Retired Breeden Co. executive Barry Tomlin has rejoined the Virginia Beach real estate development and property management company as its vice president of customer service and marketing, The Breeden Co. announced Dec. 5.
Tomlin initially joined Breeden in 2007, working as vice president of property management at the time of his 2022 retirement.
In his new role, Tomlin will focus on customer satisfaction and engagement and will oversee marketing initiatives, including efforts to strengthen the company’s local branding.
“Barry’s unparalleled experience and deep understanding of our company’s values and goals make him the perfect leader in elevating our global and community-specific customer service and marketing efforts,” Bonnie Moore, president of property management at The Breeden Co. said in a statement.
Ramon W. Breeden Jr. founded the real estate development company in 1961. The company includes commercial real estate, multifamily property management and general contracting divisions. Its portfolio boasts over 20,000 apartments.
Virginia Beach-based drone delivery company DroneUp has received a Federal Aviation Administration certificate that will allow it to grow its delivery operations.
On Tuesday, the company announcedi t received an FAA Part 119 air carrier certificate under Part 135. The certificate allows DroneUp to carry third-party property as an air carrier and to fly drones up to 5 miles without maintaining a visual line of sight.
“With this certification, and with actual beyond visual line of sight certification,” said DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker, “you’re going to see this start to scale very, very quickly, because the cost of doing delivery by drone is not only going to be better and more efficient than some of the other traditional modalities, but it’s safer.”
Previously, DroneUp couldn’t carry cargo owned by others and had to have special arrangements with retailers, limiting their partnerships. Also under the previous Part 107 certification, the company had to maintain sight of the drone, with either the drone operator or a visual observer in contact with the operator watching, and the minimum weather visibility required was 3 miles from the control station.
“It allows us to scale much, much quicker,” Walker said, “and also we can do it more affordably for the customers, because we can fly beyond visual line of sight. We don’t have the additional overhead of the visual observers that we had before.”
DroneUp is the sixth U.S. drone operator to receive a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, according to the FAA. The company submitted its initial application in May, Walker said.
DroneUp is beginning operations under the Part 135 certification at its location in Murphy, Texas, near Dallas. The tech company will then work to get FAA approval to append the certification to add other locations, starting with the remaining 10 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to get all 11 of those locations in the DFW area operating Part 135 … and then after that, we intend to continue to expand across the Dallas-Fort Worth area until we can successfully cover 80% of that area with drones, demonstrate our ability to do that at scale under Part 135, and then we’ll be expanding into another metro area yet to be announced,” Walker said.
DroneUp will start expanding Part 135 operations in the first quarter of 2025, “and if I have my way, we’ll have all of the entire DFW area that we have now operating as Part 135 by the end of Q1,” Walker said, and then start expanding into new Dallas-Forth Worth locations under Part 135 in the second quarter.
Under the previous certification, the Murphy location could serve 6,000 households, but under the Part 135 certification, it will be able to serve 25,000 households, and with fewer personnel, according to Walker.
DroneUp provides retail delivery services and has conducted several medical supplies delivery projects. The company partnered with Walmart in 2021, and in May 2022, the two announced plans to expand drone delivery services to 4 million homes in six states. In August, DroneUp said it would end Walmart drone delivery in three states to focus on perfecting its service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
In August 2023, DroneUp announced it would launch an 18-month project to deliver medical supplies and hypertension medication to patients on the Eastern Shore and Tangier Island, in partnership with Riverside Health System, Old Dominion University and others.
Founded in 2006, DroneUp has about 250 employees, of which about 100 are in Virginia. In August 2022, DroneUp announced it planned to add 655 jobs as part of an expansion that includes establishing a $20 million drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County.
As coastal populations grow and traditional and novel maritime industries increase their use of the Atlantic Ocean, the state government is developing a comprehensive plan to support the coexistence of different uses of the ocean.
A group of more than 100 stakeholders — including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — are developing the Virginia Ocean Plan, a document that is set to come out in a public draft next year.
There are six workgroups focused on different aspects of the plan: fishing and aquaculture; cultural and historic resources; seafloor resources; energy and infrastructure; sustainability and conservation; transportation navigation and security.
“Virginia has the largest naval base in the world, the deepest port on the East Coast, one of the largest commercial seafood industries on the East Coast and the largest offshore wind farm in the U.S., with more on the horizon,” notes Ryan Green, who manages the Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program under the state Department of Environmental Quality. “It’s important to have coordination and collaboration across these uses.”
One area of conflict, Green says, has been between offshore wind and commercial and recreational fishing, so the plan will include maps of fishing areas in relation to ocean floor leases for wind farms.
“We want to make sure other users are considered and given plenty of opportunities to weigh in,” Green says. “It’s helpful to have a cross-cutting discussion driven by stakeholders and the public.”
Todd Janeski, Virginia Commonwealth University’s natural resources program manager, says that wind farms, subsea cables, sand mining and changes in shipping lanes have also impacted commercial fishing.
“The commercial fisheries industry is very apprehensive about changes in ocean use,” he says. “How do we better coordinate around those issues to be more efficient and address conflicts?”
Although Green acknowledges that these deadlines are “moving targets,” an internal draft of the ocean plan is expected to be completed in early 2025, while a public draft will be available in the second half of the year.
“We want it to be as close to a consensus process as it can be,” Green says. “We plan for this to be a living document. As new opportunities are being developed, we will continue to revise it.”
Winchester-based Coldwell Banker Premier has acquired Virginia Beach-based Coldwell Banker Now, merging into a brokerage with a combined $600 million sales volume in 2023.
Coldwell Banker Premier did not disclose financial details of the merger, which it announced Monday. The combined real estate company is the second-fastest growing Coldwell Banker franchise in the nation over the last five years and the second largest in the mid-Atlantic region, according to RealTrends Verified.
Coldwell Banker Now has five offices across Chesapeake, Franklin, Newport News, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. With that addition, the expanded Coldwell Banker Premier has 21 offices and 300 agents in five states. The brokerage serves Hampton Roads, Washington, D.C., the Shenandoah Valley, south-central Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia’s eastern panhandle and southern Delaware.
Dorcas Helfant-Browning founded Coldwell Banker Now, which joined the Coldwell Banker brand in 1989 as Coldwell Banker Professional Realtors, in 1974. Owners Helfant-Browning, Tim Gifford and Rick West will keep leadership roles.
Helfant-Browning became the first female president of the National Association of Realtors in 1992. She currently serves on the 2024 board of directors for Real Estate Information Network (REIN), Hampton Roads’ multiple listing service.
Coldwell Banker Premier CEO Steve DuBrueler said in a statement: “Dorcas is a real estate legend and she, Tim and Rick built an incredible company that has served the Hampton Roads region for so many years. As we spoke more and more about coming together, it became crystal clear that we share the same agent-first focus.”
Its residential and commercial real estate operations and property management division will operate as Coldwell Banker Premier. The merger is complete, but the existing Coldwell Banker Premier will not rebrand Coldwell Banker Now until “probably the first quarter of” 2025, said Coldwell Banker Premier Chief Operating Officer Stephen Meadows.
“Our company was built by finding and merging with the best companies in the area,” Helfant-Browning said in a statement. “Tim, Rick and I recognized that we could provide so much more support and opportunities for our agents and clients by joining forces with Steve and his amazing Coldwell Banker Premier team.”
DeBrueler established his brokerage, now known as Coldwell Banker Premier, in 1994. The company, which affiliated with Coldwell Banker in 1995, provides residential, relocation, commercial, property management, auction, luxury, real estate owned, and mortgage and title services.
Virginia is for lovers of vodka distilled from corn in Austin, Texas, apparently.
For the seventh straight year, Tito’s Handmade Vodka is Virginia’s most popular spirit at Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) stores, according to a Friday announcement.
The spirit generated $75 million in sales at Virginia ABC stores in fiscal year 2024. That’s an increase of $3 million over 2023.
The second-most popular spirit at Virginia ABC stores is Hennessy VS cognac, which sold over $38 million. Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 ranked third with $28 million. The fourth-most popular spirit was Patron Silver tequila, with $25 million in sales, while Jim Beam straight bourbon whiskey delivered $23 million in sales.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Jameson Irish whiskey ($20 million), Lunazul Blanco tequila ($19.4 million), Maker’s Mark straight bourbon ($19.2 million), Grey Goose vodka ($18 million) and Crown Royal Canadian whiskey ($17 million).
The bestsellers list released Friday follows last week’s report of unaudited financial results for fiscal 2024. The authority reported $1.5 billion in gross revenues last year, up from $1.47 billion in gross revenues in fiscal 2023. ABC revenues include the sale of distilled spirits, Virginia wines and mixers, and the collection of license fees and other revenues.
The products that saw the biggest increases in sales among those that ranked in the top 50 were tequilas. In fiscal 2023, Lunazul Blanco ranked No. 10. Teremana Blanco jumped from the 43rd spot in fiscal 2023 to 24th this year, with $9.8 million in sales. Teremana Reposado moved from 42nd place to 27th, posting $9.1 million in sales. Lunazul Reposado rose from No. 45 to 28th place in fiscal 2024, delivering $8.8 million in sales.
Not everyone can be the belle of the ball, though. D’ussé VSOP cognac saw the largest decline among the state ABC’s top 50 products by percentage. With $6.6 million in sales in fiscal 2024, D’ussé sold $1.6 million less than in fiscal 2023. The spirit ranked 28th last year but came in 39th this year. Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey fell from the 14th spot to No. 17 in fiscal 2024, and Casamigos Blanco tequila fell from 11th in fiscal 2023 to 14th this year.
The best-selling categories at Virginia ABC in fiscal 2024 matched those in fiscal 2023. Vodka was the top seller with 1.6 million cases sold, followed by tequila at 996,000 cases sold. Straight bourbon whiskey came in third with 814,000 cases sold, and ABC stores sold 537,000 cases of cordials and 437,000 cases of rum.
Tequila saw a 12.4% increase in cases sold this year, making it the fastest growing spirit in the cases sold category for the second year. Domestic cordials increased by 7.6%, while straight rye whiskey saw 4.9% growth. Far from fizzling, sloe gin sales grew by 18.4%. Even so, with 167 cases sold, it remains Virginia ABC’s smallest category.
Sales of Virginia-distilled spirits raked in $25.8 million in fiscal 2024, with Fredericksburg’s A. Smith Bowman Distillery at the top. The top sellers in this category were: Bowman Brothers Virginia Straight Bourbon ($2.2 million), John J. Bowman Virginia Straight Bourbon ($1.1 million), Isaac Bowman Port Finish Whiskey ($619,572) and Richmond-based Cirrus Vodka’s 750 mL size ($490,955) and one-liter bottle ($432,535).
This year, Virginia ABC opened five new stores, including the authority’s 400th store, which is located in Jonesville.
The top five stores by gallons sold were:
Store 256, in Virginia Beach, 108,681 gallons
Store 219, in Fairfax, 106,587 gallons
Store 331, in Short Pump, 89,882 gallons
Store 278, in Virginia Beach, 89,498 gallons
Store 280, in Chesapeake, 89,283 gallons
The profits Virginia ABC collects from distilled spirit sales at ABC stores, and taxes collected on beer and wine sales go to the state. Since its establishment in 1934, Virginia ABC has contributed $13.9 billion to the commonwealth’s general fund supporting major education, health and transportation initiatives.
Shawn Tibbetts, Armada Hoffler Properties’ president, chief operating officer and CEO designate, will become CEO on Jan. 1, 2025, earlier than previously announced.
The Virginia Beach-based real estate investment trust announced in February that it expected to name Tibbetts as CEO in spring 2025, upon current CEO Louis Haddad’s retirement from the position. At that time, Armada Hoffler also added the role of president to Tibbetts’ COO position.
On Monday, though, the REIT announced Tibbetts will assume the role at the beginning of the new year. Armada Hoffler’s board of directors also expects to appoint him to the board when he becomes CEO.
“We’ve been working on this for quite some time, and we became comfortable, and the board became comfortable, with the fact that we had completed the task ahead of schedule or in enough time and accomplished the primary goals of the succession plan to allow this to happen at the beginning of the year,” Tibbetts told Virginia Business in an interview Tuesday.
“The truth is,” he added, “it’s a much cleaner break. It’s easier for us to kind of hit that inflection point and take off … in concert with our fiscal year, which starts on Jan. 1.”
Armada Hoffler might not name a new COO to succeed Tibbetts, he said, and is currently reviewing its organizational design.
Haddad will remain executive chairman of the board upon his retirement from the CEO role. He succeeded Armada founder Daniel Hoffler as executive chairman, and Hoffler now serves as executive chairman emeritus.
“This exciting step represents the continuation of a seamless transition plan that was the product of significant planning and forethought,” Eva Teig Hardy, lead independent director of the company’s board of directors, said in a statement.
Tibbetts joined Armada as COO in 2019 after serving as president and COO of the Port of Virginia, where he spent nine years. Since joining Hoffler, Tibbetts has grown the company’s portfolio net operating income by 45% and overseen the execution of $1.2 billion of transactions.
Tibbetts holds an undergraduate degree from James Madison University and an MBA from William & Mary and completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. Tibbetts is a member of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.
Louis Haddad
Under Haddad’s 25-year tenure as CEO, Armada completed its initial public offering and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. Haddad oversaw the company’s completion of Virginia Beach’s Town Center, part of a public-private partnership, and under his leadership, Armada’s portfolio grew to span eight states, with an enterprise value of $2.6 billion.
“I am proud of everything we have collectively accomplished throughout my 40-year career with this incredible company,” Haddad said in a statement. “I am confident that Shawn, who is an exceptional leader, will guide Armada Hoffler to amazing accomplishments in the years ahead.”
As he assumes leadership of the company, Tibbetts said he is excited to work with Armada Hoffler’s talent and its platform, building on Hoffler and Haddad’s work to continue growing the company.
“We have a company that’s now 45 years old, almost 46 years old,” Tibbetts said. “We’ve been public since 2013, and it’s been a heck of a ride to this point, and looking forward to this next chapter, [we’re] kind of adjusting the dials a little bit and leveraging our DNA to create the next chapter of this story — the quality story, as I’m calling it. Quality of our balance sheet, quality of our income stream and becoming a little more intentional and focused with our actions in the public market.”
Founded in 1979, Armada Hoffler operates in eight mid-Atlantic states. As of this summer, it had 6.2 million rental square feet in its portfolio and an estimated $630.5 million of projects in its development pipeline. The REIT has over 160 employees.
The Breeden Co. has promoted five employees in its property management division, the Virginia Beach-based real estate company announced Thursday.
The five employees are Rachel Blanchard, Lisa Capps, Sheena Obermark, Tiffany Rote and Samantha Schuman.
Blanchard, who was previously a project manager, has been appointed director of training and implementation. In May, a Breeden social media post referred to Blanchard as the company’s AppFolio project manager. In her new role, Blanchard will lead development and execution of training programs for the company’s property management teams.
Lisa Capps
Capps has been promoted from delinquency and collections compliance manager to director of collections and regulatory compliance. She’ll be responsible for overseeing collections and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
Obermark, who previously served as operations manager, has been named director of operations, managing the property management division’s overall operations and focusing on increasing efficiency.
Breeden promoted Rote from operational training manager to director of commercial operations, a role in which she will oversee the company’s commercial property portfolio.
Sheena Obermark
Schuman has been promoted from administrative assistant to operations manager. She will oversee day-to-day operations of Breeden’s property management portfolio.
“We are thrilled to recognize the hard work and dedication of these outstanding individuals,” Bonnie Moore, Breeden’s president of property management, said in a statement. “Their promotions are a testament to their exceptional contributions and our confidence in their ability to lead our property management division to new heights.”
Dominion Energy has completed its $2.6 billion sale of a 50% noncontrolling stake in its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to investor Stonepeak, the Fortune 500 utility announced Tuesday.
This transaction and several other recent sales reduce Dominion’s debt by approximately $21 billion, meeting a goal the utility set in a recent business review, according to its news release Wednesday.
The Stonepeak deal was announced in February and was estimated at nearly $3 billion, a number that went down to $2.6 billion at closing. Dominion will retain full operational control of construction and operations of the $9.8 billion CVOW project, under construction 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. As of August, the 50th monopile foundation for CVOW’s 174 turbines was installed, and Dominion officials said in October the project, set to be complete in 2026, is on time and on budget.
Dominion’s deal with Stonepeak improves its estimated 2024 consolidated FFO-to-debt by approximately 1%, as well as lowering risks and reducing its overall financing needs during the wind farm’s construction.
Dominion has announced several acquisitions and sales over the past year:
In July, a Dominion subsidiary announced its plan to purchase the 40,000-acre Kitty Hawk North Wind offshore wind lease from Avangrid for $160 million.
In August, the utility won a 176,505-acre lease about 35 nautical miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay for a $17.65 million bid in a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auction.
Last year, Dominion sold its remaining interest in the Cove Point natural gas liquefaction facility in Maryland to Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $3.5 billion.
In March, the utility completed its sale of East Ohio Gas to Canadian pipeline and energy company Enbridge for $6.6 billion.
In June, Dominion sold subsidiaries Questar Gas and Wexpro to Enbridge for $4.3 billion.
Earlier this month, Dominion closed on its $3.2 billion sale of the Gastonia, North Carolina, natural gas utility Public Service Co. of North Carolina to Enbridge.
“We are pleased to partner with Stonepeak on CVOW, which continues to proceed on-time and on-budget, consistent with our previously communicated timing and cost expectations,” Dominion Chair, President and CEO Bob Blue said in a statement. “Stonepeak is one of the world’s largest infrastructure investors in large energy projects such as offshore wind, and its financial participation in CVOW will benefit both the project and the people who will rely on electricity from CVOW to keep the lights on and fuel economic growth in the commonwealth.”
Stonepeak, headquartered in New York, will fund 50% of remaining project costs, according to the statement.
Gerald “Jerry” Yagen, founder of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance and Centura College, has made a $100 million gift to Virginia Beach’s Military Aviation Museum, including his private collection of 70 vintage military aircraft, the museum announced last week.
In the 1990s, Yagen began collecting aircraft from the first 50 years of aviation history, from the Wright Brothers’ flight in 1903 to the Korean War in the early 1950s, planes that were originally stored in hangars in Suffolk. In 2008, he opened the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, allowing the public to see the collection. Yagen’s gift includes the 130 acres where the museum sits, an airfield at 1341 Princess Anne Road, and $30 million to start an endowment for the museum. The gift was announced Oct. 5 at the museum’s annual Warbirds Over the Beach air show.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin thanked Yagen, his wife, Elaine, and their family for the gift in a statement. “It’s due to great Virginians like the Yagens that our commonwealth is the best place to live, work and raise your family.”
The museum, which now has about 250 volunteers, is run by Keegan Chetwynd, the museum’s director and CEO, who has shepherded it from a private collection to an independent nonprofit. About 85,000 visitors come to the museum annually, according to the announcement. Many of the aircraft are still flyable, and on Thursday, a World War II-era plane from the collection carried a load of baby formula, diapers and other necessities to western North Carolina to assist victims of Hurricane Helene, in partnership with the Virginia Beach Fire Department.
“In the beginning, I saw this as my personal challenge to preserve history and these beautiful warbirds,” Yagen said in a statement. “I just didn’t want to see them disappear to time. I never believed so many would volunteer so much to help Elaine and I do this. I realize it is no longer an individual challenge.”
Shannon O. Pierce will succeed Robert Duvall as CEO of Virginia Natural Gas when Duvall retires in April, according to an announcement by Southern Company Gas, parent company of the Virginia Beach utility.
A native of Surry, Pierce stepped into the roles of VNG president and senior vice president of Southern Company Gas, VNG’s parent company, on Sept. 28. A year ago, Pierce was named vice president of strategy and chief administrative officer for VNG, which delivers natural gas service to more than 310,000 customers in southeastern Virginia.
Robert Duvall will retire as CEO of Virginia Natural Gas in April.
“We are incredibly grateful for Robert’s leadership and significant contributions to our company, customers and communities over decades of service,” Southern Company Gas Chairman, President and CEO Jim Kerr stated in a release. “Shannon brings extensive and unique leadership experiences into her new roles, which align with the company’s values and will help to build on Robert’s legacy of success.”
Duvall has led VNG twice. He served as the utility’s president from 2014 to 2016 before returning to Virginia Beach in 2020 to lead the utility through the pandemic. In between, Duvall worked as senior vice president of customer operations, safety and technical training for Southern Company Gas.
Duvall began his career in 1984 as a distribution engineer at Atlanta Gas Light, also a subsidiary of Southern Company Gas.
Pierce started out as a lawyer for McGuireWoods in Richmond and joined Southern Gas in 2004. Previously, she served as vice president of growth and chief external affairs officer at SouthStar Energy Services, another Southern Company Gas subsidiary. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.
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