Council debates expansion, preservation and incentives for Innovation Park in Princess Anne Commons

City staff delivered a history and status briefing on Virginia Beach’s Innovation Park on Jan. 14, outlining the park’s origin as a biomedical hub, its pivot to an advanced-manufacturing focus, current tenants and available parcels, and options for expansion.

The City Council heard that the Innovation Park sits inside the Princess Anne Commons SEGA (Special Economic Growth Area), includes about 31 acres available for development (largest roughly 17 acres), and hosts major private investments including Acoustical Sheet Metal and AGI. Staff said infrastructure investments to date include $6 million adopted in 2021 for phase two and $18.6 million added in 2023, and that a state site-readiness grant of $866,000 was awarded to extend sanitary sewer.

Why it matters: Innovation Park represents a potential growth corridor for advanced manufacturing and higher-value commercial tax base, but expansion could conflict with previously adopted ITA and sports/recreation plans and would require costly infrastructure work in poorly draining soils.

Staff described the park’s development timeline: a 2014 master concept for a biomedical hub; a 2016 conveyance of roughly 150 acres to the Virginia Beach Development Authority to promote biomedical and healthcare industry; and a 2020 shift away from the biomedical-only approach after market studies and the pandemic changed demand. The presentation noted private investments: Acoustical Sheet Metal purchased land and invested in a multi-phase expansion (staff said the company employs just under 400 and the investment exceeded $43 million) and AGI retained 500 jobs and is undertaking a multi-phase build with phase-one investment estimated at $41 million. Staff said these projects were supported by state incentive matches, and that parts of the city match were satisfied through donated land.

Council members pressed staff on likely market demand, environmental constraints and plan consistency. Councilwoman Barbara Henley and others recited the park’s planning history back to purchases in the 1990s and the ITA plan’s earlier vision of villages (education, health care and recreation). Henley and other council members warned that expanding industrial zoning into ITA-preserved areas could displace planned recreation, trails and an agricultural transition envisioned by earlier plans. Staff confirmed that an ITA amendment and conditional rezoning would be required for any expansion and that preliminary order-of-magnitude infrastructure costs ranged from roughly $5–7 million for a contiguous 29-acre parcel to $25–30 million for a noncontiguous few-hundred-acre expansion; staff cautioned these are high-level estimates and would require further study.

The council also asked about incentive practice. Staff said state grants often require a local match and that the city has in prior instances matched Commonwealth incentives by donating land rather than cash; deputies said the BBDA (Virginia Beach Development Authority) made such decisions in past transactions.

Council responses varied: some members emphasized preserving the adopted ITA vision, trails and the protected 26-acre mature forested wetlands and urged caution; others emphasized the need to grow the commercial tax base for jobs and to relieve residential tax burden, and suggested exploring a balanced approach that could accommodate industrial expansion while preserving key recreational and environmental features. Staff said both uses could be accommodated in a compromise, but that expanding Innovation Park comes with infrastructure cost and soil constraints.

Next steps: staff said it would gather additional data, including soil and infrastructure cost specifics, and return with options and draft analyses if council directs further exploration.