Technology Keeps Brewing Up Strong Opportunities

As one would expect from a region dubbed the “Technology Center of Hampton Roads,”the Virginia Peninsula is home to a high concentration of ITcompanies. This concentration is driven and supported by a number of factors. The region is home to a superb communications infrastructure and strong federal research and development institutions. The high-tech labor pool continues to grow as individuals seek out the informal “communal” structure of colleagues located on the Peninsula.

One of the major industry beneficiaries of our regional research and development expertise is the manufacturing industry. For example, access to NASALangley’s technology transfer programs and the work of the ARC’s Laser Processing Consortium provide first-to-market productivity enhancement opportunities to local firms.

Shipbuilding is one of the major industries impacting our local economy and affected by military changes taking place to meet the new world order. Northrop Grumman Newport News, located on the lower Peninsula, is America’s largest privately-owned shipyard. For more than a century, NGNS has designed, built, overhauled and repaired numerous types of ships for the U.S. Navy and commercial customers.

Northrop Grumman Newport News, the only yard in the United States capable of building and servicing a full range of surface and submersible ships, is best known for building the giant Nimitz-class carriers, sleek Virginia-class guided missile cruisers and the sophisticated Los Angeles-class attack submarines . The yard is also the birthplace of the famous luxury liner S.S. United States.

In order to insure the yard’s place in the construction of nuclear aircraft carriers (a mainstay of Virginia’s and our own local economy), state and local government officials are supporting through various incentive packages of money ($98 million), services and land, the construction of a high-tech research facility in downtown Newport News, creating between 500 and 700 high-tech, high-paying positions.

This is only the beginning of an eruption of opportunity in the hi-tech field as a profound shift in the computer industry — networking — pushes Virginia to the top as the emerging “Internet Capital,” with its world-class infusion of Internet businesses ranging from America Online to WorldCom.

According to the American Electronics Association, Virginia ranks among the top-ten states in terms of tech jobs, and its growth rate is among the highest in the nation.

“Virginia continues to lead the nation into the future,” former Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard says. “Tech companies are falling over themselves to find technology-skilled workers to keep pace with the expansion.”

Locally, Virginia’s high-tech magnetic draw put the computer giant Gateway in Hampton and the Jefferson Lab in Newport News. This momentum has a ripple effect, driving the creation of new companies and the migration and expansion of existing ones. As we build on our strengths and continue to diversify in the high-tech fields, we should be able to fortify our position on the high-tech map.

New industries, businesses and corporate headquarters are also lured to the Peninsula by over

26 office and industrial parks. These in-place parks, combined with the proximity and variety of transportation and distribution systems and the Peninsula’s quality of life, present an attractive package to prospective firms and major investors.

Listed below are the area’s leading employers and the array of products or services they provide. (Also see the “Major Industries” listed in the colored boxes for each municipality in the Neighborhoods section.)

MAdvex Corporation

Precision Machine Metal Fabricators

Anheuser-Busch

Beer Production

Verizon Communications

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Amusement and Entertainment

C & F Enterprises

Home Furnishings, Crafts and Antiques

Canon Virginia

Copiers, Laser Printers and Supplies

Casey’s Seafood Seafood

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Museums, Restaurants and Hotels

Computer Sciences Corporation

Computer Science

CSX

Railroad

Dominion Terminal Associates

Coal

Gateway Computers

Howmet Corporation

Precision Castings, Gas Turbine

Components

Jefferson Lab

Atomic Research

MCI

Telecommunications

NASA/Langley Research Center

Aeronautical and Space Research

Northrop Grumman

Newport News

Ship Building, Repair and Overhaul

Siemens Automotive

Electric Fuel-Injector System

Smithfield Foods

Hams and other Food Products

Tyrolit Abrasives

Abrasive Grinding Wheels

United Parcel Service

Special Delivery Service

Williamsburg Winery

Wine Production