The Hampton City Council approved a developer’s request to build warehouses on land once home to the historic Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled.

Kansas-based NorthPoint will spend about $93 million to build what it calls the Phenix Commerce Center on a little over 60 acres of the land off Aberdeen and Shell roads.

City leaders say it will spur investment in the area and bring in more than $1 million in annual tax revenue.

But many residents in the surrounding Wythe neighborhood fought the proposal for months. They were concerned it would threaten both the character and safety of the majority-Black community through truck pollution, impact on infrastructure and more.

The impassioned group also wanted to see a more community-focused use of the property, such as affordable housing or a cultural center.

“It is a modest neighborhood of hard-working individuals,” longtime resident Ursula Barkers previously told WHRO. “I’m afraid (these) plans will adversely impact our neighborhood forever.”

The city Planning Commission voted against NorthPoint’s proposal last month.

At this week’s council meeting, almost 40 people showed up to voice their opinions. 

Most were against the project, including a couple university professors who spoke about historical inequities in Black communities.

Some supported the project, saying it’s needed for growing local industries.

After hours of public comments, Councilman Steven Brown was the sole vote against the development.

“I understand the importance of development in communities,” he said. “But the community has a voice as well. They live, they work, they invest, they play there. They grow their children there.”

NorthPoint will buy most of the land from the Hampton Economic Development Authority, and the rest from a private local business owner. 

They’ll build a 540,000-square-foot warehouse and another at 300,000. The developer does not yet have a specific tenant.

Chuck Rigney, the city’s economic development director, said he believes NorthPoint has addressed all of residents’ concerns through legally binding proffers, such as paying penalties if the company doesn’t produce promised jobs and limiting trucks to enter on the non-residential side.

“Providing space for our critical companies in the DOD industry and the port, during this rocky time in our economy, is also important,” Rigney said. “They’ve got to have places to put product.”

The school for those with disabilities first opened in 1909 for Black children and integrated in the 1960s. State officials closed it in 2008 to consolidate with a Staunton school.

• 
•