Southern Virginia’s Infrastructure

Virginia's Infrastructure

Southern Virginia infrastructure is built to help your business thrive. 

Virginia’s incentives for economic development and the already existing strong Virginia infrastructure offers businesses a solid foundation for new business development and business growth, and easily supports a wide range of industries. Abundant in land and space, the region’s lower living costs and highly connected infrastructure allow businesses to pick where to build their new facility and design it exactly to their specifications affordably anywhere in the SOVA region. 

Advanced manufacturing companies and other businesses with a strong existing industry presence in the region enjoy an additional advantage when relocating to SOVA due to favorable programs already established to help them thrive in the region and the strong Virginia infrastructure. Varying by locality, the advantageous benefits of Southern Virginia include: favorable state and local trade-specific incentives, strong fiber infrastructure, trade-specific tax benefits and exemptions, a direct pipeline to a highly-trained workforce predisposed towards specific trades such as manufacturing jobs, low operational costs that are further reduced with favorable tax and power rates offered to specific industries, and assistance from entities like Invest Southern Virginia and its partners to help facilitate the process.

Highly Accessible by Air, Land & Sea

Part of Virginia’s infrastructure is its location. SOVA is situated on the border of North Carolina and Virginia, within an easy drive to Washington, D.C. SOVA’s prime location on the U.S. East Coast is a strategic advantage for advanced manufacturing companies. SOVA is highly accessible by air, land and sea. With a well-established transportation infrastructure, your business has optimal access to regional and international airports, major highways and railways, and the Port of Virginia, a world-leading maritime gateway.

Learn more about SOVA’s location and advanced manufacturing business opportunities

Available Sites and Land

Virginia infrastructure is supported by the abundance of land readily available throughout the region. The region has the space to support business development and growth and can offer your business a robust portfolio of options. This gives you the opportunity to build a facility to suit your needs exactly, whether it be upfitting an existing building, new construction, or expansion. Greenfield, brownfield, and pad-ready sites, shell buildings, and leasing facilities – SOVA’s diverse range of spaces vary in size and condition, providing businesses with site options that can accommodate their individual business needs. 

Most of SOVA’s available sites for manufacturing opportunities are already set-up to accommodate easy buildout, with established utility hookups including power, water, sewer, fiber infrastructure and telecom. Invest Southern Virginia, in partnership with local county and locality representatives, works directly with businesses to source and build their perfect space, project managing and working hand-in-hand as needed to ensure business set-up success.

Optical Transport Network

Power, Utilities & Fiber

Virginia infrastructure provides businesses access to reliable and affordable power, utilities and fiber. These essential operational components are always available and easily sourced at any of the certified sites across the region.

Strong partnerships with local power suppliers provide key businesses like advanced manufacturing companies with special energy and gas pricing. As businesses and their needs grow, local power providers work directly with businesses to ensure the available supply meets their demand. Power from traditional sources remains readily available across the SOVA region, with clean, renewable energy becoming increasingly available in select counties and cities. Along with power, most sites already support or provide hook-ups for water, sewage and telecoms service with providers varying by locality. 

SOVA is highly connected and offers businesses access to high-density fiber infrastructure via Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation’s (MBC) advanced fiber-optic broadband network. MBC’s network spans 1,800 miles (2,900 km) across the region, includes long-haul fiber optical transport network to key peering hubs on the U.S. East Coast, and offers direct connections to Europe and South America through the two subsea landing stations based in Virginia Beach. Businesses in SOVA are connected to the world via the cloud. 

Local Support

Invest Southern Virginia, in partnership with local representatives, works directly with businesses to determine business needs and opportunities that would benefit from the infrastructure of Virginia. From sourcing possible sites, to project managing builds, to helping businesses determine available incentives and benefits to general guidance on community politics – businesses who come to SOVA can take advantage of local assistance to expedite the relocation process, helping them save time, money, and valuable resources.

Working with local representatives, new and expanding businesses coming to SOVA receive assistance with start-up considerations including: 

  • Site Selection
  • State Incentives
  • Localized Incentives
  • Tax Benefits & Exemptions
  • Sourcing Local Talent/Hiring Resources

Once a site is determined, an advanced manufacturing company, working with a local representative, will learn about the many of Virginia’s business incentives and benefits for which they qualify., These benefits include industry-specific tax benefit programs such as:

  • Low machinery & tools tax rates
  • Tax exemptions on purchases of machinery, tools, replacement parts and raw materials used in production
  • Tax exemption on all utilities delivered through pipes, mains and lines
  • Tax exemptions on accounts receivable, inventory, computer software or other intangible goods

To learn more about relocating to SOVA, contact Lauren Mathena.