The economic future of Western Tidewater is mapped in a developing series of business parks tied to a sizable future expansion of the Port of Hampton Roads.

In Suffolk, developers of a dozen business parks hope to capitalize on increased container traffic through the port after the planned $250-million upgrade of APM Terminals Virginia and new facility at Craney Island, according to the Department of Economic Development.

Early site approval has become a necessity for successfully financing and marketing park projects, city Economic Development Director Kevin Hughes said.

“The model has changed in the development field,” he said.

Plans for the 900-odd acre CenterPoint Intermodal Center off Kenyon and Holland roads include 5.8 million square feet and rail yard. Its first two tenants are Ace Hardware and the Navy Exchange Command.

Rail or the potential for it, generally a major draw for importers/exporters, also exists at Virginia Commerce Center along with Waverton Commerce, Northgate Commerce and Suffolk Industrial parks.

Still in its early stages of development on the Route 13/32 corridor, Waverton would include five million square feet of space at capacity.

Off Nansemond Parkway, Northgate includes the 300,000 square-foot Northgate Logistics Center, currently tenanted by American Condenser and Coil, and ProLogis Park, a planned six-building, two million-plus square-feet development, whose first building is approved for construction.

California Cartage Company occupies building one of the three-building Virginia Commerce Center on Kenyon Road.

Virginia Regional Commerce Park, at the corner of routes 460 and 58, is one of Suffolk’s more-tenanted parks, with Caspari, ArtFx, Best Brakes, Sumitomo and Massimo Zanetti.

Retail and office space could be destined for the section fronting 460, and the 12-acre master-planned park would span over one million square feet when built out.

Six distribution/light manufacturing buildings are planned for the 235-acre Westport Commerce Park, across Manning Bridge Road from the Target Import Warehouse.

Site plan approval exists for Commerce Center Hampton Roads along Carolina Road, with 740,000 square feet, and Enterchange at Suffolk off Benton Road, totaling 918,000 square feet.

Ashley Capital, meanwhile, has developed the 800,000 square-feet former General Electric plant on College Drive into Bridgeway Business Center, whose tenants include Amsec, Rock Bottom Golf and Coastal Logistics.

When fully built out, Bridgeway Commerce Center at Harbour View will be 324,000 square feet. Two buildings are currently fully leased, and a third is under construction.

“The main focus of Suffolk strategically has been on infrastructure improvements,” Hughes said, citing the Nansemond Parkway and Route 460 widening, redesign of Route 58 and new water towers.

All business parks in Suffolk are privately developed except the fully developed Wilroy Industrial Park and Suffolk Industrial Park. Northgate Industrial Park is a public-private partnership.

Hot on Suffolk’s heels is Isle of Wight County, where the 330,000 square feet so-called Johnson Development Associates Building 1 is expandable to 800,000 square feet, and the public-owned 1,500-acre Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park has proven popular with a reported $81 million in private investment and more than 400 jobs created between 2000 and 2010.

Franklin has been marketing Pretlow Industrial Park along Route 58.

Amanda Jarratt, executive director of Franklin Southampton Economic Development Inc., said it was set aside by the city “to have industrial property available” in the early 1990s, and 165 acres remain.

The park has “definitely had its challenges over time,” Jarratt said, including natural gas rail access problems.

Southampton County purchased land for Southampton Commerce and Logistics Center, also known as the Turner Tract, “several years ago,” Jarratt said.

Enviva LP is planning for the center a plant to manufacture wood pellets, which it will ship from its own port facility in Chesapeake, Jarratt said.

Potential exists for a CSX rail spur, which could be developed with funding through Virginia’s Industrial Rail Access Railroad Tracks Program, Jarratt added.

“We have been really pleased with the amount of interest in the Turner Tract,” she said.

Fifty-eight acres remains undeveloped at Southampton Business Park, and International Paper wants to lease its former mill, incorporating “154,000 square feet of space that could be used for light manufacturing or advanced manufacturing,” Jarratt said.

She hopes the county identifies more future industrial land as it updates its long-range development plan.

“We’re very excited about the port expanding — the port is a great economic development partner,” she said.

Though Hampton Roads shippers can also route freight through the Port of Richmond and Virginia Inland Port, combined figures for the Port of Virginia’s Hampton Roads-based marine terminals, which they mainly utilize, show tonnage steadily building over the past couple of years after sharply dropping with the Great Recession.

In 2009, 14,908,490 tons of cargo passed through the marine terminals — down more than 16 percent from 17,833,147 tons in 2008.

But it climbed to 15,322,702 tons in 2010, 15,615,938 in 2011, and 7,039,050 this year to the end of May.