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Virginia Business// September 28, 2023//
Health system Bon Secours filed suit against insurer Anthem Health Plans of Virginia Aug. 30 in Henrico County Circuit Court, alleging Anthem owes Bon Secours $93 million in unpaid claims. The plaintiff, BSMH Virginia, alleges Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, doing business as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, failed to pay “in excess of $73 million” on claims older than 30 days, and that BSMH Virginia incurred more than $20 million in write-offs since 2020. Bon Secours and Anthem have also tussled over reimbursement rates for patients with the Medicaid Advantage plan. Anthem called allegations in the lawsuit an “effort to demand double-digit price increases from employers and individuals.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy is selling its three natural gas distribution companies to Canadian pipeline and energy company Enbridge in a $14 billion deal announced Sept. 5. The companies — the East Ohio Gas Co., Public Service Co. of North Carolina and Utah-based Questar Gas, along with its sister company, Wexpro — account for about 78,000 miles of natural gas distribution, transmission, gathering and storage pipelines. Bob Blue, Dominion’s chair, president and CEO, said the transactions provide the company a “significant step” in its business review. On Sept. 1, Dominion completed the sale of its stake in Maryland’s Cove Point natural gas liquefaction facility to Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $3.5 billion. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Richmond International Airport has twice shattered its monthly passenger record in 2023. The Capital Region Airport Commission on Aug. 30 announced that the airport counted 439,951 passengers for July, soaring past May’s record of 431,416 passengers. By comparison, the airport counted 386,931 passengers in July 2019. A year later, as travel plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, that number dropped to 117,673. Three airlines — Breeze Airways, Delta Air Lines and Spirit Airlines — saw year-over-year traffic increases exceeding 25%. Breeze will also begin to offer new winter flights from Richmond to Fort Myers, Florida, beginning Nov. 15. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business received an anonymous $10 million gift from an alumnus to establish an endowed scholarship fund, the school reported Sept. 7. The alumnus studied accounting and finance. The gift is one of several that the university has received from alumni this year. In March, UR announced a $25 million donation from alumni and longtime donors Carole and Marcus Weinstein to fund a center focused on student learning at the school’s library. A month later, the couple donated $3 million to support Jewish life at UR. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia Commonwealth University received $271 million in donations last fiscal year, the most it has ever gotten in a 12-month span, the university announced in late August. VCU received $239 million in fiscal 2022 and $158 million in 2021. The donations in fiscal 2023 came from 23,000 different donors and went to the university and VCU Health. VCU said $117 million in donations will support students and programs; its Massey Cancer Center received the most of any school or unit, bringing in $88 million. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
PEOPLE
Richmond architect, real estate developer, philanthropist and businessman H. Louis Salomonsky Jr. died Aug. 31 at age 84 after a battle with cancer. Salomonsky, along with business partner David White, developed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects in Richmond and in Washington, D.C., including renovations to the Appomattox Regional Governors School for the Arts and Technology and Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies. A 1962 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Salomonsky also spent 18 months in prison two decades ago for his role in trying to bribe a Richmond City Council member. (Legacy.com obituary, Style Weekly)
Hermes Abrasives USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Hamburg, Germany-based Hermes Abrasives, will invest $5.6 million in a Virginia Beach expansion, adding about 30 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sept. 13. Hermes Abrasives manufactures coated and bonded abrasives and grinding tools. In September, the company transferred its narrow belt production line from Mexico to its Virginia Beach U.S. headquarters facility. It will add new manufacturing assembly lines and machinery to improve efficiency and output. Hermes established its Virginia Beach facility in 1981, and it’s the flagship facility for the company’s sandpaper product, primarily used in the automotive and woodworking industries. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Reston-based Fortune 500 contractor Leidos will launch four Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) missions in 2024 and 2025 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County. Leidos selected Rocket Lab for hypersonic test launches under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) contract, which the Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded to a Leidos subsidiary in October 2022. Rocket Lab launched its first HASTE rocket, derived from its Electron rocket, on June 17 for Leidos. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Dillard’s, the last anchor store in MacArthur Center, closed Sept. 4, after the Norfolk city government terminated its lease. Norfolk City Manager Patrick Roberts has said there are no plans for any more long-term leases at the downtown mall, which the city acquired in mid-July, setting the stage for eventual redevelopment of the property. The mall has been declining for years, losing stores like Nordstrom, the Apple store and Barnes & Noble. The mall remains open, with small business owners saying they want more communication from the city about the property’s future. (The Virginian-Pilot)
A rural stretch of northern York County could soon be home to a large-scale industrial enterprise that will take advantage of the site’s proximity to Interstate 64 and a growing need for commercial storage space. Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development has submitted plans to construct and operate York 64 Trade Center on 263 acres now owned by the Williamsburg Pottery. The proposal calls for the construction of 2.3 million square feet of space in five warehouse-style buildings. NorthPoint claims the development will create 613 construction jobs and upward of 764 jobs once the facility is in operation. NorthPoint expects construction on the $274 million project to begin in the second quarter of 2024. (The Virginian-Pilot)
PEOPLE
Don Barton “Bart” Frye Jr., founder and chairman of Frye Properties, died on Aug. 11 at age 79. The developer behind the East Beach neighborhood in Norfolk and a longtime TowneBank board member, Frye had a hand in several Hampton Roads projects, including the development of the Cavalier Residences that surrounded Gold Key | PHR’s renovated historic Cavalier Hotel complex. A native of Alexandria, Frye was a Randolph-Macon College graduate and earned a master’s degree from Syracuse University. Frye will be remembered as a “true renaissance man in every respect,” Virginia Beach developer Bruce Thompson of Gold Key | PHR said. (Inside Business)
William “Billy” Greer Jr., 81, former president of Virginia Wesleyan University, died Aug. 30 at his Asheville, North Carolina, home. Greer, who had previously been president of Brevard College and Andrew College, joined Virginia Wesleyan in 1992 and led the private liberal arts university in Virginia Beach for 23 years. During his tenure, Virginia Wesleyan grew significantly, seeing enrollment growth and the addition of campus facilities, including the Jane P. Batten Student Center and Brock Village. Greer also oversaw the establishment of the Birdsong Community Service Program, a volunteerism program that became Wesleyan Engaged. (News release)
For the fourth year in a row, Arlington County will not give Amazon.com any economic incentives, the county confirmed Aug. 30, further delaying, and perhaps shrinking, its subsidies for the company’s East Coast HQ2. Local officials offered to pay the tech giant about $23 million in taxpayer dollars in 2018, part of an incentives package to win the campus that was negotiated with the expectation that Amazon would drive more people to stay nearby on business trips. That was expected to boost revenue for the county from a tax on hotel stays and short-term rentals, of which the company was promised a 15% cut of any increase. But hotel-tax revenue figures have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. (The Washington Post)
Alexandria-based Burke & Herbert Financial Services, the $3.6 billion holding company of Virginia’s oldest continually operating bank, agreed to an all-stock merger with West Virginia’s Summit Financial Group, the two institutions announced Aug. 24. The deal, valued at roughly $371.5 million, will create a bank holding company with more than $8 billion in assets, $5.6 billion in gross loans, $6.7 billion in deposits, roughly 800 employees and more than 75 branches across Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky. Founded in 1852, Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust started trading on the Nasdaq earlier this year. (Washington Business Journal, VirginiaBusiness.com)
Northern Virginia in the first half of 2023 remained the world’s largest market for data centers, but development is beginning to migrate south. Many of the industry’s major and secondary markets, including Northern Virginia, have reached a state of supply and demand imbalance where the current and near-term supply of available land for development is not capable of satisfying demand, according to Chicago-based real estate agency Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). Northern Virginia’s land vacancy rate is down to less than 2%, resulting in a spike in pricing. In the first half of 2023, the region had the second largest amount of land under construction for data centers, followed by Northern California. (Inside NoVa)
Reston-based Leidos won two large contracts in August. The Pentagon announced on Aug. 31 that the Fortune 500 contractor received a 10-year, $7.9 billion contract from the Army. Under the firm-fixed-price contract, Leidos will provide hardware systems, system management solutions, components, customizable sustainment strategies, nonpersonal service and continuous technology upgrades. Also, on Aug. 15, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Leidos a potential $918 million contract to support and enhance the agency’s networks. The contract has a one-year base and six one-year options. The work is expected to enable continued evolution of the agency’s Homeland Secure Data Network and the department’s classified local area network. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Centreville-based Fortune 1000 defense contractor Parsons has acquired Maryland-based contractor Sealing Technologies in a deal announced Aug. 23 and valued at $200 million. The acquisition expands Parsons’ customer bases across the Department of Defense’s intelligence community and enhances its capabilities. SealingTech’s nearly 150 employees will become part of Parsons’ defense and intelligence business unit. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
A massive solar project at Washington Dulles International Airport will have the ability to power 37,000 Virginia homes and will also send a message to travelers about the power of clean energy, officials said during the Aug. 22 ceremonial groundbreaking for the 835-acre Dulles Solar and Storage project. A partnership between Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the project is expected to generate 100 megawatts of solar energy and store up to 50 megawatts of power. According to Dominion, it will be the largest renewable energy project developed at a U.S. airport and is expected to generate 300 construction jobs and $200 million in economic activity for the state. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Bridgewater College’s School of Professional Studies will become the Rev. Wilfred E. and Dr. Joyce A. Nolen School of Business and Professional Studies, making it the college’s second endowed, named school. The college announced the Nolens’ donation on Aug. 31 but did not disclose the amount. The school will still house three departments — economics and business administration; health and human services; and teacher education — as well as the master of science in human resource management and master of science in athletic training programs. (Daily News-Record)
The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority voted on Aug. 25 to sell two properties for $5.7 million. The EDA will sell approximately 53.37 undeveloped acres in the Stephens Industrial Park to Executive Land Holdings IV, part of Equus, for more than $3.81 million and will sell about 41.11 acres at 1321 Happy Creek Road to Rappahannock HC, an NVR limited liability company, for $1.85 million. Both offers are greater than the values of the property as assessed by the county. The Stephens Industrial Park property is assessed at $2.14 million, and the Happy Creek Road property at over $1.12 million. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
James Madison University will invest more than $2 million to develop six academic institutes and centers — three existing and three new — over the next decade, the school announced Sept. 8. The university’s goal is to expand faculty and student research opportunities. The centers will receive funding and support toward becoming self-sustaining research centers by 2032. The initial round of funding will support two centers: the African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center, which launched in 2021, and the Center for Innovation in Early Childhood Development, which launched July 1. (News release)
The owners of the site of a planned apartment complex on South Main Street in Woodstock have put the apartment project on hold and listed the land for sale. SVN Commercial Specialists listed 752 S. Main St., formerly home to Naked Bear RV Service and Repair, for almost $1.4 million as a “big box development opportunity.” Last year, developers 752 Main Street LLC received a special use permit for a 48-unit complex. On Sept. 5, Woodstock Town Council approved a one-year extension on the permit, which would allow buyers to move forward with the project. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Winchester City Council voted to approve additional clearances for the former ZeroPak industrial facility’s conversion into a mixed-used affordable housing complex in its Aug. 22 meeting. John Willingham, who heads ZeroPak Development, the investment and development group that purchased the former apple processing and storage facility in March 2022 for $875,000, told the council the group hoped to start construction sometime in January. The project will create 122 apartments — 61 one-bedroom, 54 two-bedroom and seven three-bedroom units — in the 120-year-old building at 536-580 N. Cameron St. The proposal also includes two small retail spaces, a gym, two common spaces, three lounges, a mailroom and an interior parking garage. (The Winchester Star)
PEOPLE
In mid-August, Jeff Buettner accepted a permanent role as director of the Winchester Economic Development Department after serving as its interim director since March. Buettner became interim director following Rick Cobert’s resignation after four months in the role. At the time, Buettner was chairman of the Winchester Economic Development Authority. As permanent director, Buettner named Vanessa Santiago, who had served as the department’s business and community development manager since July 2021, as deputy director. He also hired Sam Iden, who previously worked in the Winchester Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, as an economic development assistant. (The Winchester Star)
The Blue Ridge Rock Festival was canceled Sept. 9 at the Virginia International Raceway in Halifax County. Organizers said the four-day festival’s cancellation was caused by severe weather, including storms and hail, but according to a report by WDBJ, stagehands said they walked out on the festival because of poor working conditions, including not enough toilets for the 150 workers during two weeks of preparation. One anonymous stagehand said they presented a list of demands to management on Sept. 8, including more water stations, showers, food and safer structures within 24 hours, or they would strike. About 60,000 attendees were sent home early and, as of Sept. 11, had not received refunds. (WDBJ, WSLS)
With an anticipated surge in visitation to the city and surrounding area, Danville officials plan to hire a consultant to examine lodging demand in the Dan River Region. A request for proposals seeking bids will be sent out soon, Danville’s director of economic development and tourism, Corrie T. Bobe, said in early September. Whoever the city hires will evaluate existing lodging demand in Danville and Pittsylvania County, as well as expected demand as new tourism and business assets come online, she said. A previous hospitality study was completed in 2019, but it was limited to the River District downtown. (Danville Register & Bee)
A group of 40 plaintiffs, including retired Martinsville firefighters and police officers, filed a lawsuit in late August alleging that the City of Martinsville has reneged on an agreement regarding the payment of health insurance premiums for retired city employees. The complaint alleges that a handwritten agreement on the matter, dated Aug. 19, 2010, has not been honored. According to the lawsuit, a group of retirees planned to file suit in 2010 unless they received the health benefit “that was promised to them when they were hired,” and rather than going to trial, retired Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Lacy was brought in as a mediator. A city ordinance adopted in July 2010 was the mediation’s result, and it was agreed that retirees hired before July 2002 would pay the same premium as active employees or receive a cash equivalent until they reached age 65 or opted out of the health benefit. (Martinsville Bulletin)
Poland-based Press Glass will spend more than $155 million to expand its operations in Henry County and add 335 jobs, marking the largest expansion in the county’s history, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in late August. Europe’s largest independent glass fabricator, Press Glass plans to construct a 360,000-square-foot addition at its existing facility in the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in Ridgeway, where it manufactures glass for the commercial construction industry. The company currently employs more than 300 workers at the site, which it opened in 2020. Press Glass was founded in 1991 and has 15 factories in Europe and the United States. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded a $1.3 million grant to the SOVA Innovation Hub in South Boston in September to bolster small business development in Southern Virginia. The grant will support building renovations, including the addition of a digital makerspace, community gathering space and coworking offices. The federal grant will be matched with $492,389 in local funds and is expected to create or retain 130 jobs and generate $1.1 million in private investment. (News release)
The rubber glove manufacturing facility that would bring 2,500 jobs to Wythe County, first announced in October 2021, is stalled. A $123 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense funded the project’s first phase, which manufacturer Blue Star NBR completed in May. The company expected to receive a pandemic-related federal loan package for its second phase to finish building its facilities and start operations, but the U.S. International Development Finance Corp.’s loan-making authority expired before it finalized the financing package. The project cost is now $230 million. (Cardinal News)
Southwest Virginia reaped more than $8.7 million in gambling tax proceeds from the first year of play at the temporary Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock. On Aug. 24, the Regional Improvement Commission — created by the General Assembly to oversee Bristol Casino tax fund distributions — voted unanimously to evenly distribute the $8.7 million among its 12 county and two city members. In its first 12 months, the casino reported more than $160 million in adjusted gaming revenue, creating about $28 million in state gaming taxes. The Virginia Lottery has transferred the locality portion of the taxes to the commission’s bank account. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Contact-center company Foundever, formerly Sykes Enterprises, will create 500 permanent jobs in an expansion in Wise County. Sitel Group acquired Sykes in 2021 and rebranded it as Foundever. The company’s location at the Lonesome Pine Regional Business and Technology Park has about 500 regional employees a year and up to 1,000 during peak call times. Foundever plans to expand over the course of the year, and its peak times will still require increased employment, according to Lea Adkins, the company’s talent acquisition director. (The Coalfield Progress)
Two Wise County coal site projects received more than $4 million in grants in late August. The Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority received a $2.5 million Virginia Department of Energy Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) program grant for Project Thoroughbred, which will convert a former coal storage facility in Norton into a grain processing, storage and distribution terminal for grains grown by Appalachian farmers for use in the craft beverage market. The Wise County Industrial Development Authority received a $1.7 million AMLER grant to prepare sites near the town of Wise, like the Elam Farm Industrial Site, for light manufacturing. (Bristol Herald Courier)
The University of Virginia’s College at Wise had multiple campus upgrades underway as students returned for the fall semester. Several construction and renovation projects are scheduled for completion this year or the next. The Slemp Gaming Hub opened, with gaming PCs and multiple video game consoles available seven days a week. Little Cavaliers Early Learning Center was set to open this fall and provide up to 45 child care slots in a 3,608-square-foot facility. The former library’s conversion to a 28,530-square-foot nursing education facility is expected to be complete by the end of the year, with new classrooms, nursing skills labs and simulation rooms. (The Coalfield Progress)
PEOPLE
Jed Arnold, formerly a legislative aide to Republican Del. Jeff Campbell, ran unopposed and won an Aug. 29 special election for Campbell’s former seat in state House District 6, which includes Carroll and Wythe counties and part of Smyth County. Arnold received 87% of the vote, according to the Virginia Department of Elections’ unofficial results, and about 13% of the votes were write-ins. Arnold is running unopposed in the Nov. 7 legislative election for the newly formed 46th House District, which includes Grayson, Smyth and Wythe counties and part of Pulaski County. (Cardinal News)
Appalachian Power reached an agreement with state regulators in late August on a proposed rate increase that, if approved, will cost the average residential customer another $16 a month. That’s a decrease from before, when Appalachian was asking the State Corporation Commission to approve a base rate increase that would have added another $25 to residential power bills that have been steadily climbing. A decision from the SCC is not expected until November. But the deal, struck on the eve of the start of an evidentiary hearing, will likely shorten what could have been a lengthy dispute between the company, state regulators and about a half dozen other interested parties. (The Roanoke Times)
A foundation established by the estate of Richmond philanthropist Bill Goodwin’s late son, Hunter, made a $50 million commitment to support cancer and neuroscience research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech announced in September. The gift is one of three record-setting $50 million donations the university has received, including the 2018 donation from the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust and Heywood and Cynthia Fralin that renamed the Fralin institute. The other was Boeing’s $50 million commitment for Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus, announced in 2021. The Red Gates Foundation was established in 2020 by the estate of Hunter Goodwin, who died of cancer at age 51 in January 2020. His parents started a national cancer research foundation, Break Through Cancer, with a $250 million donation in 2021. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Mountain Valley Pipeline is suing more than 40 people and two organizations that it says are unlawfully interfering with its efforts to complete a natural gas pipeline amid growing unrest. Filed in early September in Montgomery County Circuit Court, the lawsuit asks a judge to issue an injunction that would prevent opponents from entering construction areas, where they have temporarily delayed work at least a dozen times since July 5. The company also seeks to prohibit the organizing of such protest events and any “soliciting or accepting” of donations that might be used to fund them. Named as defendants are Appalachians Against Pipelines, an organization that often promotes the protests on social media, and Rising Tide North America, which Mountain Valley says is raising money for the events.
(The Roanoke Times)
In a battle between digital maps, Virginia Tech bested the Federal Communications Commission to show the commonwealth’s broadband needs. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced plans in September to deploy networks in places where the state lacks broadband internet. With those plans in place, the state can access a $1.48 billion federal allocation. That total would have been a quarter-billion dollars less without Virginia Tech’s Center for Geospatial Information Technology, according to the university. Two staff members handled the project, coordinating with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development’s Office of Broadband. (Cardinal News)
The Virginia Tech College of Engineering will move out of old Randolph Hall ahead of demolition to make way for a new, $292 million Mitchell Hall, administrators said in late August. The new building will be 285,500 square feet, more than 100,000 square feet larger than Randolph Hall, which was finished in 1959. Currently the project is in the working drawing phase, said Tish Long, a member of the Virginia Tech board of visitors, with construction set to start in late 2023 or early 2024 and “substantial completion planned for the summer of 2027.” Mitchell Hall is named for 1958 alum Norwood Mitchell and his wife, Wendy. The couple made a $35 million donation to Tech in 2021.
(The Roanoke Times)
