CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Maritime defense manufacturer Fairbanks Morse Defense broke ground on a training and service center in Chesapeake Tuesday morning, a 45,000-square-foot campus that's expected to bring around 50 jobs.
The campus will be used to train technicians that serve the Navy, Military Sealift Command and Coast Guard vessels, as well as other services, according to the company.
This is an opportunity leaders with the company hope to bring to the city.
“One of the things this company has given me is opportunity. I had the opportunity to travel the world. I want to spread that same message to the younger generation,” said Jarrett Washington, the eastern regional service director for Fairbanks Morse Defense.
Washington is a Chesapeake native and will run the new training and service center campus.
Tuesday morning, company and city leaders broke ground on the site located off of South Military Highway. Little did they know, crews had already started working.
“I came here thinking we were doing a groundbreaking and here we have a facility that’s a third of the way built,” said George Whittier, the CEO of the company.
Fairbanks Morse Defense said the campus is a $13 million investment in the community and will create high-paying jobs for field service technicians, trainers and other positions when it begins operating next year.
The company picked Chesapeake because of its proximity to the largest Navy and Military Sealift Command fleet concentration in the country, as well as its strong Coast Guard presence.
“The service part of it is so that we can work on all of our equipment," Whittier said.
“The engines that we make, the motors that we make, the valves that we make.”
Chesapeake City Council members and local and state leaders joined Fairbanks Morse Defense executives for the groundbreaking at the campus site.
“It wasn’t too long ago that this was just woods," said Mayor Rick West.
"Now, you look around and you see all the businesses that are settling here and it’s for a reason because Chesapeake is business friendly.”
With construction nearly halfway complete, leaders with Fairbanks Morse Defense are already thinking of ways to expand on this space hoping to create more of an investment for the City of Chesapeake.
"I’m already thinking to myself, I wonder if it’s too small and in two years are we going to have to do an expansion to this facility,” Whittier said.
“This is just a foreshadow of what’s to come in this area," West said. "It’s just a matter of time where this open space will be filled with thriving businesses.”
Fairbanks Morse Defense leaders expect to have a grand opening in February.