This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
More than three years after Norfolk’s City Council passed a resolution requiring Hampton Roads Ventures, a for-profit subsidiary of the city’s housing authority, to make its “best efforts” to invest in the city, its 2025 annual report reveals a $15 million investment in two projects in other states, but none in Norfolk. Some City Council members are losing patience.
The report reveals HRV funded $8 million in tax credits for Biltwise Modular Structures, a Roswell, New Mexico, expansion of a South Carolina company, and invested $7 million in the Southeast Texas Food Bank and Resource Center in Jasper during 2024.
Companies like Hampton Roads Ventures are called community development entities. They may be offshoots of banks, nonprofits, public agencies, or other financial institutions.
They apply for New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and, if they prevail in the highly competitive process, they match projects and investors who earn a 39% tax break over seven years. The program’s intent is to spur investment in distressed areas.
HRV is an unusual development entity created by a locality that has not focused on backing local projects.
The report does not make clear what efforts were made to invest in Norfolk or the region. Sean Washington, Norfolk’s director of economic development, said he met with HRV representatives twice in 2025. He did not reply to a request for details of those meetings.
The January Treasury Department report on community development entities shows HRV has $30.5 million in tax credits issued in 2022 and 2023 available to attract investors. It is possible some of that has been committed to projects not completed.
Mayor Kenneth Alexander did not answer emails or phone messages seeking comment, but four members of the city council said they want to know more about the corporation’s efforts. One pushed for changes in its operation.
“I continue to be disappointed in the lack of significant investment in Norfolk,” Council member Courtney Doyle said after reviewing the report.
Carlos Clanton, a new member of the council, said there should be a meeting with HRV.
“My focus is on accountability, transparency, and constructive engagement to ensure these opportunities translate into real benefits for Norfolk residents,” Clanton said.
Council member Tommy Smigiel noted the need for a grocery store downtown and perhaps one in his ward in Ocean View, and a planned new warehouse for the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, the kind of projects HRV has funded in other states.
He also wondered why there was no reporting about exploring local projects.
“Something like that would have shown some kind of effort at a minimum,” he added. “We’ve got to figure out as a council and a city how we want to better utilize them and work as partners to our advantage.”
Jeremy McGee, a new council member who met with HRV officials early in 2025, noted that they claimed a need to focus on certain industries and businesses. They include grocery stores, mixed-use development, health care facilities, and foodbanks.
“What’s interesting to me,” he said, “is some of those verticals are things that we need in Norfolk. … What I don’t know is how much effort has been expended by them to cause that to happen.”
McGee noted that the board of HRV is a subset of the board of commissioners of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. “That’s something that seems like it needs more oversight,” he said. “As we add more NRHA board members with different skills and capabilities, I think that could benefit HRV.”
Council member wants changes in proceeds use
In the four years since the Virginia Mercury’s series on HRV was published, the company has transferred more than $4.4 million to NRHA. In the 18 preceding years, it had transferred $1.3 million.
According to the report, which covers the first nine months of 2025, HRV had net income of more than $1 million and more than $10 million in checking and savings accounts. It contributed $800,000 to NRHA during 2025.
The funds included $150,000 for two vehicles and support for workforce development and vocational skill training, “community improvements,” and “community engagement,” described as access to food and cultural enrichment activities, healthy community initiatives, and leadership training.
McGee said that’s not where that money should be spent.
“I think the proceeds from HRV need to be spent on housing, potentially workforce housing. As I look at the history of how those monies have been used, I’m not convinced it’s the highest and best use,” he added. “When I think about board governance and improving that, a big component of that is ensuring that those dollars are spent on the right thing.”
Using profits from HRV to fund NRHA programs also defeats the purpose of the new markets tax credits program, which is intended to spur investment in distressed areas.
For every New Markets Tax Credits dollar invested in a neighborhood, the Treasury Department says it spurs $8 in private investment. Norfolk is a prime market for that investment, with 16 severely distressed U.S. Census tracts given the highest priority for new markets tax allocations. The poverty rate in those ranges from 31% to as high as 80%, and the unemployment rate tops out at 40%
Over three years ago, the City Council resolution pushing for the subsidiary to invest in Norfolk projects and seeking more oversight was passed after a Virginia Mercury series detailed how HRV had invested only a fraction of the $360 million in tax credit allocations it had won in Norfolk over two decades.
That resolution said “HRV shall proactively seek Norfolk projects and not rely solely upon the Norfolk Economic Development Department. HRV’s proactive outreach shall include marketing the NMTC.”
Other Virginia housing authorities have created entities like HRV that match projects with investors attracted by the favorable tax breaks with the new markets tax credits. They focus on projects in their cities or regions, often plowing the millions of dollars in administrative fees they earn back into local projects. They also open their meetings to public scrutiny. Hampton Roads Ventures does not.
For the first time in several years, HRV did not win a tax credit allocation in the most recent award, according to Treasury Department records. The for-profit subsidiary of NRHA has done projects in 17 states and the District of Columbia, according to Treasury Department data. It has not done a project in Norfolk since 2008.
HRV lists three employees: a chief executive officer, a portfolio manager, and an executive assistant. According to its 2024 audit, also filed with the city, it paid more than $530,000 in salaries in 2024, up from $489,000 the year before.
Jennifer Donohue, HRV’s CEO, did not respond to an email seeking comment. In the past, HRV’s lawyer has denied public records requests despite the company being a subsidiary of NRHA, a public body subject to records requests.
A spokesman for the New Mexico Economic Development Department, which contributed a $400,000 grant to the Biltwise project, said the company was up and running under the name Fortified Structures of New Mexico and employed 58 people as of September.
The Southeast Texas Foodbank and Resource Center expanded coverage to five counties in East Texas, offering a WIC office, a location for vaccines, and the local health district in addition to the food pantry, a one-stop shop.