The Virginia Home plans to build a $128 million, 75-acre campus in Hanover County, according to a Thursday announcement by the nonprofit, which serves adults with irreversible physical disabilities. The current facility in Richmond will be sold, a spokesperson said.
At its location overlooking Richmond’s Byrd Park, The Virginia Home houses 130 residents who have conditions like quadriplegia and muscular dystrophy. The new campus will serve 160 residents, increasing capacity by more than 20%.
“Since 1894, we’ve had one dream at The Virginia Home — to create a richer life for adult Virginians with irreversible physical disabilities,” Douglas Vaughan Jr., president and CEO of the nonprofit, said in a news release. “Now, our dreams quite literally need a bigger home.”
Located off Interstate 295, the new campus will offer residents outdoor space and could accommodate future expansions, which might include multi-person cottages for residents who are able to live more independently, according to The Virginia Home.
In a news release Friday, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer said The Virginia Home purchased 75 acres on Bell Creek Road near Pole Green Road for $8.65 million from Big Oak Development Co. Shield Land Trust. Jeffrey Cooke handled the sale negotiations on behalf of The Virginia Home.
The new, one-story facility will be 196,000 square feet, an increase over the current 125,000-square-foot building. With construction expected to begin in July, the new facility could open to residents in the fall of 2027, according to a spokesperson for The Virginia Home.
All rooms at the new facility will feature outdoor views and natural light. They will be larger than rooms at the current facility (an increase from 164 square feet to 250 square feet). The facility will also offer smaller bathroom configurations with more individual storage, a change from the current congregate facilities. Residents will not need to navigate elevators or stairs.
“The new campus will not only allow us to welcome more individuals and families into our community, but it will also feature beautiful, modern design and technology that supports greater independence, dignity and comfort for everyone we serve,” Vaughan said in a statement.
Additionally, the new campus will allow The Virginia Home to launch a day program that will serve 55 to 60 participants, individuals who are on a waiting list for a residential opening or who do not require full-time care.
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 outage caused extensive flooding, which took filters and pumps in the city’s water plant offline. By that afternoon, some Richmond neighborhoods started seeing lower water pressure, and soon, either tiny trickles or no water at all coming from their spigots. That prompted shutdowns of businesses reliant on water, as well as closure of schools in the city for the rest of the week. The Virginia General Assembly postponed the start of its session from Wednesday, Jan. 8, to Monday, Jan. 13, an unprecedented action in the legislature’s history in modern memory.
Henrico and Hanover counties were also impacted, with reduced water pressure in the eastern parts of those counties, and a countywide boil water advisory in Henrico was declared Jan. 8.
Although Avula, who was sworn in just over a week ago on Jan. 1, acknowledged the good news of returned water service, it remains unsafe to consume tap water before boiling it, he emphasized during a noon press conference. Thursday morning, as water pressure increased in all nine water service zones, a city lab received multiple samples of water from across the city to test for bacteria with guidance from the Virginia Department of Health, Avula said.
Sixteen hours after the first round of testing, the city will test more water samples. If water samples are contaminant-free during two consecutive rounds of testing, the mayor said, the boil water advisory can be lifted. He estimated that could happen Friday or early Saturday.
“I’m feeling very optimistic about this, but we need to work through our protocols from the [Virginia Department of Health],” said Avula, a pediatrician who previously led the Richmond and Henrico County health districts and was the state’s COVID vaccine coordinator.
Later, answering questions from reporters, Avula said it is safe for people to take showers, just not to drink water without boiling it first.
Meanwhile, the city continues distributing bottled water at 11 distribution points, although a tractor trailer filled with water Thursday morning got stuck on the way to a drop-off, causing a delay, Richmond Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Traci Deshazor said Thursday.
Avula noted Thursday that snow is forecast Friday night and Saturday morning for the metro area, and city employees are testing battery backups and generators for the water pump facility, and increasing staffing at the plant. Dominion Energy also will be monitoring the plant’s power status during the snow event, and regional governments are putting electricians, mechanics and other technicians on standby if needed. IT contractors also will be “on-site and monitoring with us,” the mayor added.
Hospitals in the affected area had temporarily diverted emergency patients during the beginning of the water outage, but as of Thursday, most were accepting ER patients but not elective patients.
According to a Bon Secours spokesperson, St. Mary’s Hospital in western Richmond had to temporarily divert patients after a water main break on Monument Avenue near the hospital Thursday morning, but “they were able to come off diversion quickly once water service was restored,” Bon Secours PR and communications manager Jenna Green said.
Elective cases are postponed at St. Mary’s, Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center and Richmond Community Hospital, according to a Thursday morning update by the health system. The medical office buildings at Memorial and Richmond Community are closed, and St. Mary’s medical office buildings are experiencing low water pressure, which may affect some patients.
VCU Health is following emergency operations protocols, according to the system’s most recent update Wednesday night. VCU Medical Center in downtown Richmond was still diverting emergency patients as of Thursday afternoon because of the water situation. VCU’s ambulatory care clinics in the city were mostly closed, although the health system has other facilities across the region that are operating as normal. Elective testing and surgical procedures were canceled at the downtown VCU Medical Center, Stony Point and Hanover facilities, as well as many infusion care sites.
HCA Virginia said Thursday that most of its Central Virginia facilities are open and accepting new patients. Hanover Emergency Center, where EMS was on diversion earlier in the day, was open to ER patients Thursday evening, a spokesman said.
Chippenham and Retreat Doctors’ hospitals are “open and fully operational. However, they are experiencing some water and water pressure issues and appreciate your patience as they navigate them.” Johnston-Willis, Henrico Doctors’ hospitals at Forest Avenue and Parham Road, and the Swift Creek ER are all operating as normal and were not affected by the water outage.
In a Q&A session with reporters Thursday afternoon, Avula said he reached out to the three hospital systems Wednesday night, and the consensus was “it’s difficult, but they’re managing. They’ve been able to pull in water tankers to fuel their operations,” he said.
During the water crisis, Gov. Glenn Youngkin summoned the state’s National Guard to help distribute water to city residents, and the American Red Cross and several corporations donated bottled water. According to a gubernatorial spokesman, the state Department of Emergency Management and the Virginia Department of Health have coordinated with the city to provide water and technical support.
The mayor said Thursday that he would welcome legislative engagement and support, noting that the state made significant investments last year in the city’s stormwater overflow system. “I think this particular crisis brings it to the forefront,” Avula said. “Speaker Scott has reached out a couple of times, and I’ve talked to the governor throughout this. So, I think there’s a real sense of understanding and urgency, and hopefully that will yield some good investments in our infrastructure moving forward.”
Despite the mobilization of resources, many residents were left scrambling this week to purchase their own water at grocery stores and convenience stores around the region. Some Richmonders voiced frustration on social media that the power outage at the plant took place the morning of Jan. 6, but official warnings about the water situation didn’t come until later that afternoon, after many people citywide had already lost water pressure.
The governor said he would request an after-action report to look into the water system failure and said legislators should work to ensure the problems that happened in Richmond are fixed going forward. Avula said he plans for the city to investigate what caused the water outage, as well as how his office handled communications to the public and neighboring county governments.
Avula said the city has already reached out to an outside firm to see if it will help with “this after-action process. We’ll talk to a couple of others as well, and as I learn more, we’ll absolutely keep you informed.”
Mechanicsville-based Fortune 500 health care logistics and supply company Owens & Minor filed a federal lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield this week, claiming that the Henrico County insurer mismanaged funds for Owens & Minor’s employee health insurance plan and allegedly violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.
According to the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Owens & Minor requested its employee health care insurance plan’s claims data for an audit in September 2021, but Anthem “transformed what should have been a simple transfer … into a nearly two-year game of ‘hide the ball.'” In 2023, Owens & Minor sued Anthem to obtain the data and received a portion of the information in July, according to this week’s lawsuit.
“Plaintiff’s analysis to date has showed tens of millions of dollars of damages to the plan as a result of defendant’s neglect and misconduct,” the complaint says. Under ERISA, insurance companies must “act solely in [beneficiaries’] interests,” but Owens & Minor accuses Anthem of “boundless avarice and neglect,” including “paying more for health care claims than was even billed, securing kickbacks from providers, double-paying claims and pocketing rebates belonging to plaintiff,” according to the lawsuit.
Owens & Minor specifically claims that Anthem — hired by the company in 2017 to manage its self-funded insurance plans and health care claims for the plans — violated ERISA by “causing the [health insurance] plan to grossly overpay claims, including payments above 100% of billed charges; causing the plan to pay the same medical claims multiple times; improperly classifying affordable generic drugs as specialty pharmaceuticals; withholding pharmaceutical rebates from the plan; steering, requiring or otherwise encouraging plan participants and beneficiaries to use defendant-affiliated providers who charged more for the same or lesser quality of care and who passed on the excess of these payments to defendant or its affiliated companies,” among other alleged violations included in the complaint.
Owens & Minor seeks a jury trial and damages in an amount to be determined at trial, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield said Thursday it does not comment on pending litigation.
Owens & Minor announced in July it would be moving its headquarters from Mechanicsville to western Henrico County by the end of the year. The company reported $10.3 billion in 2023 revenues, up from $9.9 billion in 2022, and employs approximately 20,000 people worldwide.
Henrico County is getting a fifth Fortune 500 company. Global health care logistics and supply company Owens & Minor is moving from Hanover County to a new headquarters in Henrico’s Innsbrook Corporate Center.
The company is leasing the fourth floor of the Highwoods One building at 10900 Nuckols Road, according to Will Bradley, an executive managing director in Virginia for commercial real estate firm Newmark. Other tenants at the 130,803-square-foot Highwoods One building include LifeStance Health, a mental health care provider, and Primis Bank.
“Like many companies, Owens & Minor re-evaluated its office footprint in light of new workplace trends and the preferences of our teammates,” an Owens & Minor spokesperson said in a July 12 statement. “We recently finalized long-term plans for relocating our headquarters to a location in Innsbrook just minutes away from our current one and look forward to welcoming Richmond area teammates at the end of this year.”
In April, Newmark announced it had secured the $33.5 million sale of Owens & Minor’s 160,000-square-foot, Mechanicsville headquarters at 9120 Lockwood Blvd. in Hanover County to the Virginia Department of Transportation. In May, a VDOT spokesperson said the state agency’s central office will move to Hanover in summer 2025.
Owens & Minor has more than 20,000 employees worldwide with “hundreds of teammates that call the Richmond area home,” according to a spokesperson.
Henrico’s other Fortune 500 companies are tobacco products manufacturer Altria Group, conglomerate Markel Group, insurer Genworth Financial and convenience store and wholesale fuel company Arko.
“It’s a win for our region that … they’re going to continue to keep their headquarters in the Richmond region,” said Henrico Economic Development Authority Executive Director Anthony J. Romanello of the move, describing Highwoods One as “trophy office space.” He added, “There’s certainly a significant demand for very high-quality office space right now, and Innsbrook has that.”
Owens & Minor reported $10.3 billion in 2023 revenues, up from $9.9 billion in 2022.
The Virginia Department of Transportation has purchased the Mechanicsville headquarters of Owens & Minor for $33.5 million, with plans to move the state agency’s central office there in summer 2025.
Much of VDOT’s staff will move from the Annex building at 1401 E. Broad St. into the new building at 9120 Lockwood Blvd. in Hanover County, according to Jessica Cowardin, assistant director of communications for the state agency. The 160,000-square-foot campus in Atlee Station Business Park was built by Timmons Group in 2006. VDOT also purchased an additional 50 acres, according to Newmark Group, which brokered the deal.
Meanwhile, Owens & Minor expects to vacate the building by the end of this year. The Fortune 500 global health care logistics and supplies company plans to relocate its corporate headquarters somewhere in the Richmond region. While declining to specify where the company would move, a company spokesperson said the move “better reflects the current needs of our organization and our teammates.” Owens & Minor has 1,400 employees in Virginia and more than 20,000 worldwide, including hundreds of workers in the Richmond area.
The move will not impact the company’s operations and is a reflection of workplace trends and worker preference, according to the company.
Owens & Minor headquarters Photo courtesy Newmark
In November 2020, Owens & Minor announced it was pulling the plug on its 90,000-square-foot downtown Richmond call center and would be seeking tenants to sublet the space after so many workers started working remotely.
“We’re proud that Owens & Minor has called Richmond, Virginia, home for more than 100 years, and look forward to our continued presence in the local community,” a statement from the company said.
Brandon Turner, director of Hanover County Economic Development, said Monday that he doesn’t expect Owens & Minor’s next headquarters to be located in the county. “It would be very difficult because we don’t have a lot of Class A office space,” he said. “What we have is very small, and I think what they’re looking for is larger than what we have available on the market in Hanover.”
Owens & Minor moving to a new headquarters is a double-edged sword, Turner said. The company will be off the county’s tax roll and VDOT, as a Virginia state agency, will not pay taxes.
“That in and of itself is a bit of a hit,” Turner said. “On the flip side, the building is heavily underutilized right now by Owens & Minor due to their [work-from-home] policies. When VDOT comes up, they will bring significantly more individuals up here, and those people will be going out into the neighboring businesses [and] eating, buying groceries, whatever. So if you own a business in this corridor, it’s going to be a boon.”
Andrew Sandquist and Adam Faulk, JC Asensio and Adam Petrillo, Briggs Goldberg, Will Bradley and Mark Williford, all of Newmark, represented the seller on the transaction.
Owens & Minor reported $10.3 billion in 2023 revenues, up from $9.9 billion in 2022.
Cooperative Electric Energy Utility Supply (CEEUS), a South Carolina-based electrical distributor that serves cooperatives, municipals and investor-owned utilities, plans to invest $37 million into a new 187,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Hanover County, creating 30 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday.
The facility will support CEEUS’s customers in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. A wholesale electrical distributor headquartered in West Columbia, South Carolina, CEEUS supplies electric cooperatives with materials and equipment and provides services such as tool repair and a rubber goods testing facility.
The new facility, which is a shell building currently being retrofitted, will be operational in the first quarter of 2024, Jennifer Howell, CEEUS’s director of human resources and loss control, told Virginia Business. Hiring is already underway for the 30 full-time jobs, which are mostly distribution and warehousing jobs, but also sales and inventory control.
“With almost 50 years in the electric utility industry, we are confident we have the experience and distribution knowledge to build strong supply lines for the electric utility and broadband markets in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware while developing supportive relationships in our new community of Hanover County,” CEEUS President and CEO Chad Capps said in a statement. “We are excited to establish in Virginia what we have built in South Carolina.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Hanover County and the Greater Richmond Partnership to secure the project for Virginia, which competed with North Carolina and South Carolina for it.
“Major distributors like CEEUS are repeatedly attracted to Virginia’s strategic location, world-class infrastructure and leading position in the supply chain management industry,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We thank CEEUS for selecting the commonwealth and strengthening our burgeoning logistics sector, positioning the company for success as it expands its electrical wholesale business into the mid-Atlantic.”
Cedar Fair Entertainment, the parent company of Kings Dominion, is merging with Six Flags Entertainment in an all-stock deal valued at $2 billion, the companies announced Thursday.
Cedar Fair unitholders will own 51.2% and Six Flags shareholders will own approximately 48.8%.
Together, the two companies will have a combined 27 amusement parks, 25 water parks and nine resort properties and will be valued at about $8 billion.
Richard Zimmerman, president and CEO of Cedar Fair, will serve as president and CEO of the newly combined company and Selim Bassoul, president and CEO of Six Flags, will serve as executive chairman of the combined company’s board of directors. Brian Witherow, chief financial officer of Cedar Fair, will keep his position in the new company and Gary Mick, chief financial officer of Six Flags, will serve as chief integration officer. After the deal closes, the new board of directors will have 12 seats, six from each original board.
The company will operate under the name Six Flags and trade under the ticker symbol FUN on the New York Stock Exchange and be structured as a C corporation. The Six Flags chain started in 1961 in Arlington, Texas, the company’s current headquarters, but it will move to Charlotte, North Carolina. The company will keep significant finance and administrative operations in Sandusky, Ohio, the headquarters of Cedar Fair. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024.
The companies expect $120 million in cost savings within two years of closing the deal and $200 million in other benefits. Existing intellectual property and licensing deals for franchises such as Looney Tunes, DC Comics and Peanuts will belong to the new company for use in all its parks.
Over the past 12 months, the two companies collectively brought in 48 million guests. Together, the entertainment companies say they will have greater flexibility to invest in new rides and attractions, broader food and beverage selections, more in-park offerings and cross-park initiatives.
In February 2022, Orlando-based SeaWorld Entertainment, the parent company of Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, made an unsuccessful bid to acquire Cedar Fair.
Kings Dominion, in Doswell, hosted about 20,000 people on its opening day in May 1975 and 1.5 million visitors in its first season, according to the company’s website. Today, the 400-acre park has more than 60 rides and a dozen roller coasters plus the Soak City water park. A year ago, Kings Dominion announced it would expand to year-round operations, adding nine weekends to the operating calendar, beginning in January 2023. The park reversed course recently, scaling back and closing for January, February and some of March.
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 independent solar projects that were picked through competitive solicitation, Dominion said in a news release Wednesday.
“These projects support our ongoing efforts to deliver reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy to our customers,” Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, said in a statement. “They will also bring jobs and economic benefits to communities across the commonwealth.”
If approved, the company will surpass 4,600 megawatts of solar across the state, enough to power more than 1.1 million homes at peak output.
Construction of the projects would be complete between 2024 and 2026 and would support more than 1,600 jobs while generating more than $570 million in economic benefits across Virginia, Dominion said. Projects include:
Alberta Solar, 3 megawatts, Brunswick County;
Beldale Solar, 57 megawatts, Powhatan County;
Blue Ridge Solar, 95 megawatts, Pittsylvania County;
Michaux Solar, 50 megawatts, Henry and Pittsylvania counties;
Peppertown Solar, 5 megawatts, Hanover County.
Dominion said the costs of the projects would add an estimated $1.54 to the average residential customer’s monthly bill.
The company’s latest proposal to the state follows news in late September that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had completed its environmental assessment of Dominion’s proposed $9.8 billion, 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, planned for construction 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The nearly 700-page report was published Sept. 29 in the Federal Register, which kicked off a minimum 30-day waiting period before the BOEM could issue its final decision on whether to approve the project. The SCC approved the project in August 2022.
Richmond-based electricity and natural gas provider Dominion Energy has about 7 million customers in 15 states. Its Virginia division has about 2.7 million customers in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
Home to eight Fortune 500 companies and three Fortune 1000 companies, metro Richmond is “punching above our weight” for a region of 1.3 million residents, says Jennifer Wakefield, president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Partnership.
For the third year in a row, the Richmond region was named by Business Facilities magazine as a top 10 location for corporate headquarters and corporate campuses. Richmond ranked No. 9, coming in just behind the Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria region.
Business Facilities’ rankings consider the number of corporate headquarters in a location and what resources that area offers for business operations, such as the cost of doing business and quality of life for workers. Richmond scores high in those factors and offers companies a strong business climate, workforce availability and solid infrastructure, say regional economic development officials.
The region’s star also is rising among those who make business location decisions, according to annual surveys of site selection consultants and corporate officials conducted for GRP, the lead regional economic development organization. A 2021 survey found that 20% of site selection consultants had considered Richmond previously, but only 2% of corporate executives had. But by the 2023 survey, nearly 40% of both groups said they’d considered the region, and site selection consultants said they short-listed Richmond about 40% of the time.
Friendly business climate
While cost is never the only factor companies prioritize when weighing locations, businesses want to locate headquarters or major assets in places with low taxes and stable, business-friendly policies, Wakefield says. Ranked second on CNBC’s Best States for Business list in 2023, Virginia checks those boxes; the state’s 6% corporate tax rate hasn’t changed in 50 years.
GRP compared the costs for operating a 50-person office — including rent, salaries and benefits, and utilities for a year — and found Richmond is less expensive than seven other major cities, including Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. Companies settling in Richmond pay lower costs for office rents, state unemployment insurance and commercial electric rates than in the comparison cities.
Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy, which has its corporate headquarters and 5,400 employees in Richmond, charges industrial electric rates in Virginia that are more than 16% below the national average, according to Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine. The company’s array of solar and wind projects under development also helps attract businesses that want renewable energy to help meet sustainability goals.
By the time company executives contact a local economic development office about a relocation, they’re ready to move quickly, so the locality must be ready, too, says Anthony J. Romanello, executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority.
Take for example Facebook (now Meta Platforms), which approached the county in late 2016 about building a 970,000-square-foot data center complex and was able to start construction by fall 2017 because the county offers a quick permitting process.
Additionally, last year, to attract more companies with lab and research activities, the Henrico Board of Supervisors lowered its research and development tax rate from $3.50 to $0.90 per $100 of assessed value. Last year, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced a $92.3 million expansion of lab operations in Henrico, and diagnostic lab testing company Genetworx also said it would double the size of its facility in the county’s Innsbrook area.
In recent years, Henrico also raised the threshold for exemption from BPOL (business, professional and occupational license) taxes to $500,000 in annual gross receipts. Supervisors “recognize that if we reduce the tax burden on the business community, they will respond in kind. We have seen substantial investment since taxes were reduced,” Romanello adds.
In the city of Richmond, business-friendly policies such as a citywide technology zone to encourage the growth of tech firms and a commercial area revitalization program to keep commercial corridors vibrant have helped attract and retain businesses, says Leonard Sledge, director of Richmond’s Department of Economic Development.
“We endeavor to move at the speed of business to help businesses grow in the city,” he says.
Worker availability
Many companies with Richmond operations praise the availability of skilled workers, due in part to the city’s proximity to several colleges and universities.
“One of the attractions of having a big base of operations in Richmond is a deep talent pool,” particularly in information technology, says Ted Hanson, CEO of ASGN, which occupies 78,000 square feet across multiple offices in the city. The company moved its headquarters from California to Henrico three years ago. Its largest business unit, Apex Systems, also has its headquarters and about 530 employees in Henrico.
The 17 counties of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area have a workforce of 695,000 people, which rises to 1.2 million for the broader Central Virginia area. The greater Richmond region is home to more than 20 higher education institutions — including public schools like Virginia Commonwealth University, private universities like the University of Richmond, and two historically Black colleges and universities, Virginia State University and Virginia Union University.Collectively, they graduate thousands of students annually. With about 1.7 million higher education students within a 150-mile radius of Richmond, recruitment opportunities are unlimited. Additionally, nearly 40% of the region’s working-age population, ages 25 to 64, have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with the national average of 33.5%.
“The state’s top-tier universities and thriving business communities help create a strong pipeline of candidates for a range of positions,” says Bill Nash, CEO of Goochland County-based Fortune 500 used-car retailer CarMax, which has 2,300 associates in metro Richmond.
Performance Food Group, a Fortune 500 company that employs nearly 1,000 workers at its Goochland headquarters and two area distribution centers, has “been very successful building the Performance family with local residents,” says company spokesperson Scott Golden. While PFG makes “some strategic hires outside of greater Richmond,” the company recruits locally for information technology, human resources and finance professionals, as well as skilled warehouse workers, truck drivers and front office workers.
Metro Richmond’s labor pool is also increasing because the region’s population is growing at a faster rate than the state as a whole — by 9.8% between 2010 and 2020, compared with 7% statewide. People relocating from Northern Virginia make up the largest group moving to the region, Wakefield says.
Occasionally, companies tell GRP that they’re worried about the potential number of available workers in Richmond, but in those cases, the market may be too small for their needs, Wakefield says. “If they’re looking for an Atlanta-sized market,” Richmond isn’t the right place, she adds.
Quality of life
Richmond’s quality of life is vital in attracting and retaining companies and their employees, economic development officials and company representatives agree.
The region’s low cost of living grabs people’s attention, says Matt McLaren, managing director of business attraction for Chesterfield County Economic Development. “People from larger metros nationally and internationally are surprised by the affordability, low congestion and sophistication of our market,” he says. “Taking them through neighborhoods and seeing them look at their real estate apps is always fun as they compare what they could afford in our region versus back home.”
Richmond’s cost of living is better than some markets with which the city directly competes for business relocations, including Charlotte, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee. Richmond home prices averaged about $383,000 last year, substantially lower than the national average of $452,000.
Henrico EDA’s Live Your Best campaign focuses on the region’s quality of life and promotes it as a place “where workers and families are going to want to be,” Romanello says. The campaign touts Henrico’s top-ranked public schools, variety of housing and neighborhood options, low cost of living, and recreational attractions ranging from the James River to craft breweries.
Many projects coming to Chesterfield involve relocating employees, McLaren says. “Once they visit, it is an easy decision for them to choose to locate to a region rich with diversity and affordability of housing, amazing educational opportunities … [and] amazing recreational and cultural attractions.”
Richmond’s “deep talent pool” is an attractor for companies, says Ted Hanson, CEO of ASGN, which moved its headquarters to Henrico County from California in 2020. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
CarMax’s Nash echoes those comments: “Our hometown of Richmond is a vibrant place to live and work and attracts top talent from across the country.” He highlights the city’s restaurants, museums, and proximity to mountains and beaches as things his company’s employees love about the region.
Just as geography provides Richmonders a central location that’s two hours from mountains, beaches or the cultural offerings of Washington, D.C., it also offers companies a central location on the East Coast, approximately halfway between Florida and Maine and two hours from the nation’s capital. With three interstates serving the city, 45% of the U.S. population is within a day’s drive, including major markets in the Northeast and Southeast. Port access is available via river barge, trains and trucking.
For commuters, the city’s traffic is relatively light. “Richmond’s central location is a real benefit. You have the advantages of being in the state capital but not having to battle the hustle and bustle of traffic that you may get in other areas of the state,” ASGN’s Hanson says.
One of the region’s few weaknesses site selectors mention in GRP’s annual survey is the limited number of direct flights from Richmond International Airport. “Our location is an advantage but also a disadvantage because airlines look at the largest markets,” Wakefield says, adding that Perry Miller, president and CEO of the Capital Region Airport Commission, “has done a tremendous job of attracting new direct flights,” and the airport now has direct flights to
35 destinations. “That’s needed because we’re being counted out of projects.”
Regional cooperation
While economic development officials use phrases like “secret sauce” to describe Richmond’s brew of positive qualities, one of the biggest attractions for corporate headquarters and campuses is simply the fact that so many companies already have settled in Richmond. “Other companies like to cluster where there are headquarters and corporate service firms,” Wakefield says.
Henrico’s economic development staff is happy to tell corporate prospects that it has six Fortune 1000 companies and to namedrop Markel Group, Altria Group and others with major operations in the county. “Worldwide companies have double-downed on Richmond, and the rest of the world takes note of that,” Romanello says.
“Success begets success,” Sledge says, offering CoStar Group’s major investment in Richmond as an example. The D.C.-based real estate analytics and information company, with 1,500 area employees, has been in Richmond since 2016, and broke ground on a $460 million, 750,000-square-foot expansion of its riverfront campus in 2022. “Because of the business they are in,” Sledge says, “that investment sends a strong message about the city, region and commonwealth.”
Richmond-based companies also do their part to help economic development. Dominion Energy, for instance, has a team of energy experts that assists businesses seeking to expand or relocate in Virginia. Many companies, whether long established in Richmond or newcomers, contribute to the quality of life by being good corporate citizens, providing grants and volunteers for local nonprofits, sponsoring cultural events, and working to keep Richmond a vibrant community, Sledge says, adding that regional cooperation around economic development is also a plus.
“We are equally as excited and enthused about growth in the city as we are about growth of our partners in the counties. We need and want each other to be successful,” Sledge says.
Ranking among Business Facilities’ Top 10 metro areas for corporate locations is a bonus. Choosing a corporate site involves “some subjectivity,” but also plenty of analysis and objective criteria, Wakefield says, so when an executive sees Richmond in the Top 10, he or she might think, “if someone else put them on a list, maybe I shouldn’t discount them.”
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Photo courtesy Virginia Tourism Corp.
Richmond at a glance
Founded in 1737 by Col. William Byrd II, Richmond is known as the River City for its location on the James River. The state’s capital, Richmond, is home to the Virginia General Assembly and much of state government. The metro region, which includes Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover and Henrico counties, is headquarters to 11 Fortune 1000 companies. The region is also home to the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, Randolph-Macon College, Virginia State University and Virginia Union University.
Population
226,604 (city); 1.3 million (metro region)
Top employers
VCU Health System/VCU: 21,332 employees
Capital One Financial: 13,000
HCA Virginia Health System: 11,000
Bon Secours Richmond: 8,416
Dominion Energy: 5,433
Major attractions
Richmond is home to historical and cultural attractions such as the Poe Museum, the American Civil War Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. Visitors can also enjoy time outside at Maymont park, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden or the Kings Dominion amusement park. Carytown, the Fan District and Scott’s Addition offer many options for shopping, dining and entertainment.
Top convention hotels
Richmond Marriott 413 rooms, 26,760 square feet of event space
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Richmond – Midlothian 237 rooms, 26,039 square feet of event space
The Jefferson 181 rooms, 26,000 square feet of event space
Hilton Richmond Short Pump Hotel and Spa 254 rooms, 21,937 square feet of event space
Coming out of pandemic-driven restrictions, “Kings Dominion will be the cure for cabin fever in 2023,” Bywater said in October 2022, announcing the 48-year-old amusement park’s intention to welcome guests year-round, adding weekends in January, February and March to its regular April to December season. Kings Dominion aimed to hire 2,500 employees this year; in 2021, the park raised its minimum hourly wage from $9.25 to $15.
Home to more than 60 rides, shows and attractions, including 12 roller coasters and the Soak City water park, the 400-acre park is back to full strength, also hosting popular annual events such as Grand Carnivale, Halloween Haunt and WinterFest.
It’s all happening under the watch of Bywater, who became the park’s vice president and general manager in 2021 after 24 years at Kings Dominion’s parent company, Cedar Fair Entertainment. Prior to Kings Dominion, she was director of park operations at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri, her hometown.
Bywater has a bachelor’s degree from Truman State University in Missouri and an MBA from Radford University; she also serves on the Richmond Region Tourism board and chairs its governance committee.
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