Central Virginia Year-in-Review: Pumping the brakes

During the pandemic, companies began pumping the brakes on expansions out of fear of the unknown. But, using that same car-related analogy, by late 2021, they were flooring it, explains Greater Richmond Partnership President and CEO Jennifer Wakefield. And by 2022, they had kicked it into sport mode.

“Now it’s shifted back into normal mode,” Wakefield says. “They’re not quite going 100 miles an hour, but maybe they’re going like 85.”

During 2022, the region saw a series of blockbuster economic development projects announced, including the $1 billion Lego Group manufacturing plant in Chesterfield County and Plenty Unlimited’s $300 million project to build the largest indoor vertical farm in the country there. So, by comparison, 2023 felt like a slowdown, Wakefield says. But Central Virginia still had some big wins in 2023 and is gearing up for a strong 2024.

“Our pipeline is still way more robust than it would be in a typical year,” Wakefield says.

Richmond

The city’s $2.4 billion Diamond District redevelopment project, which will include a new baseball stadium for the Richmond Flying Squirrels Double-A baseball team, an 11-acre green space and mixed-income housing, finally was approved in May 2023. Led by Richmond-based Thalhimer Realty Partners, the project’s development team was poised to begin work on the first phase in February after receiving extra financing.

In January, city officials and developers held a groundbreaking for Red Light Ventures and Live Nation’s $30 million, 7,500-person Riverfront Amphitheater, which is slated to be completed by summer 2025. The project is headed by Charlottesville music industry executive Coran Capshaw, who has managed the Dave Matthews Band and other major music performers.

Additionally, Sapporo Breweries, the Japanese parent company of Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing, invested $16 million into Stone’s Richmond brewery last year, adding 68 jobs, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Sapporo acquired Stone Brewing for $165 million in 2022.

Henrico County

It can be hard to compete with Northern Virginia for major economic development projects — namely data centers — but Henrico County is bucking that trend. In 2023, Henrico County became the fourth-largest economy in Virginia at
$32 billion, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data, behind only Loudoun, Arlington and Fairfax counties.

“From a macroeconomic standpoint, the county’s economy remains really strong,” says Anthony Romanello, executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority. “And it’s growing.”

A lot of that has to do with the county’s diverse economy, which includes investments from “practically every sector,” Romanello says, including banking, technology, manufacturing, data centers and more. 

In 2023, Henrico County saw expansions from insurance giant Genworth Financial, Coca-Cola, QTS Data Centers and insurance company Richmond National Group. These projects totaled about $775 million in capital investment, 268 new jobs and 1.8 million square feet of new commercial space, Romanello says.

“The hallmark of the year is that when you look at the announcements, when you look at the growth and the economic activity, it really speaks to the diversity of Henrico’s economy,” he adds. “We didn’t hit just one thing last year. We saw a number of things that really popped.”

Even still, the pipeline for industrial space and data centers remains strong in the county, Romanello says. In fact, construction and development firm Hourigan in December 2023 proposed a data center and advanced manufacturing light industrial complex on a 622-acre tract of land in Henrico’s Sandston area. Hourigan anticipates the project could attract more than $1 billion in private investments.

Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County continued to see big wins in 2023, including a $27 million expansion from baking soda manufacturer Church & Dwight Co. Announced in May, Church & Dwight’s addition of a new manufacturing line for a scent-boosting laundry detergent was expected to create at least 27 jobs. Meanwhile, a month earlier, Weidmüller Group, a German manufacturer of industrial smart connectivity products, announced a $16.4 million expansion of its Chesterfield facility, adding engineering, production and warehousing space and generating 140 jobs.

“We not only had a big new business come into town, but we’ve also had some nice expansion from companies that have been here for decades,” says Matt McLaren, deputy director with Chesterfield Economic Development. 

The county’s 2023 fiscal year, which ended June 20, 2023, was a particularly good one for Chesterfield, establishing the county as an epicenter for pharmaceutical companies, advanced manufacturing and other tech- and life-science-related industries. The county’s location along the mid-Atlantic corridor is what’s attracting this type of business, and it’s also why the locality continues to invest in speculative commercial space. As of December 2023, the county had more than $4 billion of spec development underway, McLaren says.

This year will be a transformative one for the county, with construction underway on several projects, notably including the Lego factory and Plenty’s indoor vertical farming operation. Gov. Glenn Youngkin was among the dignitaries present for Plenty’s July 31, 2023, groundbreaking ceremony at Meadowville Technology Park, where Lego also began construction in 2022 and plans to begin production in 2027. Plenty’s farm is expected to bring 300 jobs to the county and Lego has hired about 500 workers, with plans to add more than 1,250 associates over the next decade.

“2024 is definitely going to be the year of construction,” says Garrett Hart, director of Chesterfield Economic Development. “There’ll be thousands of construction jobs in the county. [These projects are] all poised to start vertical development this year.”

Hanover County

In March 2023, SanMar, the United States’ largest supplier of wholesale printable accessories and apparel, announced a $50 million project to establish distribution operations in Hanover County, creating an expected 1,000 jobs. This includes warehouse distribution, logistics, inventory management, human resources and sales jobs, says Brandon Turner, director of Hanover County Economic Development. 

What made Hanover an attractive choice for SanMar was available warehouse space, its “strategic location” between facilities the company operates in New Jersey and Florida, and the area’s growing population and skilled logistics warehousing workforce, Turner says. It’s also centrally located and close to the Port of Virginia, “which checked a lot of boxes,” he adds.

Another win for the county was a $3 million expansion by Virginia Artesian Bottling announced in October 2023, which will create 13 jobs. Artesian bottles water for 600 to 700 different labels across the country, Turner says. 

“They’re a small operation, but that was a big win for a domestic homegrown business that’s been here in the county for years,” he adds.

Charlottesville

Two major economic development announcements in Charlottesville in 2023 came in July and August, respectively: Nanotechnology company Laser Thermal’s $2.9 million expansion, adding 28 jobs at its manufacturing, research and development facility, and Virginia Diodes’ $2.5 million investment to expand its local operations, creating 24 jobs. Virginia Diodes manufactures testing and measurement equipment for millimeter-wave and terahertz applications like 6G wireless communications, automotive radar, and weather sensing.

“Virginia Diodes has been around in Charlottesville for about 25 years, kind of a quiet little company, but they’ve grown to over 100 employees,” says Chris Engel, director of economic development for the City of Charlottesville. “And they’re now moving into another phase of growth.”

The two projects illustrate how Charlottesville has established itself as an epicenter for science and tech firms in the region. In December 2023, the University of Virginia began construction on the $350 million Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which is expected to be a regional hub for biotech research, development and manufacturing.

“Charlottesville is connected. [U.Va.] is here, and that drives a lot of the technology,” Engel says. “The community of collaboration amongst startup founders and funders is fairly unique, and there’s a lot of opportunity for them to interact with one another, learn from one another and really help a small company really get going.”