Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Upcoming Event

Best Places to Work in Virginia

Hamburger Menu Hamburger Menu

Tag: Southwest Virginia

State awards $8.85M to redevelop SWVA abandoned mine sites

The Virginia Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program intends to award funds to eight economic development projects across Southwest Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, announced Friday.

The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, which will be renamed the Virginia Department of Energy on Oct. 1, administers the program. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement will review the projects and must approve them before the funds are officially awarded.

The following funding awards have been recommended:

  • Norton will receive $2.5 million for Project Intersection Phase IV, an industrial site development aiming to attract new manufacturing businesses.
  • Buchanan County will receive $2 million for Buchanan County Solar, a commercial solar development on a reclaimed surface coal mine.
  • For the Elam Farm Property Infrastructure Development, an industrial site for light manufacturing facilities, Wise County will receive almost $1.71 million.
  • The Southwest Virginia Energy Research and Development Authority is set to get $975,000 for Project Innovation, a regional project to create an “energy lab” for researchers in the energy industry.
  • Lee County was granted $500,000 for the Lee County Indoor Farm-Greenhouse project to create a pad for an indoor grow farm.
  • Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority will receive $500,000 for Project Thoroughbred Phase II, a grain processing, storage and distribution terminal.
  • Wise County is receiving $371,000 to make improvements and upgrade the existing baseball and softball facility at Veldon Dotson Recreation Park into a travel ball field for tournaments.
  • Dickenson County will get $300,000 to add a swimming pool and update restrooms at the Breaks Interstate Park’s waterpark.

The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has received $10 million in federal funding each year to develop abandoned mine land sites in the region since 2017.

Italian vehicle wash manufacturer to open U.S. HQ in Russell County

An Italian manufacturer will open a $1.75 million U.S. headquarters in Russell County, creating 50 jobs over the next three to five years, the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority announced Thursday.

Ceccato S.p.A. will open its U.S. subsidiary at the Russell Place building at 122 Haber Drive in Lebanon. It has a presence in more than 60 countries and subsidiaries in Germany and Brazil.

Lebanon competed against locations in North Carolina, West Virginia, and other Virginia localities for the project.

Ceccato manufactures systems to wash vehicles, from cars to trains. At its Lebanon facility, it will assemble and sell car wash units, manufacture truck wash units, and source items needed to manufacture them for American companies.

The company is project to make its initial capital investment of $1.75 million within the first four months, Ceccato USA President and CEO Jimmy Sisk said during the announcement  Thursday .

In February, VCEDA approved a loan of up to $900,000 to be used by the Russell County Industrial Development Authority to acquire and renovate the 51,830-square-foot building.

“Attracting Ceccato USA, an Italy-based, multinational company is a huge win for Russell County and Southwest Virginia,” said Virginia Del. Will Wampler III, R-Washington County. “To attract a company with an 80-year track record of manufacturing excellence speaks to both Ceccato’s and our region’s desire to push forward and remain competitive in a global market.”

Parts needed for the facility are expected to arrive by late October or early November.

“Frankly, we looked at those other locations, but we did not find anyone as welcoming to us as what we found in [Russell County IDA Chairman] Ernie [McFadden] and [VCEDA Executive Director] Jonathan [Belcher],” Sisk said. “Every single time we came to Lebanon to look at the possibilities, they were welcoming and took good care of us and that played into our final decision of where to locate. We could have located anywhere. We feel very thankful and blessed that it is the Lebanon location.”

Amazon opens delivery station in Bristol

The Amazon.com Inc. delivery station in Bristol opened for its first official day of operation Wednesday.

Located at 103 Thomas Road, the station is 72,000 square feet. A delivery station creates on average 100 to 150 full- and part-time associate jobs “in addition to hundreds of driver opportunities,” with wages of at least $15 per hour, the global e-tailer said in a news release. Amazon has created more than 27,000 jobs in Virginia since 2010.

Two Bristol companies, Strategic Growth Logistics and Friendship Automotive Enterprises, have partnered to support the new jobs by hiring and training drivers.

Delivery stations are the last step in Amazon’s ordering process. Nearby Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers send packages to the stations, where the parcels are loaded into vehicles to be delivered to customers.

Amazon also recently launched a career center in Chesapeake and delivery stations in Norfolk and Hampton, as well as announcing that it will open one in Stafford County this month.

Additionally last week, Amazon announced it has hired 3,000 of the expected 25,000 employees it expects to recruit by 2030 for its multibillion-dollar East Coast H2Q headquarters in Arlington.

 

Nonprofit news site launches to cover SW and Southern Virginia

Cardinal Press, a new nonprofit digital news service covering Southwest and Southern Virginia, will begin publishing stories in late September, with Dwayne Yancey, former editorial page editor for The Roanoke Times, at the helm as its founding editor.

Nonprofit organization Cardinal Productions, incorporated in June, created Cardinal Press, which will publish original stories five days a week at cardinal.press.

Yancey worked for The Roanoke Times for 39 years in various roles. He has won the Virginia Press Association’s D. Lathan Mims Award for Editorial Leadership twice and is a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. His book, “When Hell Froze Over: The Untold Story of Doug Wilder: A Black Politician’s Rise to Power in the South” covers former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder’s campaign to become the first Black elected governor in the United States.

“It is an honor to help Cardinal take flight,” Yancey said in a statement. “Southwest and Southside Virginia are the most overlooked parts of the state, but there are a lot of stories worth telling, and we want to tell them.”

Yancey is assembling Cardinal’s staff and will contributed signed columns.

Cardinal was established by journalist Luanne Rife, president of Cardinal Productions; Debbie Meade, former publisher of The Roanoke Times; and Chris Turnbull, senior director for corporate communications for Carilion Clinic.

“We are thrilled to have a journalist with Dwayne Yancey’s impeccable credentials join Cardinal as we launch a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent news service,” Rife said in a statement.

Cardinal will solicit donations, grants and sponsorships from foundations, corporations and individuals and will disclose the names of and amounts from donors. Early contributions total nearly $400,000 for 2021, according to a news release, and early contributors include Danville-based American National Bank and Trust Company, Carilion Clinic, Davenport Energy Inc. and Dominion Energy Inc.

“Nonprofit news is the way of the future,” Meade said in a statement. “People consume news in very different ways than they did 20 or 30 years ago. Our news will be provided free of charge to readers, and Cardinal Press’s success will be contingent on the financial support of the communities it serves.”

United Way of SW Va. names marketing, communications director

The United Way of Southwest Virginia named Scott Robertson as its director of marketing and communications. He will assume the role on Aug. 9, according to the Abingdon-based nonprofit.

Robertson will direct strategic marketing and promotions, provide communications project management and oversee digital services.

President and CEO Travis Staton said in a statement, “The work of United Way of Southwest Virginia is successful because of strong, engaged partners. Scott’s proven track record of influencing stakeholders to become involved is important to the continued development of our new model United Way. The communities we serve must know how to become involved in developing solutions that will make long-term generational change in our region. Scott will lead communications to reach and engage these audiences in new ways.”

Robertson was previously the managing editor of The Business Journal of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia, where he focused on economic and community development issues. He has been involved in regional workforce and community health initiatives such as Region AHEAD (the Appalachian Highlands Economic Aid Directory). Robertson holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee.

United Way of Southwest Virginia programs and initiatives serve the counties of Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe, and the cities of Bristol, Galax, Norton and Radford.

Virginia to spend $700M on universal broadband by 2024

Ahead of the General Assembly’s August special session, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday he wants to spend $700 million of Virginia’s federal relief funding on expanding broadband access to all of Virginia. Virginia received $4.3 billion in federal funds through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March.

Joined by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Northam fleshed out his plans, which would speed up his pledge in 2018 to have universal broadband access in the state by 2028 to completing the job by 2024. Most connections will be in place within the next 18 months, the governor added.

“If COVID has taught us anything, it has taught us the importance of universal broadband in our great commonwealth. Whether it be for virtual learning, or whether it be for telehealth or business opportunities, or just quality of life, it is very very important that we have universal broadband in Virginia,” Northam said.

Since 2018, the state has awarded about $124 million in broadband grants (mainly through the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative and Community Development Block Grants) and connected about 140,000 residences, businesses and other facilities. Virginia is currently the 15th most connected state in the country, but only 91.1% of Virginians have access to broadband internet with speeds of 100 mbps or faster, according to BroadbandNow, a trade site that publishes independent research on broadband and also provides data from the Federal Communications Commission.

Warner said that broadband was a necessity to attract good-paying jobs and businesses to Southwest Virginia.

“While we can’t guarantee that this historic announcement the governor’s making is going to guarantee we’ll get every job we’re going after,” he said, “I can guarantee this: If you don’t have high speed internet broadband in 2021, you’re not even going to get a fair look from any company that wants to locate or bring jobs, or frankly, some of our own who want to stay here and start great business.”

The expansion will create a trained workforce, Warner said.

“This will also create jobs,” he said. “Who’s going to lay that fiber? Who’s going to work in terms of installing. … All of those installed are opportunities. And the truth is, if we train those workers here in Virginia, and … once we get it installed in Virginia, they’ve got to go do some work in Johnson City [in Tennessee], that’s still good for the regional economy.”

The Democratic-controlled General Assembly and Northam have agreed to provide $50 million in 2020 and an additional $50 million in 2021 to the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, a public-private partnership to extend broadband service to areas currently without internet providers.

“Localities and broadband providers have stepped up over the past three years and helped the commonwealth connect thousands of unserved Virginians,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball said in a statement. “With today’s announcement, large regional projects that achieve universal service can be funded across the commonwealth without delay.”

In June, Northam announced that the Virginia General Assembly would convene in Richmond on Aug. 2 for a special session to allocate the federal funding. On Monday, Northam proposed spending $353 million on small business recovery and assisting the tourism industry.

Health Wagon receives COVID-19 vaccine doses after wait

A little more than a month after The Health Wagon’s director went on national television and said the Wise County-based free clinic system hadn’t received COVID-19 vaccine doses, it has now vaccinated 325 people in the past two weeks.

In a news release Thursday, The Health Wagon President and CEO Teresa Tyson thanked the Virginia Department of Health for providing Moderna vaccine doses, which the clinic is administering to people over age 65 and younger people with pre-existing health conditions. Currently the clinic is hosting drive-thru vaccination events and plans weekly events.

Vaccines are “first come, first serve,” according to The Health Wagon, and there is a waiting list. They advise calling (276) 328-8850 to be placed on the waiting list, and clinic employees will call when an appointment is available.

On “CBS This Morning” in early February, Tyson said she had asked the state government for doses for the clinic’s 5,600 patients in Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott and Wise counties. Many don’t have access to reliable transportation, which is why the clinic uses mobile units to get closer to patients’ workplaces and homes. Tysons also noted that her patients are demographically more likely to have co-morbidities that can place people at higher health risks from the virus. However, at the time the report aired, Gov. Ralph Northam and Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, said the state wasn’t receiving enough doses yet to send them to everyone who wanted one.

However, over the past weeks, Virginia’s number of allocated weekly doses has almost quadrupled, nearing 400,000 a week, due to increased production of the Moderna and Pfizer Inc. vaccines and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s approval of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in late February.

In Virginia, eight pharmacy groups and other providers have joined hospitals, CVS pharmacies and local health districts in administering shots, making them more widely available across the state.

“We are so blessed to begin receiving vaccines,” Tyson said in a statement Thursday. “Thank you, Virginia Department of Health, for helping our people. My mission is to save lives in Central Appalachia, and these vaccines could not have come at a better time.”

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

SW Va. aims to attract data centers via regional tax pact

As part of an effort to entice data centers to locate in the region, Southwest Virginia leaders announced Tuesday a joint agreement to set what will be Virginia’s lowest regional property tax rate on data center equipment.

The localities comprising the Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority — Dickenson, Lee, Scott and Wise counties and Norton  — have entered into an agreement to each establish a tax rate of 24 cents per $100 on data center equipment. By comparison, Henrico County slashed its data center equipment tax rate to 40 cents on every $100 in March 2017 in order to attract the $1.75 billion Facebook data center, which opened last year at the county’s White Oak Technology Park in Sandston. At the time, Henrico’s was the lowest such tax rate in the state.

Now, through its Project Oasis initiative, the region hopes to leverage the area’s underground water in former coal mines to provide free geothermal cooling as a significant savings tool for data centers, which typically rack up high HVAC utility and maintenance bills to keep equipment from overheating. The block tax rate is intended as an additional incentive to the region’s offer of available and cheap land, geothermal cooling and workforce readiness and development.

According to the October 2020 Project Oasis study commissioned by InvestSWVA, the region is well-positioned for data centers. The study states that one large data center could result in more than 2,000 jobs and $50 million in annual economic activity for the region.

That same study states that six sites in the area have met the general criteria to locate a large, 36-megawatt hyperscale data center, and that four additional sites could be suitable for a smaller data center of up to 10 megawatts. Two sites have geothermal cooling opportunities through the utilization of 51-degree water contained in pools on the mining properties. One additional site has underground space that provides a consistent 55-degree temperature.

Tuesday’s announcement builds upon the Virginia General Assembly’s passage last week of Senate Bill 1423, which reduces the job creation requirement necessary for data centers to qualify for the retail sales and use tax exemption in a distressed locality from 25 to 10 jobs. The bill also lowers the new capital investment threshold from $150 million to $70 million.

Speaking during a virtual news conference Tuesday, Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, said that these new incentives will help attract more data centers like the existing Mineral Gap Data Center Campus in Wise, where Ashburn-based DP Facilities has a highly secure data center for government and health care clients. “We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Kilgore said. “We’re just building on our success.”

Kilgore and other regional leaders participating in the news conference said that while the reduced income tax rate would help attract data centers, localities will still reap the benefit of real estate taxes. Project Oasis’ projected model data center would involve a $464.1 million economic development investment, with an equipment cost of $201.6 million and a building cost of $262.5 million.

As for a potential local workforce, R. Kent Hill, managing principal of Richmond-based OnPoint Development Strategies, said that students from Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap are trained with adaptable skill sets that could be utilized by data center employers.

“If we were to get a large data center to select [a site] in the region, they would have a custom-tailored workforce or training program that would hit the road fairly quickly,” Hill said, noting that some data centers jobs have six-figure salaries.

Hill added that each of the sites under consideration has been examined for viability, including for power and connectivity capabilities. Fiber-optic internet either already exists at the locations or could be extended “fairly easily.”

As for the block tax rate agreed to by the localities, final action will take place this spring when they formally adopt the terms of the memorandum of understanding through their annual budgetary process.

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

$10M to be disbursed among mine land reclamation projects

A $10 million round of federal Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Pilot Program funding is available for Southwest Virginia projects focused on reclaiming abandoned mine land and promoting regional economic diversity, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.

This is the fourth round of AML funding, which is administered by the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. Projects must reclaim historic mining features and be focused on promoting renewable energy, agriculture and revitalizing “historically disadvantaged communities.”

“The Abandoned Mine Land Pilot Program provides important opportunities to repurpose land and water impacted by abandoned mines to advance renewable energy and revitalize historically disadvantaged communities in Southwest Virginia,” Northam said in a statement. “This program has funded several successful projects designed to develop solar resources, spur tourism, and improve infrastructure for new industrial sites.”

All projects must receive approval from the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement. Virginia is one of only six states selected to administer the pilot program, with the DMME receiving the initial $10 million in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The state has since approved 15 projects for the program.

“Our agency has big goals when it comes to renewable energy and supporting historically disadvantaged communities,” DMME Director John Warren said in a statement. “We are seeing development on these historic mine sites and new purpose to land once thought unusable. That is quite the accomplishment of our team at DMME, and we hope to see more creative ideas that will help contribute to a clean energy transition.”  

Potential applicants can submit project proposals via the DMME website through April 1.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

 

Mohawk Industries to invest $22.5M in Carroll County operation

Flooring manufacturing giant Mohawk Industries Inc. will invest $22.5 million to expand its Carroll County operation, creating 35 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.

Mohawk, which currently employs more than 900 Virginians, will add 19,000 square feet to its 351 Floyd Pike facility in Hillsville and install new equipment to increase its production speed.

“We are proud that a global industry leader like Mohawk continues to expand its footprint in Virginia,” Northam said in a statement. “The advanced manufacturing industry remains the backbone of the economy in many regions across the commonwealth, and we thank Mohawk for contributing to this important sector and creating high-quality jobs in Carroll County, especially at such a critical time in our economic recovery.”

With operations in 10 countries including the U.S., Mohawk manufactures carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone and vinyl flooring for residential and commercial spaces. Its brands include American Olean, Daltile, Durkan, Karastan, IVC, Marazzi, Mohawk, Pergo, Quick-Step and Unilin.

“Mohawk Industries is an important employer in Virginia, and the company’s decision to reinvest in its Carroll County operation demonstrates confidence in our business climate and workforce,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball said in a statement. “Manufacturers benefit from our competitive operating costs, strategic location and our skilled talent pool and we appreciate the company’s decision to expand its operations in the commonwealth.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Carroll County and Virginia’s Industrial Advancement Alliance (VIAA) to secure the project for the commonwealth, and Northam approved an $80,000 Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund grant to help Carroll County with the project.

Mohawk is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program and the Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide the company funding and support services for employee training.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.