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Albemarle County buys 462 acres to protect the military and boost the economy

An architectural rendering of how the Intelligence Community Innovation Accelerator Campus might look
County of Albemarle
An architectural rendering of how the Intelligence Community Innovation Accelerator Campus might look

Charlottesville and the surrounding county are already home to plenty of military projects at UVA and various for-profit companies according to Albemarle’s deputy county executive, Trevor Henry.

“The Department of Defense brings in approximately $1.2 billion annually,” he says.

One military installation, Rivanna Station, is home to the National Ground Intelligence Center – a place that gathers top secret information. It is understandably nervous about the prospect of nosey neighbors.

“The concerns that the military would have would be what they call bad actors – folks who are adjacent to military installations for intelligence collection,” Henry explains.

So County Executive Jeff Richardson says Albemarle will spend $58 million for 462 acres next door, to ensure Rivanna Station stays here and to invest in the area’s economic future.

“For us to control the land that’s around that facility today and then over the course of time build partnerships with private sector, public sector, academic institutions is going to set this community up to fully realize what that campus can do over the next 20 years,” he says.

His assistant, Emily Kilroy, explains that the county will partner with suitable tenants to build laboratories and other research facilities, conference space, offices and meeting rooms. Their goal -- to address Defense Department concerns.

“Academic researchers really have the competitive advantage on solving those problems, and private sector partners have a competitive advantage in bringing those solutions to market and so the vision for the Innovation Acceleration Campus is you would have all of these players working together in one location.”

A similar collaboration is already underway in St. Louis, but Kilroy says Albemarle County is in an even stronger position to succeed.

“Albemarle County has a number of advantages over St. Louis with our proximity to D.C. and the talent pipeline that we have with the University of Virginia and Piedmont Virginia Community College, and the annual graduates that they produce who would stay here if there were good quality jobs for them to work in.”

She says the new campus could mean more than 900 jobs paying a median salary of $81,000 a year, and leases on the property could mean a steady stream of cash for the county.

The county board of supervisors will view a detailed presentation on the project June 7th and a public hearing on the subject is set for June 21st.

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief