Good afternoon,
Brrrr! It has been a cold few weeks to say the least. Hope everyone has been safe and sound.
Let’s skip to June and think warm thoughts! Make plans to celebrate the 250th birthday of our United States with the Sail250 Virginia event in Norfolk over the weekend of June 19 – June 23. This weekend will be Harborfest on steroids. Tallships and military ships from all over the world will make their way to Norfolk – Town Point Park and the adjacent waterfront areas. Below is the link to learn about this incredible celebration coming our way. Be sure to stay in town and make fun plans. I will be downtown, Fort Norfolk, Plum Point Park all weekend long taking in the sites and celebration.
Norfolk City Council held its annual retreat at the Slover Library on January 30. Norfolk City Manager Pat Roberts gave a great update on all things Norfolk at the start of the day. We went on to hear the excellent progress of the new St. Paul’s development (former housing project Tidewater Gardens) and the future redevelopment of Young’s Terrace and Calvert Square – two housing projects in Norfolk. And, we discussed the future budget years and projected debt estimates based on the major capital projects either on the books or on the horizon.
What is the population of Norfolk? The census in 2020 under reported the city’s population because the Dept. of Defense undercounted our military population to the U.S. Census Bureau. Essentially, DOD didn’t account for military personnel assigned to ships. As such the census number in 2020 was 238,005. The Dept. of Defense corrected their number in 2021 but the U.S Census Bureau did not update their figures. In 2024, Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center adjusted the population figure to reflect a population of 245,406. Norfolk is working to get the U.S. Census Bureau to reflect the accurate figure. I share this as it is important to know what our population is and have an understanding that it is growing.
Norfolk continues to thrive in the tourism space. At the retreat we learned that Norfolk has a very high hotel demand. FY25 hotel revenue was $154.2 million, the highest revenue year to date and a 2.8% increase over FY24. Norfolk has a hotel occupancy rate of 65% year-round average, which is a 2.4% increase over FY 24. To put this in context, the regional average hotel occupancy rate is 64.5%. In FY25, Norfolk recorded1.2 million room nights, with the highest visitation from Richmond and Washington, DC.
Can you imagine what these numbers will look like after Sail250?
Cheers!
Courtney
New Maury High School groundbreaking. Celebrate!
Norfolk Environmental Commission Green Trivia Night at Elation Brewery
Grady and “Fluffy” his new favorite toy