EDA tours county business sites

 On Friday the 13^th, members of the Goochland Economic Development Authority, joined by supervisor candidates Steven Shawaroch, District 4, and Jonathan Lyle, District 5, joined Director of Economic Development Sara Worley and Chance Robinson, Economic Development Coordinator for a tour of county business sites.

Members of the Goochland EDA and others look over 623 Landfill

According to the EDA website, “The purpose of this authority is to acquire, own, lease and dispose of properties to the end that it may be able to promote industry and develop trade by inducing manufacturing, industrial, governmental and commercial enterprises to locate in or remain in the County and to further the use of its agricultural products and natural resources, and all other purposes as are now or may hereafter be set forth in the Economic Development and Revenue Bond Act, Chapter 33, Title 5.1 of the Code of Virginia.”

The tour provided an opportunity to see how businesses fit into the county landscape. The group boarded “Betty White”, a bus in the fleet of Long Long Weekend (https://longlongweekend.org/), at the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in West Creek and drove past headquarters of Virginia Farm Bureau and Performance Food Group.

Heading west on Rt.6, Worley announced that Goochland’s first free standing Starbucks will be built in the next year at the Oak Hill mixed use development near the intersection of Rts. 6 and 288.  

Driving around the shuttered West Creek emergency center, Worley explained that its owner, HCA, is neither interested in selling, nor leasing the facility for non-medical uses. HCA bought the 57-acre parcel about 15 years ago with expectations that it would eventually grow into a hospital. Failure to build the bridge connecting Tuckahoe Creek Parkway with Ridgefield Parkway in Henrico is believed to have changed the company’s plans.

Worley got permission to drive through the nearly three-hundred-acre secure Capital One West Creek Campus, which brings several thousand employees to the county daily.

Driving north on Hockett Road, the bus passed the Greenswell Growers’ hydroponic food production facility, which Worley said will plans an expansion in the near future.

Traveling east on Broad Street Road, Worley pointed out Chick Fil-A, Tommy’s Car Wash, Valvoline, and an emergency veterinary hospital under construction, all new businesses joining Audi of Richmond, Sunbelt Rentals, and Wawa on the north side of the road.

Turning onto Wilkes Ridge Parkway, the tour passed the Marriott Residence Inn, Goochland’s only hotel, Sheltering Arms Hospital, which is preparing to expand, medical office buildings, and the continuing care retirement community Avery Point.  

Worley explained that West Creek received county approval to build apartments on no more than 60 acres of the 3,500-acre business park. Three apartment communities, Apartments communities at Retreat on Wilkes Ridge Parkway, one on Broad Branch Dive and a third nearing completion at Oak Hill have used up that acreage.

Next stop was the Ashland Road 623 Republic Services Landfill, north of I64, which was the highlight of the afternoon.

Debris is carefully added to landfill. Trucks are much larger than they appear

Republic representatives explained that the landfill, which has been in operation for decades, is built in sections carefully designed to protect the environment and pass rigorous inspections. They accept only non-hazardous inert construction debris, which has no organic matter that could generate methane as it decomposes. Leachate—liquid that percolates to the base of the landfill, mostly rainwater—is collected and removed from the site via county sewer lines to prevent groundwater contamination.

The group got a bird’s eye view of the area, especially the neighboring Luck Stone quarry, which has been in operation for decades and still has lots of rock to extract. They watched as large tractor trailers were upended as though they were toy trucks as their cargo was discharged onto the pile.

The Luck stone quarry will be wresting rock from the earth for many years to come

It will be quite a few years before the 623 landfill reaches capacity.

The tour then went north on Ashland Road, which has been designated for heavy industrial use for at least 40 years Worley pointed out the sites of both “Project Rocky” the e- commerce facility approved last year and is working its way through a complicated development process, and the speculative office/warehouse project approved earlier this year.

Rockville Commerce Center and Lanier Business Park, home to “heavier “industrial users that require outside storage, were up next. Both are almost fully occupied.

Worley said that a shortage of business ready sites makes it difficult to attract new businesses to the county.

Then the bus headed west on Broad Street Road to the Goochland Industrial Park and Old Dominion Industrial Park in Oilville, both of which allow outside storage. Last stop was a ride through the Oilville Business Park.

An interesting variety of companies call Goochland home. The EDA works closely with the county Economic Development Department https://www.goochlandforbusiness.com/ to attract more quality businesses to Goochland to bolster our tax base and create jobs.

Thanks to the EDA and Economic Development Department for letting GOMM tag along.