Zim Announces $30M Expansion
Shipping company to move from Norfolk to Va. Beach Virginia Business – Published June 20, 2023 by…
Shipping company to move from Norfolk to Va. Beach
Virginia Business – Published June 20, 2023 Robyn Sidersky
Zim American Integrated Shipping Services Co. LLC will invest $30 million to expand its U.S. headquarters in Virginia Beach, creating several hundred jobs over the next five years, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced.
The expansion includes a move from Norfolk, where the company has had its U.S. headquarters since 2001. Zim is a publicly held subsidiary of Israeli international cargo shipping company Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. The company employs about 280 in Norfolk.
Founded in Israel in 1945, Zim is a global container liner shipping company with operations in more than 90 countries and it serves more than 34,000 customers at more than 300 ports. The Hampton Roads Alliance helped recruit Zim to the region 22 years ago. The company completed its move to Norfolk from the World Trade Center in New York City two weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to a news release from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
In December 2022, ZIM purchased a 70,000-square-foot office building on 4.16 acres from 4425 Corporation Fee LLC for $12 million, according to a January announcement from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, which brokered the sale of the property at 4425 Corporation Lane. According to an economic impact study prepared for the company by Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, Zim added about $1.16 billion to the state’s economy between 2009 and 2019.
VEDP worked with Virginia Beach, the Hampton Roads Alliance and the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission to secure the project. Youngkin also approved a $1.4 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Virginia Beach with the project. Zim is eligible to receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program. Virginia competed against several other states for the project.
