The County of Surry has long boasted about its mile and miles of waterfront land and picturesque views along its shorelines, however, prior to purchasing an 18 acre parcel along Grays Creek (a tributary of the James River), Surry did not own ANY of their extensive waterfront land and therefore couldn’t offer access to this valuable resource as a public amenity. Surry’s goal with this purchase was to remedy that, immediately providing boater and pedestrian access to the water with a boat ramp. They also envisioned a greater development opportunity for the county with the potential for repurposing an existing restaurant building and developing a marina that could provide additional tax revenue for the County.

With our expertise in building transformations coupled with our focus on navigating and developing complex waterfront sites, we were a natural choice for the County and were selected to facilitate and design the vision for the redevelopment of this property to meet Surry’s goals, first master planning the entire site as a model for sustainable, environmental, and waterfront development and then successfully implementing the restaurant renovation and marina development. The building renovation included not only modernizing the building for use as a new restaurant, but added a marina store with harbor master’s post, converted 4 existing apartments into hotel rooms for marina users and travelers, and added an expansive deck for outdoor dining. VIA facilitated the development of the marina by coordinating a Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) through the Virginia Department of Game of Inland Fisheries (DGIF), which allowed the County to minimize its initial investment in the property, making the entire development financially feasible and able to come to fruition immediately.

Even more exciting for us to see is that Surry County has now taken the ball and ran from there, developing a bathhouse for marina users and has immediate plans to develop a system of nature trails for resident and visitor use; all based on VIA’s original vision and master plan for maximizing the impact, potential, and access to this beautiful waterfront resource for its residents.