SanMar Corp., the United States’ largest supplier of wholesale printable accessories and apparel, will invest at least $50 million to establish distribution operations in Hanover County and create an expected 1,000 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday.
SanMar’s operations, planned to occupy a 1.1 million-square-foot building in the East Coast Commerce Center, will be the Washington-based company’s largest facility as well as its flagship for its East Coast distributions. Virginia competed with North Carolina for the project.
“Securing SanMar Corp.’s flagship distribution center highlights Virginia’s strategic location, strong infrastructure and workforce as critical decision factors for logistics operations,” Youngkin said in a statement.
SanMar was founded in 1971 in the basement of an office building owned by the father of company founder Marty Lott. Based in Issaquah, Washington, the company has eight additional distribution centers nationwide and works with a variety of brands, including Brooks Brothers, New Era, Eddie Bauer and Nike, according to its website.
“Whenever we look at a facility, of course we’re looking at logistics and the labor market, but we’re also really looking at the community and the culture, and the people who will be working in the building,” SanMar’s owner and president, Jeremy Lott, said in a statement. “When we came here, we knew right away that this is a place we wanted to be. As we met and talked with people in the area, we knew this could be a great fit for us and for our future growth. We couldn’t be more excited to be here — to fill up this building, to build our team here, and to make this a home for a really long time.”
SanMar’s new home in the 129-acre East Coast Commerce Center was developed by Equity Industrial Partners Corp. and Raith Capital Partners. The $100 million development is located about a mile north of Ashland and adjacent to Interstate 95.
Shelley Williams, SanMar’s vice president of marketing, told Virginia Business that the company began hiring in February for its Virginia location and has already hired 40 employees. The company expects to be fully operational in its new building within a year to 18 months and is continuing to build out racking and material handling systems. About half the 1,000 jobs will be in “pick and pack” operations, about a quarter will be forklift drivers and other equipment operators, and the remaining 25% will be leadership support, she said.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Hanover County and the Port of Virginia to secure the project for Virginia. The company is eligible to receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program.
If you ask economic development officials in Central Virginia about 2022, they might respond with a familiar slogan: “Everything is awesome.”
With almost 5,000 announced jobs and $1.6 billion in capital investment, the Richmond region had one of its best years
in the last two decades.
By October 2022, the region recovered 100% of jobs lost during the pandemic, says Greater Richmond Partnership President and CEO Jennifer Wakefield, but the recovery was lopsided. The IT, finance and insurance sectors continue to lag, she explains, “but we’re looking to attract more companies in these areas since they include high-paying wages.”
Heading into 2023, the region may look to build on megadeals such as the June 2022 announcement that Danish toy maker Lego Group had picked Chesterfield County for a $1 billion manufacturing plant. (See related story, Page 15.) In September, San Francisco-based Plenty Unlimited Inc. announced plans to invest $300 million to build the world’s largest indoor vertical farm in the county, bringing 300 jobs to Meadowville Technology Park.
“We’ve never seen this volume of megaprojects before,” says Henrico Economic Development Authority Executive Director Anthony Romanello.
Richmond
In November 2022, Washington, D.C.-based commercial real estate data and analytics provider CoStar Group Inc. broke ground on an expanded research and technology campus on the downtown riverfront. The $460 million expansion will bring nearly 2,000 employees to the city. The project, announced in December 2021, is expected to be complete in early 2026. The company also purchased a 117,500-square-foot, $20 million office building across the river in the city’s Manchester area in May 2022.
“Having a new corporate campus shows that companies are still investing in office projects and creating jobs in Richmond,” says Richmond Director of Economic Development Leonard Sledge.
Between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, the city landed $552 million in capital investment, creating an expected 2,237 jobs. Those projects include an expansion by Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., which in March 2022 announced it would invest $97 million to expand its clinical research operations by nearly 150,000 square feet while adding 500 employees in the Richmond area during the next three years. The project is a joint one with Henrico County, and while much of the investment will be there, including two labs, Thermo Fisher will add significant space to its operations in the city at the
VA Bio+Tech Park.
Also in March 2022, Pennsylvania-based warehousing and logistics company A. Duie Pyle Inc. announced it would invest $20 million and add 75 jobs to establish three cross-dock service centers in Manassas, Roanoke and Richmond, where 25 of those jobs will be located.
Meanwhile, Richmond’s city government has been sparking some of the region’s largest projects ahead. In September 2022, Richmond selected the RVA Diamond Partners LLC development team, led by Thalhimer Realty Partners, to develop the Diamond District, a $2.44 billion neighborhood redevelopment project. Being built on 67 acres along the Interstate 95 corridor, the mixed-use project will include 2,800 residential units and a new baseball stadium for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, expected to open for the 2025 Minor League Baseball season.
Additionally, in December, the Richmond Economic Development Authority and the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority received five development proposals for the City Center Innovation District, a 9.4-acre mixed-use downtown redevelopment project that will include demolishing the closed Richmond Coliseum and adding a hotel.
Henrico County
Henrico had not landed a $1 billion economic development project since Facebook announced a data center there in 2017. That changed in 2022 when the county saw a record six $1 billion-plus projects, says Romanello. Henrico saw total economic development investments of $264.2 million, adding 1,271 jobs, in fiscal year 2022, which ended June 30, 2022.
“What made 2022 unique was the number of advanced manufacturing and data center megaprojects that came to us,” Romanello says, “and we continue to work dozens of projects, from the megaprojects to small businesses and everything in between.”
Last year marked a year of expansions in the county as well.
Boston-based SimpliSafe, a producer of DIY home security systems, announced in July 2021 it was investing more than $3 million to expand its Henrico operations, adding 250 jobs. The company opened its first customer service call center in Willow Lawn in 2020; it opened a second location in Innsbrook last year. “They liked us so well, they doubled down and made a second investment,” says Romanello.
On the sweeter side, snack food maker Mondelez International Inc. opened a new distribution site in Henrico in November 2022, part of a $122.5 million investment and expansion in the county, creating about 80 jobs. The company produces brands such as Oreo, Ritz, Wheat Thins and Chips Ahoy!
Additionally, EAB, an education research, technology and marketing company, announced in June that it would invest $6 million and add more than 200 jobs in Henrico during the next five years, relocating and consolidating from two area locations into a 70,000-square-foot space on West Broad Street.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin and friend at the June 2022 announcement event for Lego Group’s $1 billion Chesterfield County manufacturing facility Photo by Shaban Athuman/Richmond Times-Dispatch via Associated Press
Chesterfield County
Aside from its massive, headline-generating Lego factory announcement, Chesterfield County scored big wins in agriculture and pharmaceuticals in 2022, tallying a record $1.47 billion in investments and 2,658 jobs during fiscal 2022.
Announcements from agriculture company Plenty Unlimited Inc. and nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx in September 2022 added to the county’s gains. Plenty is slated to open the first phase of its 120-acre $300 million indoor vertical farming campus, billed as the world’s largest such facility, late this year or in early 2024. Civica is investing $27.8 million to construct a 55,000-square-foot laboratory testing facility in Chesterfield to support its Petersburg pharmaceutical manufacturing operation. The project expects to create 51 jobs.
Also in the works is a $108 million, 179,000-square-foot renovation and expansion of Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center, near Midlothian.
Hanover County
Hanover Director of Economic Development E. Linwood Thomas IV says the county has seen “significant demand in manufacturing and logistics space, and we are seeing emerging growth taking place in the bio and life sciences segments of our local and regional economy as well.”
For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2022, the county added more than 1,960 jobs across all industry sectors and announced more than $243 million in new projects.
In February 2022, Walgreens Co. announced an investment of $34.2 million to establish a pharmaceutical micro-fulfillment center at Atlee Station Logistics Center. The project will create 249 jobs and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of this year. That was followed by a July 2022 announcement from Toronto-based Unilock, which manufactures concrete paving stones and segmental wall products. The company plans to invest $55.6 million to establish a manufacturing campus in Doswell, adding 50 jobs. Construction is expected to begin this year. Finally, Pennsylvania-based Lutron Electronics announced in September 2022 that it will invest $28.3 million to build a 145,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, adding about 200 jobs.
Lynchburg and Charlottesville
Lynchburg continued to capitalize on its LYH Loves You branding campaign, which launched in summer 2021. The campaign, part of the city’s five-year strategic plan, aims to attract business investment and talent, says Anna Bentson, the city’s assistant director of economic development and tourism. In 2022, Lynchburg’s economic development authority directly supported expansions by Flowers Baking Co. and Bausch & Lomb, resulting in $65 million in investment and 94 new jobs.
Meanwhile, Charlottesville continues to see growth as an innovation hub for technology and life sciences, says Chris Engel, who directs the city’s Office of Economic Development.
In January, the University of Virginia announced it will build a $300 million biotechnology institute funded in part by a $100 million donation from Charlottesville investor Paul Manning and his wife, Diane. Expected to open around 2027 at U.Va.’s Fontaine Research Park, the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology will focus on translational medical research to produce new treatments — such as cellular and gene therapies, nanotechnology and immunotherapy — that are expected to treat many different diseases. UVA Health is recruiting researchers who will work for now in the system’s existing facilities.
Ashland-based VSC Fire & Security (VSC) President Tommy Clements has assumed the added role of CEO, following former CEO Mike Meehan’s retirement, the fire protection and security company announced in mid-January.
Meehan retired on Dec. 31, 2022. He will continue to serve on the board of directors as non-executive chairman.
Mike Meehan. Photo courtesy VSC Fire & Security Inc.
“The past 43 years have been a blur full of emotion, growth, learning and success, but there comes a time when another chapter beckons and a transition is necessary. That time is upon me. … The work we do is meaningful and I have always taken great pride in who we are, what we do and what we have built,” Meehan said in a statement.
Meehan joined VSC as a pipefitter in 1979 and held various roles, including division manager of the Virginia Beach office. Meehan joined the board of directors in 1998, then became president in 2017 and CEO in 2022. Under his leadership as president and CEO, VSC doubled in volume and expanded into Arkansas and Texas.
Established in 1958 as Virginia Sprinkler Co., VSC provides fire protection, safety and low voltage solutions to retailers, commercial campuses, health care facilities and government properties throughout the Southeast. The company, which is owned by Markel Corp., employs more than 1,400 people across 10 states.
In the greater Richmond region, local economic development authorities have been hard at work landing new business and securing expansions, and this year those efforts bore fruit, they say.
In fact, 2022 has outpaced the past two decades, declares Jennifer Wakefield, the Greater Richmond Partnership’s president and CEO, as the region landed two “megaprojects” — The Lego Group’s $1 billion toy factory in Chesterfield County (See related November 2022 cover story) and CoStar Group Inc.’s $460 million expansion in Richmond — as well as other major deals.
Representing the city of Richmond and the counties of Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield, GRP was instrumental in bringing in 13 projects in the past fiscal year that are expected to produce nearly 5,000 jobs, totaling $1.62 billion in capital investment and 4.45 million square feet of development.
Lego’s announcement in June that it will build a $1 billion plant in Chesterfield County’s Meadowville Technology Park, creating more than 1,760 jobs over the next decade, is the Richmond region’s marquee deal this year, although CoStar’s expansion is making a big impact in the city. In May, the real estate data company purchased the former SunTrust building south of the James River for $20 million, and on the other side of the river, adjacent to its current footprint, will be a $460 million campus expected to employ 2,000 people.
“It doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight, which is good,” says Wakefield, who joined GRP in 2017 and was promoted to CEO in February 2021. “It has been absolutely insane lately.”
The Richmond region continues to be a popular destination for the manufacturing and distribution sectors, as well as tech and pharmaceutical businesses. Much of that is due to its location near major highways, airports, railways and the Port of Virginia’s terminals in Richmond and Hampton Roads, Wakefield says.
“I think that we have all the right mix of ingredients for companies who are interested in being in what I like to call a Goldilocks location,” she says. “We’re not too big. We’re not too small. We’re just right.”
Henrico County
If you’ve ever dunked an Oreo in milk, chances are it came from the Mondelez bakery in eastern Henrico. Chicago-based Mondelez International Inc., a $26 billion-plus food and confectionary company, owns all Nabisco products.
The Mondelez bakery in Henrico has been around for about 50 years, and in late 2021, the company announced a $102.5 million expansion, expected to create 80 jobs. The expansion also includes new manufacturing equipment, which has the power to produce 10,000 Oreos per minute, says Anthony Romanello, executive director of the Henrico County Economic Development Authority.
Coca-Cola also announced it would spend $23 million on upgrades and expansions to its Henrico plant, which includes new bottling technology. Bottles about the size of a test tube will be shipped to the Henrico facility, and a blow-mold machine expands the plastic to a larger 20 oz. size. This means that 60 to 70 fewer trucks are coming to the Coke plant per week because they can carry more of the consolidated bottles. This investment saves the company on transportation costs and reduces truck traffic on county roads, explains Romanello.
Because of Henrico’s long history in food distribution, he adds, “In the eastern part of the county, we’ve got substantial infrastructure that they need for the investments and a really good road network, so they can get the product out quickly.”
Henrico also landed a $144 million investment from QTS, a data center company that set up a network access point for three subsea telecommunications cables from Virginia Beach, which connect to data networks in Europe, South America and the United States. QTS announced in July it would expand its White Oak Technology Park data center by 1.5 million square feet, near Meta Platforms Inc.’s 970,000-square-foot data center.
On the western side of Henrico County, pharmaceutical giant Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. announced in March a
$97 million investment to build two bioanalytical labs in the former Toys “R” Us location near Regency Square, as well as a third lab in downtown Richmond near VCU Medical Center. The company is targeting Virginia college-educated scientists to fill about 400 jobs in the county.
Another high-profile project, GreenCity, is coming to the former Best Products Co. campus, just off interstates 64 and 95.
Groundbreaking on the $2.3 billion mixed-use development — which will include a sustainably built and operated 17,000-seat arena expected to open by 2025 — is set to take place in early 2023. The 204-acre property will also include residential, retail, office and hotel space, with full completion by 2034.
This project is in step with Henrico’s master plan, which focuses on redevelopment on the west side of the county and new buildings on the east, Romanello says.
“We’re seeing more residential [space]. We’re seeing buildings being upgraded,” he says. “You’re going to see further densities there that we haven’t had before.”
Chesterfield County
This year has been very busy for Meadowville Technology Park in eastern Chesterfield.
In September, Plenty Unlimited Co. announced its plans to build the nation’s largest indoor vertical farming facility at the tech park, a $300 million investment expected to produce 300 jobs in the next six years. The first building, expected to be complete in late 2023, will feature 30-foot towers to grow Driscoll’s strawberries at scale, a major change for the agribusiness, which has typically sourced fruit from traditional farms in California and Mexico.
The goal is to grow strawberries in Virginia and be able to ship them to an estimated 100 million customers in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast within hours.
“[Plenty] had some pretty specific needs around power,” says Matt McLaren, senior project manager with Chesterfield Economic Development. “Meadowville Technology Park has a great relationship and infrastructure with Dominion, and we’re able to plan for the future with power needs.”
One of Petersburg’s major pharmaceutical players, nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx, also is setting up shop at the tech park, investing $27.8 million on a 55,000-square-foot lab to support its North American headquarters being built in Petersburg and expected to open in 2024.
Of course, the arrival of Danish toymaker Lego, which plans to start hiring workers late this year or in early 2023 for its moulding, processing and packing plant on 340 acres at Meadowville, is the biggest development for the region.
“The Lego project initially was driven here because of our location, because they can get to a lot of customers,” Wakefield says. “One of the biggest things that we bill is that you can get to half of the U.S. customers within a day’s drive.”
While economic development projects usually take years to come to fruition, there will already be a groundbreaking on the 1.7 million-square-foot facility later this year at the technology park. Lego said in its announcement in June it will begin operations in a temporary building in early 2024, and the permanent plant will start production in the second half of 2025.
“This is a legacy company that continues to innovate. We’re excited to partner them with our workforce,” McLaren says. “We share a lot of their values. It just felt like a perfect fit.”
Richmond
In October 2021, the city of Richmond announced the marketing of the Diamond baseball stadium property as an area for redevelopment. Now, plans for the rebranded Diamond District are steaming ahead with City Council approval.
The center of the $2.44 billion multiuse development will be a new baseball stadium for the Richmond Flying Squirrels AA team — a necessity under new Minor League Baseball regulations to keep baseball in Richmond — and accompanying residential, office, retail and hotel space, as well as walkable green space.
One of the aims of the project is to connect the new neighborhood to Richmond’s popular Scott’s Addition community, just across the high-traffic Arthur Ashe Jr. Boulevard.
In September, a 10-person city panel chose a development group for the project that includes Richmond-based Thalhimer Realty Partners, Washington, D.C.-based Republic Properties Corp., Chicago-based Loop Capital Holdings LLC and San Diego venue developer JMI Sports. The joint venture’s proposal beat out 14 other applicants.
Unlike earlier big proposals (including the unsuccessful Navy Hill plan), the Diamond District follows the Richmond 300 masterplan, and the stadium will be funded with Community Development Authority (CDA) bond financing. Tax revenue from the 67-acre property, as well as leasing fees from the Squirrels and Virginia Commonwealth University athletics, will pay off the bonds.
“I also cannot stress enough the importance of land-use planning that has paved the way for large-scale redevelopment projects in the city,” says Leonard Sledge, the city’s economic development director and a member of the panel. Phase one will include the baseball park, which is expected to open for the 2025 MiLB season.
Downtown, CoStar has started work on its $460 million campus, which will include a 26-story, 1 million-square-foot building, the tallest among Richmond’s skyline. The former SunTrust bank office across the James River will be home for about 400 more employees. Essentially, Richmond will serve as a second headquarters for the Washington, D.C.-based company, which currently has about 1,200 employees in Virginia’s capital.
Richmond’s next large-scale economic development focus will be centered around the Greater Richmond Convention Center, Sledge says, part of a new “innovation district” that would add office and lab space for the growing biotech sector and more residential and park land.
“Richmond continues to be a great place for people and companies — large and small,” Sledge says. “More importantly, the economic development work of the city continues to emphasize the importance of equitable economic growth.”
Hanover County
Perhaps the unofficial nickname for the town of Ashland — “The Center of the Universe” — is starting to also apply to Hanover County.
Hanover has seen more commercial development in the past five years than in the previous 15, says E. Linwood Thomas IV, director of Hanover County Economic Development. In 2022, the county announced more than $240 million in new projects.
“The overall consensus is that Hanover has been consistently strong,” Thomas says. “We’ve been punching above our weight class for the last five years.”
Nonetheless, the county has lured Performance Food Group, a Goochland-based Fortune 500 company that plans to build an $80 million sales and distribution facility in Ashland, producing an expected 125 jobs.
Pennsylvania-based Lutron Electronics Co. Inc., which produces residential and commercial lighting products, also plans to build in Ashland, investing $28.3 million in a manufacturing plant that is set to employ 200. The governor’s office announced that deal in September. Also, pharmaceutical giant Walgreens announced in February that it will build a $34.2 million automated packaging and distribution facility in eastern Hanover, creating 249 jobs. Meanwhile, the Wegmans $175 million, 1.7 million-square-foot distribution center is under construction.
Part of Hanover’s success in securing new economic development opportunities has been its engagement with the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program, which helps localities get land shovel-ready for businesses to move in quickly.
“They start to build the shell, and the next thing you know, you’ve got these big corporations who see the Richmond region and Hanover County as a strategic location on the Eastern Seaboard,” Thomas says. “We do a lot of this work up front, so we don’t have to compete as hard on the back end.”
Currently, Hanover County has 5.4 million square feet of new commercially zoned space, either approved or being developed. The county’s vacancy rates in the industrial market are less than 1.6%.
Most of this space is being leased before completion because of the county’s “strategic location and low cost to do business,” Thomas adds. “Hanover is just really starting to see the fruits of those labors in this past year because of all the new development taking place.”
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia Photo courtesy Richmond Region Tourism
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, and the metro region is headquarters for eight Fortune 500 companies. The region also is home to the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, 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 Corp.: 13,000
HCA Virginia Health System: 11,000
Bon Secours Richmond: 8,416
Dominion Energy Inc.: 5,433
Major attractions
Richmond is home to historical and cultural attractions such as the Poe Museum, 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 or the Kings Dominion amusement park about 20 miles north of the city. 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
Kings Dominion will expand to year-round operations beginning in January, the Doswell theme park announced Tuesday.
The park will now be open an additional nine weekends, or 18 more days, in January, February and early March. Historically, Kings Dominion opens for weekends in the spring and starts daily operations around Memorial Day, continuing through Labor Day, then it’s back to weekend operations. The 20-acre Soak City waterpark opens around Memorial Day, and Halloween Haunt and WinterFest typically close out the year.
“We’ve always wanted [to] find a way to extend our season to all 12 months, and now families and season passholders won’t have to wait until the spring for their favorite rides or their first taste of funnel cake,” Bridgette Bywater, vice president and general manager of Kings Dominion and Soak City, said in a statement.
Bywater told Virginia Business that the theme park expanded its operating calendar in response to demand from season passholders for an extended season. The plan is for a permanent calendar shift, but she anticipates “some learnings as we progress into a year-round operation.”
The Hanover County amusement park is a significant tourism draw and seasonal employer for Central Virginia. The park closed during the pandemic and reopened in a limited way in winter 2020, with a full reopening in May 2021 and Soak City opening a month later.
Hanover County Director of Economic Development E. Linwood Thomas IV told Virginia Business in 2020 that the park is one of Hanover’s top five taxpayers. In 2018, visitors to the park spent $258 million in the county on tourism, generating more than $5 million in tax revenue.
But things improved last year.
“According to the 2021 Economic Impact of Visitors in Virginia prepared for the Virginia Tourism Corporation, more than $204 million was spent in visitor spending in Hanover County in calendar year 2021, a resounding recovery of more than 55% over the previous calendar year which was plagued by the pandemic,” Thomas told Virginia Business. “Kings Dominion would be one of the major drivers in this rebound since it is our largest tourism asset.”
The expansion of operations is good news to Hanover.
“Kings Dominion is already one of our largest taxpayers and employers but we anticipate their move to open year-round will benefit the entire region while creating significant economic growth across multiple industry sectors,” Thomas said.
“We humbly recognize the positive impact Kings Dominion has on the local economy, and are dedicated to continuing our service as an active member of our local community,” Bywater said.
Plans to expand the park’s calendar have been in the works since last year.
“Expanding our operating calendar also provides more stability to the workforce, which in turn benefits both the park and our visitors. By being able to provide year-round employment opportunities, our dedicated staff can continue to provide excellent guest service on an ongoing basis,” she said.
In the past two years, Kings Dominion has transitioned about 120 positions from seasonal/part-time to full-time, year-round employment status for a total of about 400 workers now, Bywater said. At peak season, the theme park has 3,500 active staff members.
The park has been gradually increasing its number of full-time, year-round associates since 2021, in anticipation of a longer calendar, Bywater said. This year, Kings Dominion raised its minimum hourly wage from $9.25 to $15 and moved to cashless payments at the park.
Grand Carnivale, a summer event will return in 2023 as well as WinterFest. The newest attractions to the park are Jungle X-pedition, a new area, and a new roller coaster, Tumbili, as well as other changes. Soak City also received a refresh in 2021.
In 2021, rival theme park Busch Gardens Williamsburg announced it would also expand its calendar, opening in January, February and March, as well as adding “limited capacity” events to the early part of the year.
In February, Ohio-based Cedar Fair, Kings Dominion’s parent company, rejected a $3.4 billion acquisition offer from SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., owner of Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park.
Cedar Fair owns and operates 13 properties composed of 11 amusement parks, four outdoor water parks and resort accommodations totaling more than 2,300 rooms and 600 RV sites. It reported record revenues of $1.37 billion through Labor Day, with 20.5 million guests across its 15 parks. For the five-week period ended Sept. 5, Cedar Fair had 5.1 million guests and generated preliminary net revenues of $343 million, representing an increase of $74 million, or 27%, when compared to the five-week period ended Sept. 9, 2019, according to a news release.
Pennsylvania-based Lutron Electronics will invest $28.3 million to build a 145,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Ashland, creating 200 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday.
Lutron manufactures lighting controls, automated shading solutions, and intelligent lighting fixtures for residential and commercial applications. Lutron already has a sales office and training center in Ashland located at 11520 Sunshade Lane, according to its website. The new facility will be located in an industrial park along Lakeridge Parkway, according to Youngkin’s office.
“Lutron Electronics is pioneering lighting technology in the 21st century, developing innovative products that save energy and set the company apart from its competitors,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We are proud that Lutron is growing its presence in Hanover County with a new manufacturing operation and creating 200 high-quality jobs that will boost Virginia’s economy and our robust manufacturing sector.”
“We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Hanover County community and further supporting our global customers with increased manufacturing capacity,” Lutron President Ed Blair said in a statement.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Hanover County to secure the project and Youngkin approved a $250,000 grant to assist the county with the project, according to a news release. Funding and services to support Lutron Electronics’ employee training activities will be provided through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.
Baltimore-based Merritt Properties announced Tuesday it has purchased Crescent Business Center in Ashland from Crescent Business Center LC, a Thalhimer Realty Partners Inc. development, for $41.3 million.
The Hanover County business center includes five industrial buildings with 262,256 square feet of space on 20 acres and are 100% occupied, including Trane U.S. Inc., Electronic Systems, Motion Industries Inc. and Sunbelt Rentals as tenants. Another 19 acres on the property off Interstate 95 are undeveloped, and Merritt is evaluating development options to meet market needs.
“With this acquisition, we continue to execute on our strategy of extending our presence in strategic growth markets from the mid-Atlantic to the Southeast,” Merritt CEO Scott Dorsey said in a statement. “Crescent Business Center offered us the ideal opportunity to establish our presence in Richmond with high-quality existing assets, a strong tenant base and land for additional shallow bay industrial development.”
Eric Robison of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the seller. Graham Stoneburner and R. Scott Douglas, also with Thalhimer, have been named exclusive leasing representatives for Crescent Business Center on behalf of Merritt Properties. Thalhimer’s Commercial Property Services Group will handle the property management of Crescent Business Center. Jason Crowder has been named portfolio manager for the center.
Merritt Properties already has 1.7 million square feet of office, bulk and flex/light industrial space in Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford counties.
Mechanicsville-based Fortune 500 global health care logistics firm Owens & Minor Inc. has received a $1.125 billion contract modification to provide medical surgical supplies to the military and federal civilian agencies, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.
The award is for a second 30-month option period of a contract with three 30-month possible periods for worldwide ordering and distribution, according to the DOD, with a Dec. 5, 2024 ordering end date.
Owens & Minor was founded in 1882 and has distribution, production, customer service and sales facilities in the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. It employs more than 15,000 people and sells medical supplies to customers in 90 countries.
Employees at the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Authority’s Mechanicsville headquarters will be returning to in-person work three days a week, not the four or five days a week that will be required of many state workers beginning July 5, following Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s telework order earlier this month.
Virginia ABC CEO Travis Hill sent an email to ABC employees Thursday, noting that the plan to work in person at the authority’s new Hanover County office three days a week, with two days working remotely, is “the final part of our return to office strategy, originally announced in August 2021 and reaffirmed last December. This approach was based on survey feedback from employees and our long-term operational needs and completes a six-month effort on returning to the office.”
Hill, who was appointed by former Gov. Ralph Northam to lead the ABC in 2018, notes that as an authority instead of a state agency, the ABC has “greater latitude in how we manage our telework and hybrid work status.” The memo also says that the authority will use a new telework agreement form distributed by Youngkin’s office, and that all applications will be due June 15.
“All employees choosing to work a portion of the week remotely will need to complete the agreement and submit to human resources,” Hill wrote.
Currently, most of ABC’s roughly 500 administrative staff members are working two days a week in the office and three days remotely. The authority employs about 5,000 part-time and full-time employees, some of whom can’t telework due to the nature of their jobs, such as staffing retail ABC stores. In January, the authority changed its daily opening hours to noon in part due to retail workers being affected by COVID-19, which created a staffing shortage. In fiscal year 2021, Virginia ABC brought in a record $1.4 billion in gross revenue, including $237.3 million in profits from retail sales.
Youngkin’s mandate requires state workers who have been working from home since March 2020 to return to the office in person starting July 5, and it renders all prior telework agreements null and void, even for employees who live outside the immediate region of their workplaces and were hired with the understanding that they could work remotely. Agency heads can approve one telework day a week, while a cabinet secretary must approve two days a week. Anything above that will require the approval of Youngkin’s chief of staff, Jeff Goettman.
In a memo released May 5, during Virginia’s Public Service Week, Goettman announced the order and said that the governor’s office’s goal is “completion of all telework agreements by June 3.”
Some state employees and Democratic legislators have denounced Youngkin’s telework policy, saying that it will cause some workers to leave their jobs for more flexible opportunities in the private sector, and that the new policy is more restrictive than pre-pandemic standards.
Some state employees — including those who are among faculty and professional staff at state universities — are not subject to the policy, and it doesn’t apply to legislative or judicial agencies.
Mechanicsville-based Fortune 500 health care logistics company Owens & Minor Inc. announced Tuesday that it had closed its acquisition of Indianapolis-based Apria Inc. for a cash consideration of $1.6 billion.
Owens & Minor funded the purchase with a combination of debt and cash on hand.
The company is combining Apria and its Byram Healthcare Centers Inc. business to form a Patient Direct segment. The segment expands the company’s home health care business’ geographic reach, products and care needs it can cover.
Apria is a perfect complement to our Byram business,” Owens & Minor President and CEO Edward A. Pesicka said in a statement. “This portfolio expansion strengthens Owens & Minor’s position in the fast-growing home health industry and enhances our ability to support health care beyond the hospital for both new and existing patients.”
Daniel J. Starck, Apria’s CEO since 2015, will serve as president of the new segment. He is also an Owens & Minor executive vice president.
“We look forward to unleashing the full potential of our teammates in the new Patient Direct segment to achieve even better clinical connectivity between the patient, the provider and the payor,” Starck said in a statement.
Owens & Minor will also combine its global products, medical distribution and services businesses to create a Products & Healthcare Services segment.
Owens & Minor was founded in 1882 and has distribution, production, customer service and sales facilities in the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. It employs more than 15,000 people and sells medical supplies to customers in 90 countries.
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