Portsmouth, Franklin win development incentives

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine awarded economic development incentives on Monday to the cities of Portsmouth and Franklin but denied bids by Norfolk and Suffolk to continue using the program.

“This is probably, if not the most valuable, certainly one of the most valuable tools that the state makes available to localities,” said Patrick Small, Portsmouth’s director of economic development.

The program allows localities to offer incentives such as grants and rebates to businesses that locate and hire in certain distressed areas.

Portsmouth has had an enterprise zone since 1984 and will now be able to extend the program for another decade. The city counts more than 4,500 jobs created in its zone in the past 15 years, along with more than $175 million in private investments in commercial, industrial and mixed-use projects and more than $30 million in residential projects, said Monique Bass, the city’s development manager.

Among the projects built in Portsmouth’s zone are the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the MAST Center and the PortCentre Commerce Park, Bass said.

Southampton County was named in conjunction with Franklin, where many workers will lose their jobs with the pending closure in Isle of Wight County of the International Paper mill.

“With the loss of more than 1,100 jobs in the area due to the closing of International Paper, we believe the zones will be a valuable tool for attracting new businesses to this area and supporting the expansion of existing businesses,” Kaine said in a statement.

Tommy Miller, business development manager for Franklin/Southampton Economic Development Inc., said the zone will make the communities much more marketable, even nationally.

“It’s no silver bullet, but it definitely gives us help to bring in new investments sooner than later,” he said.

Norfolk officials said they are still trying to find out why they failed to win participation in the program again.

The city ranked the highest among the competing localities in the distress-criteria portion of the competition, said Rod Woolard, the city’s director of development.

The score accounts for half of the points used in the selection process. It is based on statistics such as a locality’s unemployment rate, median adjusted gross income and percentage of public school students with free or reduced-price lunches.

“The bottom line is that we haven’t given up and are continuing to pursue,” Woolard said.

There are more than 50 enterprise zones in Virginia, but only four were up for grabs this year. Norfolk and Portsmouth had been operating under a joint designation that was expiring.

Localities could get up to 750 points in their distress score. Norfolk led Hampton Roads localities with a score of 588, followed by Franklin at 578, Portsmouth at 564, Newport News at 446 and Hampton at 430.

Suffolk’s distress score was 261, but it hoped to make up ground in the other half of the competition. That portion judged applicants on answers to questions about other local incentives, strategy, priorities and past success.

Pilot writers Harry Minium and Linda McNatt contributed to this story .

Dave Forster, (757) 446-2627, dave.forster@pilotonline.com