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Recent Articles from Beth JoJack
Boston private equity firm to acquire Sauer Brands
Duke’s Mayo and its parent company, Richmond’s Sauer Brands, will change hands in a deal between Boston-based private equity firm Advent International and North Carolina’s Falfurrias Capital Partners, which purchased Sauer a little over five years ago. Terms of the pending acquisition, which was announced Monday, were not disclosed. Sauer, a family-owned company for more [&hellip[...]
Richmond starts water testing, but city remains under boil water advisory
On Thursday, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said that water levels have risen across the city to the point that authorities have started testing samples for contamination and most buildings in the city have at least some running water, four days after the city’s water treatment plant failed following a winter storm. A Jan. 6 power […]
Retired Naval Station Norfolk commander is new Suffolk econ dev chief
Retired Navy Capt. Janet H. Days, who retired last year as commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval station, will be taking on a new tour of duty in February as director of Suffolk’s economic development department, the city announced Wednesday. She’ll start her new job Feb. 7, according to the announcement. […]
Richmond water crisis shuts down many restaurants, businesses
Jan. 9 update: Richmond starts water testing, but city remains under boil water advisory “Dry January” became all too literal in Richmond, where most city residents and businesses were struggling with a water outage that started Monday afternoon and was still leaving much of a city with a population of more than 225,000 people without […]
Something in the Water gets extension from Va. Beach
Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival got a bit of a break Tuesday 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. City Council voted 8-2 Tuesday to indefinitely defer an earlier […]
Booz Allen to pay $15.8M fine to settle fraud allegations
Booz Allen Hamilton, the McLean-based Fortune 500 global management consultant, has 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’s statement, two former program managers at Maryland-based Booz Allen […]
Smithfield Foods files for IPO
Virginia’s Smithfield Foods announced Monday 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 […]
Outlook unclear for Something in the Water festival with Va. Beach vote set
The Virginia Beach City Council is set to consider an agenda item next week that could lead to the cancellation of the April 26-27 Something in the Water music festival, if organizers don’t provide the city with a full list of announced artists within days of the Jan. 7 vote. Under an agreement signed by […]
ATCC expansion targets future coronaviruses
Rebecca Bradford raises a scary thought: “What if we were hit with two pathogens at the same time?” For example, what if, as COVID-19 was hitting the country in early 2020, a flu virus had been spreading too? It’s a distinct possibility in the future, and scientists are working hard to establish quick and effective […]
Northrop Grumman subsidiary scores $3.4B Navy contract
Northrop Grumman Systems, a subsidiary of Falls Church aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman, has been awarded a $3.459 billion contract by the Navy to engineer and manufacture new nuclear aircraft, according to announcements from the Department of Defense and the Navy last week. E-130J jets will take the place of the Navy’s current E-6B […]
McLean’s QinetiQ US expands to Huntsville, Alabama
QinetiQ US, a McLean security and defense contractor, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday to celebrate its expansion into Huntsville, Alabama. Known as “The Rocket City” for its role in the country’s development of space exploration, Huntsville is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which is located at the Redstone Arsenal. Originally established to make [&helli[...]
ECS Federal wins $96M award to support health research funding agency
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency has named ECS Federal as the prime contractor on a four-year, $96 million contract to provide support services, the Fairfax County IT business announced Tuesday. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) was created in 2022 to improve the government’s ability to quickly develop biomedical […]
Amid financial concerns, Averett University names new leadership
Averett University announced Wednesday that its board has appointed David Joyce as its 15th president. Tiffany Franks, who has served nearly 17 years as president of the Danville private university, will retire Jan. 5, 2025. The leadership change comes following months of headlines about the school’s financial woes and cost-saving measures like staff furloughs and […]
Breeden VP returns from retirement
Retired Breeden Co. executive Barry Tomlin has rejoined the Virginia Beach real estate development and property management company as its vice president of customer service and marketing, The Breeden Co. announced Dec. 5. Tomlin initially joined Breeden in 2007, working as vice president of property management at the time of his 2022 retirement. In his […]
Caesars delays Danville casino’s opening by 5 days
The $750 million Caesars Virginia resort in Danville will host grand opening festivities on Dec. 17 instead of Dec. 12 as previously announced, Nevada’s Caesars Entertainment announced Friday afternoon. On hand will be retired Chicago Bulls basketball star and five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman, who will lead a parade of race cars supplied by Virginia […]
Paver manufacturer to invest $47M for Pittsylvania facility
Cambridge Pavers, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of pavers, slabs and wall systems, will invest $47.35 million to establish a 150,000-square-foot facility at Ringgold East Industrial Park in Pittsylvania County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday. Virginia competed with North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Massachusetts for the project, which is expected to create 55 jobs. [&hell[...]
HII division lands $6.7B Air Force contract
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries’ McLean-based Mission Technologies division a $6.7 billion contract to provide electronic warfare engineering and technical services support, according to a Thursday announcement from the defense contractor. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract is the largest Mission Technologies has yet landed, according to HII. �[...]
Navy awards Raytheon potential $903.9M contract
The Navy has awarded Raytheon, a subsidiary of Arlington County Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor RTX, a contract worth up to $903.9 million, if all options are exercised, to provide support for a sensor system, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday. The initial $34 million firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost only contract covers […[...]
Van maker repays state grant after Pittsylvania layoffs
Morgan Olson has paid back a $500,000 Virginia Port Authority grant after the Michigan-based manufacturer of walk-in step vans failed to employ an agreed-upon number of workers at its facility at the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park in Pittsylvania County. It’s not the jubilant future economic developers had envisioned when celebrating the company’s October 2019 […]
Dominion Energy COO Diane Leopold to retire after nearly three decades
Dominion Energy Chief Operating Officer Diane Leopold plans to retire from the Fortune 500 utility this summer after working for nearly four decades in the industry. Leopold, who will remain as COO and executive vice president until she steps down on June 1, 2025, oversees major construction projects such as Dominion’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia […]
Volkswagen’s U.S. subsidiary names new president and CEO
Rivian Automotive’s Kjell Gruner will become the new president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America on Dec. 12, the Reston-headquartered subsidiary of the German automaker announced Tuesday. Gruner succeeds Pablo Di Si, who “has stepped down … on his own request,” according to a news release. Di Si assumed the role in September 2022, […]
ODEC announces next president and CEO
Chris Cosby will become president and CEO of Glen Allen’s Old Dominion Electric Cooperative on Feb. 1, 2025. Cosby succeeds John C. Lee, who has been ODEC’s president and CEO since Sept. 8, 2023, initially serving in an interim capacity. ODEC announced Lee’s retirement, effective Feb. 1, on Monday. He will serve as a senior […]
Inova pays $2.37M to settle False Claims Act allegations
Three Inova Health entities have agreed to pay more than $2.37 million to settle claims that Inova submitted Medicaid claims containing falsified information. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced on Friday the agreement with Inova Health System Foundation, Inova Health Care Services and Inova Physician Partners, settling the False Claims […]
Specialty coils manufacturer to expand in Chesterfield
Super Radiator Coils, an engineering and manufacturing company based in Minnesota, will invest $22 million to expand in Chesterfield County, creating an estimated 160 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced Friday. The company will upgrade machinery and add about 80,000 square feet to its existing approximately 160,000-square-foot facility at 451 Southlake Blvd. The plant has […]
Pittsylvania megasite wins $1.3B battery separator project
Tennessee-based Microporous will invest $1.3 billion to build its battery separator manufacturing facility at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday. The company expects the project to create 2,015 jobs. The megasite’s first tenant, Microporous will develop Lot 1 at the park in two phases, with each […]
Va. appoints new DRPT director
Tiffany Robinson is the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s new director, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday. Robinson succeeds Zach Trogdon, who has served as acting director since Jennifer DeBruhl retired July 1. Robinson has almost 15 years of experience in state and local government, according to a DRPT news release issued Tuesday. She […]
MicroStrategy holdings surge in value as bitcoin breaches $87,000
Bitcoin whale Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of Tysons-based tech company MicroStrategy, has reason to gloat today. Under Saylor’s laser-eyed guidance, MicroStrategy has pursued bitcoin as an investment strategy since 2020. The company announced its first bitcoin purchase in August 2020, making it one of the first public companies to convert its cash treasury reserves […]
Navy Federal ordered to refund customers $80M, pay $15M civil penalty
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering Navy Federal Credit Union to refund more than $80 million to customers and pay a $15 million civil penalty for allegedly charging illegal overdraft fees. CFPB announced the actions against the nation’s largest credit union on Thursday. CFPB alleges that from 2017 to 2022, Vienna-based Navy Federal charged […]
Omni Homestead GM receives lifetime achievement award
The American Hotel & Lodging Association presented Mark Spadoni, managing director of The Omni Homestead Resort in Bath County, with the association’s General Manager Lifetime Achievement Award on Oct. 28. The association honored Spadoni in San Antonio at its second annual The Hospitality Show conference, cosponsored by Questex’s Hotel Management brand. “I am deeply honored […]
Virginians wager $622M on sports in September
Virginians bet $622 million on sports in September, up 19.6% from September 2023, according to Virginia Lottery data released Friday. Virginia bettors won $550.5 million in September. About $618.3 million of September’s gross sports gaming revenues came from mobile operators, and the remaining $3.7 million came from casino retail activity. Virginia currently has three casinos: […]
Hope springs eternal
Williamsburg’s tourism-steeped economy was on track for a banner year when COVID-19 knocked it off course. Businesses, including tourist attractions Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Colonial Williamsburg shut down, William & Mary sent students home, and hotel and motel occupancy rates plummeted. As of late October, with capacity restrictions gradually lifted, Williamsburg was striving to get [[...]
Change in the air
After almost a decade of planning, Dominion Energy Inc. will begin harnessing offshore wind power this fall as two massive test turbines go into operation off the coast of Virginia Beach. Standing about 600 feet tall, the 12-megawatt turbines are the cornerstone of Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project. The company, the first […]
The big dig
With construction beginning this fall to expand the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT), relief is on the way for travelers weary of sitting in traffic jams along one of south-eastern Virginia’s most congested corridors. The $3.8 billion expansion is the largest project in the history of the Virginia Department of Transportation and one of the largest […]
Sailing for the horizon
Tariff wars and the COVID-19 pandemic delivered a one-two punch to the Port of Virginia, but officials are focusing on the positive as expansions are completed at the port’s two largest terminals, and a dredging project to make Virginia the East Coast’s deepest port is running ahead of schedule. The third-largest East Coast port behind […]
Pipeline to progress?
Although Dominion Energy Inc. has pulled the plug on its $8 billion-plus Atlantic Coast Pipeline, natural gas remains a linchpin in the Richmond-based utility’s plan to shift from coal to renewable energy sources like wind and solar for electricity generation. Dominion announced over the Fourth of July weekend that it was abandoning the pipeline and […]
Offshore windfall
Two massive wind turbines are scheduled to begin spinning off the coast of Virginia Beach by the end of 2020, providing electricity to 3,000 homes and paving the way for Dominion Energy Inc. to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm. And even amid the coronavirus outbreak, plans are still proceeding on course, says […]
Positive energy
By 2026, as many as 220 massive wind turbines — each taller than the Washington Monument — may be churning away less than 30 miles off the Virginia Beach coast, powering up to 650,000 homes with renewable energy. The $7.8 billion proposed offshore wind farm would be the nation’s largest such project, but it’s just […]
Pig-powered
Along with emitting a potent odor, manure produced by the nearly 75 million hogs in the U.S. generates methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. However, Virginia’s largest electric utility and the world’s largest pork producer have teamed up to combat the latter problem by transforming these emissions […]
Winds of change
In September, Dominion Energy Inc. unveiled an ambitious, $8 billion project to erect the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the Virginia Beach coast. If all goes to plan, it will power 650,000 Virginia homes by 2026. This year, Dominion expects to bring its offshore wind pilot project online and start ocean survey work on […]
Port of call
Hampton Roads’ deep-water port continued to be a dominant factor in attracting companies to the region in 2019, especially cold storage and warehousing and logistics firms. “As we try to bring industry into this area, the port is a significant driver of our economic development,” says Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads […]
Former Siemens exec charged in Dominion bid-rigging case
A retired Siemens Energy executive is facing a felony charge in an alleged conspiracy to steal its competitor’s trade secrets, helping the German energy company prevail in a winning bid to build a gas turbine “peaker” plant in Chesterfield County for Dominion Energy in 2019. John Gibson, of Winter Park, Florida, was charged in U.S. […]
HII names new VP of engagement, intl. gov relations
Huntington Ingalls Industries has named retired British Army Brig. Gen. Paul Tennant corporate vice president of engagement and international government relations, the Newport News-based shipbuilder announced Wednesday. Tennant will be located in HII’s Arlington office and will work on national security policy and future force capabilities by engaging with think tanks, professional organizations[...]
RTX to sell cyber, intelligence biz for $1.3B amid Q3 slump
RTX has agreed to sell its cybersecurity, intelligence and services business segment for about $1.3 billion and announced a $10 billion stock buyback program Tuesday as it seeks to recover from a manufacturing quality issue in a jetliner engine that has plagued the Arlington County-based Fortune 500 defense and aerospace contractor since the summer. RTX, […]
Richmond-Petersburg pharma coalition wins fed designation
Central Virginia’s pharmaceutical hub received a federal designation that could lead to millions in federal funding in the future, while a 3D printing consortium in the New River Valley and Danville won a $500,000 federal grant, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Monday. A group of public and private sector partners conducting pharmaceutical research and […]
$900M water park resort breaks ground in Spotsylvania
A massive water park resort has broken ground in Spotsylvania County. The 1.38 million-square-foot Spotsylvania County Kalahari Resort, located between U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95 in Thornburg, north of Kings Dominion, is expected to offer a 907-room hotel, a 175,000-square-foot indoor waterpark featuring slides, a wave pool and surf park. Also planned are 10 […]
HII’s Mission Technologies wins $347M Navy contract
Huntington Ingalls Industries’ McLean-based Mission Technologies will build nine undersea drones for the Navy’s Lionfish System program in a deal that could grow to as many as 200 vehicles during the next five years, with a total value of more than $347 million. Newport News-based HII announced the contract Wednesday. The system is based on […]
Newport News Shipbuilding names trades VP
Newport News Shipbuilding has promoted a third-generation shipbuilder to vice president of trades. David Horne has served since 2022 as senior director of trades. His promotion comes following a split of the shipbuilder’s human resources and administration department and trades department into two standalone groups. Xavier Beale, who held both roles, will continue as vice […]
Ellucian to buy UK software company for $210M
Reston-based higher education software company Ellucian has agreed to buy United Kingdom-based Tribal Group, which also provides education services software, in an all-cash deal that values the company at up to $210 million. The deal was announced Thursday and Ellucian said in a news release that the offer was unanimously recommended by the Tribal board […]
Thalhimer Multifamily adds management of five apartment communities
Thalhimer Multifamily has taken on management of five new properties, including two that expand the company’s reach into Culpeper and Front Royal. The company, a division of Glen Allen-based Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, announced the management agreement for Charlottesville-based Hearthwood Apartments; Morningside Apartments in Richmond; Shenandoah Commons in Front Royal; and Southri[...]
Dominion pitches new solar projects to SCC
Dominion Energy is pitching the State Corporation Commission on several solar projects that could generate enough carbon-free electricity to power nearly 200,000 homes. The projects, presented in the Fortune 500 utility’s fourth annual clean energy filing with the state, include six solar projects totaling 337 megawatts and 13 power purchase agreements totaling 435 megawatts with […]
