For the Record – October 2017

EASTERN VIRGINIA
Atlantic Bay Mortgage of Virginia Beach and Virginia Community Bank of Louisa are set to merge in an all-stock transaction. Under the unanimous agreement between Virginia Community Bank’s board of directors and the manager and members of Atlantic Bay, the bank’s holding company will be terminated and will be managed as the Atlantic Bay Bank. A $20 million offering of the bank’s common stock is expected to be complete when it is closed sometime during the fourth quarter of 2017. (Inside Business)

Emser Tile, a designer, marketer and producer of tile and natural stone, has opened a 400,000-square-foot distribution center in Suffolk. The building, which has the capacity to expand to 850,000 square feet, is Emser’s third distribution center in North America, joining others in California and Texas. The facility at the CenterPoint Intermodal Center will serve the growing East Coast and Midwest markets. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

G2 Ops Inc. has moved to larger headquarters in Virginia Beach and will add 10 jobs. The company, founded in 2013, provides systems engineering, cybersecurity, architectural analysis and consulting services. It plans to make an investment of $446,000 for the relocation and expansion. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Kingsmill Championship has signed a three-year extension with the LPGA Tour. The parties announced the agreement in August, contracting the event with the James City County resort through 2020. Next year’s tournament is set for May 17-20, with 2019 and 2020 planned for similar dates. (Daily Press)

The Newport News Tech Center Research Park, under construction near Jefferson Lab, is attracting interest from Peninsula tech firms and out-of-state businesses. W.M. Jordan Development Co. hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for an 80,000-square-foot, $18 million building across from Venture Apartments in August. Building One, slated for completion in one year, is the first of 11 planned for the $250 million research park campus that’s managed by Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center. (Daily Press)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Bridgewater College will use a $1 million gift from five Smith family members and the Smith-Midland Corp. for the expansion and renovation of the college’s library. The gift by Rodney Smith, his sons Ashley, Roderick, Matthew and Jeremy and the Smith-Midland Corp., also will result in naming the first-floor café in the building the Smith Family Learning Commons Café. (Augusta Free Press)

Machine and fabrication company Draftco Inc. plans to expand its manufacturing operation in Augusta County. The company will spend $450,000 to improve its quality inspection room and buy new machines and welding and testing equipment. The investment is expected to create 16 jobs, according to Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Draftco was founded in 1965 and is based in Stuarts Draft. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has recently had two members confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in, giving that body a quorum of three members necessary to approve projects and orders. Among the projects FERC must consider is the final application for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the 600-mile underground natural gas pipeline that would run from West Virginia through Virginia to North Carolina. The proposed pipeline route includes 55 miles in Augusta County. (The News Virginian)

Stable Craft Brewing is investing half a million dollars to expand in Augusta County. The project will create 13 jobs. The brewery plans to add a bottling line and expand distribution to reach more consumers in more places convenient to their travels. Stable Craft products currently are available in restaurants, taverns and other dining establishments, Craig Nargi, the company’s owner, said in a statement. The company will purchase 88 percent of its agricultural products from Virginia farmers. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
Danville and its emerging craft beer market were featured in the August issue of BeerAdvocate magazine. The article highlights communities such as Danville that are using the popularity of craft beer to reinvent themselves. The River District’s newly opened  Ballad Brewing  and 2 Witches Winery and Brewing Co. are featured in the article, as well as craft-beer retailer Vintages by the Dan on Main Street. A third brewery, Preservation Ale and Smokehouse, is scheduled to open near Ballad Brewing next year.  (Danville Register & Bee)

Mecklenburg County will be the jumping-off point for a new program being introduced in Southern Virginia, CodeVA. Starting with the elementary schools, teachers will learn how to teach computer science and coding to the students. On Aug. 16, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner joined Chris Dovi, the executive director of CodeVA, and Tim Pfohl of the Virginia Tobacco Commission to announce a $361,625 grant to train teachers in computer science and coding to serve in rural Southside and Southwest Virginia public schools. (Mecklenburg Sun)

Oran Safety Glass will expand its manufacturing business in Greensville County, creating 55 jobs and retaining 75 existing positions. The company makes specialty glass for buses, military vehicles and trains. The company will spend $4.45 million in expanding its Greensville facility. OSG, an Israel-based glass manufacturer, develops a wide range of products, including armored safety glass, such as bullet-resistant windows. Gov. Terry McAuliffe approved a $150,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $235,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Two companies announced plans in early September that are expected to create a total of 50 jobs in the Danville-Pittsylvania County area. Unison Ltd., a British tube-bending machine company, will invest $5.2 million and create 35 jobs in establishing its first U.S. manufacturing operation in the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park, jointly owned by the city and the county. Meanwhile, Intertape Polymer Group, a packaging products and systems company, will invest $7 million and add 15 jobs in expanding its manufacturing and distribution capacity at its Pittsylvania facility. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

CENTRAL VIRGINIA
Virginia soon will have another publicly traded company. The board of directors of Cleveland-based NACCO Industries Inc. has approved the spinoff of Glen Allen-based Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Co. Hamilton Beach is a holding company for Hamilton Beach Brands Inc., a manufacturer of home appliances and commercial restaurant equipment, and The Kitchen Collection LLC, a kitchenware retailer.  (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

Hunton & Williams LLP established the Hunton & Williams ABA Legal Opportunity Scholarship in honor of Robert J. Grey Jr. The scholarship will help address the diversity gap in the legal profession by supporting and encouraging more diverse students to obtain a legal degree. Grey joined Hunton & Williams in 2002 and moved to senior counsel status in 2016. He serves as president of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a position he has held since 2010. Grey served as president of the American Bar Association from 2004 to 2005.  (News release) 

A 10-story hotel planned by Macfarlane Partners LLC for the Locks development just north of the James River would open up a dark section along the Kanawha Canal in downtown Richmond. A brown metal hulk of a building straddling the Kanawha Canal would be torn down to make way for the Hyatt Place Hotel at The Locks, opening up the Canal Walk on either side of the waterway.  ( Richmond Times-Dispatch) 

Dallas-based sports entertainment company Topgolf is working on a deal for a location in Henrico County. The company now has three locations in Virginia — Alexandria, Loudoun County and Virginia Beach — with a total of more than 1,200 employees. Topgolf said the Henrico location would require about 12 acres.  Construction of the venue would take 10 to 12 months to complete after the property is purchased and all necessary approvals are obtained. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Tranlin Inc. will repay $5 million to Virginia, as the Chinese company resets its plans to build a paper products factory in Chesterfield County that was expected to bring $2 billion in investment and create 2,000 jobs.  In an exchange of letters with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership in late July, Tranlin’s top executive promised to repay the grant from the Commonwealth’s Development Opportunity Fund by Oct. 24 in acknowledgement that the company would not meet its investment and job commitments by the end of 2019. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Altamont Capital Partners has sold Chantilly-based protective and investigative services firm Omniplex to private security company Constellis, a subsidiary of private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC. A sale price was not disclosed. Omniplex has 2,100 employees and 1,700 investigators across the country and provides security personnel and investigative services to the federal government. Constellis, which has a government division based in Reston, provides risk management, intelligence and operational support services to government and commercial clients all over the world. (Washington Business Journal)

Germanna Community College’s Fredericksburg Center for Advanced Technology (FredCAT) has opened in Central Park.  FredCAT offers credential programs, apprenticeship training and support services aimed at high-demand fields. The apprenticeship programs include: electrical, welding, HVAC, industrial maintenance/machinist, masonry, plumbing, gas fitter, asphalt technician and construction inspector. The center also offers training and certification in areas such as 3-D printing, fiber-optic cable technology and drone building. The center also provides a home base and work space for students and entrepreneurs to create designs, develop prototypes and collaborate in supporting local technology and manufacturing startups.  (The Free Lance-Star) 

The General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded a lease to an affiliate of Boston Properties to build the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) a new, 625,000-square-foot headquarters as part of the agency’s planned relocation from its current home in Pentagon City. The outcome is one few could have expected two years ago, when Boston Properties protested the GSA’s award of a lease shifting the TSA to Victory Center in Alexandria. A federal judge agreed with Boston Properties, finding that the federal government exceeded its authority by awarding a lease in excess of the 625,000 square feet the House and Senate authorized for the new headquarters. The judge voided the Alexandria lease, and the bidding process reopened, prompting the latest award to the Springfield site. (Washington Business Journal) 

Fairfax-based George Mason University awarded more bachelor’s degrees to minority students in the 2016-17 school year than any other institution of higher education in Virginia, according to new data. With 2,326 degrees conferred on minority students, the university was tied for 44th nationally out of more than 2,700 institutions, in a study by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. The 2,326 degrees to minority students represent an increase of 10 percent from the year before, Mason officials said. Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond was next among Virginia universities (at No. 53 nationally), with 2,196 degrees awarded. (InsideNOVA.com) 

HomeServices of America Inc., a Minneapolis-based Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, has acquired The Long & Foster Cos. Inc., the largest private residential real estate company in the U.S. in terms of sales volume. The acquisition of Chantilly-based Long & Foster includes its family of companies, such as Long & Foster Real Estate and its affiliated business lines in mortgage, settlement services, insurance and property management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Wes Foster, Long & Foster’s co-founder, will remain with the company as chairman emeritus. Jeff Detwiler, Long & Foster’s current president and CEO, will become chief executive officer, managing the day-to-day operations. Founded in 1968 by Wes Foster and Henry Long, Long & Foster’s companies are among the nation’s leading real estate and financial services companies. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

More than 100 businesses moved to or expanded in Loudoun County during its last fiscal year, investing $3.3 billion. The Loudoun County Department of Economic Development said that amount from FY 2017, which ended June 30, resulted in a three-year total of more than $7.2 billion in new investment. FY 2017 was the department’s third record-breaking year in a row for investment, following $1.6 billion in FY15 and $2.3 billion in FY16. The economic development projects in Loudoun in FY17 included cybersecurity, aviation and aerospace, data centers, craft beverage producers and IT organizations of many kinds. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

A plan to build a  Metro station  in Alexandria’s growing Potomac Yard community has been postponed. A lexandria officials said transit officials determined more time than anticipated would be needed to award a contract. “The schedule is pushed back because we are considering cost-saving opportunities within the context of the procurement,” said Mitch Bernstein, director of the city’s Department of Project Implementation. Bernstein declined to speculate when construction will begin, saying the final timetable and completion date won’t be known until a contract is awarded. But Metro, which is overseeing the procurement process and construction, said it plans to award the contract next spring. (The Washington Post)

Tysons IT services firm Mission Services Inc. plans to hire 400 new employees, tripling its current count, and move into an office double its current size in a few months. With 200 employees now, the IT contractor has been on a path of surging growth, reaching a turning point in 2016. In the last year, the company has grown tenfold from 20 employees with 14 new federal contracts. The company cites $4.7 billion in new contracts for the Air Force alone, including the Network-Centric Solutions-2, or NETCENTS-2, contracts to provide IT, network and telecom services to the military division. (Washington Business Journal) 

Private equity firm H.I.G. Capital completed its acquisition of publicly traded Reston IT and government services firm NCI Inc. in August. H.I.G. purchased both Class A and Class B common stock shares at $20 per share, for a total price of $283 million. NCI had a net income of $13.9 million last year and has about 2,000 employees in more than 100 countries around the world. Miami-based H.I.G. has $21 billion in equity capital and has offices across the country in cities such as Boston and San Francisco. (Washington Business Journal) 

Octo Consulting Group, a digital services provider for the federal government, has opened a new corporate headquarters in Reston. The 25,000-square-foot, $2 million facility represents a substantial expansion in footprint from the company’s former offices in Tysons Corner. Octo said it has hired more than 130 employees during the past 18 months as government agencies have modernized their aging IT infrastructure. It now has 350 employees. The company has additional offices in Alexandria, Fulton, Md., and Atlanta. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

Dulles-based Orbital ATK successfully launched a rocket carrying a satellite into space from Cape Canaveral, Fla. In August the satellite will deliver information to the U.S. Strategic Command through the Joint Space Operations Center. Orbital ATK designs, builds and delivers space, defense and aviation systems for customers around the world, as a prime contractor and merchant supplier. The company employs approximately 13,000 people across the U.S. and in several international locations. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
Bristol is one of four financially distressed localities cited in August by the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts (APA). The four localities, two cities and two counties, came on the state’s radar through a new warning system devised after Petersburg experienced its financial crisis last year. In June, Moody’s upgraded the Bristol’s outlook to stable and raised its bond rating after a downgrade last year. But the city of 17,000 still maintains more than $100 million in long-term general obligation bond debt with about half of it tied to The Falls commercial center in the Exit 5 area, which has yet to attract significant numbers of tenants. (Bristol Herald Courier)

Bristol school officials are considering turning the vacant   Bristol Mall   into a career and technical school, according to Superintendent Keith Perrigan. The superintendent has spoken with the mall owner, Sunstar Keshav LLC, a New Jersey-based real estate investment firm, which wants to fill the property, he said. While neither the building nor the property is currently up for sale, Perrigan said he plans to stay in contact with Sunstar Keshav in hopes that the property eventually will become affordable. The real estate investment firm couldn’t be reached for comment in August. (Bristol Herald Courier) 

It was a rainy morning, but those gathered were not daunted in their excitement to be celebrating the groundbreaking of a new mental health-care center in Marion.   Mount Rogers Community Services Board   broke ground July 28 for the Rhea B.  Lawrence Recovery Center , under construction on the campus of Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute. The Rhea B. Lawrence Recovery Center is described as an “eight bed residential, crisis-stabilization program, repla cing the current Cornerstone facility that has operated in Marion since 2006.” (SWVAToday.com) 

 Tazewell County  is moving toward having a countywide chamber of commerce. Richlands and Tazewell currently have chambers of commerce, and Bluefield and Cedar Bluff have business associations. A series of community meetings to assist in the development of a countywide chamber were scheduled for September.  The meetings create an opportunity for business and community leaders to establish common goals and objectives for the future. Collectively, the input will shape a plan of work for a smooth transition to a strong, unified chamber that works for all of Tazewell County. (SWVAToday.com) 

 V irginia Highlands Community College  celebrated an investment in education in August that is addressing the Mountain Empire’s shortage of nurses. “Today we are dedicating one of our classrooms to Bristol Regional [Medical Center] as a symbol of our appreciation to their commitment to the education of students in the Virginia Appalachian Tricollege Nursing Program … and to the medical need for the area,” said Kathy Mitchell, the college’s dean of nursing and allied health. The dedication represents a partnership between VHCC and Bristol Regional that allowed an additional 20 students to begin their nursing studies this year. (Bristol Herald Courier) 

Completion of Wythe County’s APEX Center, a 90,000-square-foot arena building, is one step closer to becoming a reality. The county was seeking proposals for the construction of the facility and adjacent site improvements by Sept. 29. Supervisors hope the APEX site will be home for regional fairs, motorsports competitions, gun shows, trade shows, equestrian events, livestock shows/auctions and more. In addition, they hope businesses will develop around the center and contribute to the county’s tax base. (SWVAToday.com) 

ROANOKE/NEW RIVER VALLEY
Brown Edwards, a Roanoke-based regional accounting firm, was ranked among the nation’s top 100 accounting firms this year by Inside Public Accounting.  The rankings are based on 2016 U.S. net revenue. Brown, which is celebrating its 50th year in business, has a staff of more than 300 in offices in three states. It was ranked as 99th on the 2017 list with $37.4 million in revenue, five slots higher than its ranking of 104 the previous year. (News release) 

James River Equipment (JRE) recently acquired the assets of the Blueridge Farm Center in Buchanan. According to JRE, based in Ashland, operations of the agriculture and turf center will continue with Josh Altice, former Blueridge Farm Center manager, serving as branch and sales manager. The center will sell, rent and provide parts and service support for new and used farm equipment and implements as well as lawn and garden equipment. The Buchanan location is the 39th for JRE, a John Deere dealer. (News release) 

Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group, based in Roanoke, has opened a branch office in Blacksburg. The company said the expansion would help it serve the rapidly growing New River Valley. The office is located within North End Center at 314 Turner St. Four employees will work there, and it will be available to all of the company’s agents.  (Virginia Business.com) 

The board of visitors at Virginia Tech has approved $90 million in financing for a 139,000-square-foot medical building that will be constructed on land owned by Carilion Clinic in Roanoke. The project, the Health Sciences and Technology Comparative Oncology Research Center and classroom building, will expand Tech’s footprint on the Roanoke campus. The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will officially become part of Tech on July 1, 2018. The money for the expansion will come from $48.3 million in state funds, $23.7 million in bond money and $17.7 million in private gifts. (The Roanoke Times)