A building in the southeast community of Newport News is getting a facelift and a new purpose.
The new coworking space, 2506 Jefferson Ave., will be used to help small businesses and business startups with technical assistance, management workshops and expert advice on business planning, industry research, accounting and capital sources, according to the Marshall-Ridley Choice January newsletter.
The building is part of the Transformation Plan for the Marshall-Ridley Choice Neighborhood Initiative and was supposed to be complete in the first quarter of 2020.
It’s now scheduled for the summer of this year.
“The few months difference can be attributed to the challenges of dealing with an older building and that things just took a little longer than anticipated,” Kim Lee, spokeswoman for the city, wrote in an email.
The original evaluation for the building was made in November 2018 and was “our best guess at the time,” Kim added.
The $1.7 million project is being funded by city bonds and a $480,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
The goal is to renovate the structure and preserve the building’s facade.
Ritchie-Curbow Construction Company Inc., based in Newport News, has started working on the site and later this month residents will see more activity there, according to the city’s newsletter.
The construction company built the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport parking garage as well as other projects on the Peninsula, including the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton.
The Newport News Economic Development Authority and a third party entity will manage the site once the project is complete.
