Volume 86 No. 3
“The Voice of Port Industries”
August 2022
@VAmaritime
VIRGINIA BEACH DRONE UP TO ADD 655 JOBS Virginia Beach-based DroneUp LLC (VMA’s newest Bronze Anchor member) is adding 655 jobs as part of a $27 million expansion that will include establishing a drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced during a news conference at the Executive Mansion in Richmond. DroneUp, which specializes in commercial drone delivery and flight services and software, will invest $20 million to establish the college center and $7 million to expand its Virginia Beach headquarters at 160 Newtown Road. The headquarters, currently about 15,000 square feet, will expand to about 80,000 square feet. Youngkin and DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker began discussing the project in February. “DroneUp’s decision to expand its footprint across Virginia shines a spotlight on the advantages, the strengths, that are providing this great growth platform for not just companies,” Youngkin said, “but for Virginians: our best in class location right here, right here on the East Coast with a port that serves the world, a world-class infrastructure beyond our port, with investment in roads and broadband in order to connect Virginia, a highly skilled workforce
that is the envy of the nation in a top-tiered education system. And when we bring together this winning formula, companies win and Virginia wins.” The company will add 510 jobs at its headquarters and it will create 145 jobs for drone operator trainers at the training center. DroneUp currently has about 300 employees but expects to have about 750 by the end of this year, DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker said. “When you’re growing that fast, you’re hiring in everything. You’re hiring in marketing, you’re hiring in finance, you’re hiring in technology,” Walker said, referencing the fact that DroneUp’s new headquarters jobs will be divided across a variety of fields. DroneUp will open three drone hubs at Walmart Inc. locations in Virginia in the next two to three months that the company will use in the new operator training program, Walker said. Those hubs will be at two locations in Chesterfield County and one in Chesapeake, said Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer. However, announcing locations is a bit premature, said T. Preston Lloyd Jr., a Williams Mullen partner representing DroneUp: “At this time, DroneUp is still negotiating and exploring where those final hub Continue Reading on Page 3
AMAZON OPENS NEW CHESAPEAKE FACILITY Amazon.com Inc. opened its new, 640,000-square-foot processing facility in Chesapeake, the global e-tailer’s first crossdock fulfillment center in Virginia
PORT OF VIRGINIA NAMES VERIZON TO BUILD 5G NETWORK
About 900 of the 1,000 workers that Amazon announced it would be hiring for the facility are already on the job, an Amazon spokeswoman told Virginia Business.
Wireless data providers are working to install fifth generation (5G) cell coverage for commercial use in cities nationwide, but in the meantime, logistics industry sites are building their own private 5G networks.
Located at 5045 Portsmouth Blvd., the Chesapeake center receives and consolidates products from vendors and ships them to surrounding fulfillment centers Continue Reading on Page 4
In the latest application, The Port of Virginia has named Verizon to build a similar system for high-bandwidth industrial uses and secure day-to-day networking, the Continue Reading on Page 4
INSIDE THIS EDITION h Port Announces VPA Leadership (2)
h CMA CGM Deploys Buoy To Detect Whales (4)
h Port Of Virginia Sets Volume Record for July (4)
h New FMC Enforcement Structure (3)
h RoadOne Opens Norfolk Center (4)
h Event Highlight: MLCP Event (7)
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