VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — It's been quite a year for the city of Virginia Beach. It has endured a pandemic, which has impacted its biggest industry: tourism.
On Wednesday, Mayor Bobby Dyer discussed the challenges the city has faced this past year in his third State of the City address.
The address was a virtual event and was live-streamed on the city of Virginia Beach's website and the Hampton Roads Chamber's YouTube channel.
This year's audience was largely remote, with only a select few allowed to attend the State of the City in-person due to COVID guidelines. Dyer incorporated a virtual tour of Virginia Beach detailing how the city and its citizens have shown how to “improvise, adapt and overcome."
In the video portion of the address, Dyer said more than 1,700 jobs across major industry businesses were created in the last year, and that resulted in more than $200 million in investment.
It was a big contrast to Dyer's second State of the City address last year, when Virginia Beach was optimistic about another Something in the Water Festival and a boom in tourism traffic.
It was only a few days later after Dyer's address, when Gov. Ralph Northam had no choice but to declare a State of Emergency in Virginia on March 12, 2020, as COVID-19 cases started surfacing in Virginia and the virus began spreading quickly across the U.S.
While the pandemic's impact on jobs was a major talking point, so was the creation of new ones for the region.
Dyer announced the creation of the Virginia Beach Mayor's commission for offshore wind and clean energy. Vice Mayor James Wood will chair the effort, according to Dyer.
The commission coincides with the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind initiative, a Dominion Energy project bringing 188 wind turbines to the federal waters off the coast of Virginia Beach.
“Virginia Beach is uniquely positioned to host this emerging industry," Dyer said.
Two wind turbines have already been built 27 miles off the coast of Virginia, but construction for the remaining 188 are expected to start in 2024 and provide power to more than 600,000 homes across Hampton Roads, according to Dominion Energy Regional Director Bonita Billingsley Harris.
“2,000 new jobs [expected] with the construction and maintenance of these towers, but we predict it’ll turn into spin-off industries and businesses," Billingsley Harris said.
Watch the 2021 State of the City below: