TCC to Take Over Greyhound Station, convert to Culinary Arts School

The culinary arts are becoming a major driver for the Cape Charles economy. Modern Culinary Arts students study many different aspects of food. Specific areas of study include butchery, chemistry and thermodynamics, visual presentation, food safety, human nutrition and physiology, international history, the manufacture of food items (such as the milling of wheat into flour or the refining of cane plants into crystalline sucrose), and many others. For those hoping to help take Cape Charles cuisine to the next level, state of the art training will be available through Tidewater Community college just across the bay in downtown Norfolk.

TCC to Take Over Greyhound Station and Glass Wheel in the NEON
March 9, 2018 By City of Norfolk

Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander announced today at his annual State of the City address an innovative new partnership with Tidewater Community College that will transform Norfolk’s NEON District by providing increased educational and economic opportunities for the community and all of Hampton Roads.

Release via the City of Norfolk and TCC.

The City of Norfolk is donating to the TCC Real Estate Foundation the site of the Greyhound bus station at the corner of Brambleton and Monticello avenues to make way for a dynamic cultural and academic building in the heart of the NEON District.

The 47,000-square-foot Patricia & Douglas Perry TCC Center for Visual & Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management will be a jewel, he said.

“This is an incredible opportunity to build on the vibrancy and opportunity that is being created in the NEON District,” said Mayor Alexander. “We are extremely grateful for the support of the Perry family, and their ongoing efforts to make Norfolk a destination for the arts and culture.”

The project, with an anticipated completion date of summer 2020, will be funded entirely by private donations raised through Go Further! TCC’s Campaign for a Competitive Workforce. Norfolk’s Patricia and Douglas Perry are the lead donors in the initiative.

The Perrys were early patrons of the NEON District. They created the Glass Wheel Studio on Olney Road and supported the Hurrah Players’ move to their new headquarters on West Wilson Avenue in 2017.

As part of the TCC project, they have agreed to donate the Glass Wheel Studio to the college, which will house its renowned glass-blowing program, newly developed glass fusing program, ceramics, sculpture and public exhibition spaces there. The TCC Pat and Doug Perry Glass Wheel Arts Center @ NEON could open as soon as summer 2019.

The collaboration among the city, the Patricia and Douglas Perry Foundation and the college is “a transformative moment for TCC and Norfolk,” said college President Edna V. Baehre-Kolovani. It will further energize the NEON District and nearby St. Paul’s area by:

Expanding TCC’s one-of-a-kind visual arts education program
Training the next generation of chefs with a comprehensive culinary arts program
Creating opportunities for collaboration between culinary and visual arts programs
Providing, among five culinary program kitchens, a test kitchen open to the community and prospective entrepreneurs
Inaugurating a program in hospitality and restaurant management
Providing dual-enrollment opportunities for Norfolk high school students and workforce education to residents
Creating a vibrant and inviting dining and arts experience for students, residents and visitors
“TCC, the Perrys and the City of Norfolk share more than a vision for the arts,” said President Kolovani. “As wonderful as this new building will be, this is a venture that relies on community engagement and collaborative partnerships that are all integral to the effort to revitalize the NEON District.

“Nothing we have talked about today would be possible without the generous support of the Perrys.”

TCC has long sought a new home in which to expand its culinary arts program, the only nationally accredited one at a public institution in Hampton Roads. Currently located in the Stanley Walker Technology Building at 350 Granby St., the program currently has 224 students.

This is a rendering of what the “Patricia and Douglas Perry TCC Center for Visual & Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management” may look like. The center will sit on the site of the Greyhound Bus Station, currently located at the corner of Granby and Brambleton in Downtown Norfolk (Courtesy of the City of Norfolk)