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Full speed ahead
No other region of Virginia moves the entire commonwealth forward like Hampton Roads. Sure, Dee Cee is about technology, government contracting and national politics. And Richmond is about politics that are generally more local. Hampton Roads, on the other hand, is about the military and commerce. The ports, the railways, interstates, tunnels, trucks and air […]
A welcome respite
While the spring was red-hot for the residential real estate market, conditions are expected to cool off in the fall. “The market is definitely stabilizing,” says Liz Moore, board president of Real Estate Information Network Inc., the multiple listing service (MLS) for the Hampton Roads region. “We had such a frenzied market during the pandemic.” […]
Sharing the wealth
Virginia small businesses are getting a piece of the biggest highway construction pie ever baked by the Virginia Department of Transportation: the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project. Since April 2019, VDOT has awarded 313 contracts worth a collective $455 million to companies that qualify under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Small, Women-owned, […]
A stitch in time
At the end of 2020, Eastern Virginia Medical School firmly rejected a study recommending that the medical school merge to become part of Old Dominion University. But time passes, minds change, and sometimes there’s turnover at the top. In August 2021, Dr. Richard Homan, who’d led EVMS for nearly a decade, retired. By December, Dr. […]
Supporting the ‘shining star’
Artwork adorns almost every wall of Joan Brock’s immaculate and welcoming Oceanfront home. It’s in the powder room and big, open kitchen. It takes pride of place in a downstairs office and over a fireplace mantle. Large, framed pieces dominate a bright stairwell landing and cozy upstairs sitting room. It’s the accumulation of a passion […]
On the mend
After two years of severe staff shortages at health care facilities nationwide, conditions at the big three hospital systems in Hampton Roads are improving. “The last two years have been some of the most challenging times for nurses in our lifetime,” says Cassie Lewis, chief nursing and quality officer for Bon Secours’ Hampton Roads market. […]
Launching pad
When COVID-19 hit in spring 2020, Cindy R. Earl lost her job as a furniture company’s sales rep. But the Portsmouth resident’s sudden unemployment came with a positive side effect: She had time to assume care of her ailing grandmother after the pandemic had shuttered the assisted living facility where her grandmother had lived. It […]
A slow shift
Jeremy Caleb Johnson is advising clients preapproved for a mortgage loan at the beginning of 2022 to adjust expectations. The price of houses they may have looked at just months ago likely not only went up significantly, but the low interest rates available then have also risen dramatically. “What you may have been able to […]
Money matters
For the most part, the most prominent banking institutions in Hampton Roads stayed the same in fiscal year 2021, with Suffolk-based TowneBank holding the top market share of 27.49% (up nearly 2% from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s June 30, 2020, report) and second-place holders Truist and Wells Fargo banks with just below 20% each. […]
A stitch in time: ODU, EVMS eye potential merger
At the end of 2020, Eastern Virginia Medical School firmly rejected a study recommending that the medical school merge to become part of Old Dominion University. But time passes, minds change, and sometimes there’s turnover at the top. In August 2021, Dr. Richard Homan, who’d led EVMS for nearly a decade, retired. By December, Dr. […]
TowneBank names new CEO
Suffolk-based TowneBank announced Friday that William “Billy” I. Foster III will become CEO, succeeding J. Morgan Davis, who is retiring. Foster, the bank’s market president for Central Virginia and the Carolinas, joined TowneBank as a regional president in 2004, leading the bank’s expansion into the Norfolk area. Before that, he was eastern region president for […]
TowneBank to acquire Farmers Bank
Suffolk-based TowneBank has agreed to acquire Windsor-headquartered Farmers Bankshares Inc., the parent company of Farmers Bank, the two companies announced Thursday. The deal is expected to close early next year. The $56 million deal, which would create a combined company worth $17.5 billion in total assets, loans of $10.9 billion and $14.5 billion, would add […]
