Supporting the ‘shining star’
Artwork adorns almost every wall of Joan Brock’s immaculate and welcoming Oceanfront home. It’s in the powder room and big, open kitchen. It takes pride of place in a downstairs office and over a fireplace mantle. Large, framed pieces dominate a bright stairwell landing and cozy upstairs sitting room. It’s the accumulation of a passion […]
On the mend
After two years of severe staff shortages at health care facilities nationwide, conditions at the big three hospital systems in Hampton Roads are improving. “The last two years have been some of the most challenging times for nurses in our lifetime,” says Cassie Lewis, chief nursing and quality officer for Bon Secours’ Hampton Roads market. […]
Launching pad
When COVID-19 hit in spring 2020, Cindy R. Earl lost her job as a furniture company’s sales rep. But the Portsmouth resident’s sudden unemployment came with a positive side effect: She had time to assume care of her ailing grandmother after the pandemic had shuttered the assisted living facility where her grandmother had lived. It […]
A slow shift
Jeremy Caleb Johnson is advising clients preapproved for a mortgage loan at the beginning of 2022 to adjust expectations. The price of houses they may have looked at just months ago likely not only went up significantly, but the low interest rates available then have also risen dramatically. “What you may have been able to […]
Money matters
For the most part, the most prominent banking institutions in Hampton Roads stayed the same in fiscal year 2021, with Suffolk-based TowneBank holding the top market share of 27.49% (up nearly 2% from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s June 30, 2020, report) and second-place holders Truist and Wells Fargo banks with just below 20% each. […]
A stitch in time: ODU, EVMS eye potential merger
At the end of 2020, Eastern Virginia Medical School firmly rejected a study recommending that the medical school merge to become part of Old Dominion University. But time passes, minds change, and sometimes there’s turnover at the top. In August 2021, Dr. Richard Homan, who’d led EVMS for nearly a decade, retired. By December, Dr. […]
TowneBank names new CEO
Suffolk-based TowneBank announced Friday that William “Billy” I. Foster III will become CEO, succeeding J. Morgan Davis, who is retiring. Foster, the bank’s market president for Central Virginia and the Carolinas, joined TowneBank as a regional president in 2004, leading the bank’s expansion into the Norfolk area. Before that, he was eastern region president for […]
TowneBank to acquire Farmers Bank
Suffolk-based TowneBank has agreed to acquire Windsor-headquartered Farmers Bankshares Inc., the parent company of Farmers Bank, the two companies announced Thursday. The deal is expected to close early next year. The $56 million deal, which would create a combined company worth $17.5 billion in total assets, loans of $10.9 billion and $14.5 billion, would add […]
Skanska wins $223M contract for offshore wind farm prep
New York-based Skanska USA won the $223 million contract to redevelop the 72 acres of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal that Dominion Energy Inc. will use as a staging area for its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. The company announced the award on Tuesday. The CVOW calls for the construction of 176 wind turbines […]
Chesapeake warehouse sells for $13.59M
A 70,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution building in Chesapeake sold for $13.59 million in late July, Colliers announced Wednesday. Located at 3512 Business Center Drive in the Cavalier Industrial Park, the property is 100% leased to the U.S. Postal Service and serves as a seasonal processing and distribution center. It totals 9.72 acres of land, with […]
Hampton Roads’ July active house listings down
Hampton Roads’ active residential listings in July continued to lag behind monthly totals for the past four years, according to Real Estate Information Network Inc. data published in August. Active listings have dropped steadily every July since 2014. At the end of July, there were 4,129 homes actively listed in the region. In 2021, that […]
Norfolk high rise sells for $27.5 million
The Lafayette, an apartment tower in Norfolk, has sold for $27.5 million, according to Norfolk public records. Philadelphia-based PRG Real Estate Management Inc. purchased the property from Graycliff Capital Partners and Buligo Capital Partners; it is the company’s seventh apartment investment in Hampton Roads, according to Colliers, which brokered the sale. The Lafayette is in […]


















