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Recent Articles from Mason Adams
Southwest Va. Year-in-Review: Regional cooperation nets manufacturing projects
Southwest Virginia is weathering the economic disruptions of the transition from coal and a pandemic-related shift to remote work by focusing on a collaborative approach to business attraction. Teamwork is yielding results with a bump in manufacturing deals, punctuated by the November 2024 announcement that Wrap Technologies would invest $4.1 million to move its manufacturing […]
Southwest Va. Big Deal: EO hub offers regional workforce development
The workers and managers at Food City in Abingdon can see the future by stepping out and looking to their left toward a former Kmart. The old Kmart has been redeveloped by EO, a nonprofit that spun off from the United Way of Southwest Virginia, into the 87,000-square-foot Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub. Construction […]
What to expect from the 2025 Va. General Assembly
The General Assembly enters the fourth year in the gubernatorial cycle with even more gridlock than usual. Democrats hold narrow majorities in both the House of Delegates and Senate, but are vulnerable to vetoes by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who begins the final year of his constitutionally mandated single term. Hopes for bipartisan compromise were […]
The bottom of the ballot
Congressional races don’t get the big spotlight in presidential election years, but the bottom of the ballot is still important, as presidents need some legislative cooperation to get things done. In Virginia, two-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine is seeking reelection against Republican challenger Hung Cao, a retired U.S. Navy captain. All 11 of Virginia’s […]
High stakes
The 2024 presidential race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump carries hefty consequences for Virginia’s economy that will be even more pronounced than in previous elections. Presidents are limited by the constraints of Congress — particularly if either chamber is held by the opposing party — and the clunkiness […]
Locked gears
When Gail Courville decided this year to move closer into the Richmond metro area from Serenity Farm, her 109-acre Goochland County estate, she faced a real estate market vastly changed from the last time she relocated, back in 2014. The interest rate on the nearly $900,000, 5,000-square-foot home she wanted to purchase in Henrico County […]
Merger mania
Banking mergers and acquisitions are picking back up again after the slowest year in recent history, and Virginia is no exception. Last year marked a modern low in merger and acquisition activity, with only 98 deals completed nationwide. That’s not just the lowest level of activity since the pandemic — it’s the slowest year since […]
Rocky Forge project faces stiff headwinds
Eight years after it was first proposed, Virginia’s first onshore wind farm remains grounded behind regulatory, legal and political obstacles. Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy first announced plans for its Rocky Forge wind farm in 2015. Apex aimed to have blades spinning by 2017 on 25, 550-foot-tall wind turbines on North Mountain, in a remote section […]
Youngkin’s 2024 tightrope walk depends on Va. elections
The individual with the most to gain from this fall’s General Assembly elections isn’t even on the ballot. Gov. Glenn Youngkin is nearly midway through his term-limited governorship, and pretty much from day one, politicos have speculated he’s after a bigger prize: the U.S. presidency. The governor hasn’t entered the 2024 race, but he’s sent […]
Battlefield Virginia
It’s a nerve-wracking time this fall for a small group of campaign managers, with the balance of power in the General Assembly coming down to a handful of close political races. In House District 97, freshman Republican Del. Karen Greenhalgh is defending her Virginia Beach-centered seat against Michael Feggans, a Democrat who grew up in […]
