Good afternoon,
September was a busy start to fall. Life is back to the cadence of hearing school busses in the morning (one goes past my house at 7:23am every school day), staying darker in the morning, getting darker earlier at night, and watching football!
You must visit the Norfolk Botanical Gardens (NBG) expansion called the Garden of Tomorrow. NBG raised $50M to fund this incredible expansion that houses rare plants in floor to ceiling glass buildings. There are several creative outdoor spaces. And there are beautiful large Chihuly glass pieces that rest among the plants or hang from the ceilings.
There is a rooftop sky meadow, elevated skywalk, creative lighting and so much more. My words don’t do this expansion justice. I did a hard hat tour of the expansion several months ago and then recently attended various opening events. The expansion is stunning. NBG is situated on 175 acres of city owned land adjacent to Norfolk International Airport and serves as the largest botanical garden in Virginia. I predict many awards for NBG in the future as it takes the botanical garden to a new level.
The MacArthur Memorial is expanding! On September 2, there was a groundbreaking for the expansion of the Jean MacArthur Research & Education Center. This $18M expansion will allow the Memorial to expand its capacity to preserve fragile archival materials, digitize historic records and welcome students, researchers, authors, and educators from around the world to learn more about the life of General Douglas MacArthur. His wife, Jean, was instrumental in saving so many artifacts. The MacArthur Memorial is free to the public and the expansion will open in 2028.
Target opens in Wards Corner on Sunday, October 11. This is the second location of Target in Norfolk, the original site opened 20 years ago. Target will serve as a huge boost for the Wards Corner area. I must commend Vice Mayor Martin Thomas, Jr., who landed this incredible economic development win. He sought out Target leadership and encouraged them to look at this site and he paired Target with local developers to make this project a reality.
I encourage you to look at the September 29, 2026 Norfolk City Council work session presentation on the major projects underway in Norfolk. Visit this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fVIfKB6AxY and skip to 1:12 in the video to start the presentation. Impressive.
Cheers!
Courtney
Norfolk Botanical Garden – Garden of Tomorrow ribbon cutting
Jean MacArthur Research and Education Center Expansion groundbreaking
Grady enjoying the beach