Williamsburg Economic Development Authority outlines small-business supports, new hospitality training and incentive results

The City of Williamsburg’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism presented its small-business retention programs and regional workforce-training plans to the City Council on May 8, 2025. Staff framed retention—helping existing local businesses grow—as the core engine of the city’s economy and described grants, concierge services and a new hospitality training effort tied to recent state legislative changes.

“Approximately 80% of your community’s economic growth is going to come from your existing business community,” department representative Miss Matsumoto told council, summarizing the office’s focus on business retention visits, grant support and partner referrals. The EDA’s matching grants include exterior improvement funds, website and search-engine-optimization support, Google interior virtual tours, and a grant that provides bike racks.

The department described a recent case study that prompted regional collaboration: business surveys and outreach identified workforce shortages in customer-service and basic workplace skills. Staff said a change in state legislation last summer expanded eligibility for the Fast Forward workforce-training program to include tourism and hospitality for the first time; that expansion enabled the city and partners (Virginia Peninsula Community College, the Chamber, James City County and York County) to design a regional hospitality certification and training pipeline and to convene a regional survey of businesses. The staff presentation said the survey and planned in-person feedback sessions will run through the end of the month and that the city is exploring paid internships to provide hands-on experience.

The EDA also provided performance figures for its discretionary incentive program, which staff described as a revenue‑sharing model (incentives are paid after a new business opens and meets performance targets). The presentation reported that the EDA and council have awarded 12 incentive packages that staff estimate secured 279 new full‑time jobs and roughly $12,900,000 in private capital investment. Staff said six of the incentive packages have graduated and six remain underway. The presenter reported that, to date, the incentivized businesses “have generated $2,260,000 in new taxes” and that $6,615,000 has been shared back with the businesses under performance agreements; the department framed the program as performance‑based and aimed at closing financing gaps for businesses preparing to open.

Staff also described outreach and technical assistance work: a one‑on‑one business retention and expansion (BRE) visit program, a quarterly business roundtable series, a Peninsula Home Based Business Network (run regionally with the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center) and an annual home‑based business conference slated for Nov. 6. The EDA said its team (a three‑person department) currently supports an average of 35 existing businesses and connects with about 14 prospective businesses per month.

Why it matters: the presentation signals city investment in programs intended to keep and grow locally owned businesses, to develop a talent pipeline for hospitality employers and to use incentives to leverage private capital. Council members thanked staff and encouraged outreach to affected businesses.

Ending: staff said registration for next week’s small‑business spotlight and the regional survey remain open, and they asked council and the public to help promote the training and feedback sessions.