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Tag: Southwest Virginia

Va. receives $22.7M to reclaim abandoned mine lands

The Virginia Department of Energy will receive $22.7 million in federal funding toward redeveloping abandoned mine lands across the commonwealth, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday.

The funding is aimed at redeveloping the sites so that they can be used to attract new development and job opportunities to the region. Handled through Virginia’s Abandoned Mine Lands program, funded projects involve mitigating safety hazards and environmental issues on the sites that resulted from coal mining prior to the implementation of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

In March, Virginia Energy sought companies with three or more years of mining and reclamation experience to bid on remediation work at abandoned mine sites. Virginia has thousands of such sites awaiting reclamation, according to Youngkin’s office, and previous funding limited the number of projects that could be addressed in a grant year. The program has been getting about $4 million annually, creating more than 1,000 jobs since 2017, according to the state.

“We are excited to get to work and assist in getting others back to work with this announcement of federal funds,” Youngkin said. “Creating jobs in coal-impacted communities is a priority and through the reclamation and repurposing of these mined lands, we hope to see … additional economic activity for properties that can become suitable for development.”

Southwest Virginia has benefited from the federal Abandoned Mine Land Pilot Program, which has offered multiple rounds of funding to Virginia Energy, formerly known as the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.

“Southwest Virginia has a ready workforce to complete the numerous infrastructure projects in Virginia,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick said in a statement. “Our agency prides itself on economic development in this region and we will aid in continued job increases over the next 15 years with this specific funding.”

Virginia offered funding for these projects previously in 2021.

“There are thousands of features posing safety and environmental harm due to historic mining in Southwest Virginia and other areas of the state where coal was once extracted,” Virginia Energy Director John Warren said in a statement. “These funds will allow us to reclaim and repurpose just over 80% of the current inventory Virginia Energy has gathered since our AML program began in 1981.”

“Our AML team finally gets to complete projects and tasks that have been on our wish list for years,” Virginia Energy Deputy Director Will Clear said in a statement. “The impact this work will have on our region will be so significant for a growing economy and for community enhancement.”

 

FOR THE RECORD

Central Virginia 

The state’s fiscal 2023-24 budget, approved June 1, contains funding that will benefit future redevelopment of the Central Virginia Training Center site in Madison Heights. Republican
Sen. Steve Newman requested $25 million in state money to annul outstanding bonds associated with CVTC, a former state facility for people with intellectual disabilities that closed in 2020. The state’s debt that will be settled is on Lower Rapidan, a cluster of more modern buildings. Those outstanding bonds and the cost of demolishing many structures on the site were significant impediments to any development, according to
the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance.
(The News & Advance)

Future Cities, the development firm behind the anticipated GreenCity development in Henrico County, plans to renovate a substation in the Carver neighborhood of Richmond, turning it into a mixed-use development with a food hall, coworking space and micro retail. Carver Station, which will be located near Clay and Harrison streets, will span about 30,000 square feet. The substation was originally built by the Virginia Railway and Power Co. in 1910 and was decommissioned by Dominion Energy Inc. in 2018. Construction is set to begin early next year and be completed in 2024. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Lego Group plans to bring a $1 billion factory to Chesterfield County’s Meadowville Technology Park, creating more than 1,760 jobs, the company and Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced June 15. Groundbreaking on the 1.7 million-square-foot moulding, processing and packing plant will start later this year. The Denmark-based toy company plans to begin operations from a temporary building in early 2024, with the factory beginning production in the second half of 2025. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On May 23, Richmond City Council approved the transfer of the Richmond Coliseum property to the city’s economic development authority. Councilman Andreas Addison said then he was comfortable with transferring the Coliseum property to the EDA, as legislation the council approved later that evening included specific goals and objectives for minority business participation and affordable housing development. Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, said the EDA could sell the property to a developer without the council’s approval following the property transfer vote, although the council would need to authorize any kind of development deal that involved public financing. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The state budget passed by the General Assembly June 1 includes a provision that would delay a second casino vote in Richmond, where voters defeated a referendum last year, until November 2023. Meanwhile, the state will move forward with a Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission study on a possible Petersburg casino. Maryland-based casino developer Urban One Inc. said it plans to “partner with the city of Richmond, including through litigation if necessary,” to let a second vote go forward this fall in accordance with an order from Richmond Circuit Court and “pre-certification” from the Virginia Lottery. (VirginiaBusiness.com, Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The Supreme Court of Virginia will hear an appeal of two lower court rulings that found that residents living near a massive planned Wegmans distribution center project in Hanover County didn’t have standing to challenge local officials’ approval of the project. On May 23, the state’s high court announced it would hear the appeal, but no schedule had been set as of early June. The court’s decision to review the case is the latest twist in an ongoing fight by several overlapping groups of Hanover residents to block the construction of a 1.7 million-square-foot center roughly two miles from Interstate 95 and adjacent to Brown Grove, a historically Black community founded by freedpeople after the Civil War. (Virginia Mercury).

Eastern Virginia 

Hampton Roads philanthropist Joan Brock donated $34 million to the Chrysler Museum of Art in May. The gift included 40 works of art and endowments for two positions, as well as support for expanding the Perry Glass Studio. Brock was the first woman to chair the museum’s board, and her late husband, Dollar Tree Inc. co-founder Macon Brock, chaired the museum’s 2014 capital campaign. The artworks span nearly 100 years of American art, from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. Museum Director Erik Neil’s post has been endowed and renamed as the Macon and Joan Brock director. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Chesapeake-based Dollar Tree Inc. reported strong sales increases in its most recent quarter as shoppers turned to discount chains for necessities to offset rising food and fuel costs. Same-store sales — those from stores operating for at least 12 months — rose 4.4% during the quarter that ended April 30. In September 2021, the company announced it was raising prices to $1.25. Sales rose 11.2% in the latest quarter due to the increase. Dollar Tree owns Family Dollar, which saw a 2.8% decline in same-store sales. The company temporarily closed 400 Family Dollar stores after an Arkansas distribution center was shuttered because of a rodent infestation. (The Wall Street Journal)

Newport News-based automated machinery designer Mühlbauer Inc. will invest $9 million to expand its Newport News operation, a project expected to create 32 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced May 26. Mühlbauer Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of German company Mühlbauer Group.
In 2009, Mühlbauer Inc. opened a 30,000-square-foot facility in Oakland Industrial Park, which it
will upgrade, adding production equipment. The subsidiary provides hardware and software for automation solutions for ePassports, electronic identity documents and others. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Norfolk Planning Commission in May recommended approval of a conditional use permit from the Pamunkey Indian Tribe to open a temporary casino at Harbor Park before it plans to open the nearby $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino in 2024. Harbor Park is home to Norfolk’s minor league baseball team, the Tides, and the temporary casino would be housed at the stadium in a two-story space that would include a sports bar and grill. The request was set to be considered by Norfolk City Council in June. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Port of  Virginia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed an agreement on May 20 that formalized their collaboration on the Norfolk Harbor dredging project, which will create the deepest and widest port on the East Coast by 2024. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, included the final installment of the federal investment, $72 million. The federal government and the port agreed to a 50-50 cost share in 2015, when the Army Corps began evaluating the economic value of a deeper and wider harbor and commercial shipping channel. The agreement marks the beginning of the cost share. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Democrats in the House of Delegates elected Portsmouth Del. Don Scott Jr. as their new minority leader June 1. Scott currently works as a criminal defense attorney in Portsmouth. He orchestrated the ouster of his predecessor, Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, via secret ballot in April. Scott defeated Del. Charniele Herring, whose district covers Alexandria, and Del. Rip Sullivan, whose district includes Fairfax. (Cardinal News)

 

 

Northern Virginia 

McLean-based Appian Corp. won a $2.03 billion verdict — believed to be the largest award in Virginia state court history — in a trade secrets case against a competitor in Fairfax County Circuit Court in early May. The cloud computing and enterprise software company sued Massachusetts-based Pegasystems Inc. and an individual, Youyong Zou, alleging that Pegasystems used multiple methods to gain access to trade secrets to compete with Appian beginning in 2012. According to the lawsuit, Pegasystems hired Zou to provide Pegasystems with access to the backend of that software. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Capital One Financial Corp. employees nationwide will return to in-office work in a hybrid model on Sept. 6, CEO Richard Fairbank announced in May. The McLean-based bank holding company delayed plans for hybrid reopenings twice before October 2021, when it indefinitely delayed the return. Fully remote workers will require senior executive approval. Fairbank said the company will monitor conditions as September nears and delay reopening if health conditions don’t support doing so safely. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction Group LLC, the general contractor for several phases of Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2, announced plans May 10 to expand Clark’s footprint in the mid-Atlantic, including
building a 128,000-square-foot office for infrastructure and building employees in McLean. Clark is renovating the space and expects to move there in the fall.
(VirginiaBusiness.com)

Herndon-based Fortune 1000 company ManTech International Corp. entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by The Carlyle Group for approximately $4.2 billion, the tech contractor announced May 16. In the all-cash transaction, ManTech shareholders will receive $96 per share in cash, a 32% premium to ManTech’s closing share price of $72.82 on Feb. 2, the last trading day before news articles of a potential agreement broke. The cash per share is also a 17% premium to its closing stock price of $81.97 on May 13. The ManTech board unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of 2022. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In May, Tysons-based broadcast and digital media giant Tegna Inc.’s shareholders approved the company’s $5.4 billion cash sale to an affiliate of New York hedge fund Standard General. One of Tegna’s largest shareholders, Standard General, and private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. agreed to pay $24 per share for Tegna, which owns 64 television stations and was created in 2015 as a publicly traded spinoff of McLean-based Gannett Co. Inc. Upon the deal’s closing in the second half of the year, Tegna will go private and CEO Dave Lougee will be replaced by Deb McDermott, CEO of Standard Media Group LLC. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

The Virginia General Assembly punted on legislation that could lure the Washington Commanders’ stadium to the commonwealth when legislators returned to the state Capitol for a June 1 special session. The team acquired the right to purchase 200 acres in Prince William County’s Woodbridge area and is eyeing another location in Loudoun County for the proposed $3 billion stadium project that would include mixed-use commercial and residential development, as well as a new location for the team’s headquarters, which is currently in Loudoun’s Ashburn area. An economic impact study prepared for the team said a new stadium could bring $24.7 billion in direct impact and 2,246 jobs to Virginia by 2033. A bill that would offer up to $350 million in subsidies for the project stalled after some lawmakers raised concerns about transportation around the Prince William site as well as controversies surrounding team owner Dan Snyder, who was called to testify before the U.S. House Oversight Committee about the NFL’s investigation into the team’s workplace culture. (The Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Roanoke / New River Valley 

Starting in July, a second daily Amtrak passenger train will begin to operate from Roanoke, departing at 4:35 p.m. bound for Washington, D.C. The early train will continue to depart at 6:32 a.m. The service expansion will add another arrival to the timetable as well — 12:56 p.m. That train will leave D.C. shortly after 8 in the morning. The updates were released May 23 by the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. Officials have been telling Roanoke it would get a second train since 2019. Amtrak launched the service in 2017, resuming passenger rail service for the first time since the 1970s. (The Roanoke Times)

More than 150 entrepreneurs participated in the eighth annual Gauntlet Business Program and Competition at the Vinton War Memorial May 25. The program’s youngest entrepreneur, 6-year-old Graham Fitzgerald, started a T-shirt business, GK’s Dream, with his dad to help raise money to support children in foster care. The program awarded nearly $300,000 to entrepreneurs. The program was created by The Advancement Foundation to aid Roanoke Valley economic development. (WDBJ)

Pulaski-based HEYtex USA, the U.S. subsidiary of an international textile manufacturer, has agreed to a $3 million fine that settles accusations that it defrauded the American military. In a May 25 announcement of the settlement, U.S. Attorney Chris Kavanaugh cited the actions of a HEYtex employee who came forward as a whistleblower. The employee “brought information regarding falsified test results to the attention of former company management,” Kavanaugh said. The government charged HEYtex with violating the False Claims Act between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2018, “when it knowingly sold fabrics to the United States military that failed to meet certain required specifications,” according to the government statement. (The Roanoke Times)

Roanoke real estate developer Maury Strauss has donated $1 million in honor of his late wife to support the expansion of Carilion Clinic’s cancer program, Carilion announced May 24. Sheila Strauss died of bladder cancer in 2016; the couple were married 65 years. Maury Strauss is the founder of Strauss Development Corp. “We are so grateful to Maury for the opportunity to honor Sheila’s memory as we continue to advance cancer care for our region,” Carilion President and CEO Nancy Howell Agee said. “The thousands of patients in our region diagnosed each year with cancer deserve access to the latest, most advanced care right here.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Unhappy with the way it has been treated by a three-judge panel of an appellate court, Mountain Valley Pipeline is asking for a new slate of judges to hear the next round of its long-running legal battle with environmentalists. In an unusual move, the company building a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia filed a motion in May requesting the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to assign a new panel at random. Mountain Valley is hoping for better luck than it had with a panel that presided over 12 earlier challenges of government approvals for it and the now-defunct Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
(The Roanoke Times)

PEOPLE

Two departments in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering will have new leaders beginning this summer. Suneel Kodambaka has been named head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and started July 1, and Ella Atkins will be head of the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering starting Aug. 1. Kodambaka comes to Virginia Tech from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Atkins comes to Virginia Tech from the University of Michigan. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Shenandoah Valley 

April Petty, a co-defendant of Jennifer McDonald, wants out of a lawsuit against McDonald, the former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority. The EDA alleges that McDonald used EDA money for her own benefit and claims that Petty had to have known the $125,000 that McDonald used to help pay down Petty’s house mortgage was stolen from the EDA. Warren County Circuit Judge Bruce D. Albertson heard arguments related to the motion to dismiss in late May. A jury trial begins July 5. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

Cole and Danielle Haase said in late May they plan to turn the 10.5-acre former Master’s Touch Ministries property in Warren County into the Arena Sports and Events Center. They have submitted applications for conditional use permits and plan to redevelop the 7,800-square-foot indoor pavilion into a turfed sports and events complex that will open around September. Plans for the space include three retractable rows of batting cages and a turfed space for pitching and fielding drills. The couple owns On Cue Sports Bar & Grill in Front Royal and have served as board members of the Warren County Little League for two years. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

James Madison University will receive $287,537 in federal funding for the Upward Bound program, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced May 25. Upward Bound supports low-income and first-generation college students to increase high school and college graduation rates. In total, the Department of Education will distribute $6.2 million among 15 Virginia colleges. JMU will allot the money to personal advising and college programs, cultural immersion experiences and education on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The programming will serve 60 students. (Daily News-Record)

The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors on May 25 unanimously withdrew a proposed revision to the county’s large-scale, ground-mounted solar rules. The proposal would have exempted the three applicants that applied for solar farms before the Board of Supervisors codified new rules in November 2021. The three applicants were the SolAmerica Energy project near East Rockingham High School, the Caden Energix Endless Caverns LLC project south of New Market and the Knight Solar LLC proposal in eastern Rockingham County. Board Chair Sallie Wolfe-Garrison said the new applications had already complied with the new rules. (Daily News-Record)

Washington and Lee University completed in late May a long-term virtual power purchase agreement that establishes a partnership between W&L and solar energy developer SunEnergy1, which will build, own and operate a 17-megawatt offsite solar farm in Hertford, North Carolina. W&L will purchase 11 megawatts from the farm, which matches 100% of the campus’s annual electricity consumption. The project site encompasses more than 100 acres of former farmland. The deal helps W&L toward its goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Over the last decade, the university has reduced campus greenhouse gas emissions by 42%, and the new solar purchase should bring that reduction to 63%. (Cardinal News)

Winchester-based accounting and consulting firm Yount, Hyde and Barbour (YHB) acquired Maryland-based firm Glass Jacobson PA on July 1. Established in 1962, Glass Jacobson offers tax, audit and consulting services in the Baltimore and greater Washington, D.C., area. YHB and Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors LLC will form a joint venture to provide wealth management. Glass Jacobson’s six principals and 54 other staff members will join YHB, bringing the firm’s total staff to almost 300 employees. The new employees will continue to work out of Glass Jacobson’s offices in Rockville, Maryland, and Owings Mills, Maryland, which will give YHB 11 offices. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Southern Virginia 

Appalachian Power plans to add 500 megawatts of solar wind energy over the next three years, and electricity rates will rise. “The company’s current request before the State Corporation Commission would raise monthly rates by approximately $2.37 for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours a month,” Appalachian Power Senior Corporate Communications Consultant Teresa Hamilton Hall said. Appalachian’s first completed power purchase agreement was made with Leatherwood Solar, a solar generation facility in Henry County, developed by Energix Renwables. (Martinsville Bulletin)

Netherlands-based paper honeycomb producer Axxor will invest $3.5 million to expand capacity at Ringgold East Industrial Park in Pittsylvania County, creating 21 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced June 1. Paper honeycomb helps manufacturers reduce weight and can be used in a range of products, from furniture and packing to automotive components. Axxor began production operations in Ringgold in 2012. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Commonwealth Home Health Care Inc. will invest $3.5 million in a new facility in Pittsylvania County, creating 26 jobs, county officials announced June 1. The company provides home oxygen, safety and rehabilitation products and will open an operation in Blairs, renovating a 100,000-square-foot industrial warehouse to be used for warehousing operations, training, equipment and additional personnel. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Despite winning approval from the Halifax County Planning Commission, Chris Hudson and Brad Miller in early June withdrew their request for a conditional use permit to establish 4 Meats, a slaughterhouse and meat processing facility, at 1191 Sinai Road. The proposed business met with backlash from community members who complained to Kenneth Hodges, a prominent Sinai businessman who owns the property where the project was slated to go. The meat processing facility was on the agenda for the June 6 Halifax Board of Supervisors meeting but was dropped before the meeting. (SoVaNow)

The River District Association in Danville has announced the start of a new quarterly program called Start-Up Slam to support both new and existing businesses downtown. Up to 15 participants are welcome to share their ideas with the crowd within a 3-minute limit, and attendees vote on their favorite pitches at the end of the evening. The top vote-getter takes home all cash collected at the door with no strings attached. No business plans are required. The program is funded by a grant from the Department of Housing and Community Development. (Cardinal News)

The Southern Virginia Mega Site at Berry Hill came close to landing a $5.5 billion Hyundai Motor Co. electric vehicle manufacturing plant, according to local officials. The 3,500-acre park was one of the top two sites in the country considered by the South Korea-based automobile manufacturer, according to Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville. The project would have brought about 8,500 jobs to the Dan River Region, but the company chose a site
in Bryan County, Georgia, near Savannah. (Danville Register & Bee)

PEOPLE

Jerry Wallace, a Nebraska community college administrator, has been named the next president of Danville Community College. Wallace was hired on May 12, following a national search that attracted 63 candidates. Wallace is the campus president of the Hastings Campus of Nebraska’s Central Community College, where he has worked since 2019. Prior to that, he was dean of workforce, technical and community education from 2017 to 2019 at New River Community and Technical College in Beaver, West Virginia. He starts his new post on July 1. (Cardinal News)

Southwestern Virginia 

Health Wagon, a free mobile health care provider, requested a $1.7 million reimbursement from the state, but the budget amendment filed by state Republican Sens. Todd Pillion, Travis Hackworth and Tommy Norment did not make it into the final proposed budget. In 2021, the Health Wagon had more than 35,000 patient visits from nearly 11,000 people, provided $5.4 million in care and dispensed more than $1 million in medications. The $1.7 million request represented nearly a third of its 2021 total value of care. (Bristol Herald Courier)

Lonesome Pine Airport’s runway was set to undergo an approximately $12 million rehabilitation project starting in June. The project is expected to continue into 2023. Regular air traffic includes usage from personal aircraft and helicopters for personal use and by politicians and economic development professionals, as well as large aircraft from businesses such as Crutchfield Corp. Runway pavement is expected to last 20 years, and the Lonesome Pine pavement is 32 years old. Water drainage systems beneath the asphalt and harsh weather have caused the runway to dip and crack. The project was originally set to begin in May but was delayed by supply chain shortages.
(The Coalfield Progress)

The General Assembly voted to revoke the town of Pound’s charter as of Nov. 1, 2023, over the objections of its residents. Legislators have pledged to reconsider revoking the charter if the town shows signs of improvement. On May 25, then-Mayor Stacey Carson resigned. Last fall, most of Pound’s remaining business owners stopped paying taxes because the town’s finances are in chaos. Every town employee quit or was fired. The cashier was convicted of embezzling from the public account. Volunteers are pitching in to help, including training the council on the basics of town government. (The Washington Post, The Coalfield Progress)

Northlake, Illinois-based Scholle IPN, a flexible packaging supplier, will invest $31.1 million to expand in Smyth County, a project expected to create 75 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced June 1. Scholle IPN will expand its Smyth County facility by 73,000 square feet to allow new manufacturing lines for film extrusion and packaging. The company will also add more than 800 feet of rail track to support resin inflow. Scholle IPN, which expanded its Chilhowie facility in 2019, provides sustainable packaging for the food, beverage and nonfood sectors. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Southwest Virginia’s job growth rebounded more quickly than the state as a whole, Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Jason El Koubi said at the Southwest Virginia Economic Forum on May 25. The region that runs from the New River Valley to the southwest corner of the state posted peak job loss rates ranging from 8.5% to 14.4% — a loss of more than 27,000 jobs — during March and April 2020. In March 2022, the region saw employment return to pre-pandemic numbers, while Virginia as a whole is still down by 3%, or more than 150,000 jobs. (Cardinal News)

PEOPLE

Downtown Wytheville Inc. Executive Director Todd Wolford has been named the top Main Street leader in the nation. Main Street America announced in May that Wolford was the 2022 recipient of the Mary Means Leadership Award. The organization’s top honor, it recognizes outstanding leaders in comprehensive preservation-based commercial district revitalization and highlights the critical role that leaders play in shaping the Main Street movement. Nominated by members of the Wytheville community and selected by a national jury, Wolford was recognized for his creative energy, strategic mindset and coalition-building approach as a Main Street director. (Wytheville Enterprise)

Counties collaborating on industrial park

In the coming months, the rubble of a demolished furniture factory on a roughly 70-acre property in Chilhowie will be hauled away to make room for an industrial park.

Smyth County is teaming up with Bland and Washington counties, forming the Pathway Regional Industrial Facilities Authority to create Pathway Park, which will feature rail service and access to Interstate 81.

“Successful economic development and job creation is not confined by borders,” Bland County Administrator Eric Workman says of the tri-county collaboration. “The effects have resounding positive impacts on all surrounding communities in terms of job creation and synergy of economic resurgence.”

Smyth County has owned the park property for several years. It received grants to help demolish the derelict American Furniture factory and plan for new development. The caveat: Grants available to single localities were drying up.

“At the same time, we are winding down a similar regional partnership with Washington County [the Smyth-Washington IFA to develop Highlands Business Park] and felt it was a successful venture,” says Smyth County Administrator Shawn M. Utt. “Add in Bland County’s willingness to partner in these types of projects [and] we felt we had the makings of a great partnership.”

Pathway RIFA has been awarded two $600,000 grants from GO Virginia and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission to help replace the utility infrastructure.

“These two grants would not have been possible if it weren’t for the regional partnership,” Utt says. “These funds will be used to build new water lines, replace a collapsed sewer line that crosses the Middle Fork of the Holston River and help fund a new entrance from Route 11.”

Costs and revenue share from the park are still being worked out by the counties but, Utt says, “realistically, our three jurisdictions will share equally in the costs and equally in the future revenues.”

Once the RIFA is registered with the State Corporation Commission, design work for the sewer and water lines will begin.

“We also have to get with the Virginia Department of Transportation for the entrance road,” Utt says. “As far as breaking ground on the utility work, we hope to have the design work and bidding complete by late summer, with construction beginning later [in] 2022.”  

Bristol temporary casino to open July 8

Hard Rock International Inc. will open its temporary casino in Bristol July 8, the company announced Thursday.

The 30,000-square-foot temporary full-service casino featuring 900 gaming slots and 20 tables for gaming operations will open at 500 Gate City Highway, the former Bristol Mall. It is expected to generate 600 jobs.

In February, the casino named Allie Evangelista its president.

“We are excited to open the casino, and welcome guests,” said Jon Lucas, chief operating officer of Hard Rock International, in a statement. “As Virginia’s first casino, ‘Bristol Casino – Future Home of Hard Rock’ will be a wonderful addition to the Hard Rock global portfolio of dining, hotel and entertainment properties.”

The permanent casino remains on track to open in July 2024, two years after the opening of the temporary casino, a spokesperson said. The 90,000-square-foot permanent facility will include a 3,200-seat performance venue and a 20,000-person capacity outdoor entertainment venue.

Hard Rock has hired about 100 employees so far, with the bulk of them due to start within 3o to 45 days of the opening of the temporary casino, a spokesperson said. More local hiring events are planned, including two this week.

 

 

SW community colleges to create wind manufacturing workforce

The presidents of four community colleges in Southwest Virginia signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to establish a wind manufacturing workforce development partnership.

“Today’s MOU signing is meaningful because it demonstrates our resident and abiding interest in collaborating. Our four community college presidents are setting an example of how to find ways to work together over significant opportunities that can empower the region as a whole,” said Will Payne, managing partner of Coalfield Strategies LLC and project lead for InvestSWVA.

Mountain Empire Community College, Southwest Virginia Community College, Virginia Highlands Community College and Wytheville Community College “will work together to promote, develop and expand the training and development of a workforce prepared to enter” the supply chain manufacturing workforce in the offshore wind energy field, the MOU states.

“We are realistic about the number of people ready to go to work in manufacturing,” Wytheville Community College President Dean Sprinkle said in a statement. “As a result, we see the wind energy sector as an exciting and compelling path for people who may be ‘on the fence’ about a manufacturing career. Training workers and inspiring them to live and work in our region are elements of our mission in community colleges, and this is an enticing opportunity.”

InvestSWVA commissioned Aberdeen, Scotland-based energy consulting firm Xodus Group Ltd. to perform research for Project Veer, its initiative to help Southwest Virginia manufacturers find entry points in the supply chain for wind energy equipment components announced in December 2021. The firm recommended that regional community colleges sign an MOU formalizing their collaboration, and that the project’s members identify a “major tier company” to act as an anchor and help pave the way to form relationships with global equipment manufacturers

With the MOU signed, the next step in the process is for the colleges to form a leadership team with a senior official and at least one other representative from each college. The stakeholders will work closely with the commerce and trade secretariat, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Department of Energy and legislators to identify the “major tier company.”

“We accelerated the pace of this first phase of Project Veer from six months to three, so that we could spend the next three months building a timeline around the MOU, a potential partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance and figuring out how we coordinate centrally to seize this opportunity,” Payne said.

The other chief recommendations of Xodus Group’s report are for the project’s members to form such a partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance, designate a regional entity to act as a single point of entry into offshore wind and coordinate an approach to retain the next generation of workers, including highlighting the advantages of offshore wind careers.

“Virginia’s Southwest is an answer, a resource and the place to be for wind energy manufacturers looking for business partners who can satisfy market demand in a quality fashion,” Payne said. “The agreement we announce today is foundational to our success not just in the wind energy industry but to our ability to rally around opportunity, together. The presidents of our community colleges are setting a great example.

“This is beyond brainstorming — it’s about action — and they are the catalysts,” he said.

Coal waste project launches in SW Va.

A public-private project to evaluate the critical minerals in coal waste products in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky launched Wednesday with a community meeting in the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon.

The project, Evolve Central Appalachia (Evolve CAPP), is part of an almost $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Energy Department to the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research (VCCER) at Virginia Tech. VCCER Director Michael Karmis estimates the first phase of the project — a study analyzing what minerals the areas have and how they can be extracted — will take about three years.

Critical minerals — used in computers, household appliances, clean energy technology and other products — are vital to the nation’s economy but the supply is vulnerable to disruptions. Such minerals native to the United States include rare earth elements plus lithium and cobalt.

After researching which minerals are present in the region, Evolve CAPP will present its findings to the Energy Department. If the department provides funding for a second phase, researchers would look into extraction technology and commercial development, which could help the U.S. reduce its dependence on other countries’ production.

“The project is focused on developing jobs and opportunities for the coalfields,” Karmis said. Evolve CAPP seeks to develop the processing of coal waste and advanced manufacturing needed to create usable critical minerals in the three involved states — not just export raw materials.

The project has nearly 50 partners across varying sectors: academia, government, private research, economic development, private technology and energy and power. Karmis and Richard Bishop lead the Virginia Tech team, and Mountain Empire Community College, the University of Kentucky and West Virginia University are academic partners. Virginia’s Energy Department, the U.S. Geological Survey and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are government partners, and other groups involved include InvestSWVA, Coalfield Strategies LLC, LENOWISCO Planning District, Dominion Energy Inc., Kentucky-based Blackhawk Mining LLC and Roanoke’s Separation Technologies LLC.

Will Clear, deputy director of the Virginia Department of Energy, says he appreciates that Evolve CAPP has environmental benefits as well, providing a use for “gob” piles — short for “garbage of bituminous” — made of waste products from mining before federal regulations were in place.

“We think there’s a parallel track with what we’re doing to sort of remediate this environmental problem but also look at ways to really utilize these gob piles as a resource,” he said.

Finding new solutions

Movers and shakers in Southwest Virginia wanted to try a new approach to economic development.

The stakes were (and are) high.

Naturally, the decline of the coal industry had a devastating impact on Virginia’s coalfields. The Appalachian Regional Commission classifies four counties in Southwest Virginia — Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee and Wise — as economically distressed.

Every county in Southwest Virginia saw a drop in population over the past decade, according to the 2020 census, leading to the loss of a delegate seat.

Trying to turn the tide, leaders in the area created InvestSWVA, a public-private economic development and marketing initiative for Southwest Virginia.

The idea for the initiative was born, according to Will Payne, InvestSWVA’s director, out of a desire by several current and former state legislators representing the region, including the late state Sen. Ben Chafin, state Sen. Todd Pillion and Dels. Terry Kilgore and Israel O’Quinn, to see Southwest Virginia be more proactive and assertive in pursuing business leads.

One member of the group or another, according to Payne, heard a rumor that EarthLink CEO Glenn Goad, who grew up in Wise County, was considering bringing some customer service operations from overseas back to the United States.

Kilgore drove to Atlanta to visit Goad in November 2019, according to Payne. In January, a larger group consisting of Kilgore, O’Quinn, Pillion, Chafin, Payne and Duane Miller, executive director of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission, traveled to Atlanta to talk again with the head of the high-speed internet and mobile phone service provider.

The personal approach worked.

In September, EarthLink announced plans to invest $5.4 million to build a customer support center on property that sits on a reclaimed mine site in Norton, creating 285 jobs.

Miller feels confident it was the efforts by lawmakers and leaders to make personal connections with business executives that caused Southwest Virginia to be successful with EarthLink.

“Everyone has just said, ‘OK, let’s roll our sleeves up, and let’s just get to it,’” Miller explains.

Big news in Wythe County

Experts say there are two must-haves for sealing economic development deals: the right infrastructure and the right location.

Virginia committed $8.5 million to upgrade infrastructure at Progress Park in Wythe County to secure a deal with Connecticut-based Blue Star NBR LLC to invest $714 million to build a manufacturing facility that will produce nitrile butadiene rubber and medical gloves, creating more than 2,000 jobs. (See related story.)

The state’s investment in the project includes $3 million to expand the Fort Chiswell Wastewater Plant, $1.5 million to extend public sewer infrastructure and $4 million to build a water tank serving Progress Park.

Another new tenant at Progress Park will also get to benefit from those upgrades. STS Group AG, a supplier of interior and exterior parts for commercial vehicles, announced in April it plans to invest $39 million to bring its first U.S. manufacturing operation to the Wythe County business park, creating 120 jobs.

Slot machines and sawmills

Southwest Virginia’s biggest economic development news in 2020 was, of course, Bristol voters’ overwhelming approval of a referendum allowing Hard Rock International Inc. to build a $400 million resort and casino.

In late 2021, Hard Rock International announced construction has begun on a temporary casino at the former Bristol Mall, set to open in the first half of 2022, creating an expected 600 jobs. The temporary, full-service casino will offer about 900 gaming slots and 20 tables for gaming, as well as a restaurant and lounge in a 30,000-square-foot space.

Smyth and Grayson counties celebrated a win in August 2021 when Woodgrain Inc., a manufacturer of wood molding and trim, announced plans to invest nearly $9 million to expand its Smyth County operations and put $8 million more into purchasing and expanding Independence Lumber sawmill in Grayson County.

“If this hadn’t have worked, it probably would have closed,” Mitch Smith, deputy county administrator for Grayson County, says of the sawmill, which is the county’s largest private employer.

This deal means the sawmill’s 80 workers will keep their jobs, and Woodgrain is set to add 20 jobs at the sawmill over the next three years, according to Smith. Additionally, the expansion is expected to create 80 jobs at the facility in Smyth County.

Energy opportunities

Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell, believes there’s a perception that Virginia’s coalfield communities are opposed to alternative energy. “In reality, we’re not,” he says. “We welcome it with open arms.”

Morefield is working closely with Kentucky-based Edelen Renewables, which is partnering with Kansas City-based solar developer Savion LLC to build a 700-acre solar farm on a former surface mine in Buchanan County. The $100 million solar farm is expected to generate about $100,000 annually in tax revenue and create about six permanent jobs and
250 construction jobs.

Although he’s a supporter of what he describes as “an-all-of-the-above approach” to energy, Morefield isn’t abandoning coal.

He was pleased when SunCoke Energy Inc., a producer of high-quality coke for blast furnace steel production, announced plans in May 2021 to invest $50 million to refurbish its manufacturing operation in Buchanan County and to perform upgrades allowing the facility to produce foundry coke, which is used for melting iron and other metals. Work on the project is expected to last several years, according to a company spokesperson.

“They’re one of the largest buyers of coal in Southwest Virginia,” Morefield says of SunCoke. “The multiplier effect that that company has on the local economy is significant.”

Growing established companies

“We’re seeing some really good growth among our existing manufacturing companies in the area,” says Jonathan Belcher, executive director of the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority.

For one, Tempur Sealy International Inc. is expanding its Duffield facility in Scott County, investing $16.7 million and adding 25 jobs to meet growing demand for its foam mattress and pillow products.

In another win for Scott County, VFP Inc., which manufactures enclosures to protect critical infrastructure, announced plans in November 2021 to invest $7.2 million to expand its operation there, enabling the company to produce larger concrete shelters and meet future market demand.

Tazewell County also benefited from an expansion by a longtime area employer in 2021. Family-owned heavy metal fabricator Lawrence Brothers Inc. announced plans in April to invest $3.2 million to upgrade and modernize its machinery and equipment to increase capacity and double production. The expansion is expected to create 40 jobs.

Good fits for Russell County

Some economic development offices get obsessed with landing a whale, according to Ernie McFaddin, chairperson of Russell County’s industrial development authority. While he’ll certainly take a corporation bringing 2,000 jobs to the area, he’s also happy to land medium-size deals.

“I know for us that an employer with 50 to 150 jobs is really the sweet spot,” he says. The county got just that with Ceccato S.p.A. In September, the Italian vehicle-washing equipment manufacturer announced plans to invest $1.75 million to build its U.S. headquarters in Russell County, creating up to 50 jobs over the next three to five years.

Ceccato USA President and CEO Jimmy Sisk settled on the Russell Place building in Lebanon the first time he looked at it, according to McFaddin.

“I think the biggest thing he liked was that he really didn’t have to do anything to it,” McFaddin says. “Clearly they were looking for a place where they could get started quickly.”   

 

Southwest Virginia’s recent deals

Blue Star NBR LLC

Wythe County

2,464 jobs

EarthLink

Norton

285 jobs

Amazon.com Inc.

Bristol

200 jobs

STS Group AG

Wythe County

120 jobs

Maine Five Distributors LLC

Buchanan County

100 jobs

Woodgrain Inc.

Smyth County

80 jobs

Ceccato S.p.A.

Russell County

50 jobs

Lawrence Brothers Inc.

Tazewell County

40 jobs

Mohawk Industries Inc.

Carroll County

35 jobs

VFP Inc.

Scott County

30 jobs

Source: Virginia Economic Development Partnership

SWVA initiative seeks to attract remote workers

Project Fuse, a regional cooperative initiative to make Southwest Virginia the location of choice for remote employment, launched Friday with the release of a playbook to attract businesses.

“The global business community seeks options for both attracting the employees they want and managing their operating costs,” Will Payne, managing partner of Coalfield Strategies LLC and campaign lead for InvestSWVA, said in a statement. “Companies need rural community partners who can help them with teleworking and remote working, as Project Fuse explains.”

The Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority (LPRIF) commissioned the playbook — developed over the last four months — with support from the state’s GO Virginia economic development initiative and the U.S. Economic Development Administration. InvestSWVA brought project members together.

“The global pandemic accelerated more than a workplace shift and the remote work opportunity,” Duane Miller, executive director of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission, chief sponsor of the project, said in a statement. “It has opened a new door into diversifying our economy in Virginia’s Southwest. Given the quality of life we can offer and the support our economic development teams can provide to companies, we commissioned a look into how to match our assets to the opportunity.”

The report includes case studies like Rochester, New York-based medical records company eHealth Technologies Inc.’s establishment of a hub location in Duffield in 2020. Company management has reported lower turnover and higher levels of satisfaction among its area employees in the area. The partnership between Mountain Empire Community College and eHealth Technologies that provides the company tailored training processes also contributed to the location’s success, according to the report.

The study identified four opportunities for LPRIFA localities, which include the city of Norton and the counties of Dickenson, Lee, Scott and Wise.

  1. Employers are offering support for living remotely and using coworking spaces.
  2. Companies’ real estate needs have changed.
  3. Customer service via teleworkers is growing in sophistication and pay scales.
  4. Companies are looking for partnerships with communities to find and retain quality employees as they compete in a tight labor market.

To take advantage of these opportunities, localities need to meet several conditions: ubiquitous internet connectivity and reliable transportation networks; downtown office buildings with meeting space; affordable, diverse housing options in walkable areas; and an established network with academic partners.

As part of meeting those conditions, localities need to develop their downtowns and deliver universal internet connectivity ahead of schedule, the playbook states.

InvestSWVA is a public-private business research, attraction and marketing campaign launched under the umbrella of the Virginia Tobacco Revitalization Commission, which was created by the General Assembly in 1999 to promote economic growth and development in formerly tobacco-dependent communities.

$714M Wythe medical glove plant is solo venture now

Developers broke ground in January on the $714 million medical glove manufacturing complex planned for Wythe County’s Progress Park. Only now it may be a solo project, not a joint venture.

In October 2021, then-Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Alexandria-based Blue Star NBR LLC was building manufacturing facilities to make nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and billions of nitrile medical gloves in a joint venture with Delaware-based American Glove Innovations Inc. (AGI) that would create about 2,500 jobs by 2028. Northam billed the venture as “the largest job creation commitment Southwest Virginia has seen in a generation.”

But the joint venture may have fallen through, as Blue Star backed out of the partnership with AGI in January during the due diligence phase, according to Blue Star NBR CEO Scott Maier. “It’s just business,” Maier explained.

Blue Star is moving ahead with the project on its own, Maier said, and the decision to exit the joint venture will not impact the amount of the planned investment or the number of jobs previously announced. “They weren’t bringing any capital,” he said of AGI.

However, AGI spokesperson Deborah Brown, a partner with global law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, said the situation isn’t so cut and dry. “AGI is at least a 50% equity owner in [the project] and does not agree that it has departed or split from the venture,” Brown said in a statement. “AGI is committed to seeing the project through.”

Brown also took issue with Maier’s characterization, saying, “AGI brought substantial capital to the deal and has invested funds into the venture.”

Blue Star executives decided not to move forward with the partnership after learning of litigation involving Marc Jason, who was previously named co-CEO of the Blue Star-AGI joint venture.

Jason is CEO of London Luxury LLC, which filed a Jan. 5 lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court against Walmart Inc., charging that Walmart owes the company about $41 million for boxes of nitrile gloves produced in Malaysia and Thailand. The complaint goes on to state that London Luxury could lose more than $500 million on a deal to sell tens of millions of boxes of gloves to the retail behemoth.

“Walmart has created uncertainty regarding whether it intends to accept and pay for the vast majority of gloves it committed to buy,” the lawsuit claims.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Walmart said the company has filed a counterclaim against London Luxury “for their repeated failure to meet product standards and delivery obligations.”

London Luxury did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

AGI touted the Walmart deal as part of the joint venture and the litigation spooked Blue Star. “They were bringing a purchase agreement from a large Fortune 500 company [to the table] and now that contract is in litigation,” Maier explained. “So, we kind of said, ‘You know what? When things settle down, maybe we can talk again.’”

However, Brown said that “AGI disagrees that an ongoing litigation serves as a legitimate basis for any change to the [Blue Star- AGI] venture.”

The fact that AGI may be out of the project doesn’t strike David Manley, executive director of the Wythe County Joint Industrial Development Authority, as particularly newsworthy.

“We’ve been working closely with … the Blue Star leadership since May,” Manley said. “We don’t anticipate any impact to the timeline or success of the project. The project is moving forward as expected.”

A spokesperson for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership said the state “is aware of Blue Star’s separation from AGI.”

“We do not anticipate any impact on the project timeline and outcome,” said Suzanne Clark, VEDP’s managing director of communications, marketing and communications.

Visitors traveling to Blue Star’s site at Progress Park this month will likely spot some heavy machinery. “We’re moving dirt,” Maier says. “It’s still on track to have that initial NBR plant open at the end of August.”

Blue Star’s nitrile butadiene rubber manufacturing facility will be followed by six planned nitrile glove manufacturing plants, the first of which is scheduled to open by March 2023, with five more glove factories opening between 2023 and early 2028. When it’s operating at full capacity, Blue Star NBR plans to manufacture 20 billion nitrile gloves per year — roughly 18% of the nation’s current supply.

On Feb. 4, the Virginia House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved legislation to fund up to $4.6 million for VEDP to provide recruitment and training of employees for Blue Star operations in Wythe County.

Appalachian Council for Innovation taps exec director

John Bebber has been hired as executive director of the Appalachian Council for Innovation, its board announced earlier in January. He was previously district director for U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Abingdon.

ACI is a nonprofit regional economic development organization founded in 1999 as the Southwestern Virginia Technology Council. It includes businesses and organizations in 16 Southwest Virginia cities and counties, including Bristol and the counties of Wythe, Russell, Wise and Buchanan. ACI created IN Appalachia to connect businesses, health care providers, customers and organizations to drive growth and regional collaboration.

“I am excited for this opportunity to promote regionalism, cooperation and growth among our businesses, localities, schools and communities,” Bebber said in a statement. “Promoting these ideas in our region is vital to long-term success and sustainability, as well as showing our youth that they can grow up and build a life here without having to sacrifice prosperity, or any level of success or happiness. I believe that ACI will be a driving force behind building this model of sustainability and changing the way we look at ourselves as a region. I am thrilled that I get to be a part of that.”

A U.S. Navy veteran, Bebber has degrees from King University and Appalachian State University.