FOR THE RECORD: February 2025 edition

CENTRAL 

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts-based fusion energy company, plans to build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Dec. 17, 2024. The project’s capital investment isn’t fully known yet, but Garrett Hart, Chesterfield’s director of economic development, said, “It will be in excess of $2.5 billion, I’m certain.” Dubbed ARC, the project is expected to be in operation in the early 2030s. Designed to run for 20 years or more, ARC will be located at the James River Industrial Center, a site owned by Dominion Energy. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Many Richmond restaurants and other businesses were forced to close or limit service in early January as they and most city residents struggled with a dayslong water outage that left much of the city without running water and affected Hanover and Henrico counties’ water pressure and sanitation. The city’s water treatment plant failure followed a brief power outage on Jan. 6, during a snowstorm; the outage then caused flood damage that led to filters and pumps going offline. The outage also caused the General Assembly to postpone the start of session from Jan. 8 to Jan. 13, an unprecedented event in modern memory. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Shamin Hotels, headquartered in Richmond, submitted a development plan to the city in December 2024 for a 12-story Marriott near West Broad Street and Arthur Ashe Boulevard. The project plan includes about 250 rooms, with restaurants on the ground floor and rooftop. The property was home to a Hardee’s restaurant from 1982 to 2022, and in 2023, Shamin bought the 1-acre parcel from Texas-based BJF Partners for almost $5 million. The hotel will have two brands in one building: 133 rooms under AC Hotels by Marriott and 120 rooms under Residence Inns. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Charlottesville engineer Justin Shimp filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit in Albemarle County Circuit Court in December 2024 against two men who publicly attacked a now-aborted project to build a 245-unit apartment complex along the Rivanna River. Shimp, founder and principal of Shimp Engineering, alleged in the suit that James F. Groves, a University of Virginia engineering professor, and Henry H. Perritt Jr., a lawyer and retired engineer, libeled him when they accused him of misrepresenting his expertise, failing to disclose conflicts of interest and lying in public filings and forums. Perritt told The Daily Progress he planned to fight back. (The Daily Progress)

The University of Virginia and a Jewish Israeli student who sued the school over claims he was the victim of “virulent antisemitism” on the school’s grounds settled out of court, and a federal judge dismissed the case in December 2024. The second-year student, Matan Goldstein, filed a federal lawsuit against U.Va., its president and rector, and two pro-Palestinian organizations in May 2024. His suit claimed he was the victim of physical violence from antisemitic students and accused U.Va. President Jim Ryan and Rector Robert Hardie of ignoring the “violent hate-based, antisemitic hostile educational environment” on the university’s campus. Neither U.Va. nor counsel for Goldstein disclosed the settlement’s terms. (The Daily Progress)

PEOPLE

Kristen Cavallo, former CEO of Richmond-based advertising firm The Martin Agency and international marketing communications network MullenLowe Global, is the new executive director of The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, the Richmond museum announced Jan. 8. The museum is also undergoing a rebranding to The Branch Museum of Design that will be unveiled this spring. Cavallo announced her retirement from MullenLowe to pursue political and social activism in March 2024. She became Martin’s first female CEO in December 2017 and was the 2023 Virginia Business Person of the Year. Cavallo succeeds Heather Ernst, who is moving out of Virginia to be closer to family. (News release; VirginiaBusiness.com)

EASTERN

Federal prosecutors charged Chesapeake Regional Medical Center with fraud for its alleged role in a former OB-GYN doctor’s practice of billing insurance companies for unnecessary medical procedures or ones he didn’t perform. A grand jury indictment claims Chesapeake Regional ignored signs for at least nine years that former employee Javaid Perwaiz was sterilizing women when it wasn’t needed and without the patients’ knowledge. Perwaiz, who is serving 59 years in prison, racked up $18.5 million worth of reimbursements to the hospital from government-funded insurance programs and private companies. The hospital said the claims were unfounded, calling the indictment an “excessive overreach.” (WHRO)

The International Longshoremen’s Association, the dockworkers’ union, and employers’ negotiation group the United States Maritime Alliance reached a tentative labor agreement Jan. 8, averting a strike that could have hammered the economy days before President Donald Trump took office. After members of the ILA, including those at the Port of Virginia, went on a short strike in October 2024, the maritime alliance agreed to raise wages more than 60% over six years. In January, the two parties overcame their differences over a big sticking point in their talks: the introduction of automated cargo-moving machinery at the ports. (The New York Times)

The Norfolk Tourism Foundation has supported and ensured the vitality of the city’s tourism and hospitality industry for more than two decades, but on Dec. 31, 2024, due to funding constraints, the foundation’s board paused its operations. Leaders foresaw the coming suspension about a year ago, as they felt the decline in financial backing and lack of funding, said Kurt Kraus, president and CEO of VisitNorfolk. The tourism foundation is the charitable arm of VisitNorfolk. (The Virginian-Pilot)

Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival got a bit of a break in January from Virginia Beach City Council members, who agreed to give the Virginia Beach-born music and fashion maven more time to fulfill an overdue part of the festival’s contract with the city. Councilors voted 8-2 to indefinitely defer an earlier resolution that would have given SITW a five-day deadline to announce the April 26-27 festival’s lineup or be in default of its contract, potentially leading to its cancellation. Council members will be getting weekly updates from SITW staff to ensure festival planning remains on track. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Smithfield Foods announced in January it has filed a registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering. This is the first step toward the pork and packaged meats giant’s plan of selling common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SFD. In November 2024, Smithfield’s parent company, China-based WH Group, announced it would take the Virginia subsidiary public early this year and would offer up to 20% of Smithfield’s stock shares. Smithfield recorded a net asset value of $5.38 billion as of Sept. 30, 2024, and its share offering is expected to be valued at $5.4 billion. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Former NFL star quarterback and Newport News native Michael Vick was named Norfolk State University’s new head football coach in December 2024. A standout quarterback at Virginia Tech who played for the Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers, Vick has never worked as a coach before. Vick’s career was put on pause after the 2006 season due to his involvement in an illegal dogfighting ring, for which he spent 21 months in federal prison. In concert with animal-rights advocates, Vick worked to mend his image, and with the blessing of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the Eagles signed him in 2009. (The Virginian-Pilot)

NORTHERN

Booz Allen Hamilton, the McLean-based Fortune 500 global management consultant, agreed to pay a $15.875 million fine to the federal government to settle allegations that one of its subsidiaries violated the False Claims Act, the Department of Justice announced Jan. 3. According to the DOJ, two former program managers at Booz Allen Hamilton Engineering Services “knowingly engaged in a fraudulent course of conduct” with a civilian Air Force employee and a BES subcontractor from Ashburn-based QuantaDyn to win a General Services Administration task order to test military training simulators. Booz Allen said that it denies violating the False Claims Act, as “the conduct described in the settlement largely occurred before” ARINC, the company that became BES, was acquired by Booz Allen. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in January sued Capital One and its McLean holding company, Capital One Financial, alleging the companies cheated millions of consumers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments. The federal lawsuit centers on Capital One’s 360 Savings accounts and its 360 Performance Savings accounts, which the CFPB called “a two-tier system” to keep from paying higher interest to existing customers. Capital One denied the allegations and vowed to “vigorously defend ourselves in court.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of Reston Fortune 100 defense contractor General Dynamics, won a $5.57 billion contract from the Air Force Mission Capabilities Office, it announced in December 2024. The contract, in which GDIT will modernize and operate the Department of Defense’s mission partner environment to allow the military and its partners to communicate securely in real time during field work, has a five-year base period
and a five-year option. Work will be performed in the Washington, D.C., area, as well as in Florida, Hawaii and the United Kingdom. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In December 2024, George Mason University hosted the grand opening of the Fuse building, a $254 million, 345,000-square-foot public-private project in Arlington County designed to bring academic labs focused on technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality together with office space for industry leaders to work alongside professors and students. The launch of Fuse is the latest in a $1 billion statewide effort to make Northern Virginia a type of Silicon Valley of the East Coast, in part by investing in higher education. (The Washington Post)

Reston-headquartered consulting and tech services provider ICF has acquired New York-based tech and advisory services company Applied Energy Group from Ameresco, it announced in early January. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Massachusetts-based energy efficiency and renewable energy company Ameresco acquired AEG in 2011. ICF Chair and CEO John Wasson said in a statement that the purchase will provide growth in his company’s energy markets advisory and technology-enabled services. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Semiconductor company Micron Technology will invest up to $2.17 billion to expand its Manassas manufacturing facility, creating an expected 340 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in December 2024. Micron will modernize the plant to produce dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips for automotive, aerospace, defense and industrial markets. The company is set to receive up to $275 million in federal funding to expand its Manassas facility, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced, and Micron will move its manufacturing of DRAM chips for automobiles from Taiwan to Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 ROANOKE/LYNCHBURG/NEW RIVER VALLEY

The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture at Virginia Tech enrolled more than 1,300 farms in the first year of a project that incentivizes agricultural producers in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Virginia to adopt climate-smart practices. Funded by a $80 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the largest grant in Virginia Tech’s history, the three-year pilot program aims to enroll 4,500 producers, who will receive $100 an acre or animal unit to implement sustainable practices like no-till farming, prescribed grazing, and conservation crop rotation. (News release)

Applications closed in January for the Downtown Lynchburg Association’s third Launch LYH program, which supports entrepreneurs who want to start a new business, relocate their business or expand their business to a Downtown Lynchburg storefront. Selected applicants will participate in an eight-week education course that begins in March. In May, they will pitch their ideas for a chance to win a grant worth at least $20,000. Previous winners include the operators of Super RadArcade Bar, where gamers can play classic arcade titles, and Hunny B’s, a baby and children’s boutique. (News release)

On Jan. 2, Friendship Retirement Community filed a lawsuit, which names Roanoke County and its commissioner of revenue as defendants. When purchasing Richfield Living in 2023, Friendship officials understood that the property would keep its tax-exempt status. Five weeks after the purchase, the county raised the property’s assessed value by more than 41%, according to Friendship. Friendship also learned that the Richfield Living property would no longer be considered tax-exempt, resulting in a 472% increase in Friendship’s annual taxes on Richfield Living, according to Friendship. County officials declined to comment. (The Roanoke Times)

On Dec. 16, 2024, HCA Virginia, through the HCA Healthcare Foundation’s $75 million Healthier Tomorrow Fund, presented a $50,000 grant to the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education to expand Virginia Western Community College’s joint venture model, which allows the Roanoke community college to share its programs with other community colleges. For instance, through distance learning students at Northern Virginia Community College can enroll in VWCC’s radiation oncology program. The health care foundation’s Healthier Tomorrow Fund supports community needs and health equity. (News release)

Roanoke-based technology company Luna Innovations has lost its place on the Nasdaq stock exchange after months of delays in filing proper financial statements. Luna Innovations notified Nasdaq in December 2024 that the company didn’t expect to file any of its multiple delinquent financial reports by a March deadline, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report. Nasdaq suspended the company on Jan. 7. Luna develops and markets fiber-optic sensing and monitoring devices for transportation, energy and other markets. The company, its former president and CEO and two other executives are identified in multiple lawsuits related to Luna and its financial statements. (Cardinal News)

Another lawsuit was filed Jan. 7 against Salem City Council and HopeTree Family Services, alleging that the council violated city code in approving HopeTree’s revised rezoning application. The lawsuit lists Carlos Hart Jr., who lives across from HopeTree, as the plaintiff. Hart was one of five citizens who filed lawsuits against the city council and HopeTree in July. HopeTree plans to sell 37 acres and some of its buildings to a developer, which would then be permitted under rezoning to build up to 340 residential units and some commercial businesses on the property. (The Roanoke Times)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Texas-based Buc-ee’s projects it will open its first travel center in Virginia — its 74,000-square-foot Rockingham County location — on June 30, although the opening date is not set in stone, Buc-ee’s Media Coordinator Crissy Gonzales noted in a December 2024 email. Located at the intersection of Interstate 81 and Friedens Church Road, the Mount Crawford center will have 120 fueling positions. Buc-ee’s broke ground on the Rockingham County gas station and convenience store on Jan. 30, 2024, after buying 21.3 acres for $6.6 million in September 2023. The company plans to open a New Kent County location in 2027 and has submitted a conditional use permit application to Stafford County. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Culpeper area real estate market saw a 3% increase in active listings in November 2024 compared with November 2023, according to a market report from Greater Piedmont Realtors. Pending sales for the region — Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison and Rappahannock counties — were up 6% as new housing construction activity continued to be strong. The region’s median sales price in November 2024 was $529,000, down 1% from November 2023. There were 325 active listings in the four counties in November 2024 (up 4% year-over-year) including 175 new listings (up 10%). (Culpeper Star-Exponent)

James Madison University received a $2.5 million gift for the new wing of Carrier Library, the Harrisonburg public university announced in November 2024. Alexandria residents Stan and Rosemary Jones provided the donation. A 1954 physics and math alumnus of what was then Madison College, Stan worked for McLean-based Mitre as an engineer for five decades, specializing in antennae design and development. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Delaware. Rosemary is a retired associate real estate broker. JMU began renovating and expanding the Carrier Library in summer 2023 and expects to reopen it for the fall 2026 semester. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

An Augusta County resident and former executive vice president with Nexus Services, Richard Moore, pleaded guilty in early January to defrauding the IRS out of nearly $3.2 million. Moore, age 47, pleaded guilty to two counts of tax fraud for failing to account for and pay over trust fund taxes in his appearance in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg. Authorities said he withheld the taxes from the pay of Nexus employees but didn’t give them to the federal government. Nexus provided bond securitization for immigrants held or released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was headquartered in Verona before its campus was auctioned off in 2023. (News Leader)

A Publix grocery store is coming to the Ward Plaza mixed-use redevelopment project in Winchester, the city announced in early January. The 50,325-square-foot new building is expected to open sometime late next year and to create about 150 jobs. Ward Plaza was a shopping center located on 19.6 acres in the 2400 block of Valley Avenue that opened in 1964. Winchester Acquisition Partners, led by investor John Wesley Gray Jr. from McLean, bought the property for about $10 million in June 2023. Publix signed its lease with Winches-ter Acquisition Partners in December 2024. (The Winchester Star)

Woodstock Town Council unanimously approved in early January a rezoning on West Locust Street that clears the way for a new housing development. The 0.562-acre property is located at 106 W. Locust St., west of the Cassia Lodge. The developer, Axel Hopkins, said the exact number of units in the planned development hasn’t been finalized, but told the town’s planning commission that under the new zoning, the property could accommodate up to 16 units. The development will have two- bedroom, two-bath apartments sold at market rate. Specific site plans, including layout, had not been submitted as of early January. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

SOUTHERN

Averett University announced Dec. 11, 2024, that its board has appointed David Joyce as its 15th president. Tiffany Franks, who had served nearly 17 years as president of the Danville private university, retired Jan. 5. The leadership change came following months of headlines about the school’s financial woes and cost-saving measures. In November 2024, school officials cut five undergraduate majors as well as the criminal justice master’s degree and the symphonic band program. One staff position at Averett is expected to be cut in January 2026. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On Jan. 7, Pittsylvania County Planning Commission members unanimously voted to recommend that the board of supervisors deny a rezoning request for a proposed $8.8 billion-plus data center campus and natural gas power plant. Balico, the Herndon firm developing the project, pulled an initial rezoning application for a larger data center campus and power plant in November 2024 after facing considerable public opposition. The scaled-back project reviewed Jan. 7 would be built on less than 750 acres and would include 12 spec data center buildings. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

An upcoming change at Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Danville — moving most of its tire production to other facilities — will result in what the company calls “staffing impacts.” The company confirmed in a statement to the Danville Register & Bee that it’s shifting tire production away from the Danville facility, but a timeline wasn’t disclosed. A spokesperson for the local plant and representatives with United Steelworkers Local 831, the union representing the Danville facility, did not immediately respond to questions. The facility has been billed as Danville’s largest employer. (Danville Register & Bee)

On Dec. 21, 2024, a federal jury in Abingdon found Dr. Joel Smithers, who previously practiced in Martinsville, guilty of 466 federal counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances. He was also found guilty of one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of illegally distributing controlled substances. Evidence presented at trial showed that Smithers, who opened an office in Martinsville in 2015, prescribed more than 500,000 Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone and fentanyl. Smithers had previously been found guilty of 859 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but those convictions were later vacated on appeal. He will be sentenced March 3. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On Jan. 7, Sovah Health-Danville opened a renovated and expanded emergency department, which will serve about 36,000 to 40,000 patients a year. The facility includes more than 5,000 square feet of added space, eight more treatment rooms (from 26 to 34), three additional ambulance bays (for a total of five), an expanded waiting room and nursing stations and a designated physician dictation area. Other features include an expanded triage, renovation of all rooms and replacement of a radiology exam room. Construction started on the $20 million upgrade in November 2023. (Danville Register & Bee; news release).

PEOPLE

The Lester Group has appointed Dana Cowart president, the Martinsville-based building materials and real estate development company announced in December 2024. Cowart, who has a degree in business administration and management from the University of Washington, brings more than two decades of experience in the building supply sector. Previously, Cowart was vice president of acquisitions, vice president of sales and marketing, and filled other roles at TAL Building Centers, a Vancouver, Washington-based building supply company. Jay Dickens remains The Lester Group’s CEO. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SOUTHWEST

Duchess Dairy Products, a Wythe County dairy, will invest $895,000 to add a production line of churned butter to its current line of bottled milk, the governor’s office announced mid-December 2024. The company makes about 7,000 gallons of milk weekly, and its milk is sold in grocery stores across Southern and Southwest Virginia. The dairy employs eight people and expects to create three to five jobs over a three-year timeline, said Duchess Dairy Products President Jim Huffard. Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved a $25,000 state agriculture grant for the project, which Wythe County and the town of Rural Retreat will match. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Health Wagon served 10,831 individual patients who made more than 28,700 visits to one of its clinics or mobile medical units last year, according to the Wise-based nonprofit health care provider’s 2024 service information released in early January. The Owens and Hill Dental Health Clinic reported a total of more than 3,600 patients, while the St. Mary’s Faith Pharmacy and Pharmacy Connect Program filled more than 900 prescriptions valued at $1.4 million and provided at no cost to patients since its July 2024 opening. Health Wagon founder Sister Bernadette Kenny died in early December 2024. (Bristol Herald Courier)

Abingdon-based K-VA-T Food Stores, operator of the Food City supermarket chain, has agreed to pay more than $8.4 million to the federal government to settle allegations under the False Claims Act (FCA) related to dispensing opioids and other controlled substances. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the agreement with K-VA-T Food Stores on Dec. 23, 2024. K-VA-T Food Stores noted in a statement that “the allegations focused primarily on circumstances from more than a decade ago. K-VA-T has continually disputed the validity of these allegations, and the settlement agreement clearly states there is no admission of liability by K-VA-T.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Saltville-based Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems a $2.17 million grant, U.S. Rep Morgan Griffith, R-9th, announced in December 2024, to support the health care centers and services the partnership provides. Griffith previously announced a separate $2.17 million HHS grant to the community health care partnership in May 2024. Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems operates health care centers in Bristol, Virginia; Meadowview; Saltville; and Tazewell; as well as a dental clinic in Saltville and a pharmacy in Bristol. (Bristol Herald Courier)

In the Virginia Port Authority’s December 2024 report to the General Assembly on a possible inland port in Southwest Virginia, the authority said it continues to refine its site design in light of “significant” costs associated with grading the terrain to accommodate rail operations at a potential site. Officials are considering the 400-acre Oak Park Center for Business and Industry in Washington County as a potential location. The authority was expected to include an official opinion on the project’s cost in its September 2024 report but now expects that opinion to come by Sept. 1, 2025, after the project has been 60% designed and an economic study on the port’s impact is completed. (Cardinal News)

PEOPLE

Melissa L. Roberts is the new executive director of the Birthplace of Country Music, the Bristol, Virginia, nonprofit’s board of directors announced mid-December 2024. Roberts was most recently executive director of Appalachian Promise Alliance, based in Bristol, Tennessee. Before that, she was executive director of Symphony of the Mountains in Kingsport, Tennessee. Roberts holds a master’s degree in nonprofit administration from Louisiana State University. The Birthplace of Country Music is the parent organization of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, the annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival and WBCM Radio Bristol. Roberts replaces Paula Hurt, who now serves as director of finance and administration at Friends of Southwest Virginia. (News release; Bristol Herald Courier)