NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk International Airport has paused plans for an on-site hotel after terminating its agreement with the developer last month, according to Mark Perryman, the president and CEO of Norfolk Airport Authority.
This comes as the airport is in the middle of a nearly $1 billion modernization program.
The airport originally chose ORF Hospitality to develop the hotel, Perryman says. However, after the partnering organizations that founded ORF Hospitality split up, a "default notice" was issued.
This means the terms of the deal previously agreed to in February 2024 were not met.
"ORF Hospitality is who we selected to develop the hotel. Once we found out that that team had broken up and that there was no longer a partnership that had been described to us in the proposal and throughout the negotiating process, we really were left with no choice but to issue a default notice," Perryman said.
When the developer failed to fix the issue, they were "terminated," causing the airport to lose two years of progress, he said.
Perryman hoped the hotel would be open by the end of 2025.
Watch previous coverage: Norfolk International Airport closes little-used, historic runway to make room for capital projects
While the project has "come to a halt," Perryman says that building a hotel is still worth pursuing.
"It's an element ... of the vision. It really is. It has been from the beginning. We need to provide the amenities to our traveling public that they want, and a hotel on airport is one of those amenities," he said.
Perryman shared that the airport authority may take the reins of the development and bring in a private operator to run it.
"If we start over again with a third-party process, we're always running the risk that we could be right back to where we are and lose another two years," he stated. "If we take it on, we know what we are."
However, the decision on what happens next is up to the airport's board of commissioners.
The hotel was supposed to be built on the existing short-term parking lot on the Departures terminal's north side, allowing travelers to stay overnight without having to leave airport property.
