Virginia Beach Town Center has come a long way since the first building, Armada Hoffler Tower, opened in 2003. And it continues to grow.
More than 150 people gathered at the Westin hotel in Town Center on Wednesday during the Central Business District Association’s State of the City Town Center of Virginia Beach and Beyond event. CBDA Executive Director Jeanne Evans-Cox welcomed attendees to the city’s “center heartbeat” before Mayor Bobby Dyer took the stage.
“2025 is going to be a landmark year for this city,” Dyer said. “And it’s all about relationships.”
The fabric and strength of Virginia Beach are the people who live, work and run businesses within the city, he said.
“We are now considered the best place to live on the East Coast and No. 8 in the country,” Dyer said, referencing U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings, to a round of applause.
As the CBDA approaches 40 years, Dyer recollected upon the vision that its founders Gerald Divaris, Fred Napolitano and the late Richard Olivieri had to transform the area around Pembroke Mall into a downtown area.
“Because of its (CDBA) success and track record, we have new businesses joining that are excited to be part of this Town Center district,” Dyer said.
City Manager Patrick Duhaney echoed Dyer’s sentiments, stressing that Town Center and the Pembroke area continue to be a landing spot for small businesses and startups — the lifeblood of the city’s economy.
Business innovation is also a key element with thriving co-working locations, office suites and the city’s international incubator within the area, he said.
Duhaney shared statistics showing office space in Town Center was 98% leased at the end of 2024.
“Which is phenomenal considering the situation that’s going on across the U.S. as it relates to office buildings and office leasing,” he said.
By the year’s end, he said Town Center renewed and expanded office leases totaling 93,000 rentable square feet and signed new office leases totaling approximately 40,000 rentable square feet.
“That’s an amazing feat. Just think about that when all of these other downtowns are struggling across the U.S.,” Duhaney said.
Access to free parking, convenient location and robust amenities are what tenants would cite as the reasons they relocate and renew in the business district, Duhaney said.
A project that is finally coming to fruition is the Virginia Beach Trail that follows the former Norfolk Southern railroad alignment owned by the city. Phase one will provide a 3-mile section of a 10-foot-wide paved shared use path that will connect Norfolk to Town Center. Design is underway and construction is scheduled for 2029, Duhaney said.
“Town Center wasn’t the only place that was busy in 2024,” he said. “Pembroke Mall’s planned transformation is now underway.”
The $200 million mixed-use redevelopment completed its first phase last year with the opening of the retirement community, Aviva Pembroke. This year, the next phases include a seven-story hotel, 272 apartments and public parking garages.
“As we have learned through the years, we accomplish so much more working together to reach our city goals,” Duhaney said. “The history of our city leaders working together with the leaders of the CBDA is all the proof that we need.”
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com