With the controversial Tidewater Logistics Center on the outskirts of Windsor now blessed by a thin majority of county supervisors, Isle of Wight County must resolve to make the best of the opportunity.

That means resisting the urge to quickly fill the 726,000 square feet with low-tax, low-employment warehouses and instead working with the developer to aim higher. Light industrial in at least some of the space would cause a much greater impact on county government’s coffers in the form of machinery and tools taxes and create many more jobs, which our county sorely needs to keep more residents working at home instead of commuting. 

We were encouraged to learn of Isle of Wight’s prime position as the Hampton Roads Alliance works to attract investment from AUKUS, a security partnership among the United States, Great Britain and Australia. 

Our Stephen Faleski reports on this week’s front page that the 2021 agreement calls for the Australian government to invest $3 billion in the U.K. and U.S. shipbuilding industries. Newport News Shipbuilding, which can build the nuclear submarines needed by Australia, makes Hampton Roads a strong contender for jobs created by the partnership.

The Hampton Roads Alliance, a regional economic development organization, announced last week that Australia-based Hofmann Engineering had established Hofmann Engineering Defense LLC, a U.S. subsidiary that will temporarily base itself in the Alliance’s IDEA Lab co-working space in Norfolk. The hope is that such businesses will need more space in the area, and Isle of Wight is in a good position to provide it.

In addition to Tidewater Logistics, the county is eyeing summer completion of 460 Commerce Center, a roughly 352,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in the Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park. And more industrial space will be created by this month’s closure of the Keurig Dr Pepper coffee roasting plant. All three sites offer easy proximity to the shipyard and the Port of Virginia.

“Isle of Wight has some land. … The supply chain for Newport News Ship is going to require that suppliers here in the region expand and many suppliers that are not here need to get closer to Newport News Ship,” the alliance’s Doug Smith said. “We believe that creates some real opportunity for Isle of Wight among others to actually host some of these facilities.”

The county is working hard to build a workforce to accommodate the supply of maritime jobs.

Isle of Wight County Schools and Camp Community College are using state grant money to launch the Isle Marine Trades Academy, a shipbuilding-focused lab school on Camp’s Smithfield campus. Up to 80 high school students – 40 in the program’s first year – can earn an associate of applied science degree in technical studies and industry credentials in either maritime welding or marine electrical concurrently with their high school diploma.

We commend county officials for positioning the community to reap many rewards from AUKUS.