HR Partnership | March 8, 2010

In 2009, Hampton Roads lost 6,000 jobs, a figure that economists at Old Dominion University believe will eventually be adjusted to 8,000 jobs. The regional economy continues to be buffered by federal and military spending, but how long does that last? And should we have all of our eggs in one “basket”? The president, the governor and many other politicians are touting their job-creation plans. But what are the jobs of the future economic recovery in Hampton Roads? How can companies take advantage of these new types of jobs?

Jobs in health care and services could replace construction and manufacturing jobs. But how do you train for these new job demands and who will do the training? If new industries such as clean energy emerge, what kind of jobs will they produce? Will the need for these new jobs change the mission of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance and the goals of the municipal economic development departments?

On the morning of March 16th at Norfolk Waterside Marriott, a panel of those “in the know” will tackle these issues at the Cox and Inside Business Executive Discussion Series. Register here.

Panelists are…

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Category: Economy | No Comments »
Tags: Cox, Economy, Hampton Roads, Inside Business, Jobs, Military Bastion, ODU, WHRO

HR Partnership | March 5, 2010

There is one over-arching goal for the first five-year plan called Vision Hampton Roads:

“With proper foresight, continuous planning and dynamic economic development, Hampton Roads will be recognized internationally as a region fueled by Innovation, Intellectual and Human Capital, Infrastructure and a Sense of Place.”

What started as just another economic development planning tool, one intended to aid local governments in decision-making and with accompanying federally mandated guidelines in order to qualify for federal grants, has become so much more.

While the “Vision” document does analyze regional and local economic conditions within Hampton Roads and identify projects, programs and initiatives that address economic development, this process was very different from past such economic development strategies.

Public participation was a key element. “We need more opportunities like this to voice our opinion for the future of Hampton Roads,” said one public commenter.

It was clear that economic development of today is much more far-reaching than what property is developed to become the next shopping center or housing development.

It’s important to address who and what is Hampton Roads as a region, who lives here and why, what our business identity is, how we attract entrepreneurs, creativity and innovation and what is new and different in today’s planning, to name a few. These common themes, labeled “Sense of Place,” emerged to be almost as important as the original goal of the process: to achieve U.S. Dept. of Commerce Economic Development Administration’s Federal Economic Development District Designation.

After months and months of meetings involving a broad cross-section of our region’s communities and significant public input, the document is complete and now posted at http://VisionHamptonRoads.com.

But, this is just the beginning. The real work starts now.

Hampton Roads Partnership (“Vision” lead organization) President and CEO, Dana Dickens, is making the rounds of public meetings, governmental and organizational alike, delivering the message of alignment that is Hampton Road’s first comprehensive region-wide economic development strategy.

Click here for the Virginia Beach Council Meeting Video.

To make progress in each city or county of Hampton Roads, clear goals must be set and aligned regionally, public involvement must be considered and success must be measured, says Dickens.

At a recent City of Portsmouth planning retreat, Liz Povar, director of business development for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, said “Teams that win play as partners,” adding that she knows that’s not always easy on the local level. If any theme also emerged during the Portsmouth retreat, it was the value of regional cooperation.

All citizen comments may be found in the Public Responsiveness Summary, added as Addenda #1 due to its length as it is longer than the document itself. Participants can see how their comments were integrated into the final plan.

Some especially poignant comments include:

“As you move forward with this activity, make certain you are seeing these visions through the eyes of the different generations, i.e., k-12, college age, new career starters, mature family builders, and retiring people. Each group’s vision is affected by their current life needs,” cautioned one resident.

“Vision Hampton Roads is a comprehensive, objective and very credible document. If it does in fact increase momentum to think and act regionally, its value – and impact – to the area’s economic vitality and quality of life will be tremendous,” added one respondent.

Overall, the strategy-creation experience in Hampton Roads has been about setting into motion an ongoing process that is embraced by our region. “Vision” planning has placed Hampton Roads on a path to regional transformation by embedding a working process in all that we do as we… think, live and act regionally.

A separate Executive Summary has been posted as well and includes a table of contents for the complete document. Specific task forces to implement the plan are in the development stages and volunteers are welcomed. Citizens of the region are encouraged to review “Vision Hampton Roads” and stake a claim to the component (or components) where you can help make a difference.

Volunteer at Contact@VisionHamptonRoads.com.

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Category: About Hampton Roads, Economy, Government & Citizens, Military Bastion | No Comments »
Tags: Civic Engagement, Economy, Hampton Roads, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Vision

HR Partnership | February 26, 2010

Click on image to download your copy of Bravo!

From Particia Rublein, Executive Director of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads, committed to leveraging arts and culture as one more key industry our communities need to become great places to live and work.

The importance of the arts in our communities and in our schools:

Like most economic endeavors, these are not easy times for the arts. But we need the arts. A healthy arts economy not only nurtures our well-being but contributes to a healthy tax base. The arts need to be recognized as part of the solution to our economic turmoil.

It is gratifying to see the advancement of many arts and cultural projects moving forward, especially the renovation and expansion of the Children’s Museum of Virginia located in Portsmouth and the expansion of The American Theatre in Hampton.

Several Hampton Roads arts organizations are looking ahead positively with an eye toward advancement and growth. The pages in this edition of BRAVO! speak to that work.

The businesses and citizens of Hampton Roads understand the need and continue to provided generous support to the effort. Each year arts and culture organizations host, and provide jobs to, thousands of Virginia residents, and generate millions of dollars in revenue, adding a large infusion of visitors to local economies.

More than 300 arts and cultural organizations and individual arts call Hampton Roads “home.” From Williamsburg to the North Carolina border our region hosts historical restoration sites, museums, premiere opera, symphonies, galleries, literary festivals, theater, ballet, art studios, choral groups, independent movie theaters and arts education opportunities.

These resources are what economic development professionals refer to as their “quality of life,” and are, in many respects, the key ingredient in our efforts to attract high-end and high-paying business enterprises to the area.

Beyond the bottom line, research informs us that when students study music, when they read, perform in a play or visit an art exhibit, they learn to appreciate those who produced those works, and become more receptive to other people. The professional artists associated with those institutions become our children’s teachers. And we have found that through involvement in the arts children learn better.

Whatever our economic situation, the arts overlap with almost every discipline of daily life, promote healing, enhance the environment, foster a healthy workplace and improve education – primary tools to sustaining a high quality of life. These are the features that define our civic identity.

Bravo! Magazine is the definitive arts and culture printed resource in Hampton Roads for venues and events in dance, museums and lectures, music, theater, visual arts, festivals and the friends who bring them to us all.

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Category: About Hampton Roads, Arts & Culture, Economy, Visit HR | No Comments »
Tags: Arts, Culture, Economy, Education, Hampton Roads, Sense of Place, Tourism

HR Partnership | February 25, 2010

A truck pulls out of a parking lot at the corner of Union Camp Drive and Jamestown Lane in the shadow of International Paper Corp. on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. The paper company announced the day before that it will close its Franklin paper mill next spring. (Photo credit: Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot)

by Donna Morris, Executive Vice President of Hampton Roads Partnership

A recent meeting of the Paul D. Camp Regional Workforce Development Council held in the soon-to- be-closed International Paper Mill in Franklin was a slice of re-dedication to “regional cooperation” in Hampton Roads. The Workforce Development Council includes representatives from business, education, and local government. Most of those attending the meeting work or live in Franklin, Isle of Wight, Southampton and Suffolk.

I was asked to summarize the region-wide comprehensive economic development strategy, Vision Hampton Roads, as a representative of the Hampton Roads Partnership (HRP), as well as provide empathy, share encouragement and learn. I considered the challenges that closing the paper mill had given us. This part of our community had a shared history of calamity and recovery. In recent times they have endured the effects of a disastrous 500-year flood, damaging hurricane spawned tornadoes, and now the closing of one of the oldest and largest manufacturing businesses in Hampton Roads.

On the morning of the meeting, I left the Virginia Beach oceanfront at 5:30 am, not sure how long the commute would take with the tunnel, traffic congestion and 60-odd miles of highway to Franklin. I thought that talking about Vision Hampton Roads, which the Partnership and other regional organizations and individuals have been working on for nearly a year was easy, but how could I offer empathy and encouragement? Read more…

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Category: Economy, Education & Workforce, Military Bastion | 2 Comments »
Tags: Franklin, Hampton Roads, International Paper, Sense of Place

HR Partnership | February 24, 2010

About 22% of Hampton Roads homeowners with a mortgage owe more on their homes than they’re worth, according to a new report.

Nationally, 24% of residential properties with a mortgage were in “negative equity,” up from 23% at the end of the third quarter, according to the fourth-quarter report released…

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Category: Economy, Military Bastion | 1 Comment »
Tags: Economy, Hampton Roads, ODU

HR Partnership | February 23, 2010

Kimon Jackson, a Nuclear Medicine Supervisor at Riverside Diagnostic & Breast Center, a nationally recognized “Breast Imaging Center of Excellence” and part of Riverside Health System, uses the Dilon technology. Riverside sees between 20-25 patients a month for imaging procedures on the Dilon 6800.

BSGI—Breast Specific Gamma Imaging. If Dilon Technologies Inc. has its way, the abbreviation will soon be as common as MRI. Based in Newport News, Dilon Technologies is poised for such success. Not only is this company changing the face of nuclear imaging in the medical industry, it’s improving the quality of and access to women’s health care.

Read more from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Commerce Quarterly, Winter 2010….

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Category: Economy, Research & Technology | No Comments »
Tags: Health, Manufacturing, Riverside

HR Partnership | February 19, 2010

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.”…

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Category: Economy | No Comments »
Tags: Economy, Hampton Roads, James City County, William and Mary

HR Partnership | February 17, 2010

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…

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Category: Economy, Military Bastion | 1 Comment »
Tags: Hampton Roads, Military Bastion

HR Partnership | February 13, 2010

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…click through to read more.

Ipconfigure, is an IP surveillance company…click through to read more.

Cobham Composites, an industry leader in high tech military and civil aerospace composite products…click through to read more.

becker-solutions Corp., a German based hydraulic hose assembler and parts manufacturer…click through to read more.

Art Institute is a well renowned provider of creative and artistic related educational programs…click through to read more.

To learn more, visit HREDA’s website:

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Category: About Hampton Roads, Business Community, Economy | 1 Comment »
Tags: Economy, Hampton Roads, HREDA

HR Partnership | February 12, 2010

“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, namely Detroit, Michigan, 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.

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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Category: Economy, Transportation | 1 Comment »
Tags: Hampton Roads, Military Bastion, Rail