Florence G. Kingston

Florence Kingston was selected as Director for the Department of Development for the City of Newport News in January of 2003 after being appointed Acting Director in August of 2002. Mrs. Kingston also serves as Secretary/Treasurer of the Economic/Industrial Development Authority of the City of Newport News. She has worked in economic development and small business development for 32 years. She has been with the City’s Department of Development for 30 years and with the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority for two years prior to that.
 

Mrs. Kingston is directly involved in negotiating and overseeing multi-million dollar development projects including City Center at Oyster Point, various Shipyard projects Downtown, including the Herbert H. Bateman Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center, the Downtown Engineering Facilities, and numerous other industrial, commercial, and mixed-use projects throughout the City. Most recently she has been instrumental in the Apprentice School project, a $72 million mixed-use redevelopment project in the City’s traditional downtown – the result of a complex collaborative effort between the City, the IDA, the Commonwealth of Virginia, Huntington Ingalls Incorporated, and Armada Hoffler Development Company. In 2008, she was selected as “Business and Professional Person of the Year 2008” by the Warwick Ruritan Club.
 

Promoted to Assistant Director of Planning and Development in 1997, a few of Mrs. Kingston’s prior projects include the development of a Façade Improvement project in Downtown Newport News, the distribution of assets from the Regional Redevelopment and Housing Authority and establishment and creation of the Industrial Development Authority, and the financial evaluation of the City’s participation in funding the construction of the $25 million Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport terminal.
 

Florence received a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. In 1988, she received certification as an Economic Development Finance Professional from the National Development Council. In 1999, she completed the Certified Planning Commission’s course through Virginia Tech.
 

She is a member of the International Economic Development Council, the Southern Economic Development Council, the Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate, the Council of Development Finance Agencies, the Virginia Economic Developers Association, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Tidewater Small Business Financing Authority. Her civic activities include past Vice President and Treasurer of Girls, Inc. of the Greater Peninsula and she serves on the Boards of People-to-People, Visionarias, First United Methodist Church Foundation and Board of Trustees, The Newport News Green Foundation, and the Christopher Newport University’s Joseph W. Luter, III College of Business & Leadership Board of Advisors.
 

Florence and her husband, George, have been married for 27 years and have a 23 year old daughter named Kasey who is a graduate of the University of Virginia.