Shovels hit the dirt Wednesday afternoon at 6250 Newport Ave. in Norfolk, marking the official groundbreaking for a new campus that aims to give hundreds more teenagers a shot at escaping poverty. The James Barry-Robinson Institute's Next Step to Success program held the ceremony for its planned after-school and summer learning campus on the former DePaul hospital site, with completion targeted for spring 2028.
The event was first reported by WAVY.com, which covered the Wednesday groundbreaking and noted the campus is being built on nine acres of the former DePaul hospital property. That figure differs slightly from design documents published by wparch.com, which describe the plan as an 8.9-acre campus. Work Program Architects designed the new facility, according to WAVY.com's report.
The property has a long, somewhat rocky history before this moment. Bon Secours, which last operated DePaul hospital, closed the facility in 2021 after patient numbers dwindled, according to pilotonline.com. Next Step to Success then purchased the property from Bon Secours for $5.7 million in December 2023, as reported by dailypress.com. The Norfolk Planning Commission later gave the redevelopment its blessing, unanimously voting to award a development certificate to the project on June 26, 2025, per pilotonline.com's earlier coverage.
What's Actually Getting Built
Per WAVY.com's reporting on the groundbreaking, the campus design includes an art house, a gym, an auditorium and cafeteria, administration spaces, and athletic fields and courts. The design also includes learning houses, and wparch.com's project page offers more detail there, describing three to four Learning Houses of 10,000 square feet each with two-story classrooms, plus an Art House containing a media center along with art and music rooms.
There's also a growing-your-own-food element built into the plan. WAVY.com reported that a campus garden will allow students to grow, harvest and learn to prepare healthy food, part of a broader design that wparch.com describes as including a gymnasium, auditorium/cafeteria, amphitheater, sports field and administration building. The program is nonresidential, according to wparch.com, meaning students will be transported home after the evening meal rather than staying overnight.
From Tidewater Drive to a Permanent Home
Right now, Next Step to Success operates out of the former Christ the King School site on Tidewater Drive, according to WAVY.com's report on the groundbreaking. Other outlets have put slightly different numbers on how many students that location currently serves — wtkr.com and whro.org have each reported figures in the 120 to 125 range, while a separate account from wparch.com put the program's enrollment at 70 youths served at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church adjacent to the DePaul site. The organization's own website says it provides free afterschool and summer programs for Norfolk youth ages 13 to 18, with transportation included for pickup and drop-off.
WAVY.com reported that the new campus will expand capacity from about 150 students to as many as 500, though that projection differs from figures reported elsewhere. wtkr.com has reported leaders expecting enrollment to reach about 200 students when the campus opens and eventually exceed 400, while a separate wtkr.com report put planned capacity at 400 youth by 2027. whro.org has reported the program's eventual capacity as 400, with enrollment expected to reach 150 by the end of 2026 and 200 once students move into the new campus. Per whro.org, Phase 1 construction is expected to take about 18 months.
Buy a Brick, Build a Legacy
To help fund the effort, Next Step to Success launched a buy-a-brick campaign, according to WAVY.com's report. The bricks measure 4 by 8 inches, cost $200, and allow for personalization of up to three lines — details that match the organization's own description, on its website, of selling bricks for the main entrance of its new headquarters.
Muhanma Garcia, speaking at the event per WAVY.com, said young people can contribute to community development and create their own footprints. The program's broader mission, according to its own website, is to provide character development, support and resources to help teens avoid poverty as adults. Next Step to Success says its vision is to cut Norfolk's poverty rate by half within one generation, and the organization's website states that the city's poverty rate is nearly twice the state average, with more than 25% of children growing up in low-income households.
Cost estimates for the overall project have varied widely across prior reporting, with figures ranging from $30 million to $55 million depending on the source and which phase of construction is being described. Those discrepancies, alongside differing accounts of total acreage and enrollment targets, remain unresolved across available reporting. What's clear from Wednesday's ceremony is that construction on the long-planned replacement for the Tidewater Drive site has now formally begun, with the organization aiming to welcome students to the former DePaul hospital grounds by spring 2028.
