Construction begins in September on Saint Vincent de Paul House, a $55 million youth campus rising on the cleared DePaul Hospital site in Norfolk’s Riverpoint neighborhood. Next Step to Success will move there from Tidewater Drive and grow enrollment from 125 students toward more than 400.
A $55 million youth campus is scheduled to enter construction in September on a Norfolk parcel that once held DePaul Hospital, converting cleared medical acreage in the Riverpoint neighborhood into purpose built education and mentoring space.
Saint Vincent de Paul House will serve as permanent quarters for Next Step to Success, a nonprofit created by the Barry Robinson Foundation to address generational poverty through sustained work with adolescents. Design is complete and municipal approvals are secured, with a building permit ready for issuance and a construction contract expected to be executed ahead of mobilization.
First phase scope covers an administration building, an art and media center, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, a learning house, a soccer field and basketball courts. Later phases add learning houses as participation grows. Sequencing capacity this way allows fundraising and program staffing to pace physical expansion rather than delivering seats that operations cannot yet support, a common approach among nonprofit owners building multi phase campuses.
Financing runs through tax exempt bonds authorized by Norfolk City Council and the city’s Economic Development Authority. Qualifying nonprofit borrowers use that structure to reduce interest cost while debt service remains entirely the obligation of the borrower, and municipal approval conveys no financial responsibility to the city or its taxpayers. Social service providers have leaned on the mechanism with increasing frequency as construction pricing has outpaced conventional philanthropic capacity.
Programming currently runs from the former Christ the King Catholic School on Tidewater Drive, where roughly 125 middle and high school students receive meals, transportation, mentoring, career exploration and life skills instruction at no cost. Leadership projects enrollment near 200 at opening and above 400 at maturity, with career and trades exposure, STEM offerings and arts programming forming the instructional core.
Naming honors the original Saint Vincent de Paul Hospital that preceded DePaul on the site. Chuck McPhillips serves as chairman of Next Step to Success. First phase occupancy is anticipated approximately 18 months after groundbreaking.