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Hospitality | Tourism 2023: DOUG BRADBURN
Bradburn has been leading the most popular historic estate in the U.S. since 2018. The historic home of the first U.S. president and his wife, Martha Washington, welcomes an average of 1 million visitors each year. An author and scholar of early American history, Bradburn joined Mount Vernon in 2013 as the founding director of […]
Virginia Housing CEO to retire
Virginia Housing CEO Susan Dewey will retire Dec. 31, after 24 years heading the Richmond-based authority. “Under Susan’s leadership, Virginia Housing made critical and timely strategic changes over the years to position us for success,” Bill Shelton, chairman of the Virginia Housing Board of Commissioners, said in a statement released Tuesday. “We thank her for […]
Innovation, capital key to rural growth, Barkin and Warner say
There’s hope for economic growth in rural areas despite their challenges, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Wednesday during the Fed’s 2023 Investing in Rural America conference in Roanoke. Rural areas could overcome economic development challenges, particularly housing shortages and lack of broadband access, with innovation, [...]
$35.8M Newport News affordable housing redevelopment begins
The BLVD Group has acquired and started renovations on the Aqua Vista Apartments in Newport News, the Los Angeles- and Dallas-based company announced Tuesday. BLVD expects development costs, including the property purchase and “soft costs” like engineering and design, to total more than $35.8 million. A BLVD-affiliated limited partnership, Aqua Vista LP, bought the property […]
Amazon housing fund director resigns
Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Housing Equity Fund Director Catherine Buell is leaving the e-tail giant. Housing Equity Fund Principal Senthil Sankaran will be the interim head of the fund team, according to an Amazon spokesperson. Buell joined Amazon in 2020 as head of community development for Amazon in the Community and became director of the e-tailer’s […]
Sentara invests $11M in Newport News revitalization
Sentara Healthcare invested $11 million in Newport News‘ Marshall-Ridley Choice Neighborhood revitalization initiative, the Norfolk-based health system announced Wednesday. Sentara is providing $11 million in loan financing support for the project’s second phase, which focuses on the former Ridley Place neighborhood. The project is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel[...]
Virginia 500 Spotlight: Catherine Buell
Director, Amazon Housing Equity Fund, Amazon.com Inc. Arlington County WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? Much like the Roomba vacuum cleaner, Catherine is “pleasantly persistent” and doesn’t give up. She will keep at it, work to find a middle ground and show results. WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Don’t forget to have fun along the way! Life […]
$55M affordable housing community moves forward in Richmond
The final two phases of Brady Square, a $55 million affordable housing community in Richmond, now have financing and approvals to move forward, developer Dakota Partners announced Tuesday. The Massachusetts developer announced plans for the community in December 2021. Dakota Partners purchased a 14.4-acre parcel at 2200 Brady St. on Richmond’s South Side. The complex […]
Henrico assisted living facility to become affordable housing
Construction started this week on a $23 million project that will create 86 units of affordable housing in eastern Henrico County, Virginia Supportive Housing announced. Formerly an assisted living facility, Cool Lanes Commons, on the border of Richmond and Henrico, will create 80 one-bedroom apartments and six studio apartments for homeless and low-income people in […]
Home improvement
Affordable housing isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the University of Virginia. But it’s top of mind for U.Va. officials who have pledged to support the development of 1,000 to 1,500 affordable housing units in Charlottesville and Albemarle County over the next decade. To jump-start the effort, U.Va. is […]
Rising to the challenges
Last summer, as I was eating dinner at a Norfolk bar with a group of my Lead Virginia classmates from far Southwest Virginia, one of them asked what decision makers in Richmond thought about their region. “Most of them don’t think about it at all,” I replied bluntly and not a little sadly. During my […]
Hitting a brick wall
Casey Renner has worked in four states over the course of her teaching career, and she’s never liked a school more than Arlington County’s Wakefield High School, where she teaches science and special education. But she has also never had as much difficulty finding housing near work as she has during her 17 years teaching […]
