Old Point Comfort marina getting hotel, restaurant as Fort Monroe announces $40M overhaul

Old Point Comfort Marina is poised to get a revamp of a lifetime.

The Fort Monroe Authority announced a $40 million deal with a Smithfield-based hospitality business in a proposal to redevelop the McNair Drive marina, build a hotel and a 500-seat restaurant.

The authority’s Board of Trustees executive committee met Wednesday virtually to OK a long-term ground lease agreement with Pack Brothers Hospitality. The agreement ignites the process to bring a significant redesign for the marina.

“We have been working on the project for some time. (We wanted a) developer who was going to come in and was going to embrace the vision of Fort Monroe,” executive director Glenn Oder said. “They were going to embrace this concept of a mixed-use community. They were going to embrace this coastal waterfront trail that we had proposed very early on in the process.”

Fort Monroe is a national historic landmark and was designated a national monument in 2011. The Base Realignment and Closure process was lengthy, delaying many planned endeavors, authority officials said. Since then, Fort Monroe has sought to lease out sections of the 565-acre former military post for redevelopment. After the Army pulled out in 2011, the property had been carved into various parcels, mostly with shared ownership with the commonwealth and the National Park Service.

“When the fort was closed down in the (base realignment closure) process, it was a real economic gut-wrencher. The city suffered the loss of jobs,” Fort Monroe board chairman Jim Moran said. “We want to rebuild better and have (the marina) as a show piece. We want to bring jobs back to people who were reliant on Fort Monroe in the community, for the restoration of Hampton’s economy and by extension the region’s economy.”

The family has operated the Smithfield Station marina and hotel for than three decades. Its owners include Ron and Tina Pack, who started the businesses, and sons Brian and Randy Pack, the latter of whom is on Smithfield’s town council.

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“We are very, very excited about this project,” Randy Pack said. “We were looking to expand our business. Our idea here is to make a marina worthy of marina of the year (and) to build a hotel that is truly outstanding. And to enjoy a restaurant where you can look out on the deck, and enjoy the outside water views that you see when the ships come in for the Navy.”

The new entity will be dubbed 37 North at Fort Monroe. Pack said the company is planning for some 220 jobs — full- and part-time — and plan to hire locally, Randy Pack said.

In addressing a question from slip holder Michael Corley about marina rates, Pack said “slip holders will see very little change.”

He added, as the company works on a transition with the authority, slip rates will stay the same for now, but will increase in the future.

The long-term lease, when it goes into effect, is for $1 annually for a minimum of 40 years, with a provision to extend it another 20 years based on market value, John Hutcheson, authority deputy director, said. The lease approves the permitted uses on the marina property.

Once permits are secured, the proposal calls for a new hotel, with as many as 90 rooms, which would extend over Mill Creek and an adjacent conference center with a 250-person capacity. The plan also would include redeveloping at least three historic buildings and replacing the marina office.

The proposed plan also calls to remodel the entire marina for 300 slips and the existing boat ramp, allow for boat sales and rentals and a build a new restaurant.

Two non-historic building on the opposite of McNair Dr. would be razed to create additional parking. The developer may also build a boardwalk to connect to fort’s 7-mile trail along Fenwick Road.

The existing public boat ramp will remain open during the contingency period, an authority spokeswoman said.

“They intend to replace all the piers and docks,” Hutcheson said. “These piers and docks were installed in the early 1990s and early 2000s. They’re 20 to 30 years old. They need a significant amount of reinvestment.”

The developers plan to rely on historic tax credits to refurbish three historic structures. They include the former Coast Artillery School Bindery and Printing Plant, which is being pitched as the conference center.

The proposal is contingent upon a joint permit from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Army Corp of Engineers, Department of Environment of Quality and the wetland board’s approval stamps from the Department of Historic Resources, Fort Monroe’s historic preservation officer and other financing. The contingency timeline could last a long as two years after which the lease will begin, Hutcheson said.

“All of the alphabet soup of government agencies have a chance to sign off on that it meets with the design standards and the programmatic agreement,” Hutcheson said. “Our historic preservation officer (has) the first review process.”

The Pack family officially created a corporation in 2018. It operates Smithfield Station, a hotel, marina and restaurant, which opened in 1986 and the Surry Seafood Company in Surry County.

Lisa Vernon Sparks, 757-247-4832, lvernonsparks@dailypress.com