Vithoulkas recaps Henrico’s year of bold moves

Comparing one of the most ambitious years in Henrico County’s history to the nation’s decision to send astronauts to the moon in the 1960s, Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas this morning told a crowd of business officials that the county isn’t afraid to take bold steps for the future.

America sent men to the moon “not because it's easy, but because it's hard,” then-President John F. Kennedy told the nation at the time. In similar fashion, Henrico has taken a number of “moonshots” this year, as Vithoulkas called them – enterprising moves designed to capitalize on recent successes while strengthening the county’s position in the future.

“What will we do with our moment in time?” Vithoulkas asked. “That’s all we have, and it’s all that matters. In Henrico, we choose to be unafraid. In a figurative sense, we choose to go to the moon.”

During his 50-minute State of the County address at the Hilton Short Pump hotel, Vithoulkas praised the innovative thinking and problem-solving efforts of elected officials and Henrico employees. Those efforts, he said – along with strategic partnerships – have helped the county achieve historic levels of success across a range of metrics. This year alone, Henrico has:

• opened a new Fairfield Library (at a cost of $29 million) and a new mental health center in Eastern Henrico ($9 million);

• broken ground for a new edition of J.R. Tucker High School ($92.7 million) and a new version of Highland Springs High School ($98.3 million))

• awarded a contract for the $25 million expansion of Holladay Elementary School in Lakeside;

• completed renovations at six schools and an expansion at another;

• purchased Wilton Farm in Varina for $10 million from developer HHHunt, with plans to preserve and open most of the site’s 1,184 acres for future recreational use;

• announced plans for a $50-million project to build an indoor arena and convocation center as part of a redevelopment of the Virginia Center Commons mall site in Glen Allen;

• witnessed an impact of nearly $1 billion in tourist spending – the fifth-highest total in the state – and the continued growth of sports tourism, which accounted for more than $53 million in economic impact.

• announced plans for two public-private aquatics centers – one on Laburnum Avenue in Eastern Henrico and the other as part of a redevelopment project at Regency Square in the West End. (Another public-private project announcement could come as early as next week about the future of Belmont Golf Course, whose operation the county hopes to turn over to a private management firm.)

Henrico’s conservative budgeting approach has allowed those projects to take shape while county citizens continue to bear the lowest overall tax burden among Virginia’s 10 largest localities, Vithoulkas said.

Business thriving in the county
Despite being the sixth-largest locality in Virginia and just the 83rd largest by land mass, Henrico has more jobs (about 193,000) than every locality in the state except Fairfax County, which has a population more than three times that of Henrico, Vithoulkas said.

Facebook is building a massive $1.5 billion data center in Sandston’s White Oak Technology Park, and adjacent data center operator QTS has plans to increase its already-massive 1.3 million square-foot facility by an additional 2.3 million square feet to create one of the largest data centers in the world.

The county also is in the midst of an incremental approach to eliminating the business and personal property tax requirement for about 75 percent of its businesses, by raising the threshold above which businesses must pay the tax. Three years ago, businesses that grossed more than $100,000 were required to pay the tax; by next year, only those that gross more than $400,000 will be required to do so, Vithoulkas said – and they’ll only have to pay tax on the amount over $400,000.

About 14,000 businesses then will be exempt, he said – but despite the changes, the county still collected nearly $3 million more last year from that tax than it did during the previous year.

Vithoulkas described Henrico’s successes and opportunities as the result of years of meticulous and conservative planning and basic engagement of the public by all 4,000 of its government employees.

“Engagement makes Henrico go – and it doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “We answer phone calls, respond to emails, we’re in the community. We work for you.

“There are no shortcuts when it comes to sustained success. That, in a nutshell, is what Henrico is about.”

Transportation, redevelopment projects taking shape
In the area of transportation, the county witnessed a significant jump in the number of people who ride public transit (about 56 percent from May 2018 to May 2019), following the 2018 expansion of GRTC bus routes in the county. Henrico has budgeted more money than in previous years for the construction of sidewalks and bike lanes, too, in response to citizen requests. A planned trail from Ashland to Petersburg would travel through northern Henrico, and the county also is planning additional trails in the Far West End, Vithoulkas said.

“Our future is clearly multi-modal,” he said.

Richmond International Airport, in Sandston, has recorded 25 consecutive months of record passenger traffic and attracted 4.3 million customers during Fiscal Year 2018-19 – an all-time record – generating an economic impact of $2.1 billion in the process.

Redevelopment also has been a big part of Henrico’s 2019 story, Vithoulkas said, referencing the growth of Libbie Mill; the recent expansion of Westwood (in which a new TopGolf recently opened) as a desirable extension of Richmond’s Scott’s Addition; and planned mixed-use redevelopment projects in Innsbrook.

The county also has helped foster the rehabilitation of about 1,000 federally subsidized apartments within its borders (about 15 percent of all such apartments in Henrico) during the past year.

Henrico has accomplished much in 2019, Vithoulkas said, and the future portends more successes.

“With heart, with partnerships, with planning and fiscal prudence, with outreach and inclusion, everything is possible,” he said.