A quiet industrial waterfront at the tip of Jefferson Avenue in Newport News, Virginia, is about to become something the city has never had before — a bustling public seafood market where residents can eat fresh catch steps from the boats that brought it in. For a neighborhood that has long awaited meaningful investment, the transformation of the city’s Seafood Industrial Park could mark a turning point.
Construction is now underway to convert the facility — historically off-limits to the public — into a waterfront destination featuring retail seafood sales, food vendor stalls, food truck space, and recreational boat moorings. The project is estimated to cost approximately $9.5 million and will deliver 7,600 square feet of indoor market space alongside 3,000 square feet of outdoor seating.
Newport News interim development director Derek Perry described the vision simply:
“Folks can come and have some food and look at the boats on the working waterfront. It will really be a gem and a jewel for this part of the community.”
Virginia’s Largest Commercial Seafood Port, Now Open to All
Established in 1979 near the northern entrance to the Monitor-Merrimack Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, the industrial park holds the distinction of being Virginia’s largest commercial seafood port by landed value. Despite that status, it has never been accessible to the general public — until now.
As part of the revitalization effort, the park’s two commercial piers have been demolished, along with two older finger piers that had reached the end of their useful lives. The harbor has also been dredged to increase depth. New docking infrastructure — including moorings for recreational boats and berths for roughly a dozen commercial vessels — is expected to be completed by late spring 2027. The dredging and dock contract totals $6.9 million.
Councilman John R. Eley III, who represents the South District where the park sits, sees the project as more than infrastructure:
“We’re creating more than a seafood market. We’re creating a waterfront destination, and it’s going to be a place where residents, families, boaters and businesses from across Hampton Roads can come together.”
Rooted in a Historic Neighborhood
The Seafood Industrial Park sits in Newport News’ East End, a historically Black community known for its ties to the nearby Newport News Shipyard and as the hometown of jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey, as well as Norfolk State University head football coach Michael Vick. The area has faced challenges over the years, including crime and gun violence, though police reported this past summer that those trends have declined citywide over the last year.
Yugonda Sample-Jones, CEO of the East End Civic Association, sees the market as a vehicle for local entrepreneurship. She told WTKR in September:
“We recognize that we need an economic driver in the East End, so this seafood market is just that. I have some people right now that are wonderful cooks and I’m looking forward to helping them become franchisees or actually get a spot in the seafood market to sell their goods.”
Years of Planning, Federal Support Behind the Project
The idea traces back to 2016, when Newport News and the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NNRHA) received a $500,000 Choice Neighborhoods Initiative planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That funding supported revitalization planning in the Marshall-Ridley neighborhood within the East End. A $30 million implementation grant followed in 2019.
During the community engagement process, residents voiced a clear desire: they wanted access to the seafood — primarily Atlantic sea scallops, James River oysters, and blue crabs — that commercial boats bring into the port. The proposed market is designed to deliver exactly that.
Eley noted the community enthusiasm behind the project:
“For a long time, we have talked about bringing meaningful investment and economic development in the Southeast community, and now we’re seeing that vision become a reality. Citizens have been really excited about the opportunity that it’s going to create for local entrepreneurs, especially people right here in our community who want to start and grow a business.”
The seafood market itself will be funded not by HUD, but through the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and the city. The harbor improvements received $1 million in federal funding secured by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Newport News) through the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2024.
Scott described the site’s former condition as “not the best use of the property,” and outlined his expectations for what comes next:
“We’re looking forward to it (going) from, really, an eyesore, to a place where people will enjoy coming. We’ll develop that area with the investments and improvements in the harbor and docks to support businesses and create a very exciting industrial park with good restaurants.”
On job creation and broader economic impact, Scott added:
“The seafood park will obviously create a lot of jobs, a lot of excitement, economic development, because you’ll have restaurants and other economic activity.”
What Comes Next
Vendors for the market have not yet been selected, and a construction bid was due at the end of October. City Council has also approved plans to convert a long-vacant building on nearby 34th Street into a commercial kitchen that startup vendors could use. The market itself will include an on-site kitchen and is planned to operate year-round, with a projected completion date of mid-2028.
The waterfront project is part of a broader set of investments reshaping this part of Newport News. The city is working with Newport News Public Schools on a $141 million, roughly 17-acre Southeast Community Resource Area that will include a new middle school, football field, recreation center, library, and community center with an indoor pool — a project now 60 to 70 percent complete. Meanwhile, the Navy recently broke ground on a $450 million military housing development in downtown Newport News as part of a $1.7 billion effort to modernize housing for sailors across Hampton Roads.
City Council members are also exploring how to connect Newport News’ waterways more broadly — including the possibility of watersports and water-focused activities at nearby King-Lincoln Park, which already features a saltwater fishing pier.
As for Scott, whose office sits close to the market site, his takeaway was straightforward:
“It will be a nice place to visit. I’m looking forward to being a customer.”