Measure aims to help port maximize growth potential

NORFOLK

A "port promotion bill" will be included in the governor's legislative agenda next year that would cut some red tape to help it compete better globally and create an economic-development zone along the new U.S. 460 corridor.

"Our port is primed for growth," Gov. Bob McDonnell told roughly 700 industry stakeholders Thursday at the 2011 Governor's Transportation Conference.

"There's no port on the East Coast that should be able to compete with the natural strategic advantages that we've got, but we need to do more, and we're going to do some of that this session."

McDonnell's proposal would free Virginia International Terminals Inc., the tax-exempt firm that operates the facilities of the Virginia Port Authority, from some of the "bureaucratic processes that have hampered VIT in the past," he said.

"The port is a competitive global business, so that means it's got to be able to operate like a competitive global business, the way they do in Hong Kong "and other ports around the world," McDonnell said.

Plans include improving a series of port-related tax credits approved earlier this year to make them more competitive with similar credits in other states and some other things to help the port "have a little more autonomy and flexibility."

The proposal also would create the "Interstate 85 Connector Economic Development and Promotion Zone." Companies that locate in the zone along the new U.S. 460 corridor could get major tax incentives for two years for exporting and importing goods through the port.

"You know, 85 stops at Petersburg, but the rest of that route, really, from Petersburg to Hampton Roads is Route 460," McDonnell said. "That can be looked at as one continuous route and one continuous economic-development corridor."

Realigning U.S. 460 as a limited access, four-lane divided highway between Suffolk and Petersburg is the governor's top transportation priority. The state is seeking a private-sector partner for the project estimated to cost between $1.44 billion to $1.8 billion. Virginia has committed up to $500 million for it.

The economic-development zone would include localities along the new corridor and in Hampton Roads, near the port, McDonnell said. The goal is to encourage businesses involved in manufacturing and maritime commerce to locate in the corridor.

Details of the proposed new route will be announced in the near future, McDonnell said.

This fall, the board of the Port Authority signed off on a "memorandum of understanding" with the Virginia Department of Transportation that would direct about $5 million a year in state port funding, at current levels, to help the state pay for the cost of improving U.S. 460.

The deal, which could contribute up to $250 million for the state's share of the project, included a provision that the port will have a place at the table when the deal to build the new road is negotiated.

Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com