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Port Authority Urges Isle of Wight to Plan for Growth

Posted on: Monday, 29 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

BY LINDA McNATT

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY As the port of Virginia reaches out for the world market, it is also reaching out to the rural counties of western Hampton Roads.

By 2030, the Virginia Port Authority estimates that its customers could need between 30 and 50 additional distribution centers, where containers from foreign lands would be trucked in, unpacked and the goods sent all over the eastern United States.

Port officials have developed a plan for the future called an Intermodal Park Concept. The study was released for the first time this week to officials in rural Isle of Wight County, just one of the areas identified for potential development.

That we will need all of this is mind-boggling, said Russell J. Held, managing director of marketing for the Virginia Port Authority. But we know it takes time for zoning, road and rail plans.

The plan is expected to bring economic growth to rural areas of western Hampton Roads an estimated 26,000 new jobs with annual wages of $788 million and a regional economic impact of $2.7 billion, in addition to increased tax revenues.

The study was completed by Moffatt & Nichols, an international engineering company with offices in Norfolk and Richmond. It was done to coincide with the construction of the Maersk terminal in Portsmouth, due to be completed in 2007, and planning for another terminal at Craney Island, which could be completed by 2017, Held said.

Cargo volume across the docks in Hampton Roads is projected to keep rising for the foreseeable future and it has to have somewhere to go, said Michael Crist of Moffatt & Nichols.

Were going to see a strong rise in cargo demand, Crist said. These kinds of large tracts of land are unavailable in Norfolk and Portsmouth. Isle of Wight and Suffolk look like ideal places.

Isle of Wight County, with its Cost Plus World Market warehouse in the Shirley T. Holland Commerce Park on U.S. 460, with both rail and highway access, is a beginning, Held said.

County officials this week announced plans by Johnson Development Associates of Spartanburg, S.C., to build another 300,000-square- foot warehouse at the commerce park near Windsor. The speculative building is expected to be complete by early next year.

We anticipate absorbing the space in the relatively near future, said Wade Taylor, marketing manager for the countys department of economic development. The marketing process has already begun.

Cost Plus took up phase one of the commerce park, Taylor said. Phase two includes about 350 acres, and the county is already looking at other sites nearby.

We presented the study to Isle of Wight first because they have already bought into the distribution center pot, said Held. What theyre doing could be done on a larger scale.

The port authority will be looking for about 3,500 acres of land that can be developed within 25 to 35 miles from the marine terminals, a distance short enough for a truck to turn around three or four times a day.

Norfolk Southern Corp., the railroad headquartered in Norfolk, owns a 1,600-acre parcel on U.S. 460 near Windsor where it originally planned to develop a coal storage facility. But it withdrew those plans as the coal market shifted and has been holding the land for potential economic development.

Port officials would like to see the distribution centers in a central location to make planning for roads and rail systems easier.

The Port of Virginia is truly an economic engine, Taylor said. With the Maersk facility coming on line and Craney Island in the future, this is extremely good news for the region.

Crist compared one of the 30 to 50 facilities the port will need with the Cost Plus warehouse in Windsor and the Target distribution center in Suffolk, off of U.S. 58, with 23 acres under one roof.

The intermodal park isnt a new idea, he said. Were about to see an explosion in cargo. Think of 30 to 50 Targets by 2030 to meet the demand.

The port authority, said Held, is simply planning ahead.

We have a plan and the infrastructure in place for the next two generations of ships, he said. Were really set up. There is nowhere else in the country that has a plan like this in place.

The plan for the future, he said, fulfills our mission of economic well-being for the c ommonwealth.

* Reach Linda McNatt at (757 ) 222-5561 or linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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