Newport News to create $9.5 million seafood market, revamp industrial park

Drive to the eastern end of Jefferson Avenue in Newport News and you’ll mainly find warehouses, industrial buildings and parking lots before the roadway terminates at the James River.

But in a few years, this area will play host to a revamped waterside seafood market, where citizens can eat the catch of the day as commercial fishing vessels sail by, if all goes according to plan. 

Construction is underway to revamp the city’s Seafood Industrial Park (SIP) to include a public market for retail seafood sales, vendor stalls for food-based businesses, an area for food trucks, and a section of pier where recreational boats will be able to dock.

It is estimated to cost roughly $9.5 million to complete the market, which is slated to include 7,600 square feet of indoor space as well as 3,000 square feet of outdoor seating.

“Folks can come and have some food and look at the boats on the working waterfront,” said Derek Perry, Newport News’ interim director of development. “It will really be a gem and a jewel for this part of the community.”

Located near the northern entrance to the Monitor-Merrimack Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, the Seafood Industrial Park was established by the city in 1979 to host seafood and other water-dependent companies. But this port, which is Virginia’s largest commercial seafood port in terms of seafood landed value, has been closed to the public up until now. 

As part of the revitalization, the industrial park’s two commercial piers have been demolished, as well as two older finger piers at the end of the harbor that had reached the end of their service lives. 

The city also recently dredged to add depth to the harbor. The new docks, which will include moorings for recreational boats and space for roughly a dozen commercial vessels, should be completed by late spring 2027. The awarded contract for the dredging and the new dock come to $6.9 million.

“We’re creating more than a seafood market,” said Newport News Councilman John R. Eley III, who represents the South District where the industrial park is located. “We’re creating a waterfront destination, and it’s going to be a place where residents, families, boaters and businesses from across Hampton Roads can come together.”

The Seafood Industrial Park is located in the city’s East End, a historically Black community that has supported nearby Newport News Shipyard and counts jazz icons Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey and Norfolk State University head football coach Michael Vick as some of its famous former residents. 

The area — sometimes referred to as Southeast — experienced crime waves and gun violence in past decades and recent months, although these trends have waned citywide in the past year, police reported this summer.

Yugonda Sample-Jones, CEO of the East End Civic Association, expressed hope that the market would create entrepreneurial opportunities for the neighborhood. 

“We recognize that we need an economic driver in the East End, so this seafood market is just that,” Sample-Jones told WTKR in September. “I have some people right now that are wonderful cooks and I’m looking forward to helping them become franchisees or actually get a spot in the seafood market to sell their goods.”

The idea to revitalize the harbor came about after the city and the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NNRHA) received a $500,000 Choice Neighborhoods Initiative planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2016. 

The grant, which aims to redevelop severely distressed HUD housing and spur investment in the surrounding neighborhood, supported the Marshall-Ridley neighborhood in East End. 

In 2019, the city and NNRHA received a $30 million implementation grant. During the community engagement process that was part of rolling out the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, citizens asked to access the catch – primarily Atlantic sea scallops, James River oysters and blue crabs – brought in through the port. That seafood would likely be sold at the new market.

“For a long time, we have talked about bringing meaningful investment and economic development in the Southeast community, and now we’re seeing that vision become a reality,” Eley said. “Citizens have been really excited about the opportunity that it’s going to create for local entrepreneurs, especially people right here in our community who want to start and grow a business.”

The seafood market is not funded by HUD, but will be paid for by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and the city.

The dock revamp and the dredging project are supported by $1 million in funding that U.S. Rep.  Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, secured through Congress’ Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2024. The industrial park’s previous incarnation was “not the best use of the property,” Scott said.

“We’re looking forward to it (going) from, really, an eyesore, to a place where people will enjoy coming,” Scott said. “We’ll develop that area with the investments and improvements in the harbor and docks to support businesses and create a very exciting industrial park with good restaurants.”

Scott hopes that the revitalization will galvanize economic growth in the area.

“The seafood park will obviously create a lot of jobs, a lot of excitement, economic development, because you’ll have restaurants and other economic activity,” Scott said.

While market vendors have yet to be selected, the city has put out a bid for construction that is due at the end of October. Eley says that he has heard from startup businesses who would like to be vendors. 

Newport News City Council recently approved transforming a long-vacant building off nearby 34th Street into a commercial kitchen that could be used by such businesses, he added. 

The market, which will have its own kitchen for vendors, will operate year-round and has an estimated completion date of mid-2028.

City Council members are  considering how to unite the city’s waterways, including bringing watersports and water-focused activities to nearby King-Lincoln Park, which currently has a saltwater fishing pier. 

The city has also been working with Newport News Public Schools to invest $141 million to create a roughly 17-acre Southeast Community Resource Area that will include a new middle school, football field, recreation center, library, and community center with an indoor pool. That project is 60-70% complete, the Daily Press reported. 

Additionally, the Navy broke ground on a $450 million military housing development in downtown Newport News on Tuesday as part of a $1.7 billion effort to modernize housing for sailors across Hampton Roads.

Scott, who has an office near the seafood market site, says he’s excited to eat lunch by the waterside.

“It will be a nice place to visit,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being a customer.”