Title
Resolution to Amend the Fiscal Year 2023 Council Approved Budget to Accept and Appropriate the ARPA Tourism Recovery Grant in the amount of $320,000 awarded by the Virginia Tourism Corporation
Body
COVID-19 has had a continued and devastating impact on Virginia’s tourism and hospitality industry. As the Commonwealth works to restore tourism economic impact, Virginia Tourism Corporation offered ARPA Tourism Recovery funds to spur economic activity and travel. Hampton was awarded $320,000.
Purpose
Purpose
Virginia Tourism Corporation, the recipient of $50-million in ARPA funds, extended funds to municipalities throughout Virginia to spur economic activity and travel. Funds were allocated across all 133 Virginia counties and independent cities based on the relative share of each locality to total state tax revenue attributable to tourism in 2019. Hampton was awarded $320,000 based on the City’s tourism economic impact in 2019.
Discussion:
Hampton, Virginia is the geographic center of the Coastal Virginia/Hampton Roads region. Interstates 64 and 664 converge at the region’s center, the location of the campus anchored by Hampton Roads Convention Center, Hampton Coliseum and Hampton Virginia Aquaplex. The venues are located along the Coliseum Drive corridor accessible from Mercury Boulevard and intersected by Pine Chapel Road. The campus hosts a full-service 295-suite Embassy Suites hotel, an estimated 4500 parking spaces, 906 additional hotel rooms on the Coliseum Drive corridor, limited fast-food dining, and a community of approximately 450 residential units. A linear park connects the campus to Air Power Park, Newmarket Creek, Coliseum Lake, Bluebird Gap Farm and the Power Plant, a shopping and entertainment venue featuring Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and Rosie’s Gaming. All of these features and attributes combine to create a picturesque setting, but one that is non-cohesive and unbranded.
The devastating losses that resulted from t...
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