Big names back Amerigroup's bid for better roads

VIRGINIA BEACH

Amerigroup Corp., one of the city’s largest private employers, wants to expand its operations in Virginia Beach but only if taxpayers pitch in for about $3 million in road improvements that will help employees get to and from work.

Beach officials and Amerigroup’s advocates have been in discussions about the managed health care company’s expansion plans and the need for a road fix since last year, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The negotiations have been complicated and sometimes contentious, and they have drawn in influential local personalities, including Doug Ellis, a long time Virginia Beach Development Authority member, and Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson.

“They’re a Fortune 1000 company,” said Steve Herbert, the Beach’s chief development officer. “They’re exactly the kind of company we want to attract and keep in Virginia Beach.”

Amerigroup wants Virginia Beach to make improvements to Centerville Turnpike by early 2010, when the company would be ready to move into a new building on its campus next to Regent University.

Amerigroup said it is growing and needs office space for an additional 800 employees. But the company’s current 1,500-person work force already finds the traffic situation around the campus frustrating, said Kent Jenkins Jr., an Amerigroup spokesman.

“We just need to know what options are realistically available for expansion,” Jenkins said. “If that is not available, we have to look at what else is available for us. Certainly, we’d look elsewhere in the region.”

Amerigroup also will ask the city for an economic development incentive grant for its expansion, but the amount is still uncertain, Jenkins said.

Ellis, who has been presenting Amerigroup’s case, said the city should ensure that the company expands in Virginia Beach.

Old Dominion University economist James Koch released a study that found that the average annual salary of an Amerigroup employee was $51,508 in 2005, 40 percent above the regional average. Those are the kind of jobs Virginia Beach needs, Ellis said.

Ellis’ firm, the Ellis-Gibson Development Group, leases offices to Amerigroup and would be building the company’s third tower if it decided to expand.

“We, of course, along with the city, are trying to make our option the most attractive for Amerigroup,” Ellis said. “We’re looking at this as a competitive situation.”

On Jan. 15, Ellis sent an

e-mail to high-ranking city staff and the development authority chairman following up on several items from an authority meeting that morning.

“I need to discuss a fallback phased road program of a reduced scope, that will get AGP (Amerigroup) expansion done, as well as open up other office sites but stays as simple cost participation,” Ellis wrote.

The Christian Broadcasting Network, which owns the Amerigroup land and is developing the 500 acres around it, was pushing for a $30 million overall transportation solution. City staff had plenty of questions about CBN’s proposal, and in the e-mail, Ellis brought up the idea of a smaller, less costly solution for Amerigroup.

When Amerigroup-related issues come before the development authority for a vote, Ellis said, he has abstained.

Ellis said he did not request a ruling from the city attorney on whether he should be involved with the Amerigroup road discussions because he didn’t see it as a conflict.

“I’m the one within the firm who handles Amerigroup,” Ellis said. “I wouldn’t try to have anybody else do it because I don’t think it’s a conflict.”

Robertson, whose Christian Broadcasting Network is a partner with Ellis-Gibson on the Amerigroup campus, also weighed in on the transportation issue.

In an April 8 letter to Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, Robertson urged the city to consider developing a special tax district around CBN’s land. Additional taxes generated by the development of the CBN property could pay for $30 million it wanted in road improvements, including relief for Amerigroup, Robertson said.

Robertson also suggested in the letter that Amerigroup would pull out of Virginia Beach without a transportation solution.

The next day, Stephen Davis, an attorney for Amerigroup,

sent an e-mail correcting Robertson and stating that the company was not currently discussing moving all its jobs elsewhere.

“We respectfully request that you allow Amerigroup to speak for itself concerning its plans and the effect this situation will have on them,” Davis wrote to Lowell Morse, CBN’s development consultant.

CBN’s position is that the city should plan for transportation improvements for the entire development and for the Centerville area, Morse said, rather than add a turn lane onto Centerville Turnpike and improve an intersection at Jake Sears Road.

“It seems to me that it can all be done at once,” Morse said.

City traffic engineers are studying the most cost-effective transportation solution for Amerigroup and future development, Herbert said.

But Amerigroup needs to know in the next few months whether the city will make the road improvements , and ironing out the details of a tax district for CBN’s entire development will take much longer, Herbert said.

Beach officials hope to persuade CBN to help the city pay for a traffic solution for Amerigroup. Ellis-Gibson also may participate.

“I think it’s incumbent on the city to get everybody to the table,” Herbert said.

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com