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522 North Ninth Avenue East, Newton, IA 50208
York/New Jersey and Atlanta and northern Florida. It also
provides easy access to Midwest markets.
“We typically tell folks that from central Virginia, you
can access about 40 percent of the U.S. population within a
day’s drive,” says Rob McClintock, director of research for
the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. “That’s
a big chunk of the market right there. And if you just draw
a radius of 750 miles, you hit 55 percent of the population.
So you can get there from here. And you can get your stuff
there from here.”
By “there,” McClintock doesn’t just mean the domestic
U.S. market. “We like to think of Virginia as really a gate-
way for the rest of the world,” he says.
The Port of Virginia serves as the state’s point of entry
for international commerce, offering connections to about
200 countries, according to McClintock. The port’s core
asset is Hampton Roads Harbor, which, at 50 feet of depth,
shares with Baltimore the distinction of having the deepest
water of any East Coast port. The water depth is expected
to make Hampton Roads inviting to super post-Panamax
vessels, which many experts believe will increasingly be
used to serve the East Coast once the expanded Panama
Canal opens.
Another attractive feature of the port, according to
Russell Held, the port’s vice president of economic devel-
opment, is that it has room to grow. The Port of Virginia is
the only port on the East Coast with congressional authori-
zation to deepen its channels to 55 feet, and the rivers that
serve the port are free of obstructions such as bridges, rail
crossings, or power lines that would restrict large vessels
from entering the port. Furthermore, the port will be look-
ing to expand its Virginia International Gateway Terminal
within the next five years and is “roughing out” a possible
600-acre expansion site for a marine terminal on Craney
Island in the harbor.
“We are possibly the only port in the U.S. that can show
how it can expand not only next year but also 30 years in
the future,” says Held.
Business at the port is driving an increase in warehouse and DC development along the I- 64 corridor from
Hampton Roads to Richmond, according to Mark Levy,
managing director and the mid-Atlantic logistics and
industrial practice group leader for the commercial real
estate firm JLL. Most of the DCs near the Hampton Roads
port are used for transloading and breakbulk services.
Because Hampton Roads lacks a large population base, it
doesn’t have many big box distribution centers, Levy says.
Instead, companies like Amazon are locating their million-square-foot mega-DCs near the state capital in Richmond,
which is situated halfway between the port and the major
consumer market of Northern Virginia, which surrounds
Washington, D.C., says Levy.
Vitamin Shoppe, a health and wellness retailer, last
year opened a 311,740-square-foot distribution center
in Ashland, Va., about 19 miles from Richmond. After
an exhaustive site selection process, the company chose
Ashland over other sites in Virginia and North Carolina.
“It is a great location situated right off I-95. The proximity
to a major highway serves us well in getting shipments out
quickly, as we move most of our freight by truck,” says Rich
Tannenbaum, Vitamin’s Shoppe’s senior vice president,
supply chain and information technology.
Virginia’s infrastructure enables it to support other
modes of transportation. For example, Virginia has the
third-largest state-maintained highway system in the country, with six major interstates. Two Class 1 railroads serve
the port: Norfolk Southern and CSX, both of which are
headquartered in the state. Currently, 34 percent of the
port’s cargo arrives and departs by rail, the largest percentage of any U.S. East Coast port.
In Northern Virginia, Dulles International Airport serves
as a major hub for both passenger traffic and cargo.
According to McClintock, there is enough available space
around Dulles that the airport could expand its capacity by
a few hundred acres.
Virginia’s maritime traffic is not limited to oceangoing
vessels. Two and a half years ago, the port established
a barge service from Hampton Roads to the Port of
Richmond on the James River. Barge traffic has grown to
the point where service is now offered three times a week,
