For years, Hampton Roads Transit has used a crowded parking lot at the Oceanfront as the home base for its fleet of trolleys that cruise Atlantic Avenue.
But the facility at 14th Street and Parks Avenue is “busting at the seams,” Brian Solis, assistant to the city manager, told members of the Development Authority at a meeting Tuesday.
Now, the regional bus agency wants to build a new facility in Virginia Beach that can accommodate the resort-area trolleys and dozens of buses. It will also be home to 120 new full-time HRT employees, who will be mostly drivers and mechanics, said Sibyl Pappas, HRT’s chief engineering and facilities officer.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the authority agreed to sell 11 acres of land in Corporate Landing Business Park, on the southwestern side of Naval Air Station Oceana, for HRT’s new Southside Bus Operating Division.
The Hampton Roads Regional Transit Fund — a new source of tax-generated money designated for the development of a high-frequency bus line network serving Hampton Roads and the Peninsula — will pay for the project.
HRT will buy the land for $200,000 per acre or the appraised value, whichever is higher, and will spend approximately $50 million to build the new facility, which could open in 2024, Solis said.
Plans are in the works for the building to be powered by offshore wind, he said.
The southside operating facility will house 65 buses and 16 trolleys, including electric-powered vehicles. One bus will depart every three minutes during peak morning hours, traveling out of the business park to Corporate Landing Parkway and onto Dam Neck Road bound for routes across South Hampton Roads.
But first, the City Council will decide whether to approve a conditional use permit. The property use is exempt from real estate taxes, Solis told the authority members, but Virginia Beach stands to benefit from having the enhanced fleet close to home.
“It supports our tourism industry, especially the service industry and hotels,” Solis said. “It’s also a mainstay in getting folks to school, Tidewater Community College, higher education.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
