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byline: Beth JoJack

Bowman announces executive promotions

Michael Bruen has been named Bowman Consulting Group’s president, the Reston-based engineering services firm announced last week.

Gary Bowman, who formerly was president, retains his roles as CEO and chairman. Dan Swayze, who served as executive vice president and division manager, will fill Bruen’s former role as chief operating officer and will become an executive officer of the company.

Additionally, Bowman Consulting’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, Bruce Labovitz, entered into a new four-year contract with the company. 

“These promotions and the extension of Bruce’s contract underscore our commitment to internal leadership development and to ensuring continuity and stability among our executive team,” Bowman stated in a news release. “With respect to Mike and Dan, this is a natural evolution in our leadership structure, and I remain fully committed to an active operational role as chief executive officer.”

Bruen has worked at Bowman for more than 25 years, spending the last 15 years as chief operating officer. He also serves on the company’s board. As president, Bruen’s responsibilities will include overseeing strategic planning and business development. 

Swayze came aboard in 2022 as executive vice president of energy services. In his new role, Swayze will be responsible for the oversight of all professional services operations. Previously, he was chief operating officer at New York’s Onyx Renewable Partners, a renewable energy developer and financier. Swayze led Onyx’s engineering, procurement, construction and asset management divisions. 

Labovitz has worked at Bowman since 2013 and aided Bowman’s transition to a public company in 2021.  He’s also overseen several acquisitions and led investor relations and corporate communications. In June, the Northern Virginia Technology Council recognized Labovitz as its 2024 Public Company CFO of the Year. 

Bowman has more than 2,200 employees across 92 offices nationwide and provides planning, engineering, geospatial, construction management, commissioning, environmental consulting, land procurement and other technical services. The company reported $346.3 million in 2023 revenue, up from $261.7 million in 2022 revenue, a 32% increase. 

Owens & Minor leases new HQ in Henrico

Henrico County is getting a fifth Fortune 500 company. Global health care logistics and supply company Owens & Minor is moving from Hanover County to a new headquarters in Henrico’s Innsbrook Corporate Center. 

The company is leasing the fourth floor of the Highwoods One building at 10900 Nuckols Road, according to Will Bradley, an executive managing director in Virginia for commercial real estate firm Newmark. Other tenants at the 130,803-square-foot Highwoods One building include LifeStance Health, a mental health care provider, and Primis Bank. 

“Like many companies, Owens & Minor re-evaluated its office footprint in light of new workplace trends and the preferences of our teammates,” an Owens & Minor spokesperson said in a July 12 statement. “We recently finalized long-term plans for relocating our headquarters to a location in Innsbrook just minutes away from our current one and look forward to welcoming Richmond area teammates at the end of this year.”

In April, Newmark announced it had secured the $33.5 million sale of Owens & Minor’s 160,000-square-foot, Mechanicsville headquarters at 9120 Lockwood Blvd. in Hanover County to the Virginia Department of Transportation. In May, a VDOT spokesperson  said the state agency’s central office will move to Hanover in summer 2025. 

Owens & Minor has more than 20,000 employees worldwide with “hundreds of teammates that call the Richmond area home,” according to a spokesperson.

Henrico’s other Fortune 500 companies are tobacco products manufacturer Altria Group, conglomerate Markel Group, insurer Genworth Financial and convenience store and wholesale fuel company Arko.

“It’s a win for our region that … they’re going to continue to keep their headquarters in the Richmond region,” said Henrico Economic Development Authority Executive Director Anthony J. Romanello of the move, describing Highwoods One as “trophy office space.” He added, “There’s certainly a significant demand for very high-quality office space right now, and Innsbrook has that.” 

Owens & Minor reported $10.3 billion in 2023 revenues, up from $9.9 billion in 2022.

 

 

Construction begins on Hampton Logistics Center

New York’s Turnbridge Equities and Maryland’s Manekin, both real estate development and investment firms, have begun construction on two Class A industrial warehouse buildings in Hampton off Interstate 64, located less than 20 minutes from the Port of Virginia, according to an announcement this week.

The two companies, which raised about $70 million for the project, purchased the 32-acre site from the Hampton Economic Development Authority in May for $3.03 million. Knighthead Funding, a Connecticut real estate financing company, provided a $43.75 million construction loan, and Heitman, a Chicago real estate investment management fund, provided joint venture equity. The two buildings will be at 1008 and 1012 North Campus Parkway in Hampton, and they are expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2025.

Called the Hampton Logistics Center, the project will include a 230,874-square-foot warehouse and a 275,685-square-foot warehouse that will be built simultaneously. The warehouses will feature 36-foot clear height, 185-foot rear-load truck courts and 334 parking spaces. Developers designed the warehouses to achieve a gold-level LEED certification, a ranking system that rates green buildings.

“We have spent many years looking for opportunities to develop Class A industrial product around the Port of Virginia,” John Graham, Manekin’s managing director, stated in a news release. “The size of each of the buildings will appeal to a range of tenants serving both the port and local markets.”

Gregg Christoffersen of real estate company JLL will lease the warehouses.

Dominion Energy to buy N.C. offshore wind lease for $160M

A Dominion Energy subsidiary has agreed to acquire a 40,000-acre offshore wind lease off North Carolina’s Outer Banks for $160 million, the Fortune 500 utility announced Monday.

Virginia Electric and Power Company, which does business as Dominion Energy Virginia, will purchase the Kitty Hawk North Wind lease from Avangrid, a Connecticut-based sustainable energy company, and the project will be rebranded as CVOW-South, a nod to Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project under development 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast.

According to Dominion’s announcement, the $160 million payment includes $117 million for lease acquisition and $43 million to reimburse associated development costs to Avangrid. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024.

If CVOW-South is fully constructed, the project will generate 800 megawatts of electricity, enough capacity to serve 200,000 homes and businesses, and would connect to Dominion Energy’s transmission grid, the utility said. Dominion noted that it does not yet have detailed cost or timeline estimates for the project.

By comparison, CVOW’s 176-turbine project, which is expected to provide 2.6 gigawatts of electricity and power up to 660,000 homes, is estimated to cost $9.8 billion.

In May, following federal approvals, Dominion installed the first monopiles, or turbine foundation posts, into the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The CVOW wind farm is being built off the Virginia Beach shoreline, starting 27 miles out and extending 15 miles to the east. The 176 turbines are expected to be fully installed and operational by the end of 2026. Dominion announced in February that it plans to sell a $3 billion, 50% stake in CVOW this year to investment firm Stonepeak.

“With electric demand in our Virginia territory projected to double in the next 13 years, Dominion Energy is securing access to power generation resources that ensure we continue to provide the reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean energy that powers our customers every day,” Robert M. Blue, chair, president and CEO of Dominion Energy, stated in a news release. “It also allows us to leverage the unique expertise we’ve gained during the very successful development and construction to date of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind commercial project, which reduces project risk to the benefit of customers and shareholders.”

CVOW is located about 25 miles north of the CVOW-South lease. To date, 25 monopiles have been installed at CVOW, putting the company on track to hit its target of 70 to 100 monopiles before the end of October. Workers are required to take a break from installing turbines between Nov. 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, due to federal protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Numerous residents have opposed Avangrid’s plan to bring transmission cables ashore at Sandbridge, a beach community south of Virginia Beach. In the news release, Dominion Energy stated it is aware of those concerns and is “committed to working closely with the community, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the City of Virginia Beach as it considers this project.”

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the City of Virginia Beach will need to approve the lease of CVOW-South before work can begin. Avangrid is building a large-scale offshore wind project 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and it still retains ownership of the Kitty Hawk South lease, which has the potential to deliver 2.4 gigawatts of power.

“As Avangrid continues the construction of our nation-leading Vineyard Wind 1 project and the development of our diverse portfolio of offshore and onshore renewable projects, this transaction advances our strategic priorities by providing significant capital infusion for reinvestment,” Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said in a statement. “Executing this agreement allows us to move forward with our long-term plans for the development of Kitty Hawk South, further demonstrating our commitment to accelerating the clean energy transition in the United States.”

Meanwhile, the federal government announced recently that it will auction off two more offshore wind energy leases — including one directly east of CVOW — and the other off the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware. Dominion and Avangrid are among confirmed bidders in the Aug. 14 auction held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Hitachi Energy plans $26M expansion in Halifax County

Hitachi Energy plans to invest $26 million into expanding its South Boston facility, that manufactures transformers, a move expected to create about 100 jobs, according to a news release the company shared with a few stakeholders in the Southern Virginia region in June. 

In April, Hitachi announced plans to invest over $1.5 billion to increase global transformer production by 2027. The investment will span Europe, the Americas and Asia, and will include around $180 million to build a transformer factory in Finland, “a key location for clean technology development for renewables and industrial electrification,” according to a news release.

Hitachi’s expansion at the South Boston facility will expand capacity for producing distribution transformers, according to the release, which was dated June 18.

“This expansion underscores our commitment to serving our customers’ evolving needs while also strengthening the local economy,” Steve McKinney, managing director of Hitachi’s transformer business in North America, stated in the announcement.

The $26 million investment will pay for new equipment, upgrades and other production-line improvements at the South Boston facility, which currently has 585 employees, according to Kurt Steinert, Hitachi’s head of external communications in North America.

In 2022, Hitachi announced a $37 million investment to expand its South Boston operation, a project expected to create 165 jobs.

With that expansion, Hitachi planned to add 26,000 square feet to the South Boston facility’s power transformer factory, which is 90,000 square feet.

That work is “still underway,” Steinert explained in a statement to Virginia Business, “but we are still in line with our plan in terms of the expansion in square footage and jobs.”

The South Boston facility’s distribution transformer factory is 517,000 square feet.

Distribution transformers provide stepped-down voltages to consumers. Typically, power transformers are used to transmit high voltages and are used in generating stations.

The new positions created at the South Boston facility, which has been in operation since 1968, will be in skilled manufacturing, engineering and administration.

Hitachi did not receive “specific incentives” from the state government to expand in South Boston, according to Steinert.

When asked why Hitachi decided to limit spreading the news to a few stakeholders in the immediate community, Steinert wrote, “it’s mainly a question of timing, and whether we might couple this with other news related to our manufacturing footprint in North America in future.”

A spokesperson for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership said the authority did not assist with Hitachi’s June 18 expansion announcement. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the expansion.

Requests for comment from Kristy Johnson, executive director of the Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County, and Scott Simpson, county administrator for Halifax County, were not immediately returned Tuesday.

With headquarters in Switzerland, Hitachi Energy employs more than 40,000 workers in 90 countries. 

 

 

 

 

Dewberry wins $810M FEMA contract

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded Dewberry, an engineering, architecture and construction firm in Fairfax County, an $810 million contract to deliver logistics planning and construction services to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a System for Award Management (SAM) notice published Friday.

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract will support FEMA’s Logistics Management Directorate, the agency’s major program office responsible for overseeing its logistics support, services and operations.

Dewberry is charged with supporting FEMA’s temporary direct housing activities and emergency management functions by providing emergency management planning, construction planning and management, project management, quality control, technical analyses and administrative services, according to a solicitation request. 

Dewberry is waiting until the bid protest period has ended before making public statements on the award, according to Molly Johnson, chief communications officer for the company.  

Dewberry reported $711.45 million in revenue in 2023 and has more than 2,500 employees. 

Maryland and Virginia bankers associations merge

The Maryland Bankers Association and the Virginia Bankers Association have merged, creating the Mid-Atlantic Bankers Association holding company, according to an announcement Monday. 

The Mid-Atlantic Bankers Association will serve as a holding company headquartered in Glen Allen, and MBA and VBA will operate as subsidiaries. According to VBA, the holding company will have its own board comprised of both Maryland and Virginia bankers associations’ board members, and the two state association boards will continue to exist. 

“Our rich histories, dating back to the late 19th century, continue to be the foundation for our future endeavors as we continue to uphold the essence and mission of both associations,” Bruce Whitehurst, VBA’s president and CEO, stated in the release.

Whitehurst will serve as president and CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Bankers Association, while Ramon Looby, the president and CEO of MBA, will be its executive vice president.

The boards and members of both MBA and VBA, according to an announcement distributed by both organizations today, endorsed this move, which is designed to enhance industry advocacy and member services. By consolidating, the news release points out, the organizations are also following the lead of the banking industry, which has seen rampant consolidation. 

The VBA has 90 member banks, and the MBA has 50 member banks. 

Work begins on Stafford County industrial park

NorthPoint Development, a real estate operating company based in Kansas City, Missouri, broke ground in Stafford County on Tuesday on what’s being touted as the largest industrial park project along Interstate 95 from Washington, D.C., to Richmond. 

The Austin Ridge Logistics Center on Austin Ridge Drive in Stafford will include five to seven buildings, for a total of 2.08 million square feet, according to a NorthPoint news release.

For the development, NorthPoint will court large-scale users like last-mile logistics facilities, regional distribution warehouses and data centers. 

“At full build-out, the Austin Ridge Logistics Center will represent a $133.9 million dollar investment in Stafford County, creating over 1,200 jobs,” NorthPoint’s development manager, Ryan Marshall, stated in the release. 

Brinkmann Constructors, which has an office in Richmond, will be the project’s general contractor.

NorthPoint Development specializes in acquiring, developing, leasing and managing industrial and multifamily properties. Currently, the company manages 150.2 million square feet of industrial space and about 5,400 multifamily units. It has $19.5 billion in assets under management.

Arlington’s CareJourney acquired

Arlington County’s CareJourney, a health care data and analytics company co-founded by former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, has been acquired by Arcadia, a health care data platform headquartered in Boston, according to a June 27 announcement.  

A spokesperson for Arcadia declined to provide financial terms of the deal. The merged company will have 400 employees, the spokesperson said, also declining to state how many employees CareJourney has. Arcadia generated more than $100 million in revenue for 2023, according to the company. Founded in 2002, Arcadia has raised more than $300 million, with funding from Vista Credit Partners, Cigna Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Revelation Partners, Zaffre Investments and Peloton Equity.

CareJourney derives analytics from Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and commercial claims data across more than 300 million beneficiaries and over 2 million providers nationwide. Its clients include payers, providers and employers.

Chopra, who served as Virginia’s secretary of technology under then-Gov. Tim Kaine, was appointed the nation’s first chief technology officer in 2009 by President Barack Obama. In 2014, he, Dan Ross and Sanju Bansal co-founded CareJourney to help physicians and provider networks improve health care delivery by better understanding patient demographics and identifying highest-need populations.

Ross is now president of the rebranded CareJourney by Arcadia and Chopra is chief strategy officer of Arcadia. Bansal, who had been CareJourney’s chairman, will not remain with the merged company and instead plans to focus on pWin.ai, a tool that leverages artificial intelligence to assist with developing business proposals. 

“By merging CareJourney’s advanced data science with Arcadia’s data engineering and operational tools, we will equip providers and payers with the tools to manage costs, build high-performing networks, and excel in value-based care,” Chopra said in a statement.

Va. housing market gave mixed signals in May

Virginia’s housing market gave off mixed signals in May. Closings were higher than last year, but pending sales were flat, according to Virginia Realtors data released June 25.

In May, 10,715 homes sold in Virginia, up 423 sales or just over 4% from the same month last year.

“While sales activity has outpaced last year four out of five months so far in 2024, this level of sales activity is still below average,” said 2024 Virginia Realtors President Tom Campbell in a statement.

More than half of municipalities in the state had an increase in sales compared with May 2023. The markets with the strongest sales growth were in the Shenandoah and Roanoke valleys and in south Central Virginia.

The Virginia market had 17,712 active listings at the end of May, an increase of nearly 28%  from the same time last year.

There were 14,056 new listings, up 15.8% from May 2023. New listings increased 5.6% between May and April, a typical seasonal increase, according to Virginia Realtors.

Chart illustrates median days a home stayed on the market in Virginia.
Chart courtesy Virginia Realtors.

Homes in Virginia stayed on the market for a median of seven days in May, one day longer than reported in May 2023.

“The supply of listings remains tight compared to the number of sales and the demand in the market, but there has been some notable improvement to the number of active listings,” Ryan Price, chief economist for Virginia Realtors, said in a statement.

The statewide median sales price in May was $425,000. That’s $15,000 higher than the median price last May, a 3.7% increase.

The statewide housing market had 9,729 pending sales last month, one fewer than May 2023.

Mortgage rates decreased for the fourth consecutive week, in the week ending June 20, according to Freddie Mac data. For that week, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.87%.

“We’re still looking at a ‘sellers’ market’ here in the commonwealth,” Virginia Realtors CEO Terrie Suit said.  “Houses are selling quickly, and in nearly all price brackets, sellers continue getting more money than the asking price.”