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Tag: Frederick County

South Asian yogurt manufacturer to open Frederick County facility

Desi Fresh Foods, a producer of Indian-style spoonable and drinkable yogurt products, is opening a new manufacturing facility in Frederick County, creating 56 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday. 

The New York-based company will “invest a significant amount of money to open a new manufacturing facility,” according to a news release. Desi Fresh Foods and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership did not immediately return a request for comment on what amount company officials expect to spend.

The company is also committed to sourcing “a significant amount” of dairy ingredients from farmers in Virginia, according to the release. 

Patrick Barker, executive director of the Frederick County Economic Development Authority, said the Desi Fresh Foods facility will be located at Stonewall Industrial Park in Winchester.

“After an exhaustive search, we are thrilled to be opening our new facility in Northern Virginia,” Larry LaPorta, CEO of Desi Fresh Foods, said in a statement. “This move will not only allow us to streamline operations and increase production, but give us access to quality, essential ingredients that will help foster the growth of Desi Fresh Foods in the future and set us up for long-term success.” 

When Desi yogurt products were first created, according to the company’s website, if you visited an Indian grocery store in the United States, you would only find American style and brands of yogurt, which prompted the creation of Desi’s dahi, or South Asian yogurt. 

In 2018, Illinois’ Raymundo’s Food Group, a portfolio company of Florida’s AUA Private Equity Partners, purchased Desi Natural Dahi assets from Derle Farms, a New York milk and yogurt distributor. In 2023,  ICV Partners, a Miami- and Atlanta-based private investment firm, purchased Desi Natural and related assets from Raymundo’s Food Group.

Desi Fresh Foods’ product line also includes Desi Natural Paneer and Desi Natural Lassi and Yogurt Drinks.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked with the Frederick County Economic Development Authority to secure the project for Virginia, which competed with Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Youngkin approved a $150,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund and a $150,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund to assist Frederick County with this project.  

Support for Desi Fresh Foods’ job creation will also be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a discretionary incentive program that provides free customizable workforce recruiting and training services for eligible businesses locating or expanding in Virginia

Winchester region sees state’s biggest population growth

Since 2020, Winchester has gained traction as Virginia’s fastest-growing metro area due to an outflow of remote workers from the Washington, D.C., region to the exurbs. That’s squeezing the local housing market and boosting prices — as well as causing worry among the region’s leaders.

“Living in Winchester versus D.C. is very attractive for federal workers if you only need to go into the office occasionally,” says Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, citing Winchester’s lower cost of living.

Between 2020 and 2023, the Winchester and Frederick County metro area saw a 4.6% rise in population, or an increase of 5,554 people, outpacing every other metro area in Virginia for the same period, Lombard says.

“Most years, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William are the top source for people moving into the Winchester area,” contributing about 4,000 new Winchester-Frederick residents, based on data from tax returns, he notes.

But the area’s residential reach is expanding as “between a third and a half of all work in the Winchester area is now being done remotely, which is above the national average,” Lombard says.

Jeff Buettner, executive director of the Winchester Economic Development Authority, says the city isn’t actively recruiting remote workers. Neither is neighboring Frederick County, according to Patrick Barker, executive director of the county’s economic development authority.

Still, new residents have been arriving since the pandemic, responding to rising house prices in their home regions, says Blue Ridge Association of Realtors CEO Rob Wigton. But prices in Winchester and surrounding localities also have risen. Over the past year, the median price of an area single-family home rose 10.2%, and in March, the median selling price was $437,500.

High interest rates also are keeping the supply of available homes tight, says Winchester real estate broker Meghan Pachas.

However, new construction may ease that demand. Frederick has seen a lot of new builds, says Wigton, adding that there are some people who aren’t pleased with the growth. He disagrees.

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” Wigton says. “It’s just a matter of growing smartly.”

Winchester will soon see an uptick in construction of new housing, Buettner says. City leaders are looking ahead, planning for future stormwater, road and school needs.

“We’re going to work on the infrastructure before it happens, as opposed to being reactionary after the fact,” Buettner says.

HP Hood announces $83.5M expansion in Frederick County

HP Hood, a nationally branded dairy processor, will invest more than $83.5 million to expand dairy processing operations at its Winchester-area facility in Frederick County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced Tuesday.

The project includes upgrades to production and packaging equipment as well as construction of additional warehouse and cooler space. HP Hood’s expansion will provide increased production capacity that will fund technology allowing Hood to offer new products, according to a news release.

“We proudly selected this location to build a greenfield plant more than 24 years ago and have been grateful for the ongoing support of Frederick County and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” HP Hood President and CEO Gary Kaneb said in the release. “This expansion enables us to continue to grow Hood’s business and accommodate the [ever-changing] needs of our customers and continue to provide a market for local dairy farms through our local milk cooperative network.”

HP Hood’s milk cooperative network includes the Dairy Farmers of America and the Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association.

The expansion is already underway and expected to be completed this year, according to Sarah Barow, senior director for communications at HP Hood.

Constructed in 2000, Hood’s Winchester-area facility employs more than 600 workers. It processes extended-shelf-life fluid milk as well as nondairy products for Hood’s brands, private-label partners, licensed brands and co-packaging partners. In 2013, HP Hood invested $84.6 million to expand the operation to increase ultra-high temperature production capacity, Barow confirmed in an email.

This expansion will not immediately create new jobs, according to Barow. “We look at staffing needs on an ongoing basis,” she wrote.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) worked with Frederick County and the Frederick County Economic Development Authority to secure the project.

Youngkin approved a $50,000 infrastructure grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, which Frederick County will match with local funds.

HP Hood has more than 3,000 employees and annual sales revenues of about $3.5 billion. The company’s portfolio of retail consumer product brands includes Hood, Heluva Good!, Lactaid, Blue Diamond Almond Breeze and Planet Oat.

 

 

Logistics company expanding in Winchester

Third-party logistics warehousing provider WCS Logistics, a Winchester Cold Storage company, will invest $27 million to expand in Frederick County and create an estimated 15 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.

WCS Logistics will build an 83,000-square-foot cold storage facility with the capacity for more than 13,000 pallets. The facility will include 68,750 square feet of freezer space, an 8,750-square-foot cold dock, 12 dock positions, insulated metal panel construction and a CO2 cascade refrigeration system, according to a news release from Arco National Construction, the design-build provider for the project.

The new jobs will include warehouse supervisors, forklift operators and customer service representatives, according to WCS Logistics Chief Operating Officer Peter Yates.

The company, which began doing business as WCS Logistics in 2014, has approximately 1 million square feet across four facilities, according to Yates. WCS Logistics opened its most recent cold storage facility, comprising 62,500 square feet, in Frederick County in 2019.

“A true Virginia success story, WCS Logistics has facilitated smooth and efficient movement of perishable goods on the East Coast for more than a century to keep the supply chain moving,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We are proud that the company is choosing to reinvest in the commonwealth and strengthen Virginia’s logistics industry, which is a high-growth sector and a core focus of our economic development strategy.”

Established in 1917 to provide cold storage for the Winchester-area apple industry, Winchester Cold Storage offers freezer, cooler, controlled atmosphere, tempering, climate control, dry storage, office space, lease and build-to-suit storage options. It currently has 30 employees.

“WCS Logistics is proud to announce this investment in our newest facility,” Yates said in a statement. “This is our second expansion in the cold storage market in the last five years, and we are excited to be able to better serve our existing customers and to offer our services to others we have not had the capacity to assist with their third-party logistics needs.”

Fed’s Barkin asks, ‘What’s ‘normal’ anymore?’

The question Tom Barkin is asked the most these days is when the economy will return to normal. The president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has a caution for those who may be wishing for the perceived stability of the pre-pandemic economy.

“After two-and-a-half years of instability, we’re all ready to get back to normal,” Barkin said Wednesday. “But what’s normal? I’d say normal is not going back to where we were.”

Barkin’s comments came during his keynote speech to the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber’s 2022 Economic Summit at Shenandoah University in Winchester, held a week after the Fed approved the fourth 0.75-point rate hike this year, taking rates to a target range of 3.75% to 4% — their highest since 2008 — as the central bank attempts to rein in inflation. As of Oct. 13, the inflation rate is 8.2%; the next U.S. inflation update is set to be released Thursday.

Today’s economy is still “somewhat artificial” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barkin said. Americans have about $1.4 trillion more in savings than they did before the pandemic, money that continues to support consumer demand. Consumers have also increased debt that they paid down during the pandemic, and fiscal stimulus has decreased, though it’s continuing in the form of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law last November, student debt relief, tax reductions in some states and the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Supply chain reliability is slowly improving, though businesses are still vulnerable to labor shortages and geopolitical risks, like Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine and OPEC’s cuts to oil production, which have distorted commodity prices. The roller coaster housing market, affected by higher mortgage rates and soaring prices, and automobile supply instability also remain significant issues, Barkin added, calling them “the pandemic economy’s poster children.”

Getting to something approaching normal will continue to take time and will involve challenges, Barkin said, and while those solutions could trigger economic downturn, high inflation will not become normal. Barkin said he sees the economy getting into “better balance” in coming months, though he expects it to be a lengthy process.

The Fed is “doing what we need to do” about inflation, Barking said, adding that he thinks the economy is on the back end of inflation, which began rising quickly in the second half of 2021. Last week, Barkin told CNBC that the Fed is likely to continue rate hikes, but less aggressively.

“If there’s one thing we learned in the ’70s is that the Fed cannot let inflation fester and expectations rise,” he said Wednesday. “If we back off for fear of a downturn, inflation comes back even stronger and requires even more restraint.”

On the possibility of recession, Barkin noted that the debate over whether the nation has already entered a recession has become so popular that Wikipedia suspended edits on its “recession” entry. But he couldn’t rule a recession out in 2023, saying it’s an “open-ended question.” In June, during a speech in Henrico County, Barkin said he didn’t expect a “significant financial crisis” like the 2008 Great Recession in the current economy.

Barkin noted that growth is slowing, though the country is continuing to add jobs at three times the level of workforce growth, and consumer spending remains around 4%. While most recessions are caused by outside events, Barkin said, referencing events like the 2008 housing crisis and the oil embargo during the 1970s, he said one could occur from the Fed’s efforts to control inflation.

“I think the answer to whether Fed efforts are going to be implicated in that is highly related to how malleable … you think inflation is going to be to supply chains healing and to commodity prices coming down and to labor markets normalizing and the like,” he said. “And I think that is the question we’re trying to figure out.”

Everybody’s talking about the question of recession, he said, and while many companies have “opened up Page 1 of the recession playbook” by installing hiring freezes, cutting advertising and discretionary spending, he doesn’t “hear anybody turning to page four,” which would mean more draconian measures, like layoffs.

“Why would I lay people off now, if I don’t have to? Am I going to be able to get them on the other side of this? So, I think there’s some caution in people’s minds about turning the pages of the playbook,” he said. “But, you know, if something happens from outside, if everyone starts to move at once, you know how it is, people will turn it.”

New hangars, terminal in Winchester airport’s sights

This month, the Winchester Regional Airport will open the first group of hangars for midsize private aircraft, a public-private project that could end with 32 new units, bringing the airport’s total number of hangars to 100.

The multiphase, potentially $20 million project is a partnership between the Winchester Regional Airport Authority and Purcellville-based TMG Construction Corp., a design-build firm. The first phase of the project involves the sale and construction of 11 hangars, six of which will open in November. Developers broke ground in December 2021.

“It’s all very exciting,” says Nick Sabo, executive director of the airport authority and the airport’s manager. “It’s cutting edge because there are not many models of this type to look at as far as a public airport like ours. The airport authority had to adopt a policy on how to handle the partnership, so we wrote the script.”

The authority feels comfortable working with private industry, Sabo adds. “This was the only way we saw to bring new hangars to the region that was cost-effective and would offer a quick timeline.”

The development investment of up to $20 million will be spread over a six-year period. “We have land available, but what we lack is deep reserves to invest,” Sabo notes. “This means new tax revenues for the airport and Frederick County and new revenues for TMG.”

Hangar space in the region is at a premium, Sabo says.

The additional hangars also will help increase the airport’s and the Frederick County Economic Development Authority’s outreach “to companies with large government portfolios and direct government [and] private users with activity connected to Winchester Regional Airport,” says Patrick Barker, the EDA’s executive director. “This clearly shows that Frederick County has the assets to be attractive to aviation businesses.”

State funding — a $4.1 million grant from the Virginia Department of Aviation — is helping the airport replace its 33-year-old, 9,245-square-foot terminal with a 16,000-square-foot building that will include a community room and leasable office space. The airport is also approved for a $3 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the building project.

Sabo hopes to start construction of the terminal in March 2023, with completion in summer 2024, noting that all of the changes “add up to a historic time of development at this airport.” 

Retail, self-storage property sells in Frederick

A retail building and self-storage facility in Frederick County have been sold for just under $4 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced earlier in May.

Frederick Pike Holdings LLC purchased the 21,322-square-foot retail building and 27,000-square-foot self-storage facility from Winchester Capital Group Inc. as an investment for $3,943,700. The properties are located at 118 Fairfax Pike in Stephens City.

Jamie A. Scully, of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, handled negotiations on behalf of the seller.

 

Frederick solar farms move forward

Frederick County is on the verge of seeing its first solar power farms. Three facilities are in the works, with another in the pipeline. That’s not to say Virginia’s northernmost county is exactly embracing fields of solar panels.

“Solar farms change the character of the land from rolling fields and animals grazing in pastures to a sea of glass panels and glare,” says J. Douglas McCarthy, vice chairman of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors.

The loss of valuable farmland is always concerning, he says. However, solar is less intrusive than housing, which changes the landscape forever. “Theoretically, the land used for solar panels could be reversed back to farmland,” he says.

Until recently, the county saw little economic value in solar farms, McCarthy says. However, solar companies now offset their developments’ impacts by offering incentives such as revenue sharing or upfront fees.

Boulder, Colorado-based Torch Clean Energy’s Bartonsville Energy Facility, which received a conditional-use permit in January, will make a one-time $750,000 payment to the county within 30 days of construction. It plans to build a 40- to 60-megawatt facility on a maximum of 430 acres.

Hollow Road Solar, a subsidiary of Leesburg-based Blue Ridge Energy Holdings LLC, requested a permit to build an 83-acre, 20-megawatt solar farm on a 326-acre parcel, but the county denied it in March 2021. However, this January, Hollow Road won approval on its second attempt by placing land (now primarily used for orchards) into a conservation easement and eliminating the transfer of development rights, essentially preventing residential development on the parcel, McCarthy says.

Also on the books is Stevensville, Maryland-based Foxglove Solar LLC’s 75-megawatt facility on 668 acres, for which the county approved a conditional-use permit in July 2020, as well as Pittsburgh-based Redbud Run Solar LLC’s approximately 263-acre facility, which the county approved in April.

Proposals take about three years to move through county and state approvals. 

“There is no definite timeline on any of them getting started or finished, but they are working to get plan approvals now,” says Karen Vacchio, spokesperson for Frederick County.

However, don’t expect to see many more solar farms in Frederick, McCarthy says. The “gold rush for solar” is largely over, since the prime areas where those operations can feed into transmission lines have been taken. 

Frederick County insulation facility add-on to create 37 jobs

Atlanta-based Kingspan Insulation LLC will invest $27 million to expand its Frederick County operations, a project expected to create 37 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday.

Kingspan Insulation is a division of Kingspan Group that manufactures energy efficiency and moisture management products for residential and commercial construction. The company will add a 155,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 200 Kingspan Way to create its OPTIM-R vacuum insulated panels.

“Kingspan Insulation has been a valued employer in Virginia for more than four decades, and we are proud to see the company reinvest in Frederick County,” Youngkin said in a statement. “This great project is a win-win, as Kingspan will increase production capacity to expand its East Coast presence while also creating 37 high-quality jobs, tapping into the region’s workforce.”

Kingspan Insulation manufacturers insulation, building wraps and pre-insulated HVAC ductwork suitable for new build and renovation in residential and commercial buildings.

“Our Winchester plant first opened its doors in 1980 and has grown to become a critical manufacturing facility for Kingspan,” said Doug Crawford, managing director for Kingspan Insulation North America, in a statement. “The Winchester plant’s consistent track record of strong performance coupled with the support of Frederick County and the commonwealth of Virginia has given us the confidence to continually invest in this operation. We are eager to start constructing a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant to produce OPTIM-R vacuum insulated panels.”

In keeping with its Planet Passionate initiative, the company will use methods to increase sustainability while building the facility, like replacing removed trees, using translucent wall panels to allow natural lighting, installing photovoltaic roofing (solar panels or cells) and recycling rainwater.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Frederick County and the Port of Virginia to secure the project for Virginia. The company received a $550,000 grant from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive for existing companies to continue capital investment.

Trex starts HQ move to Winchester

Composite decking and railing manufacturer Trex Co. Inc. broke ground in January on its new $7 million global headquarters in Winchester.

The 64,000-square-foot office facility will be located on 8 acres along Crossover Boulevard near Interstate 81. The company’s corporate offices are currently located on Exeter Drive in Frederick County.

The decision was “years in the making and is a direct result of our growth over the years, coupled with expected growth for years to come,” says Leslie Adkins, the company’s vice president of marketing.

Trex considered a variety of locations in Winchester and Frederick County, Adkins says. Driving factors included ample space for current needs and future expansion, proximity to Trex’s manufacturing facilities, easy access to transportation routes and local amenities.

“Ultimately, the selected site offered all this plus visibility alongside the heavily traveled Interstate 81,” Adkins says.

Trex also will receive a tax break from the city, according to Shawn Hershberger, Winchester’s development services director. Under the agreement, Trex will pay all assessed property taxes on the new building but, for the first seven years, the Winchester Economic Development Authority will refund any portion of Trex’s tax payment that exceeds the amount currently being generated by the site. 

The new headquarters, which is expected to open in mid-2023, will house approximately 200 employees and will feature eco-friendly elements such as electric vehicle charging stations and rooftop solar panels, reflecting Trex’s commitment to sustainability. The company expects to hire about 150 additional employees across all of its divisions, including at its newly expanded Shawnee Drive decking production facility in Frederick County.

Hershberger says Trex’s new corporate offices will help enhance Winchester’s Pleasant Valley Road corridor, which the city has prioritized for growth. “It has already helped spur additional interest in the acreage around it,” he says.

In 2020, Fortune magazine named Trex one of the nation’s 100 fastest-growing companies. The manufacturer is coming off a 12-month period that ended in September 2021 in which it reached $1 billion in revenue. 

“While many companies shifted to remote work and halted building expansions, Trex is in somewhat rarefied air in that demand for our products has grown consistently over the last decade and surged during COVID as more and more homeowners focused on improving their homes and outdoor living spaces,” Adkins says.