Technology Zones

Virginia Technology Zones encourage the development of commercial and industrial businesses engaged in technological research, design and manufacturing.

Local incentives, upon approval by City Council, can include:

Technology Zone Business License Fee Refund – Businesses located within the City’s Technology Zone may be eligible receive a Business License Fee Refund equal to 50% of the fee paid each year for a ten-year period. 

To be eligible, a business must provide engineering or other professional or business services for energy development, including the development of energy infrastructure; modeling and simulation, photonics and nano-technology, and aerospace, including the development of products derived from these technologies; and other research and development.

The business must be new to Newport News and not from a Hampton Roads locality, and must create at least 25 new jobs, with salaries of at least $75,000.  The City Manager or his/her designee may reduce the job creation requirement to 10 jobs for SWaM businesses.

Technology Zone Energy and Defense Infrastructure Grant – Eligible projects must be for the manufacturing of a product not currently produced in Newport News. Projects must be within one of the following target industries: Production of capital equipment to support non-carbon based energy production or production of a defense weapon system (not currently being produced in Newport News).

The grant is equal to 0.5% of the Net New Capital Investment made by a company to support the project, which will be paid during each of the four years following the assessment of the initial net new taxable investment.

To be eligible, projects must create at least 100 jobs and invest at least $25 million in net new taxable investment in real estate and/or machinery.