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Virginia Business// June 27, 2024//
Developers broke ground May 30 on The Helios, a $54 million, rent-restricted, solar-powered apartment building in Henrico County, according to an announcement by Bank of America, which is financing construction. A joint venture between Spy Rock Real Estate Group and Crescent Development, both based in Richmond, the apartments will replace an abandoned motel. The project, which is being built on 8.2 acres on Chamberlayne Road, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Three mid-rise buildings with elevators will house 186 units with one to three bedrooms. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Chesterfield County unveiled on June 7 its newly renovated softball and baseball complex at Harry G. Daniel Park, The Diamonds at Iron Bridge. Renovations for the park’s six fields totaled $4.1 million, and funding came from a surplus lodging tax revenue. The complex’s upgrades included resodded fields with better drainage; new fencing, backstops and dugouts; improved seating; increased shade; and repaved parking lots. The June 7 ceremony also kicked off the Starz Gold Summer Showcase, a weekend tournament with more than 60 softball teams from several states. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy announced June 3 it had closed on its$4.3 billion sale of subsidiaries Questar Gas and Wexpro to Canadian pipeline and energy company Enbridge. Salt Lake City-based natural gas utility Questar serves more than 1.2 million customers in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. Wexpro supplies natural gas under a cost-of-service agreement to Questar. The deal was first announced Sept. 5, 2023, and this sale was the second of three deals between Dominion and Enbridge announced then that has since been finalized. The first was Dominion’s $6.6 billion sale of East Ohio Gas to Enbridge. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Envigo parent company Inotiv was fined more than $35 million on June 3 in relation to the mistreatment of dogs at Envigo’s Cumberland County facility, from which 4,000 beagles were rescued in 2022. An Envigo subsidiary, Envigo RMS, pleaded guilty to conspiring to knowingly violate the Animal Welfare Act, and subsidiary Envigo Global Services pleaded guilty to knowingly violating the Clean Water Act. In addition to paying the largest fine recorded in an Animal Welfare Act case, Inotiv will be subject to increased animal care standards and to a compliance monitor, according to the U.S. Justice Department. (Axios)
The University of Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia will pay $9 million in settlements related to the deadly 2022 shooting on U.Va.’s campus. On May 31, Albemarle County Circuit Judge Claude V. Worrell II approved $2 million settlements for each of the families of slain students D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler. Two U.Va. students who were injured in the shooting, Michael Hollins Jr. and Marlee Morgan, are receiving a cumulative $3 million from two other settlement agreements that did not need court approval. (The Washington Post)
A former manufacturing facility in West Point will come roaring back to life with a $2.5 million investment by West Point Veneer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coldwater Veneer, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced May 21. West Point Veneer expects to hire 92 people for the facility. Once open, the mill, located at 320 Dupont St., will produce wood veneer and ship it globally via the Port of Virginia. Coldwater Veneer CEO Dean Calhoun originally purchased the mill in 1997. Then, in 2017, Calhoun sold it, and the new owner closed it, according to Coldwater Veneer Chief Financial Officer Allen Frydenberg. He later repurchased it.(VirginiaBusiness.com)
The $350 million Atlantic Park project backed by music icon Pharrell Williams in his hometown of Virginia Beach is progressing, with the 2.6-acre surf lagoon, entertainment venue and other pieces of the project expected to be delivered in spring 2025, Kathy Warren, Virginia Beach’s planning director, told city councilors May 28. A joint project between Williams and Venture Realty Group, Atlantic Park is supported by about $153 million in city funding and broke ground in March 2023. As of late May, the surf lagoon was about half done, the two parking garages were about 71% done, and the rest of the development was in various stages. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree announced in early June it was considering selling or spinning off its Family Dollar brand, which it acquired in 2015 for $8.5 billion. As of Feb. 3, Dollar Tree was operating more than 8,350 Family Dollar stores but has closed 550 retail locations of both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar as of the end of the first quarter of this year. The move comes shortly after the company’s announcement that it intends to acquire 99 Cents Only, a discount retailer in the western United States. In May, Dollar Tree purchased 170 leases of 99 Cents Only stores in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
On May 22, Dominion Energy kicked off construction of the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, plunging the first monopile into the sea floor for the 176 wind turbines that will be erected 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coastline.
Also, a federal judge in late May denied a preliminary injunction seeking to halt construction of the wind farm. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by several conservative anti-offshore wind groups, argued that the wind farm construction negatively impacts endangered North Atlantic right whales. (VirginiaBusiness.com; The Virginian-Pilot)
A 90-day task force convened by Virginia Beach City Council found that the Virginia Beach Oceanfront should be reserved for tourism events that would fill at least 1,000 hotel rooms, pushing smaller community events to other parks or venues in Virginia Beach during the resort season. That was one of several recommendations presented May 27 by the task force to guide policies for public spending on the growing number of events in the city. Other recommendations included standardizing the application process to qualify for city sponsorship of a festival, and holding festival producers accountable for spending of city funds. (WHRO)
PEOPLE
John Chandler has been promoted to president and principal broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Property Management, the Norfolk-based real estate firm announced May 29. Chandler was previously the firm’s director of facilities and compliance and chief operating officer of its property management division, according to his LinkedIn profile. He succeeds his sister-in-law, Lisa Chandler, who announced her retirement in October 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Dustin H. DeVore was named managing partner of Kaufman & Canoles’ Williamsburg office, effective May 21, the law firm announced. DeVore joined Kaufman & Canoles in 2002 and chairs the firm’s lender representation practice group and its credit union team. DeVore takes over from Gregory R. Davis, with whom he’s worked for the past 22 years. Davis will continue at the firm, where he focuses on trust and estate matters. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
An Ashburn-based tech company, Arthur Grand Technologies, was fined by the Department of Justice in May after it advertised that it was seeking white candidates for an open job posting. The posting was published on Indeed.com in March 2023 and said that the company was only looking for “U.S. Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates],” according to a Justice Department news release. The company must pay penalties of $38,500, and the agreement requires Arthur Grand to train its personnel on the Immigration and Nationality Act. (WTOP; Associated Press)
Arlington County-based Boeing received orders for only four new planes in May and, for the second straight month, none for its best-selling 737 Max, as fallout continues from the blowout of a side panel on a Max during a January flight. The results released in June compared unfavorably with Europe’s Airbus, which reported net orders for 15 planes in May — 27 sales but 12 cancellations. Boeing delivered 24 jetliners in May, including 19 Max jets, and it still has a huge backlog of more than 5,600 orders. (Associated Press)
McLean-based Capital One Financial is no longer the exclusive issuer of Walmart consumer credit cards, as of late May. The two companies announced they ended their consumer card agreement, which began in 2019. The announcement followed problems first uncovered in late 2022 and early 2023 by Reuters. In April 2023, Walmart filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end the partnership, and the judge ruled in March that the retailer could end the partnership. Capital One retains ownership and servicing of the credit card portfolio. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Inova Health System raised $83 million over the past year, surpassing the “Schar Challenge” issued by donors Dwight and Martha Schar when they made a $75 million matching gift to Inova in May 2023. More than 10,000 people made donations following the Schars’ gift, bringing the Falls Church-based health system’s total raised over the past year to $158 million, Inova announced in June. Dwight Schar founded Reston-based homebuilder and mortgage banker NVR. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
For the second time this spring, two planes nearly collided at Reagan National Airport in Arlington County, prompting Virginia’s U.S. senators to again criticize plans to add more long-haul flights at the airport. In May, an American Airlines flight bound for Boston was told to abort its ongoing takeoff procedure as it was about to cross paths with a private plane that had already landed on an intersecting runway. In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner cited the near accident to again speak out against the recent decision to add more flights at DCA. Earlier in May, President Joe Biden signed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization package into law. (Washington Business Journal)
After close to two years of litigation, bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy, the Tysons-based business software company he co-founded, agreed in June to pay $40 million to resolve a tax fraud lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C.’s attorney general. It’s the largest income tax fraud recovery in the district’s history, according to a news release. The lawsuit alleged Saylor claimed to live in Virginia, a state with a lower income tax, and Florida, a state with no personal income tax, to avoid paying more than $25 million in taxes to the District of Columbia. Saylor and MicroStrategy deny violating D.C.’s tax laws and admitted no wrongdoing. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Boxer Gifts, a British manufacturer of specialty, often wacky gifts, including the “poo timer” and “old-age emergency pants,” will invest $1.4 million to establish its first U.S. light manufacturing, distribution and wholesale operation in Harrisonburg, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced May 28. The project is expected to create 15 jobs. The specialty gift shop plans to retrofit a 10,000-square-foot warehouse on 0.74 acres at 955 Sawtooth Oak Circle that it purchased March 15 for $640,000, according to Boxer Gifts President Thomas O’Brien. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
On May 29, a federal judge sentenced Jennifer McDonald, former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, to a total of 168 months — 14 years — in prison for committing financial crimes against the EDA: 144 months for 29 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, and 24 months for one count of aggravated identity theft. A jury convicted McDonald on Nov. 1, 2023, of charges related to accusations that she used millions of dollars of EDA money without the authority’s board of directors’ permission for her own benefit. She was arrested on the charges in late August 2021. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
RideSmart, a Front Royal-based commuter service, began providing bus service on weekdays from Clarke County to Rosslyn and Washington, D.C., in May. The company held a ribbon cutting May 15 in the Waterloo Park & Ride lot on U.S. 50. RideSmart is using a $1.5 million grant over five years from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to cover costs to provide the bus service, which Todd Horsley, DRPT’s director of Northern Virginia transit programs, said is intended to be “seed money” for RideSmart to get the service up and running. A one-way trip costs $25, and a round trip is $39. (The Winchester Star)
Winchester-based weatherproof decking maker Trex is building a $450 million factory in Little Rock, Arkansas, that will greatly boost its manufacturing capacity. The company, which makes composite boards with sawdust and old plastic bags, is also rolling out new lines of premium decking, like one that mimics hardwoods and one that is cooler on the feet. The facility is being built on 300 acres with room to expand and probably won’t begin production until 2026. Although as of mid-May, renovation spending was expected to sputter and home improvement stores were reporting declining sales, Trex is betting Americans will add onto their homes instead of moving to new ones. (The Wall Street Journal)
Winchester-based health system Valley Health reported $77.8 million in fiscal 2023 revenue in a semi-annual meeting on May 14. The company had $7 million in operating earnings, and $77.8 million with investment earnings factored in. In 2022, Valley Health lost $71.8 million in revenue. Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz said the health system was still recovering from the pandemic, but staff retention rates were “back above pre-pandemic levels.” The system operates six hospitals — four in Virginia and two in West Virginia — along with urgent care clinics, physician practices, medical transport services and a retail pharmacy. (The Winchester Star)
The Warren County Board of Supervisors greenlit on June 4 a proposed hotel in the U.S. 340-522 commercial corridor. The board voted to approve a request for a conditional use permit for a hotel with a height of more than 40 feet and added a condition that no large or unnecessary illuminated signs face adjacent homeowners on the westbound side. Pennoni applied for the permit to build a four-story, 91-room Hyatt hotel on Hospitality Drive, proposing a 53-foot hotel with a 2-foot buffer. Green Pearl Hospitality owns the 3.8-acre property, which is adjacent to the DoubleTree by Hilton off Shadows and Hospitality drives. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
After almost 30 years, Henry County is looking to update its comprehensive plan. During their May 28 meeting, county supervisors began what is expected to be a two-year process by awarding a $212,139 contract to the Berkley Group, a Bridgewater-based administrative consultancy firm that will assist county officials with the planning process. This marks the first time the county has updated its comprehensive plan since 1995. (Cardinal News)
Billions of investment dollars could be coming to Pittsylvania County with the development of a data center that was unanimously recommended by the planning commission at its June 4 meeting. The project represents up to $5 billion in investment and at least $120 million in annual tax revenue, according to the Pittsylvania County Industrial Development Authority. The data center, which would be the first of its kind in Pittsylvania, would also create up to 500 jobs. The commission recommended the rezoning of 946 acres off U.S. 58 in Ringgold, in the southeastern part of the county just a few miles outside Danville, for the project. (Cardinal News)
Last year, Sentara Health unveiled plans to invest $70 million to replace the aging Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston with a new acute care hospital. In June, the health care system announced the investment will be closer to $107 million. The 100,000-square-foot hospital is scheduled to be completed in summer 2026. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
VF, a Denver-based global apparel and footwear company with brands including Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies, plans to close its distribution center in Martinsville in March 2025, the company confirmed May 22. During a conference call, Bracken Darrell, who joined VF as the company’s president and CEO last summer, called the strategy “tough medicine that we needed to return to growth.” VF’s plans include “fixing the Americas,” turning around the Vans brand, reducing costs and paying down debt. VF experienced a 13% decline in revenue for the fourth quarter, compared with the same period last year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia International Raceway was awarded three tourism grants totaling $50,500, the raceway announced June 3. The raceway received awards of $22,500 from the Virginia Tourism Marketing Leverage Program, $18,000 from the Virginia Special Events & Festivals Program and $10,000 from a Visit SoSi regional tourism grant. Two of the grants will be used to further asset development and special event support, mostly around the track’s flagship events, the IMSA Michelin GT Challenge and the Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix. The third grant will help promote new corporate retreat and team-building capabilities to leverage the historic nearly 1,300-acre property and cross-promote the capabilities of several different local businesses that operate out of the onsite business park. (News release)
PEOPLE
Jason Wells joined the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as executive vice president of manufacturing advancement on June 3, according to a release from the Danville-based economic development organization. Wells, who has nearly three decades of experience in high-performance manufacturing, replaces Todd Yeatts, who left in August. In his new role, Wells will oversee the operation and strategic direction of the Center for Manufacturing Advancement, which helps manufacturers introduce new and emerging technology into their operations and provides other services to industry leaders. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
A new collaborative initiative, Accelerate Southwest Virginia, will focus on infrastructure, economic development, health care, housing and lowering the cost of living in the region, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in Wise on May 23. Youngkin compared the initiative to Partnership for Petersburg, a multifaceted project he announced in August 2022. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission is partnering with the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority to create a $10 million loan fund for economic development, and an additional $18.5 million can be made available, he said. Few details about the initiative or how it will be funded were released. (Cardinal News)
The Tennessee Department of Health has given Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, A grades and an annual stamp of approval, which has occurred as Ballad hospitals consistently fall short of performance targets established by the state. The state’s scoring rubric largely ignores the hospitals’ performance, so only 5% of Ballad’s final score is based on actual quality of care. Ballad has suffered no penalty for failing to meet the state’s goals in about 50 areas, including surgery complications. Ballad Health was created six years ago after Tennessee and Virginia lawmakers waived federal anti-monopoly laws so two competing hospital companies could merge. (Virginia Mercury)
The Southwest Regional Recreation Authority, parent organization of the Spearhead Trails, will receive $5 million in state funding over the next two fiscal years. The funds were included in the two-year budget that Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed in mid-May, according to a news release from the authority. Using the funding, the organization plans to hire 11 additional staff members, increase trail mileage, purchase equipment and make repairs to its headquarters building. A 2019 study from the Institute for Service Research found that the Spearhead Trails annually generate $18.8 million in economic impact to Virginia. (The Coalfield Progress)
The Health Wagon is working to establish the Southwest Virginia region’s first free and charitable pharmacy. The St. Mary’s Faith Pharmacy will be adjacent to the Health Wagon clinic in Wise and will have a drive-thru window. In early June, the pharmacy began conducting a pre-application survey to learn which medications were most needed by patients in the region. Separately, in May, state lawmakers removed $800,000 earmarked for the Health Wagon from the biennial budget following controversy over sharp increases in Health Wagon executives’ salaries. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Wise-based civil engineering and land surveying firm Thompson & Litton acquired Tennessee-based Tysinger, Hampton & Partners, T&L announced May 20. TH&P joined Thompson & Litton’s employee-owned operation on May 15 and is doing business as Thompson & Litton. Its office will remain in Johnson City, Tennessee. T&L serves a five-state mid-Atlantic client base from offices in Wise, Radford, Tazewell and Chilhowie; Bristol, Johnson City and Mosheim, Tennessee; and Princeton, West Virginia. (Bristol Herald Courier)
PEOPLE
Louise “Lou” Fincher, senior vice president of Emory & Henry University, has been named interim president of the Washington County-based private college beginning Aug. 1, as President John W. Wells steps down and becomes the school’s first chancellor in late July.
The college is transitioning to being a university this fall. Fincher is also the inaugural dean of the E&H School of Health Sciences, a position she accepted in 2014, and became senior vice president in 2020. Fincher helped launch the health sciences school in Marion and has led the development of the Southwest Virginia Healthcare Excellence Academy Laboratory School (SWVA-HEALS). (VirginiaBusiness.com)
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