Charlottesville, Albemarle region prepare for biotech boost

As Albemarle County officials updated their strategic economic development plan last year, they already knew they had an answer to one of the plan’s key goals.

Over the past decade, business leaders and elected officials in the greater Charlottesville region have bolstered the area’s tech and life sciences industries through state grants, networking and site development, but the region needed a large company with enough gravitational force to form a biotech industry cluster for Virginia.

Last year, that wish was granted, as pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced with state officials that it would be building two manufacturing facilities in Albemarle County, investing $4.5 billion and adding an expected 600 jobs.

The announcement came within weeks of news that Eli Lilly & Co. would be building a $5 billion plant in Goochland County and that Merck planned to expand its Rockingham County location, investing $3 billion.

Earlier in the year, Albemarle supervisors adopted a new county-level economic development plan aiming to become the mid-Atlantic’s “premier destination” for biotechnology and life sciences.

“The timing was amazing,” says Emily Kilroy, Albemarle’s economic development director. “We were heavily working on [AstraZeneca] while we were wrapping up the plan.”

Meanwhile, at the University of Virginia, construction and hiring continue at the Manning Institute of Biotechnology, the $350 million institution that will advance research for cellular and gene therapies and other medical treatments. The institute is expected to be completed in late 2027, U.Va. officials say.
Raising Virginia’s profile as a Big Pharma player — in conversation with Boston,

San Francisco and North Carolina’s Research Triangle — was one of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s aims, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger has said she intends to continue supporting and encouraging the industry.

However, there are still staffing challenges in the Charlottesville region, local leaders acknowledge — specifically, a critical mass of scientists, technicians, engineers and other skilled workers to meet the moment.

While state and local officials work on solutions for that challenge, they are also targeting defense, hospitality, agritourism and manufacturing for further growth in the region, as government contractors, federal agencies and the area’s vaunted vineyards, breweries and distilleries in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains contribute significantly to the area’s economic health.

Targeted focus

Under the state’s GO Virginia economic development program, Virginia is divided into nine regional groups that adopt strategic growth plans every two years, drawing on insights from economic data and feedback from subject matter experts, elected leaders, university systems and private-sector stakeholders.

GO Virginia Region 9 spans the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Culpeper, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, Orange and Rappahannock.

“The overarching goal at the state level is to strengthen Virginia’s long-term economic competitiveness by helping every region in the state collaborate to grow target industry jobs and higher wages in those regions,” says Shannon Holland, director of GO Virginia Region 9. “The bottom line is it just helps regions compete nationally by aligning our workforce and talent pipelines with industry needs and to incentivize collaboration through grants.”

In its 2025 update, the Region 9 council listed its five target sectors: biosciences; financial and business services; food and beverage manufacturing; information technology and communications; and light manufacturing.

The biosciences industry has shown rapid employee growth in recent years, according to CvilleBioHub, a nonprofit trade group that last year opened the Commonwealth BioAccelerator, a 6,500-square-foot lab and office space in U.Va.’s North Fork business park in Albemarle. Five biotech startups are
currently based there.

According to a March workforce report conducted by TEConomy Partners for CvilleBioHub, employment in the regional bioscience industry grew 23% between 2019 and 2024, outpacing overall growth in the private sector.

In 2024, Albemarle-based sterile injectable pharmaceutical manufacturer Afton Scientific announced plans for a $200 million expansion expected to produce 200 jobs by 2030.

Founded in Charlottesville in 1991, Afton currently employs 100 people, says Michael Dunn, its chief commercial officer.

“We’ve had an existing ecosystem of pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the area for many years,” he says. “You couple that with the great pool of talent we have here in Virginia through the university system … [and] it gives us that talent pool to help develop these important medicines and support the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as a whole.”

CvilleBioHub’s March workforce report notes that there are more than 2,100 biotech jobs at 254 businesses in GO Virginia’s Region 9, offering an average annual wage of $121,000, approximately twice the region’s average salary of $60,000, according to ZipRecruiter. However, fewer than one-third of all college graduates with life sciences bachelor’s degrees stay in the area long-term, which creates a “critical” gap of qualified employees for these jobs.

“This is the moment,” says Nikki Hastings, president of CvilleBioHub. “We are no longer an emerging cluster. We are a scaling biosciences economy. But scaling requires coordination.”

The GO Virginia Region 9 Economic Growth & Diversification Plan, a two-year economic development strategy released in 2025, highlighted CvilleBioHub and the Manning Institute as regional strengths in building a biotech workforce.

Need for talent

While GO Virginia’s report was compiled before AstraZeneca’s announcement, it noted that a major employer in the region would make it easier to draw biotech workers to the Charlottesville area, as well as venture capital support.

In an October 2025 Pharmaceutical Technology article, Daniel O’Connell, CEO of Acumen Pharmaceuticals, which is developing an Alzheimer’s treatment, said that new corporate investment in the region will help uplift Central Virginia’s biotech ecosystem, but he cautioned there’s a need to build a “broader management talent base.”

While Acumen is now headquartered in the Boston suburbs, it previously was based in Charlottesville and still has a prominent presence there. Quoted in the trade publication, O’Connell said Charlottesville and Richmond currently have the elements to create success “but not at scale and not in a sustainable way.”

Afton Scientific’s Dunn says that Virginia has not “historically been a major center for pharmaceutical manufacturing,” and for him personally, “I’ve always had to go somewhere else to do my job. There’s a big sense of pride for me to stay in Virginia [and] work within the industry that I know.”

AstraZeneca’s presence will help biotech professionals climb the career ladder without having to leave for a larger market, economic development officials say. Also, the Virginia Center for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, a joint project funded by AstraZeneca, Merck and Eli Lilly in partnership with the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. (VIPC), will address workforce training needs in the Richmond-Petersburg-Charlottesville corridor.

The agreement, executed in November 2025 by Youngkin, will create a training network at multiple community colleges and universities, including U.Va. and Piedmont Virginia Community College. The three pharma giants pledged $120 million toward the center.

Dunn says the center will “provide people with the necessary tools and training to build that future workforce right here in Virginia. That’s going to give this area a big leg up on other pharmaceutical hubs across the United States. I think that the state is doing all the right things to help get the talent we need to support this industry.”

In addition to the biotech sector, Albemarle is also focused on growing its government contracting field. While much smaller than the industry up the road in Northern Virginia, the county is home to the National Ground Intelligence Center at Rivanna Station, near the site where AstraZeneca is building its plant.

In 2023, the county set its sights on buying adjacent property to expand the area as its premier economic development hub after a U.Va. study found that the defense sector generates about $1.2 billion in economic activity each year.

Kilroy, Albemarle’s economic development director, says that’s one of the key reasons why the county is targeting national security and intelligence in its strategic plan.

“That really helped us see the real value that having a federal agency presence here has on the region,” she says. “The bread-and-butter economic development strategy is to nurture the business opportunities that are already succeeding in your area.”

Kilroy said there are still major land plots primed for development at the Rivanna Futures site near U.Va.’s North Fork Discovery Park, where the Commonwealth BioAccelerator is based.

While the GO Virginia Region 9 plan does not explicitly mention defense or intelligence as prioritized sectors, Holland says the region’s targets for IT and light manufacturing businesses complement the govcon sector.

“The region’s being super intentional about what we do,” Holland says. “GO Virginia is focused on aligning industry priorities and collaboration across both rural and urban communities so that the region is prepared for what’s coming next.”

Selling a story

Apart from workforce training programs and other incentives, area economic development officials often emphasize the region’s natural beauty, including hiking trails and parks, as well as Charlottesville’s small-town charm when attracting businesses.

Chris Engel, the city’s director of economic development, notes Charlottesville plays an important role as the region’s urban center and Albemarle County’s seat. As its next economic development strategy plan is under development, Engel says, part will focus on “creative placemaking” and “storytelling.”

In essence, that means investing in improved management and care of the city’s Downtown Mall, a pedestrian-only stretch of the city’s historical Main Street corridor that’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. While AstraZeneca’s recruitment did not actively involve Charlottesville’s administration, Engel notes that the city played a role.

“While they were looking at buying a piece of land in the county, they absolutely looked at this whole community, and that included staying in hotels and walking the mall and enjoying the restaurants to make sure we had the quality of life they want,” he says. “Certainly, that placemaking component that we and others are starting to embrace is absolutely critical.”

In Albemarle and neighboring counties, there are dozens of wineries and craft breweries that are popular spots for residents and visitors, and these businesses and other stakeholders aim to increase business through partnerships and collaboration, possibly with Virginia Tourism Corp.

Francoise Seillier-Moiseiwitsch, a member of the Region 9 Council and managing owner of Revalation Vineyards in Madison County, says she and other winery owners have been collaborating more to increase the exposure of Virginia wines.

“The goal is exporting outside of our region and the rest of Virginia,” she says. “That’s D.C., Maryland and surrounding states, and nationally and internationally, but it would also just be good to improve the sale of Virginia wines in Virginia because only 5% of the wine sold here is made in Virginia.”

Like the biotech industry, the region’s food and beverage sector struggles with workforce development and retention. Seillier-Moiseiwitsch says that legal restrictions on alcohol hamper potential training programs at colleges and K-12 schools, and some small family wineries haven’t updated their business plans in decades.

“Some people don’t believe in distribution; they just believe in having people coming to the wineries. But the landscape is changing,” she says. “You have to work harder to get people through your door.”

Charlottesville region at a glance

Widely known as home to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate and the University of Virginia, the Charlottesville region is located about 65 miles west of Virginia’s state capital. The city was founded in 1762. The university, with its Jefferson-designed campus, opened 57 years later. The region is popular for vineyards, breweries and distilleries, as well as recreation in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area’s largest industries include higher education, health care, defense, biotech and tourism.

Regional population*

• Charlottesville: 46,923
• Albemarle County: 119,479
• Buckingham County: 16,760
• Fluvanna County: 28,738
• Greene County: 22,103
• Nelson County: 14,677
• Orange County: 39,382

Major employers

• University of Virginia/UVA Health
• Albemarle County
• Sentara Health
• City of Charlottesville
• U.S. Department of Defense
• Northrop Grumman
• Crutchfield Corp.
• CFA Institute

Major convention hotels

• Boar’s Head Resort
  22,000 square feet of meeting/event space; 168 guest rooms and suites
• Kimpton The Forum Hotel
  22,000 square feet of meeting/event space; 208 guest rooms and suites
• Omni Charlottesville Hotel
  12,441 square feet of meeting/event space; 205 guest rooms and suites

Boutique/luxury hotels

• Albemarle Estate at Trump Winery
• The Draftsman
• Graduate Charlottesville
• Keswick Hall
• Oakhurst Inn

Major attractions
Monticello, the home of America’s third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws visitors from around the globe. You can see the distinctive Jefferson-designed Rotunda at U.Va. Another must-see for history-minded visitors is Highland, the Albemarle estate of President James Monroe.

Charlottesville’s pedestrian-only Downtown Mall is filled with restaurant patios and shade trees between boutique shops, bars, music venues and event spaces. Stop at awe-inspiring vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains along Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway and at Shenandoah National Park. Hikers will savor Instagram-worthy snaps from Spy Rock and Humpback Rocks.

Take a break from picking apples and peaches at Carter Mountain Orchard with live music and apple cider doughnuts. Or sample Viogniers, rosés and other varietals at area wineries such as Jefferson Vineyards, Trump Winery, Blenheim Vineyards and Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards.

Notable restaurants

• C&O
  French, candorestaurant.com
• Ivy Inn
  American fine dining, ivyinnrestaurant.com
• Oakhart Social
  Seasonal American, oakhartsocial.com
• The Spot
  Gus Burgers and fries, thespotuva.com
• The Ridley
  Southern, ridleyva.com

July 2025 population estimates from University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service based on 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data