Thousands of doors are being opened in Virginia Beach, said the mayor Wednesday, touting the city’s business growth and tourism bolstering public safety, storm resilience and quality of life.
Bobby Dyer gave his remarks at the annual State of the City event, sponsored by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. City Manager Patrick Duhaney participated in the speech, chiming in with statistics and asking the audience questions from the other side of the stage.
About 1,300 business leaders and politicians packed the lunch at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
“Everyone here today is busy at work opening doors of opportunity for our residents,” Dyer said, “our workforce and our business community to thrive and succeed.”
Dyer was featured in a video that played during his speech, dreaming of different doors. A garage door opened for him at the Acoustical Sheetmetal manufacturing plant; he got stuck in a Westin Hotel revolving door and he peered behind the door of a Little Free Library in Birchwood South Park.
Doors are soon to open at the Dome, Dyer said, which featured heavily in the address. The new performance space will open on May 4 as part of the Atlantic Park development. In addition to the 5,000-person capacity concert hall, the venue will have a 2.7-acre surf lagoon — a “wave of energy” for the city, Dyer said.
Duhaney asked the audience who it would most like to see at The Dome. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams were popular answers projected on the screen as audience members submitted them via QR code.
The Dome nods to the Alan B. Shepard Convention Center, which stood at 19th and Atlantic Avenue near the Oceanfront. It was a concert hall inside a metallic geodesic dome that featured world-famous artists before it closed in 1993.
Dyer said the new Dome carries forward that legacy, reinforcing Virginia Beach as “an outstanding place to live as well as a year-round vacation destination.”
Duhaney said the tourism industry sustains 33,000 jobs, or 19% of the city’s workforce, and generates $336 million in state and local taxes each year.
Duhaney said tourism tax revenue reduces the tax burden on households by almost $2,000.
Dyer also highlighted the businesses that bolster Virginia Beach’s economy.
Globalinx, a telecommunications company, broke ground this year on a subsea cable fiber optic project, which will help Virginia Beach become a major digital port on the East Coast for the world’s internet traffic. Acoustical Sheetmetal manufactures equipment for the power and data center industries and employs 500 people. Amazon built a 650,000-square-foot fulfillment center that created 2,000 full-time jobs.
He also touted The Hive and ViBe Creative District as places that help grow small businesses.
Public safety, transportation, tourism and flooding emerged as priorities at a recent city council retreat, Dyer said. Duhaney again polled the audience about its priorities, and affordable housing, lower taxes, public safety and light rail dominated the responses.
Dyer also recognized Cameron Girvin and Christopher Reese, two police officers who were shot and killed in the line of duty last month.
“Public safety and military service are a daily sacrifice, and we are thankful for those who choose every day to serve,” he said after a silence — the only time during the two-hour event the buzz of conversation in the room ceased.
The Virginia Beach State of the City was the second in a series of five hosted by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. The next will be in Norfolk in April.
