Norfolk Innovation Corridor: Resilient Community for Startups

NORFOLK — If you haven’t heard of a “Norfolk Innovation Corridor” yet, chances are you will.

A coordinated marketing effort by some of the city’s most visible institutions launched Thursday to rebrand a swath of mostly downtown waterfront property that had already been designated as a “technology zone.” Among those who will promote their presence in the Norfolk Innovation Corridor are downtown payroll company ADP, Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Tidewater Community College, Sentara, Eastern Virginia Medical School and CHKD.

Resiliency, often associated lately with a coastal community’s ability to withstand sea level rise, is the focus of the effort to attract enterprises to the area, but organizers aren’t limiting their pitch to solutions for rising tides. Organizers are also hoping to attract more of what’s already in the corridor, including businesses and groups developing “resilient” products related to medical advances, cyber attack defenses or supply chain fixes, and pretty much anything else combatting “other menaces to the optimal functioning of individuals, organizations and communities,” according to the group’s strategic statement.

The group has pointed to those that already call the area home, including ReAlta Life Sciences, which is developing therapies for disorders including COVID-19 symptoms; Embody, which is creating human tissue scaffolding to repair injuries; SVT Robotics, which makes robotics systems for distribution warehouses; Northfield Manufacturing, which makes personal protective equipment; Resilient Enterprise Solutions, which trains contractors how to raise houses in flood-prone areas; 3DXtremes, which does 3D printing to create product prototypes; and RISE, the nonprofit that accelerates solutions for sea level rise.

The city formally endorsed the corridor in September. On Thursday, the Norfolk Economic Development department’s web page for information about its technology zonehad been modified to say: “Norfolk Innovation Corridor — A Technology Zone” and encouraged visitors to go to the corridor’s own website.