FOR THE RECORD October 2021

EASTERN VIRGINIA

Newport News-based defense contractor Aery Aviation LLC will add 211 jobs with the $15.3 million expansion of its headquarters, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sept. 14. The aviation company will build a 60,000 square-foot hangar with access to the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport runway and an engineering technology center to provide maintenance and modification services. Virginia competed with Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia for the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Amazon.com Inc. established a career center and two new delivery stations in Hampton Roads, the e-tailer announced in early September. The career center at 1989 S. Military Highway in Chesapeake will serve as a hiring and orientation hub for Amazon facilities in Chesapeake, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampton and Virginia Beach. One delivery station opened in mid-June in Norfolk. Another opened in mid-August in Hampton. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Dominion Energy Inc. and the Port of Virginia reached an agreement in late August allowing Dominion to lease 72 acres of the 287-acre Portsmouth Marine Terminal as a staging and pre-assembly area for the foundations and 800-foot wind turbines that will be installed for Dominion’s $7.8 billion planned offshore wind farm. Portsmouth Marine Terminal is one of the Port of Virginia’s two multiuse terminals in the Norfolk Harbor. The lease term is 10 years, valued at nearly $4.4 million annually, and has an option for two five-year renewals. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Five Hampton Roads shipyards — Fincantieri Marine Systems North America of Chesapeake; Colonna’s Shipyard Inc. in Norfolk; East Coast Repair & Fabrication in Portsmouth; Epsilon Systems Solutions Inc., in Portsmouth; and Tecnico Corp. in Chesapeake — are on the short list for what could be billions of dollars in maintenance and repair work on the Navy’s eight littoral combat ships based out of Mayport, Florida. The award of contracts for a combined total of up to $2.255 billion means the yards, along with four others from out of state, will be able to bid for whatever dry-docking, emergency maintenance, preventive or planned maintenance, corrosion control or assessments the ships need over the next years. (Daily Press)

The presidents of Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and Eastern Virginia Medical School signed a memorandum of understanding in August to establish Virginia’s first school of public health. The MOU solidifies the plan announced in January to develop a regional school of public health and address health inequities. The next step: applying for accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health. Under the MOU, ODU will serve as the lead institution and house the school. An institutional operations committee and a curriculum committee will have representatives from each institution. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Francisco “Frank” Castellanos has been named the Hampton Roads region president for Bank of America. Castellanos will take over for Charlie Henderson, who is retiring from Bank of America in early 2022 after 42 years. Castellanos comes to Bank of America from Merill Lynch Wealth Management, where he was the market executive for greater Virginia and a market integration executive. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Jean Yokum, the longtime president and CEO of Langley Federal Credit Union, died in August at age 90. Yokum served as the credit union’s president and CEO for 33 years, first joining as a teller in 1953 and working her way up. She served in the top spot from 1979 until her 2012 retirement. Under Yokum’s leadership, Langley’s assets grew to $1.6 billion. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

ROANOKE/NEW RIVER VALLEY

Cardinal Press, a new nonprofit digital news service covering Southwest and Southern Virginia, was expected to begin publishing stories in late September, with Dwayne Yancey, former editorial page editor for The Roanoke Times, as its founding editor. Nonprofit organization Cardinal Productions, incorporated in June, created Cardinal Press, which will publish original stories five days a week at cardinal.press. Cardinal was established by journalist Luanne Rife, president of Cardinal Productions; former Roanoke Times Publisher Debbie Meade; and Chris Turnbull, senior director for corporate communications for Carilion Clinic. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Carilion Clinic plans to begin treating patients this fall at its new hub for children’s services at Tanglewood Mall. Carilion Children’s Tanglewood Center, which occupies 150,000 square feet in a former J.C. Penney, is expected to be fully operational by Oct. 4. The new Tanglewood facility creates a centralized space for Carilion Children’s that allows for more collaboration, establishes a sense of identity and offers high visibility, given its location just off U.S. 220. More than a dozen pediatric specialties will
be housed at the new center.
(The Roanoke Times)

Manifold Mining, a small company that sells cryptocurrency mining machines, plans to invest in a Craig County facility. The Craig County Economic Development Authority announced in August that Manifold would invest approximately $420,000 to establish a center of operations in New Castle at the Crown Building, formerly home to a furniture manufacturing plant. Manifold Mining is expected to create at least 15 jobs within five years. The company was founded in 2019 with a focus on software development but shifted into the mining equipment sales business during the last year. (The Roanoke Times)

In late August, the Roanoke Regional Partnership released its five-year strategic plan, Thrive 2027. The plan outlines strategies to support the region’s economic growth. Four priority areas were identified: economic growth and innovation; talent attraction and workforce development; commercial real estate and infrastructure; and place making and livability. While some of the tactics outlined in the plan, such as marketing efforts aimed at attracting young, skilled talent or promoting the outdoor recreation available, are familiar, others stem from new objectives or areas of attention. (The Roanoke Times)

In August, Virginia Tech announced it was naming its real estate program for the Blackwood family. Willis Blackwood, founder and president of Richmond-based Blackwood Development Co. Inc., his wife, Mary Nolen Blackwood, and their children, Morgan Blackwood Patel and Nolen Blackwood — all Tech alums — have committed $10 million in donations to the program since 2018. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Zachary Doerzaph was named executive director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the university’s largest research institute. The institute conducts more than 300 research projects in partnership with more than 100 public and private organizations. VTTI accounts for 12% to 15% of sponsored research at Virginia Tech and exceeded $50 million in externally sponsored awards for 2020. Doerzaph will also take on the role of president of VTT LLC, a nonprofit corporation of the Virginia Tech Foundation that operates the Global Center for Automotive Performance Simulation in Halifax County. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Robert T. Sumichrast, the Richard E. Sorensen chair and dean of Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business since 2013, announced in August that he will retire at the end of this academic year. Virginia Tech is conducting an international search for his successor. Sumichrast, who joined the university in 1984, launched the nation’s first executive Ph.D. program and created the school’s online MBA program. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

The Augusta County Board of Supervisors approved a 15-cent-per-pack cigarette tax on Sept. 8. The original motion of a 40-cent pack failed, and the board instead passed the reduced tax, noting that the amount could be changed in the future. Augusta County will join the Blue Ridge Cigarette Tax Board, a regional authority that combines the taxing efforts of different localities, to execute the tax. Augusta County had previously instated a meals and lodging tax, which the county increased from 4% to 6% on July 1. (News Leader)

Augusta Health is requiring its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 1. Announced Aug. 20, the policy applies to providers and credentialed medical staff, as well as volunteers, students, contract staff, consultants and vendors. A panel will review religious and medical exemptions. About 80% of the system’s staff was already vaccinated at the time of the announcement. (News Leader)

Washington, D.C.-based fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain CAVA will spend more than  $30 million to establish a new processing and packaging facility in Augusta County, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sept. 9. The project is expected to create 52 jobs. CAVA will build the 57,000-square-foot facility in Mill Place Commerce Park in Verona. Cava Group Inc., which owns CAVA and Zoës Kitchen, has more than 900 employees in Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Going against the city planning commission’s recommendation, Harrisonburg City Council voted Sept. 14 to approve developer Skylar & Talli LLC’s request to change the first floor of the Apartments at Peach Grove, a planned six-story, 400-bed apartment block near James Madison University’s Sentara Park, from commercial use to residential space, which will add roughly 60 beds to the development off Port Republic Road. In May 2019, the council had approved the rezoning and three special-use permits for the development, but in August, the developer’s representative told the planning commission that buyers had backed out and that the development lacked interested businesses because of pandemic-related commercial vacancies. (Daily News-Record)

The Rockingham County Planning Commission voted on Sept. 7 to recommend denial of a request to rezone agricultural land for the proposed 155-home Peak Mountain development in McGaheysville. The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors will decide the project’s fate in October. The subdivision would sit on nearly 42 acres located off Power Dam Road, about 300 feet from McGaheysville Road.
(Daily News-Record)

Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (Shentel) announced in late August that it’s expanding its Glo Fiber high-speed, fiber-optic broadband network into Frederick County. Shentel launched Glo Fiber in 2019. Winchester, Harrisonburg, Staunton, Front Royal, Salem, Roanoke and Lynchburg currently have Glo Fiber. The Frederick County network is under construction, and the first phase has an expected completion date in 2022. The announced expansion will provide service to about 14,000 more homes and businesses in the areas surrounding Winchester and the town of Stephens City. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

PEOPLE

Doug Parsons, executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, will become Fauquier County’s economic development director on Oct. 4. Parsons, who formerly worked for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, joined the Front Royal-Warren EDA in May 2019, following the resignation of his predecessor, Jennifer McDonald, in late 2018 amid an embezzlement scandal. On Aug. 31, a grand jury indicted McDonald on 34 federal counts. Her trial is scheduled for Nov. 3.  (The Northern Virginia Daily, The Winchester Star)

Amazon.com Inc.’s 72,000-square-foot delivery station in Bristol opened for its first official day of operation on Sept. 8. The delivery station is expected to create from 100 to 150 full- and part-time associate jobs “in addition to hundreds of driver opportunities,” with wages of at least $15 per hour, according to the global e-tailer. Delivery stations are the last step in Amazon’s ordering process. Nearby Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers send packages to the stations, where parcels are loaded into vehicles to be delivered to customers. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Italian manufacturer Ceccato S.p.A. will open a $1.75 million U.S. headquarters in Russell County, creating 50 jobs over the next three to five years, the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority announced Sept. 8. Ceccato manufactures systems to wash vehicles, from cars to trains. The Lebanon facility will be used to assemble and sell car wash units, manufacture truck wash units, and source items needed to manufacture the units for American companies. Ceccato is projected to make its initial capital investment by early 2022, and parts for the facility are expected to arrive by late October or early November. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Atlanta-based internet service provider EarthLink is spending $5.4 million to build a customer support center in Norton, a project expected to create 285 jobs, InvestSWVA and Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sept. 14. As part of moving its customer service operations from overseas, EarthLink will build a 30,000-square-foot facility on a site in the 200-acre Project Intersection development, owned by Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Eupepsia, a 250-acre Ayurveda wellness retreat in Bland County, was named the top wellness hotel in the nation in September by USA Today readers, who chose the resort from 20 nominees selected by editors of USA Today’s 10Best rankings section. Eupepsia offers vegetarian cuisine; health and fitness-focused programs; a spa with flotation therapy; a salt chalet; and hydrotherapy services. The facility opened in 2018 and has 26 guest rooms. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Woodgrain Inc. will invest $9 million to expand its operations in Smyth County and will invest $8 million more to purchase and expand the former Independence Lumber sawmill in Grayson County, producing 100 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Aug. 20. The two projects will retain 80 local jobs. An Idaho-based family-owned business, Woodgrain is one of the largest millwork companies in the world, with more than 3,500 workers. It manufactures wood molding and trim. Independence Lumber is Grayson County’s largest private employer, and when the sawmill upgrades are complete, it will become the primary supplier for Woodgrain’s Smyth County operation. It will also allow Woodgrain to source 90% of its new forest product needs from Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Tina McDaniel was hired as the first diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator for Bristol’s Promise, the nonprofit organization announced on Sept. 7. Bristol’s Promise works to help children and families in the Twin City be healthy, feel safe, develop marketable skills, have relationships with caring adults and give back to the community. McDaniel earned a master’s degree in organization leadership and a certificate of diversity and inclusion from Cornell University. She is a board member for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alliance of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. (Bristol Herald Courier)

CENTRAL VIRGINIA

Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. overcharged its Virginia customers $1.2 billion since 2015, according to testimony filed in early September by a utility expert in an ongoing review of the energy monopoly’s finances. Testimony from Heather Bailey, an Austin, Texas-based consultant and former utility executive and regulator, was filed at the State Corporation Commission by the environmental group Appalachian Voices. The commission can’t order any refund of excess profits Dominion earned in 2015 or 2016 because of a Dominion-backed 2018 law called the Grid Transformation and Security Act, said Will Cleveland, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents Appalachian Voices. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

On Sept. 13, Henrico County-based Fortune 500 insurer Genworth Financial Inc. launched an initial public offering for its private mortgage insurance subsidiary, Raleigh, North Carolina-based Enact Holdings Inc. Enact is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ACT.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In Richmond, workers removed Virginia’s biggest statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from its towering stone base and cut it into two pieces in September, ending the monument’s 131-year reign embodying this city’s mythology as the former capital of the Confederacy. Lee’s surrender came so fast — after less than an hour of work — that hundreds of onlookers were caught by surprise. Gov. Ralph Northam and other state officials stood looking on. Northam announced on June 4, 2020, that he was ordering Lee removed from the state-owned property. A handful of local residents challenged the action in court and a judge temporarily blocked it. Though the residents lost their case, they appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which unanimously ruled in Northam’s favor. The state plans to keep the statue in an undisclosed storage location until deciding what to do with it.  (The Washington Post)

Prince George County-based aluminum extrusions manufacturer Service Center Metals will spend $101.7 million to build two more facilities in the county, projects expected to create 94 jobs,
Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sept. 14. Service Center Metals will build an aluminum extrusion plant and a compact remelt plant in Crosspoint Centre. Founded in 2002, Service Center Metals began operating in Prince George County in 2003. It has two plants on its 30-acre campus in SouthPoint Business Park. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

After close to 39 years, the Richmond-based alternative weekly newspaper Style Weekly shut down Sept. 8, three years after Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc. sold its Virginia newspapers — The Virginian-Pilot, Inside Business and Style Weekly — and their associated businesses for $34 million to Tribune Publishing Co. This May, Tribune Publishing was purchased by hedge fund Alden Global Capital in a $633 million deal that has led to the elimination of more than 250 full-time editorial positions through buyouts offered after the finalization of the deal, including at the Pilot and the Daily Press.  (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Michael Roussos will be the next president of Richmond’s VCU Medical Center, starting in December, VCU Health System announced on Sept. 8. Roussos was previously the lead administrator for University Hospital in San Antonio, where he led the hospital’s COVID-19 response. Roussos also aided in the hospital’s transition to Epic, an electronic medical records system that VCU Health System plans to implement later this year. Before joining University Hospital, Roussos worked at HCA Healthcare for 13 years, most recently serving as CEO of Mainland Medical Center in Texas. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA

The Sept. 9-12 Blue Ridge Rock Festival brought nearly 35,000 people to Pittsylvania County, making it the largest event in Pittsylvania’s history. Festivalgoers booked up hotel rooms throughout the region. The sold-out festival, with 180 bands slated to perform, brought traffic chaos and concerns about a surge in COVID cases. Nearly 4,000 fans aired their frustrations about the festival in a Facebook group. Thousands of attendees vowed not to return after issues with camping and parking. Festival organizers promised to improve the experience. (Danville Register & Bee, WSLS)

In early September, Bassett-based Carter Bank & Trust and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a former billionaire coal magnate, settled their dispute out of court and will have their dueling suits dismissed. CB&T in May had filed suit in Martinsville Circuit Court regarding $58 million in loans that the bank maintained were personally guaranteed by Justice and his wife, Cathy. Justice responded with a lawsuit against the bank, seeking $421 million related to outstanding loans. The suit included court documents that described a longtime “gentleman’s agreement” between Justice and Worth Carter, the founder of CB&T. (Danville Register & Bee)

The Southside Planning District Commission has chosen EMPOWER Broadband Inc. to build a fiber optic network providing high-speed internet to homes and businesses in Halifax, Mecklenburg and Brunswick counties. The SSPDC issued a request-for-proposal for a regional fiber network that it estimates will cost some $150 million to build out in the three counties, which together comprise the SSPDC’s service area. EMPOWER is a subsidiary of Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative. To fund construction of the three-county network, the SSPDC will seek grant money from the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI), which has received an influx of cash through federal pandemic relief funding. (SoVaNow)

Kegerreis Digital Marketing will move its headquarters from Pennsylvania to downtown Danville, investing $1.7 million in the relocation and creating 62 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced in September. The company, which will renovate a 7,000-square-foot former tobacco warehouse at 402 Cabell St., provides integrated marketing services, such as brand development, billboards, online efforts and analytics. It is a subsidiary of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania-based Kegerreis Outdoor Advertising, the 10th-largest billboard company in the country, with 2,500 billboards in seven states along the East Coast. Virginia competed with Pennsylvania and North Carolina for the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Tyson Foods Inc. will open a 325,000-square-foot, $300 million manufacturing facility in the Cane Creek Centre industrial park, creating 376 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced in late August. The new facility will primarily be used for the production of cooked foods such as Any’Tizer Snacks and chicken nuggets made by Tyson Foods. The poultry company will purchase 60 million pounds of Virginia-grown chicken for the facility over the next three years. Virginia competed with North Carolina for the project. Cane Creek Centre is jointly owned by the city of Danville and Pittsylvania County. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Alexis Ehrhardt, president and CEO of the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, left in September for a job at the University of  Virginia as the executive director for state government relations and special assistant to the president. Ehrhardt had been at the helm of the chamber since 2018 after leaving her previous position as executive director of the Center of Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness at Averett University. The chamber’s board immediately launched a search for Ehrhardt’s successor. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Amazon.com Inc. has hired more than 3,000 employees for its multibillion-dollar HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington, the e-tailer announced in September. In 2019, the Virginia General Assembly passed an incentive package that would pay Amazon up to $550 million in grants for hitting annual goals toward hiring 25,000 workers at specified average annual wages by 2030. The state will pay Amazon an additional $200 million if the company hires 12,850 more workers between 2030 and 2034. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

First lady Jill Biden resumed teaching in person in September at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has worked since 2009. She is the first first lady to leave the White House to log hours at a full-time job. After Joe Biden became vice president in 2009, she joined the faculty at NOVA and continued to teach English there after he left office and throughout his 2020 campaign, including teaching virtually after the pandemic hit. (Associated Press)

The Federal Trade Commission fined McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. CEO Richard Fairbank a $637,950 civil penalty in September for violating antitrust laws in finalizing stock acquisitions. The settlement must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The FTC alleged that Fairbank violated federal law by purchasing Capital One stock. In 2018, Fairbank’s compensation package included more than 100,000 Capital One shares, which increased his holdings to $168 million. The complaint alleged that Fairbank failed to report the award to federal antitrust authorities and illegally finalized it before agencies could investigate. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Arlington-based Politico, the national political news site, is expected to have a new owner by the end of the year. The German publishing giant Axel Springer agreed to buy Politico in a deal announced in late August. Springer will take control of Politico and its sister site, Politico Europe, as well as Politico’s tech news site, Protocol, a relatively new venture, the companies said. They did not publicly disclose financial terms, but the deal is valued at more than $1 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The New York Times reported earlier that Politico’s owner, Robert Allbritton, was seeking $1 billion for the deal.
(The New York Times)

Chicago-based consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Reston-based identity management tech company Neustar Inc.’s marketing, fraud and communications businesses for $3.1 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The acquisition will help TransUnion diversify from credit solutions by adding complementary digital marketing and fraud mitigation capabilities. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

New Washington Football Team co-CEO Tanya Snyder, the wife of CEO Dan Snyder, gave her first interview since being named to the position, released in September on a podcast with ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The Snyder family owns 100% of the team after a buyout and retained control after a year-long investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the team facility in Ashburn. Tanya Snyder, who stepped in as the team’s corporate leader in July after her husband temporarily removed himself from day-to-day operations, said on the podcast that the team’s C-suite has narrowed down the team’s new name to three options. (Richmond Times-Dispatch; NBC Sports)