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HAMPTON — During his first State of the City address, Hampton Mayor Jimmy Gray announced HII plans to invest $28 million in a light manufacturing advanced technology facility for Newport News Shipbuilding.

The company is converting its 150,000-square-foot building off Commander Shepard Boulevard to accelerate production of aircraft carriers and submarines with almost 300 jobs, Gray said on Wednesday.

“We’re in constant communication with HII,” Leonard Sledge, Hampton’s chief officer for community and economic development, said after Gray’s speech. “And this bubbled up.”

Xavier Beale, Newport News Shipbuilding vice president of human resources, called the city a key partner in a video played during the mayor’s speech: “Most of our work is don

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