Three Navy ships leaving Hampton Roads for Mayport Naval Station in Florida will take with them paychecks, repair work and spending power that add up to 5,220 jobs and $590 million of the region's annual gross product, according to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday that the ships, which were due to relocate to Mayport in 2015, will be going south much sooner. The New York, an amphibious transport dock ship, will leave in 2013. The following year, the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima and the Fort McHenry, a dock landing ship, will depart.
About 1,800 of the jobs are held by sailors aboard the ships, according to the commission. The others will come from ship maintenance work and the trickle-down effect of less money being spent on goods and services by the crews, the Navy and the military contractors.
While the estimated loss is less than 1 percent of the region's $83 billion gross product, commission officials say the ship departures are significant.
The analysis sheds light on what happens when ships leave for a new homeport, said Greg Grootendorst, a Planning District Commission economist.
The Navy has sought for years to move a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport as part of an effort to disperse the carrier fleet, but Virginia's congressional delegation has blocked the move. Economists have estimated that a carrier contributes 6,000 jobs and $425 million in annual revenue to the local economy.
Dwight Farmer, the commission's executive director, said that as the Pentagon begins to make budget cuts and considers base closings, the region must do a better job of playing to its strengths, including its deep natural harbor, strong ties to the Navy and proximity to Washington.
"We probably excel as a place where you want to consolidate," Farmer said.
Bill Bartel, 757-446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com