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Tag: Patrick County

Summit for entrepreneurs planned for Danville

Two South Boston-based economic development organizations will host a summit for entrepreneurs and business leaders Oct. 19 at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville.

Launched by the SOVA Innovation Hub, a nonprofit working to drive economic transformation with digital skills and entrepreneurship, and RISE Collaborative, a regional initiative driven by a mission to build “a more inclusive and vibrant regional economy,” the inaugural Regional Innovation Summit for Entrepreneurs (RISE) Summit will offer skill-building workshops, speakers and networking.

“The biggest benefit of an event like this is really showing up and meeting your peers and finding out that the challenges of entrepreneurship that can be so lonely are really quite common, and there are so many resources available, not just locally but regionally and across the state,” says Lauren Mathena, director of economic development and community engagement for Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities, who helps with managing both the SOVA Innovation Hub and RISE Collaborative.

The roots of SOVA Innovation Hub date back to 2017 and the launch of Microsoft TechSpark, a program developed to provide greater economic opportunities and job creation in rural and small metropolitan communities. Organizers tapped Southern Virginia as one of seven communities across the country to receive help with needs such as job training, using technology to expand businesses, promoting computer science in schools, and expanding broadband.

Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities, a nonprofit middle-mile broadband provider based in South Boston, and Microsoft TechSpark went on to launch the SOVA Innovation Hub, which opened in downtown South Boston in 2021. The building provides space for coworking, training and includes a Microsoft Experience Center where individuals can try out digital equipment like the HoloLens, a mixed-reality device.

In 2021, leaders at the SOVA Innovation Hub and Longwood University worked together to establish the RISE Collaborative to provide training and networking to grow entrepreneurship and innovation in the counties of Halifax, Charlotte, Mecklenburg, Lunenburg, Brunswick, Buckingham, Prince Edward, Cumberland, Amelia, Nottoway, Patrick, Henry, Pittsylvania and the cities of Martinsville and Danville.

“It’s kind of always been part of the vision to host a large gathering, to bring people together in person,” said Mathena. Since both organizations formed during the pandemic, that goal got put on ice for a bit, but “now is the time,”  Mathena added.

Among the speakers at the RISE Summit, Natalie Hodge Davis, founder and CEO of Rudy’s Girl Media, a multimedia company based in Martinsville, will offer tips for finding small business funding. Jenn Kinne of Farmville’s Letterpress Communications, a provider of boutique marketing strategies specializing in serving rural clients, will talk about topics like how to make the most of budgets for social media advertising. Michael Scales, a business analyst for the Longwood Small Business Development Center, will talk about essential financial skills for entrepreneurs. Robin Allen, president of Birdie’s Pimento Cheese, which is based in South Hill, will speak on product development, scaling and expanding into new markets.

“They have multistate distribution,” Mathena said of Birdie’s, “And so trying to encourage more folks to really think bigger and dream bigger in terms of how they can go, for example, from our farmers market to widespread distribution is part of what RISE Collaborative  is all about.”

The RISE Female Founders Fund for Woman-Owned Businesses, which provides microgrant funding to female entrepreneurs in 15 localities in Southern Virginia, will award a $1,000 grant at the summit. Applications to be considered for funding are due Oct. 11.

Tickets to the summit, which can be found at sovarise.com, are $50 through Sept. 30 and then increase to $65. A limited number of student tickets and scholarships are available.

This story has been updated to correct an error about the SOVA Innovation Hub building. 

NY textiles company to buy Patrick County HanesBrands facility

New York-based specialty textile manufacturer Apex Mills Corp. will invest $3.1 million to acquire the former HanesBrands facility in Patrick County, along with the plant’s equipment. The acquisition will retain 96 jobs and create an estimated 44 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.

Apex Mills will fulfill contracts for the Hanes clothing brands. HanesBrands Inc. closed the facility in July 2021, eliminating 140 jobs.

“We want made in America to mean made in Virginia and we are proud that this American-made textile company will expand its U.S. footprint by establishing an East Coast facility in Virginia,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Specialty textile manufacturing has long been a core component of the economy in many regions across the commonwealth, and we thank Apex Mills for keeping the HanesBrands facility in operation.”

Founded in 1943, Apex Mills makes warp-knit fabrics geared towards industrial and technical applications. The company provides solid knit, mesh/netting and 3D-spacer textile solutions.

Apex Mills President and CEO Jonathan Kurz said in a statement, “When we became aware of the imminent closing of the HanesBrands Woolwine operation and learned more about the rich tradition of textile manufacturing in Patrick County, we ultimately made the decision that this was where we wanted to locate our next fabric formation facility. The skilled workforce in the Woolwine, Stuart and surrounding communities, as well as the support we have received from the county and the state, have made this opportunity one which we are proud to be a part of.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Patrick County to secure the project, for which Virginia competed with Pennsylvania. Youngkin approved a $300,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the county. Apex Mills is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. The company is eligible to receive funding and services to support its employee recruitment and training through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

Making headway

Corporate investments are on the upswing in Southern Virginia, along with a desire to increase production, says Linda Green, executive director of the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance.

“People have a lot of pent-up demand, and companies are responding to that,” she says. “We have lots of interest and activity.”

Companies are choosing Southern Virginia for several reasons, including its proximity to North Carolina’s Research Triangle and surges in economic development produced by the upcoming Caesars Virginia casino.

Kegerreis Digital Marketing, which is relocating its headquarters from Pennsylvania, is investing $1.7 million to renovate a former 7,000-square-foot tobacco warehouse in the Danville River District, creating 62 jobs. Until renovations are completed in fall 2022, the company’s workforce will occupy space at the Dan River Business Development Center.

Many companies want to be closer to their supply chain needs. “The Port of Virginia has helped us with our recruitment, because you are not seeing delays at the port, where turn times are low,” Green says, referring to the amount of time it takes trucks to enter the Port of Virginia, load up, travel to Danville and go back to the port to unload goods.

Danville and Pittsylvania County

“Momentum continues to build within our community,” says Danville Economic Development Director Corrie Bobe, citing more than $480 million in new investment announced in the past year.

Although some development is related to the forthcoming Caesars Virginia casino, which increased its total investment from $400 million to $500 million, other developments include industrial ventures and expansions.

Caesars Entertainment began demolition and abatement work late last year at the former Dan River Mills industrial complex, starting to lay the groundwork for a resort casino that will include restaurants and bars, a 500-guestroom hotel, a 40,000-square-foot conference center and a 2,500-seat live entertainment venue. Caesars Virginia is set to open in late 2023.

New manufacturing facilities for Tyson Foods, Staunton River Plastics and vertical farm company AeroFarms broke ground in 2021, and the latter two projects are expected to be completed this summer.

“In addition, we have celebrated exciting milestones for companies and developers, including the completion of a 43,000-square-foot expansion for Litehouse, the opening of Sterling Lighting’s headquarters and manufacturing facility, and the addition of 54 new apartments downtown,” Bobe says. 

Work also started last year on redeveloping Danville’s White Mill, which has stood vacant for more than a decade. The 20-acre property is scheduled to reopen in summer 2023 with 110,000 square feet of commercial space and 150 housing units, with 100 more units to come later.

“We also launched the Schoolfield Master Planning process this past year, which will focus on historic, commercial and industrial areas associated with the Dan River Mills Schoolfield site,” Bobe says. “This historic district also incorporates a neighborhood plan for Mill Village of 840 residential structures, as well as a corridor study focusing on West Main Street from the border of North Carolina to the River District.”

Neighboring Pittsylvania County also saw plenty of industrial construction and site acquisitions in the past year, including at properties co-owned with Danville.

“We had a lot of building inventory before 2021, but that has been gobbled up,” says Matt Rowe, the county’s director of economic development. “We are now able to develop projects that are new buildings.”

Intertape Polymer Group is investing a total of $45 million to add 40,000 square feet to its existing building, a project that was set to be completed in the first quarter of this year. The expansion is expected to create 50 jobs over the next four years.

Also in the works are two major projects by Tyson Foods and AeroFarms, which both broke ground on large facilities last year in Cane Creek Centre, respectively investing $300 million and $53 million. Tyson is expected to bring 376 jobs to the county (See related story), and AeroFarms is creating
92 jobs, as well as the world’s largest aeroponic vertical farm.

Other economic gains include a $7.15 million investment from Netherlands-based global installation company Walraven Inc., which is relocating its U.S. headquarters and manufacturing operation from Michigan to a shell building in Cane Creek Centre, bringing 46 jobs.

United Kingdom-based plastic and metal component manufacturer MEP Ltd. is making a $6.5 million investment and hiring around 45 people over the next three to five years. The company will operate as Making Everything Possible LLC and will occupy approximately 5,500 square feet at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research while its new facility is constructed.

This year is looking equally fruitful for new economic development announcements, Rowe says. “We have secured four projects that have yet to be announced. They represent hundreds or more jobs.”

Halifax County and South Boston

Even though Halifax County didn’t have any significant economic development announcements in 2021, the year was busy, says the county’s industrial development authority director, Kristy Johnson, who adds, “I suspect that 2022 will be the same or busier.”

Johnson was promoted to lead the county IDA in September 2021, after the IDA went nearly a year without a permanent leader, but she has worked for the authority since 2009. She said last fall that her focus will be on recruiting companies that complement existing industries in Halifax.

The town of South Boston has had a “very good year,” says Town Manager Tom Raab, although its focus was more on infrastructure and housing than business projects.

Piedmont Access to Health Services, a nonprofit health care provider, is building a health center in Houghton Park. The town also added two restaurants and a brewery, and is also starting work on a new public park. Meanwhile, the town is performing lead abatement and other upgrades on the North Main Housing Project, Raab says.

Martinsville, Henry and Patrick

Although the city of Martinsville’s efforts to revert to town status progressed in fits and starts last year, 2021 was a banner year for the city and Henry County in terms of economic development investments, which totaled $247.7 million, with 624 jobs announced last year.

 New announcements included metal packaging company Crown Holdings Inc., which is investing $145 million to establish a manufacturing operation in Henry County. Currently in the process of building a 355,000-square-foot aluminum beverage can production facility, which will create 126 jobs, the company expects to finish construction in the third quarter of this year.

The county notched another economic development victory with German sink manufacturer Schock GmbH, which has agreed to invest $85 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing facility at the shell building in the Patriot Centre Industrial Park, adding 355 jobs. The company is finalizing engineering, with construction starting in the first quarter of 2023.

“Both Schock and Crown are special deals. Both companies are very forward-thinking,” says Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville Henry County Economic Development Corp.

Meanwhile, neighboring Patrick County is set to renovate a former 16,000-square-foot hardware store into the Patrick County Business Development Center, set to open in 2023. “It will be a multiuse building, providing an entrepreneurship program, business assistance, rentable recreation space, a coworking space and a community meeting space,” says the county’s economic development director, Sean Adkins.

Additionally, Prolam LLC, a Canadian manufacturer of hardwood floors for commercial trucks and trailers, invested $12.8 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in the former Ten Oaks satellite facility in Patrick. The project is set to create 58 jobs and adds 50% to the company’s total manufacturing capacity. Prolam also committed to purchase more than $20.5 million in Virginia-grown hardwoods over the next three years. 

Southern Virginia’s recent deals

Tyson Foods Inc.

Pittsylvania County

376 jobs

Schock GmbH

Henry County

355 jobs

VF Corp.

Henry County

82 jobs

Kegerreis Digital Marketing

Danville

62 jobs

Prolam

Patrick County

59 jobs

Mohawk Industries Inc.

Danville

48 jobs

Walraven Inc.

Pittsylvania County

46 jobs

MEP Ltd.

Danville

45 jobs

Southern Virginia
Vegetable Packing LLC

Brunswick County

40 jobs

Source: Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Patrick County flooring company announces $9.3M expansion

Ten Oaks LLC, a manufacturer of residential hardwood floors, will invest $9.3 million in a sorting and stacking facility in Patrick County, creating 11 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday.

The company was established in 2004 in the town of Stuart and was acquired in 2019 by Canadian company Boa-Franc. The new facility is located fewer than five miles from the company’s manufacturing center and headquarters.

The new facility will create 11 jobs and lead to the purchase of more than $18 million of Virginia-grown forest products over the next three years, according to a news release.

“We are really happy with this announcement, and we are convinced that this project will have a positive impact for Patrick County’s community,” said Ten Oaks President Pierre Thabet in a statement. “This will help to accelerate the growth by developing new innovations and secure the well-being of the region. We are confident that it will be a success over time.”

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Patrick County and the Patrick County Economic Development Authority to secure the project. Northam approved a $40,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund. Patrick County will match the funding. Funding and services to support job creation will be provided through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

$300M widening of U.S. Route 58 has started in Patrick County

A groundbreaking ceremony took place Wednesday in Patrick County to widen a 7.4-mile stretch of U.S. Route 58 in Patrick County, the first phase of a project to create a continuous four-lane highway between Virginia Beach and Interstate 77.

The project, part of the U.S. Route 58 Corridor Development Program enacted by state lawmakers in 1989, will cost approximately $300 million, according to the governor’s office. The two-lane section of the highway over Lovers Leap Mountain is currently restricted to tractor-trailers, but that will change once improvements are completed under a November 2020 agreement between the Virginia Department of Transportation and Roanoke-based Branch Civil Inc.

VDOT and Branch Civil signed their public-private partnership in 2003 to develop and widen the highway from Hillsville to Stuart, a 36-mile corridor through Carroll, Floyd and Patrick counties, as soon as state funding became available. Although earlier sections were widened before now, it took 18 years to reach this stretch of Route 58.

“Once the General Assembly prioritized funding for the project, the Virginia Department of Transportation and our partner Branch Civil used an innovative progressive design-build approach to refine the design and advance the project to construction,” state Commissioner of Highways Stephen Brich said in a statement. “This was the first time this contracting style was used in Virginia and supported a new level of engagement between the Virginia Department of Transportation and our contracting partner.”

The section set to be widened is between the Poor Farmers Farm Store in Vesta and the Route 58 Stuart Bypass, and there are two other parts of Route 58 that will be widened at a time to be determined, including a four-mile stretch in Vesta and a 7.2-mile section near Crooked Oak.

“Route 58 is a vital road for locals, tourists, and commercial traffic, connecting Southern Virginia from the beach to the mountains,” Northam said in a statement. “By widening this key section, the project will open up this part of Southwest Virginia to faster, safer travel and more economic investment.”

Commercial truck, van floor manufacturer to build $12.8M plant in Patrick County

Prolam LLC, a Canadian manufacturer of hardwood floors for commercial trucks and dry van trailers, will invest $12.8 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing plant at the former Ten Oaks satellite facility in Patrick County, creating 58 jobs, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday.

The facility will increase Prolam’s manufacturing capacity by 50%, and the company has committed to source at least 65% of its timber from Virginia through the purchase of more than $20.5 million in Virginia-grown hardwoods during the next three years.

“This project is a great win for Virginia’s hardwood loggers and forestland owners,” Northam said in a statement. “Forestry continues to be an important pillar of communities across the commonwealth because industry leaders recognize the benefits of our abundant natural resources, extensive transportation network and unparalleled workforce. We thank Prolam for locating its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Southern Virginia and look forward to a long partnership with the company.”

Headquartered in Quebec, Canada, Prolam supplies major U.S. trailer manufacturers.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) worked with Patrick County and the Patrick County Economic Development Authority to secure the project. Northam approved a $100,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, which Patrick County will match with local funds. Funding and services to support the company’s job creation will be provided through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

 

 

Primland resort appoints executive chef

Primland announced Tuesday that Elliot Cunniff has been appointed executive chef of the Meadows of Dan resort.

Cunniff comes to Primland from The Soho House, an upscale private club in New York City where he served as executive chef. He got his start working with culinary celebrity Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro Moderne in New York City. He has been with Primland since January.

“Primland is committed to providing exceptional food and beverage experiences, and Chef Cunniff [is] sure to enhance our guests’ enjoyment,” said Steve Helms, vice president of Primland, in a statement. “Chef Cunniff is ideally suited to inspire our farm-to-table fare as he brings a wealth of creativity and industry-leading performance.”

The resort also has opened its newest dining venue, the Schlumberger Wine Cellar, highlighting wines from around the world, including the Schlumberger-owned winery in France’s Alsace region.

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