NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin had a surprise for Norfolk when he introduced his biennial budget Wednesday.
The city could get an additional $21 million for its multi-billion dollar Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, on top of the nearly $74 million already announced on Friday.
However the additional funding comes with a catch. The Headwaters Resort and Casino to be built by Harbor Park must be open before the she sees a dime.
It’s a move the Youngkin administration says maximizes the public’s investment.
Others might view it as an incentive to get the long delayed project moving.
Youngkin made no mention of that specific prevision during his address to the money committees of the General Assembly on Wednesday, only mentioning the proposed funds to “the Norfolk Sea Wall,” as part of his larger conservation investments.
The “sea wall” is a reference to a larger, more than $2.6 billion multi-year effort, aimed at better protecting Norfolk from sea level rise. Under the plan storm-surge barriers, nearly eight miles of floodwalls, nearly one mile of levees, 11 tide gates, and 10 pump stations would be constructed around the city.
While the city has been guaranteed nearly $400 million in federal funds, they have a match requirement of $215 million match.
Youngkin has already awarded nearly $25 million to the project and the city committed $56.6 million in this years budget.
Friday, Mayor Kenny Alexander praised the announcement of $73.5 million in additional funds, saying “we look forward to working with the General Assembly in 2024 to strengthen our Commonwealth’s resiliency moving forward.”
But when reached by phone Wednesday, Alexander said he didn’t know about the additional money.
In the nearly 700 page budget document, it spells out that the an additional $21 million of state support would be in the form of a treasury loan to further contribute to the non-federal match if revenues from a casino authorized under the state’s process, are put towards support of their local funding of the seawall.
“The budget seeks to maximize the economic development associated with the Commonwealth’s continued investment of taxpayer resources in the project,” MaCaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Youngkin, said in a statement.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the idea of a casino and resort by Harbor Park in November 2020, at the same time a casino was approved for Portsmouth.
That casino is open. Norfolk’s casino is not.
Both sides — the city and the project’s development team — have at times blamed each other.
Jay Smith, spokesperson for the Pamunkey Indian Nation, developers of the project along with Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough’s LLC, said he also didn’t know anything about the governor’s budget proposal.
Instead he said the focus is on moving the project moving forward.
“We are working as hard as we can and as fast as we can to get this project under construction,” Smith said, adding, “this is a continuous-build project now that we hope to get started on with shovels in the ground by early spring.”
Part of the tweaked blueprint includes a way to get the casino open before the rest of the building is finished, and it does not include a marina.
What it does include is a hotel, pool, restaurants and a ballroom.
“Our initial design when we came up with this did not envision the seawall, for example, “Smith said.