&E’s “Hoarders”, and The Food Network’s “Throw Down With Bobby Flay”. As far as big budget Hollywood productions “The Box” starring Cameron Diaz was partially filmed in Hampton at NASA Langley, where over 150 extras were hired along with a large contingent of local crew members. The HBO mini-series “John Adams” starring Paul Gamatti and Laura Linney, and produced by Tom Hanks filmed in Virginia and spent nearly $80 million dollars in the state, with a portion of that in Williamsburg.

The Hampton Roads region produced $120 million in economic impact, $9 million in state and local tax revenue, and created over 700 jobs annually since the inception of the HRFO in 2006. The reality series “Eish Safari” filmed in Hampton Roads this past summer produced over 900 man-hours of work for local crew and spent nearly $1 million dollars in the region, and while you may not see it in the theaters, 20 million viewers overseas will. They will see the beauty and the history of Hampton Roads, Virginia and maybe decide it’s where they want to take their next vacation or locate their next business venture.

The HRFO’s lobbying efforts over the last 4 years at the Virginia General Assembly has been for funding of the production industry as a whole in an effort to create jobs, not for money to fund the regional office. The HRFO is currently working with the Norfolk Economic Development Alliance to create an Advisory Board to help secure funding and commit to a long-term strategic plan so the Film Office can continue to bring in production dollars and create jobs in Hampton Roads.

Please feel free to contact the Film Office with any comments, questions or concerns.

W. Jeffrey Frizzell has been Commissioner of the Hampton Roads Film Office (HRFO) since it’s inception. The Film Office, a division of the Hampton Roads Partnership, opened in July of 2006 with it’s office located in downtown Norfolk. The HRFO mission is to generate economic impacts in the Hampton Roads region by attracting film, television and related media projects to our region. The Film Office assists local and out of area productions with location, crew and resource (building materials, rental cars, hotel, etc) assistance. The film office also markets the region as a superior location of choice.

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Feb 12

Blueprint America – Blueprint for Hampton Roads?

Categories:

Business & Economy, Transportation

by HR Partnership

“There was a time when American investments in infrastructure and a willingness to plan long-term powered the growth of the most dynamic industrial economy on Earth.” That’s a bold statement from “Blueprint America,” the PBS series on the nation’s infrastructure which aired here in Hampton Roads on February 8th.

This episode, entitled “Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City,” may be focused on the original “Motor City” Detroit, Michigan. But, the program title is an obvious double-entendre… with transportation infrastructure focused on moving beyond the automobile.

“National planning in this country is widely believed to be an un-American activity, an exercise in bureaucratic hubris best left to the French. In fact, national planning is as American as the family farm, the transcontinental railroads, the great hydro-electric dams of the South and West, and the interstate highway system. Not only were these and other characteristic elements of our culture and economy the product of national planning; the federal government itself was created in large part to overcome the barriers to national planning that existed under the Articles of Confederation. Indeed, I would argue that no other nation has been so profoundly planned as the United States,” says Professor Robert Fishman, University of Michigan.

While the documentary focused on one city’s rise, fall, and budding renaissance, of interest was the discussion of rail:  its history, its future and innovations in engineering and in financing.

It was noted that railroads are what defined and connected America in its early years. Abraham Lincoln was a great proponent of railroads, and he carried out the transcontinental railroad portion of the Thomas Jefferson-inspired Gallatin Plan in the 1860s, in a time of crisis, i.e., the Civil War, when the country was under threat of being torn apart permanently. The Gallatin Plan embodied perhaps the most revolutionary vision of any national plan: the creation of a truly democratic society through the planned settlement of a whole continent.

In just six years, the Atlantic and Pacific were linked by rail cutting travel time from coast to coast from 6 months to 6 days.

Growth of railroads 1840-1880

The first great national plan bears the name of Thomas Jefferson’s brilliant Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, although his 1808 “Gallatin Plan” owed as much to Jefferson himself as to Gallatin.

Indeed, it was the very success of the Jefferson/Gallatin vision through the 19th century that prompted the second campaign of national planning, which began exactly a century after the Gallatin Plan in 1908 with Theodore Roosevelt’s great conservation initiatives.

Looking at successful rail projects in Europe, the documentary highlighted Spain’s success:

“The countries that have seen the most growth and are the most harmonious are those – always – who have had the best infrastructure. And those that don’t have these types of solutions find themselves in a slow decline in their importance and their weight in the world,” according to ildefonso de matías, Managing Director of the Metro de Madrid.

AVE 200MPH electric train, Spain

In the last 25 years, Spain developed its high speed rail network and now boasts the most modern infrastructure in Europe. Transportation infrastructure was Spain’s “Man on the Moon” project. Six of the top 10 infrastructure companies in the world are now located in Spain. And, Spain’s on track with their goal of 20% of the country’s power from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Watch the entire documentary and check out previous programs, “Road to the Future.”

For a transcript and video of the PBS NewsHour report on Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City, visit http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/jan-june10/detroit_02-08.html

Visit this Blueprint website link for more information from Professor Fishman.

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