Eateries worry about JFCOM closure

SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - The Pentagon's decision Monday to close the Norfolk-based Joint Forces Command is starting to sink in throughout Hampton Roads.

Just how much will the loss of nearly 6000 jobs impact the area?

Suffolk would likely be the hardest hit, as most of the JFCOM employees work at the building at the Lakeview Industrial Park.

"Quite honestly, I was really surprised and shocked because we had heard rumors but we certainly thought that it was not as immanent as it turned out to be," Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson told WAVY News 10 on Tuesday.

The loss of JFCOM in Suffolk could be rough for nearby restaurants who rely on the command's employees to make a living.

For them, the real business comes at lunch, and if JFCOM closes, owners and managers say that's sure to change.

At NANA Sushi the rolls are fresh and so is the news.

"It's a shock for me," Manager Linda Zheng told WAVY News 10 about the Pentagon's announcement to close JFCOM.

Zheng says the Joint Forces Command is her lunch crowd.  "It will be a huge loss, not only for me, but I think everyone in the shopping center."

While the potential loss of nearly 6000 JFCOM employees is staggering, that figure does not include hundreds more from the dozens of businesses that rely on the military and contractor foot traffic generated by the command.

"At least 80 percent of my lunch crowd does come from JFCOM," business owner Lyn Carbonell told 10 On Your Side.

Carbonell opened Totoy's Filipino Store two years ago. She's been successful without much marketing.

"They go to different countries so they're like, 'okay, pancit, lumpia, we know what that is.'"

Her son does the cooking and her husband helps out at night.

"It's very scary," Carbonell said of the potential JFCOM closure, "you just never know."

NANA Sushi has only been open slightly longer. Now employees at both establishments are left wondering whether or not a third year in business is possible.

"I mean, that's all I can hope for, but I really don't know," Carbonell said.

The owners of NANA sushi have another restaurant in Chesapeake and a Norfolk one is set to open in September, but Totoy's only has the one location in Suffolk. If business there gets really slow, it could be the end of the business.

In Petersburg, Va., on Tuesday Virginia Senator Jim Webb said that he doesn't agree with Defense Secretary Gates making deep cuts to the military's budget, particularly the closure of the Norfolk-based Joint Forces Command.

Webb said that the Pentagon's budget-tightening will be harmful to the Commonwealth, and could wind up backfiring on the military.

"I don't particulary agree with the idea that they should be eliminating a command that has been dedicated to the sort of operational efficiencies that we now see in the United States military.

"And, in terms of what they are thinking about doing, we just want to hear them out and, we want to make sure we keep our military people in Norfolk."