I recently spent some time in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of that states more beautiful cities in a valley of the Shenandoah Mountains. When I was younger, I spent many an enjoyable and challenging day hiking and climbing in this region. I’m going in this post to venture into territory this site does not ordinarily consider given its usual very broad macro perspective, which is something that struck me when I was there. Why on earth hasn’t the city made itself into a Silicon Valley for the broader Washington Federal government area?
It would seem like a natural fit: top school with the University of Virginia, idyllic location near the mountains with Virginia Beach and Delmarva beaches close by, lots of history and culture with Thomas Jefferson, who was in many ways a very creative inventor broadly understood including his libertarian Bill of Rights, and a hip town with a lot of coffee shops and restaurants. What’s not to like for some 20 or 30 something techie? However, while the city does some tech stuff, they have not pursued that path really or at least not on the scale that would be possible to be transformative. But here’s the key point, right up the road in Northern Virginia is arguably one of the most important tech areas in the world with the server farms of what’s called Data Alley–where as much as 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic passes through– and a huge tech government agency presence. Why couldn’t Charlottesville capitalize on that relatively close proximity?
I believe it’s just because the city has not thought about its future path enough and gotten on the right road so to speak. It doesn’t understand it’s full potential to become the tech hub of the Washington tristate area. Sure, Northern Virginia already exists, but Charlottesville allows for a degree of planned development no longer possible in the urban sprawl of that other area and the creation of a major new tech hub.
This is also no small matter because heavily outdoor towns like Charlottesville can go in one of two directions over time. Sometimes, the nature ideology takes a very anti-capitalistic direction, and it can go too far in that direction like in the case of a Burlington, Vermont or a Portland, Oregon. Two cities, which despite many good qualities, have tended to drive away the capitalists. The results are often a lot of economic problems as a lot of potential resources that help a city to stay on top of its economic game so to speak go away. I can’t tell you how many cool cities I’ve seen this happen to, and only rarely does it work out. The tech hub influence lets a city avoid this fate without at the same time becoming just an anemic corporate center with its own host of problems. At its best, it allows an ideal middle path between too much of the wrong kind of capitalism and not enough at all.
So here it is, a proposal to make Charlottesville a new more improved and somewhat different Palo Alto:
.The Key is, of course, the University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a top 10 public university with a stellar reputation. Historically, the school has emphasized the liberal arts, medicine, public policy, and law among other areas. It shouldn’t abandon this course, which is why it’s so highly rated, but it would need to make a much bigger push into the tech space. They do have some work in quantum computing and cybersecurity. They have a fairly large technology in the life sciences program and their North Fork Discovery Park. They have funded 200 million for their Digital Technology and Society program with its emphasis on applications for transportation, health care, education, and sustainability, but that’s really simply building on their public policy emphasis. While they should expand these programs and they are important, to really make UVA and the city a tech hub that realizes its full potential, they would have to do a major expansion directly into other key areas, especially AI and start competing for faculty and tech funding in these areas with other top schools in the region and nationally.
The University would at a minimum need to do the following:
1. Establish a tech data center in Northern Virginia for the school, closer to where all the action is in Data Center Alley and all the Government research agencies. Virginia Tech which is a top 100 school in electrical engineering has such a facility. UVA has an extension school in Northern Virginia but that is not its purpose.
2. Start even more directly competing with George Mason and Virginia Tech for Federal grant funding and play up their superior overall in some ways, academic status to these other schools. But more than this, they would need to brand the University like Stanford did as a place where important tech innovation and advanced rather than simply applied research occurs. Market the school as a major tech research institution. Fund major fellowships to attract the top national students in these areas. Start to produce top tier engineers and entrepreneurs in tech areas and emphasize tech innovation. Create direct partnerships like Stanford has with leading first tier tech firms for faculty and staff. The fact that UVA is so close to Washington is a huge advantage in all of this and could also be a major motivation for big tech firms establishing important links with the school through which they would get something unique: a top academic location—one of the best academic institutions in the country close to the Federal government.
3. Most of all and this is the key: use UVA’s reputation and beautiful location to take top faculty from some of the Boston Ivies and the Northeastern schools in general and the San Francisco area schools. They need to give some of these top researchers in the field super attractive chairs and salaries to attract them. The fact that the Northeast cities are having some issues these days and San Francisco is in some ways a mess makes this more possible to do now than it has been for many decades. Also at least for the next 4 years a lot, and I mean A LOT, of government funding is going to be diverted for political reasons away from these Northeast and California schools which could make UVA, a southern school with fewer funding issues in this regard much more attractive to these top faculty. Harvard top faculty might be available if the government funding cuts actually occur. Get a few of the right faculty and a lot would follow.
4. UVA and the city would need to also increase substantially bringing research to marketplace with incubators, more patent commercialization, and startup funding so venture capital and private equity is attracted to the city. They do some of this and there are some of these institutions including from the Federal government in the city, but not with enough emphasis and at sufficient scale as of yet.
5. The school would need to radically expand the quantum computer and cybersecurity programs they have, but more importantly to succeed would need to add a major emphasis on AI, cloud computing, data infrastructure, and next generation wireless technology so they would align the school much more with the needs of Northern Virginia. As a top 10 public university they should also emphasize advanced original research not just applied education in these areas and this could give them a potential edge over competitors whose programs are more applied.
The City of Charlottesville would also need at a minimum do the following:
1. Change up the branding and emphasize more being a very tech friendly city as a whole. Give overall incentives to startups, create an extensive tech ecosystem to attract a lot more tech companies, and work closely with UVA to make the city a tech research hub.
2. Charlottesville like Charlotte, North Carolina needs to market itself more specifically as a center for AI innovation and try to also get national tech hub designation. Invest specifically in AI focused research labs and create many more physical spaces for tech in the city with new innovation districts.
3. Improve infrastructure and provide AI infrastructure, especially with fiber optic which is crucial.
Here’s a more specific discussion of what another crucial component the innovation zones for such a tech hub would look like:
1. The Downtown Mall area or the current UVA city corridor would not really work overall for a flagship new innovative zone where you would need in fact a dedicated space for advanced research, startups and venture capital that would need to be more or less created from scratch. Ideally, you could create a whole new innovation district on a greenfield site still at a reasonable distance to the city designed specifically for modern tech labs, VC offices, and work spaces along with ultra-high speed fiber optic and an adjacent new dedicated UVA campus site all in one new major location solidifying the city’s place as a tech hub and linked to the site mentioned above in Northern Virginia and with state of the art facilities across the board. In this whole new major integrated site not only would state of the art tech facilities be built but also things like dedicated transportation, childcare, green spaces, fitness facilities, etc. would be included in the planning to make the space work especially for younger techies. For this innovation zone, the key would be for a collaboration of local government and private investors to identify the best tract of land, get it rezoned, and establish a major university-industry collaboration to make it all happen with perhaps a key private sector tech sponsor who maybe gets naming rights in the deal. For example, the Amazon Center for Advanced AI Research and Innovation. Such a public-private partnership including private equity and venture capital, which would need to have a major presence in the site, would solidify the city’s place as a high end new tech hub and put it on the map so to speak in a major not incremental way. It would ultimately be in the interests of everyone involved if something truly impressive was created.
If this was not possible, and in addition even if it was, the following development would also be crucial and here I will get much more specific although there would be many ways, of course, to do this at scale.
2. Downtown new coworking tech spaces in the West Main Street and Water Street Corridor.
3. Tech research labs in the recently announced new Charlottesville Innovation District near Emmet Street and start up incubators in sites near the UVA Research Park.
4. Industrial tech development in the Meechums River Industrial Area sites along Rio Road West.
5. In the Belmont Industrial area tech workspaces in the redeveloped former Albemarle Paper Company site and warehouses on Old Lynchburg Road.
6. In Northside/Avon neighborhood affordable tech live-work spaces space in the former industrial parcels near Fontaine Avenue and in the vacant lots and old commercial buildings along Monticello Avenue.
7. Inside the Airport Technology Park area for tech companies and startups that need great logistics and transportation infrastructure in the available lots along Airport Road.
8. And this is important, a dedicated site specifically for much higher end office space for the venture capital community and private equity.
Obviously, all this works best with a major tech hub development occurring in a greenfield site, but it could be pursued on its own terms.
Conclusion
All of this would be very doable if the university, private sector, and city decided, in a coordinated way, as opposed to simply piece-meal way to take this course. They would in macro terms take advantage of the natural further development and expansion outwards as Northern Virginia becomes more and more populated. They would provide to younger 20 and 30 something techies a major new location close both to the Shenandoah Mountains and also Virginia Beach and the Eastern shore.which would be very attractive.
All of this would also not only lead to a potential tech corridor from Washington and Northern Virginia and the city, but also from the city to the military center of the Virginia Beach area on the one hand and the political state capital, Richmond. Funding for such a course might come from all these sources potentially that would benefit from such a major tech hub in the city. The city also has the thing I would think that all developers love, which is a lot of available farmland in the surrounding areas that could, at least potentially, be built upon in a responsible way still preserving important green spaces. They would just need, like other successful tech hubs, to fully pursue this path. Also, even more incremental changes if thoughtfully pursued and coordinated in a broader plan, which would be crucial and already is to a limited extent certainly occurring–could still have a very positive effect on the city.
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