Over $1 Million Awarded to Advance Hampton Roads Playbook
The Hampton Roads Alliance, in partnership with the Eastern Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority (EVRIFA), today announced the successful award of two GO Virginia grants totaling $1,042,944 that will accelerate implementation of the Hampton Roads Playbook— the region’s unified economic development strategy focused on Defense, Energy, Aerospace, and Logistics (DEAL).
These investments build on the momentum of the Hampton Roads Playbook, a GO Virginia-supported initiative that identified high-impact projects designed to attract investment, strengthen supply chains, and create jobs across Hampton Roads’ key industry sectors.
The newly awarded grants will support targeted implementation efforts, including industry engagement, workforce alignment, site readiness, and innovation initiatives tied directly to the Playbook’s eight transformative projects and broader regional priorities.
“Hampton Roads is at a pivotal moment,” said Douglas L. Smith, President & CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance. “These GO Virginia grants allow us to move from strategy to action—advancing projects that strengthen our defense industrial base and analyzing and preparing regionally significant sites for DEAL-aligned investment. The Playbook gives us a clear roadmap, and this funding helps us execute at the scale required to compete nationally and globally.”
The Hampton Roads Playbook, created by the Alliance and developed with regional stakeholders and industry leaders, positions the region to capitalize on major global shifts, including supply chain reshoring, energy transformation, and increased defense investment. It outlines a coordinated approach to drive innovation, workforce development, infrastructure investment, and private-sector growth.
EVRIFA plays a critical role in ensuring that the region is prepared to capture these opportunities through multi-jurisdictional site readiness and industrial development.
“These grants are a major step forward for regional collaboration and economic competitiveness,” said Barbara Ramsey, Chair of EVRIFA. “By aligning our localities and partners around the Playbook, we are creating the conditions for transformative projects to succeed—delivering ready sites, coordinated infrastructure, and a unified approach that makes Hampton Roads more attractive to major employers and investors. The due diligence EVRIFA can undertake due to these grants will enable us to serve as the lead agency driving the future of site readiness in Hampton Roads.”
The funded initiatives will engage all 15 localities represented by the Hampton Roads Alliance and leverage partnerships with higher education institutions, workforce organizations, federal labs, and private industry.
Together, these efforts are expected to drive measurable outcomes, including expanded supplier networks, stronger workforce pipelines, enhanced industrial site readiness, and increased business attraction and expansion across the region’s core sectors.
“These two grants move Hampton Roads from planning to action on two of our most critical economic priorities,” said Tom Frantz, Chair, GO Virginia Region 5. “Ensuring our industrial sites are market-ready and that our defense supply chains are resilient and connected to global opportunity are exactly the kinds of foundational investments that will keep this region competitive for the long term.”
The GO Virginia program supports regional collaboration to grow and diversify Virginia’s economy, and the Hampton Roads Alliance is among the most awarded recipients. Past grants won by the Alliance include not only funding assistance for the creation of the Playbook but also for studies on aviation, regional energy readiness, and offshore wind supply chain development, among others.
“GO Virginia investments are a win for families, a win for local communities, and a win both for the businesses who call Virginia home — and the companies looking to expand in the Commonwealth,” said Governor Abigail Spanberger. “By equipping Virginians with the skills they need to find jobs in high-demand fields, we can help set them on a course for life-long success and make sure Virginia leads the way in the competitive industries shaping the future.”