Rigney has officially been in the position for six months.
Published July 26, 2024, Written by Beth JoJack
Charles “Chuck” Rigney resigned as Virginia Beach’s economic development director on Wednesday. Photo by Mark Rose.
Charles E. “Chuck” Rigney resigned from his position as economic development director for the city of Virginia Beach on Wednesday, city spokeswoman Ali Weatherton Shook confirmed Friday after The Virginian-Pilot reported.
Rigney had been in the role officially for six months, after serving as interim director for about eight months following the departure of the department’s previous director, Taylor Adams, to take an economic development job in Nevada.
Virginia Beach Deputy Mayor Amanda Jarratt will serve as interim economic development director while a national search is conducted to replace Rigney, Weatherton Shook said.
Weatherton Shook declined to comment on why Rigney resigned, saying he could not comment on personnel matters, citing city personnel policy.
“The opportunity to work in Virginia’s largest city is very appealing,” Rigney told Virginia Business earlier this year.
“We will miss Chuck, but life goes on,” Virginia Beach City Councilman Robert W. “Worth” Remick said. “We have a great staff, department and mayor, and I think we’ll manage.”
Asked to comment on the short tenure of Virginia Beach’s last economic development director, Adams wrote in an email that the director left the role more than a year ago and “doesn’t have much insight into the current environment.”
But Adams said leading Virginia Beach’s economic development was “a great job in a great city. I left because the opportunities here provided a life-changing career step for me and my family. Without that, I would still be happily working in Virginia Beach.”
There’s a lot happening in terms of economic development for Virginia’s business community. In September, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Amazon.com’s plans to build a robotic fulfillment center and delivery station in Virginia Beach. And in 2023, Jim Integrated Shipping Services announced plans to invest $30 million to relocate and expand its U.S. headquarters from Norfolk to Virginia Beach. There’s also Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project off the Virginia coast and the highly anticipated surf park development by celebrity Pharrell Williams.
Rigney joined Virginia Beach’s Economic Development Department as business development administrator in February 2023. He previously led Hampton’s economic development efforts from 2018 to 2022. He served as deputy director of Norfolk’s Economic Development Department from 1997 to 2014 and as interim director from 2011 to 2013. He was named Portsmouth’s economic development director in 2014 but left the position less than a year later to become Norfolk’s economic development director in 2015, a position he held for three years.
