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byline: Beth JoJack

Sheetz starts construction on $2.4M Chesterfield property

Sheetz is building a store on 2.66 acres in Chesterfield County that it purchased for $2.45 million.

The Altoona, Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain bought the property at 9420 Midlothian Turnpike from Gouldin Properties on March 18, according to county property records.

Sheetz has started construction of a store at the site, according to a Tuesday news release from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. The location is scheduled to open in the fall, according to a spokesperson for the chain.

The address for Gouldin Properties is also the address of the Short Pump location of Strange’s Florists, a garden center, nursery and florist business. Strange’s President Bill Gouldin did not immediately return a request for comment.

David M. Smith of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the seller.

McLean’s Iridium closes on Satelles deal

McLean-based Iridium Communications, a global satellite communications company, has completed its previously announced acquisition of Satelles, a Reston-based provider of satellite-based time and location services that assist GPS and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), the company announced Tuesday.

Iridium first announced the acquisition in March. The positioning, navigation and timing service previously known as STL from Satelles will now be called Iridium Satellite Time and Location. According to Iridium, the service protects GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems’ time-synchronized applications from spoofing, when hackers trick a GPS receiver into calculating a false position, and jamming, when hackers interfere with GPS satellite signals, making them ineffective.

Using small hardware that doesn’t require outdoor antennas, Iridium STL can help protect critical infrastructure, data centers, 5G base stations and applications across the aviation, maritime, land mobile and Internet of Things sectors. The service works indoors and continues to work during regional GNSS system outages, according to a news release.

Previously, Iridium disclosed that the company had an ownership stake of 20% in Satelles through three earlier investments, and that it would pay about $115 million for the other 80%. This purchase was Iridium’s first acquisition.

“We’re ready to step on the gas and expand the availability of Iridium STL to markets around the world,” Matt Desch, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “With our experienced partner ecosystem and global footprint, this needed capability can quickly help make the critical services we all rely on every day more efficient, reliable and secure.”

Iridium, which assumed all rights to the Satelles patent portfolio, expects STL to generate over $100 million in service revenue annually by 2030 and additional revenue from equipment and engineering, according to the company.

In 2023, Iridium reported a total revenue of $790.7 million, up 10% from 2022, and net income of $15.4 million, an improvement from $8.7 million in 2022.

231-unit affordable housing development coming to McLean

Construction will begin immediately on the 231-unit first phase of an affordable housing development in McLean backed by Amazon.com, SCG Development announced Wednesday.

Located at 1750 Old Meadow Road, Somos at McLean Metro will be developed in two phases. In the first phase, Tysons-based SCG Development will demolish an abandoned office building on the property and build 231 units, a mix of studio and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The units will be rented to households earning between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income.

The second phase of the development will include 225 units, according to Steve Wilson, SCG Development’s president. The total development cost is about $108 million for the first phase and about $107 million for the second phase, he said.

The property is located within a 10-minute walk to the McLean Metrorail station and less than 10 minutes from Tysons’ new pedestrian bridge.

“Somos at McLean Metro Phase A will bring high quality affordable housing options to families and individuals in a very high barrier to entry market,” Wilson said in a statement.

Amazon.com provided a $28.97 million low-rate loan to the project from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, a $2 billion commitment to create or preserve more than 20,000 affordable homes for low- to moderate-income families in the Arlington-Washington, D.C., area, Washington state’s Puget Sound region and the Nashville, Tennessee, region, locations where Amazon has offices.

HQ2, Amazon’s East Coast headquarters in Arlington County, began a phased opening in June 2023. Since January 2021, Amazon has committed over $1 billion in loans and grants to create or preserve 7,000 affordable homes in the region, according to the ecommerce giant’s website.

“We embrace opportunities to work in partnership with innovative organizations dedicated to creating much-needed affordable housing that connects individuals and families to transit, employment and other resources across the DMV,” Senthil Sankaran, managing principal of the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, said in a statement.

Virginia Housing, Virginia’s state housing finance agency, committed over $54.5 million in financing and 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits, which the federal government uses to subsidize the acquisition and construction of affordable rental housing, to the project.

“Our investment towards Somos at McLean provides much needed increased affordable inventory in the Northern Virginia area,” Virginia Housing CEO Tammy Neale said in a statement.

In 2022, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved $33.3 million to acquire the property and support the development of Somos at McLean Metro. The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority will own the land and lease the property to affiliates of SCG Development.

“Innovative partnership has enabled us to leverage private equity to convert an unused office building site into hundreds of affordable homes in the Providence District,” Dalia Palchik, a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement.

Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers CEO to retire

Jay Bryant, CEO of Herndon-based Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association (MDVA), is retiring at the end of this year, and Jon Cowell, MDVA’s current chief financial officer, will succeed him, the cooperative announced Friday.

Bryant has worked at the MDVA, a cooperative of more than 900 dairy farm families in 10 states, for 37 years, the last 22 as CEO. Under Bryant, MDVA’s sales revenues have doubled and gross profits have increased by 150%, according to a news release. During his tenure, MDVA purchased three additional consumer products plants and earned more than $77 million from on-farm sustainability initiatives.

“It is humbling to look back to where MDVA was 20 years ago and see what we have achieved together by investing in our cooperative,” Bryant said in a statement.

A native of Boonville, North Carolina, Bryan grew up on his family’s dairy farm. After earning an agricultural economics degree at North Carolina State University, he worked as a representative for Carolina Virginia Milk Producers, which merged with MDVA in 1999. Prior to becoming CEO, Bryant served as MDVA’s director of milk marketing.

“The board of directors extends its deep gratitude to Jay Bryant for guiding us through transformative change and uncertain times like dairy industry consolidation and the pandemic,” Kevin Satterwhite, president of MDVA’s board of directors, said in a statement. “There’s no doubt he will carry a legacy as a transformative figure in the dairy cooperative landscape.”

Serving as MDVA’s CFO sine 2018, Cowell currently leads all financial aspects of MDVA as well as its information technology division. In this role, Cowell renegotiated banking agreements and launched a new payroll system for both MDVA’s dairy farm owners and employees.

A native of Canada, Cowell previously spent 22 years as an executive at Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray Cranberries. He has a degree in chartered accountancy from the University of Waterloo.

According to a news release, Cowell’s plans include gaining more market share for Maola, the milk and dairy products brand MDVA purchased in 2003, and developing new dairy products.

“Jon brings the vision and leadership necessary to lead MDVA forward into its next phase of growth and success,” said Satterwhite.

The cooperative owns six dairy processing plants that process more than 3 billion pounds of milk annually.

Franklin County names economic development director

Roanoke County’s assistant director for economic development, Danielle Poe, will start her new job as director of economic development for Franklin County on April 15. 

Since joining Roanoke County in 2022, Poe has been responsible for real estate development, business retention and expansion and key community partnerships, Franklin County said in a statement. She succeeds Beth Simms, who left the Franklin County post in October 2023 after more than two years to become Patrick County’s administrator. 

“Franklin County has made key public investments that position the county for growth,” Poe said. “I’m excited to put my passion for economic development to work helping the county take advantage of the opportunities ahead.”

Poe previously worked as a business manager for Roanoke Regional Airport and as an economic development specialist for Downtown Roanoke Inc. She also worked in real estate and property management. 

“Dani is the experienced leader needed at a critical juncture in Franklin County’s progress,” Franklin County Administrator Christopher Whitlow said. “It was clear during the interview process that she understands the county’s value proposition and knows how to leverage the county’s advantages to create jobs and investment, develop its workforce and continue to enhance livability.”

Poe is the 2024 chair of Leadership Roanoke Valley and graduated from Radford University, where she studied sports and fitness administration and management, according to her LinkedIn page. Next month, Poe will graduate from the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute program. 

Located about 10 miles south of Roanoke, Franklin County was estimated to have 55,549 residents as of 2023, according to the U.S. Census.

Port of Va. is already handling cargo diverted from Baltimore

On Tuesday afternoon, workers at the Port of Virginia’s Virginia International Gateway facility in Portsmouth unloaded cargo that had been scheduled for the Baltimore Harbor before a container ship struck and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in a fatal accident that has left the shipping channel closed for at least several weeks to come.

“The ship was already in Virginia for a normally scheduled port of call and was headed to [Baltimore] afterward,” Port of Virginia spokesperson Joe Harris said in a statement to Virginia Business. “The accident happened, [and] the [Baltimore] cargo was offloaded here.”

The port expects these diverted volumes of cargo to increase. “​​It is, however, too early to discuss specific impacts to our operation,” Harris said.

Speaking to press during a bill-signing ceremony Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pledged to assist Maryland during the disaster with everything from additional port capacity to emergency search and rescue services, saying the “entire commonwealth’s capabilities are at the ready.”

If assistance is requested, Virginia emergency resources available to Maryland include the Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Virginia Department of Fire Programs, according to a spokesperson for the governor.

On Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers recovered the bodies of two of six road construction workers killed in the accident in which the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali collided with the Key Bridge around 1:29 a.m. Tuesday, shortly after the ship lost power and its pilots issued a mayday call. National Transportation Safety Board investigators and other federal officials continued looking into the cause of the crash Wednesday, as the Biden administration pledged federal support to rebuild the bridge, calling on Congress to authorize hundreds of millions in funding likely needed for the bridge’s replacement, an undertaking that could take at least a year.

In the aftermath of the bridge collapse, supply chain experts warned it could have a major ripple effect on East Coast trade for some time to come, though at least one major shipping executive was optimistic that the Port of Baltimore could reopen sometime in May.

It’s unclear, Harris said, how many additional vessels and what volume of cargo the Port of Virginia will ultimately see, especially since no one knows how long the Port of Baltimore will remain closed to all ship traffic. All vessel traffic in and out of Baltimore’s port has been suspended until further notice, Maryland’s transportation secretary announced Tuesday morning.

Ocean carriers will decide how Baltimore-bound imports and exports will be diverted to other ports, Harris said, adding that ships presently in transit with cargo bound for Baltimore will likely unload in the ports of Virginia, Philadelphia, or New York and New Jersey.

“Our effort today is continuing to communicate with the ocean carriers and cargo owners to let them know that we have ample capacity to handle additional cargo and vessels,” he said. 

 The increased traffic won’t impact the Port of Virginia’s service levels, according to Harris. “This is a modern, 21st century port that has a significant amount of experience in handling surges of import and export cargo.” 

Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster contributed to this story.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article listed an incorrect summary of cargo diverted to the Port of Virginia and an incorrect estimate for the replacement cost of the Key Bridge. The story has been corrected and updated. 

 

 

 

The Aerospace Corp. relocates HQ to Chantilly

The Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit government contractor that bills itself as running the nation’s only federally funded research and development center “committed to the space enterprise,” officially relocated its headquarters from El Segundo, California, to Chantilly on Thursday.

The organization, which provides technical expertise in space-related science and engineering, has no plans for “significant relocation” of its more than 4,600 current employees, according to a news release, and the 2,800 employees currently in El Segundo will remain there.

According to an Aerospace spokesperson,  the company has more than 750 employees based in Chantilly plus 1,000 employees based in various locations in the Washington, D.C. area.

“By shifting our headquarters to the Washington, D.C., metro region, we will deepen our ties with key decision makers and stakeholders, and reaffirm our commitment to working side-by-side with our partners as they carry out our nation’s critical missions,” Steve Isakowitz, Aerospace’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

As the space industry has changed in recent years — including growth in U.S. government and commercial space investment, the establishment of the U.S. Space Force in 2019 and the reinstatement of the U.S. Space Command, which is responsible for preparing military operations in space — Aerospace’s technical support has shifted “from traditional functions to emerging needs,” according to a news release.

“Aerospace has taken a leading position navigating through this change as we accelerate our efforts to outpace the threats we face in space,” Isakowitz said.

Aerospace provides technical solutions for space mission needs and research and strategic analysis on national policy related to space, and it tests, analyzes and troubleshoots rocket and satellite systems. The organization’s customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, NASA and other civil agencies.

Aerospace is investing $100 million in its engineering, research and laboratory capabilities at its main engineering and technology campus in El Segundo. The company also has major locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article listed an incorrect number of employees working for Aerospace in California. This story has been updated with the correct number.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information about Aerospace’s Virginia and Washington, D.C., workforce.

RTX subsidiary lands $118M Army contract

The U.S. Army has finalized a contract potentially worth $118 million with Arlington County-based Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX, to produce common sensor payloads, which will serve as “eyes” for an uncrewed aircraft system, the government announced Tuesday. 

The common sensor payloads, which will be used on California-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ MQ-1C Gray Eagle, will offer day and night high-definition imagery as well as targeting capability for laser-guided munitions, according to a U.S. Army’s statement

Under the undefinitized contract action, the new common sensor payloads will also offer target location accuracy capability, which enables “precision, near-real-time engagements with coordinate-seeking weapons by reducing the sensor-to-shooter process from minutes to seconds,” the U.S. Army explained.  

Raytheon will produce the third version of the Common Sensor Payload. Since the CSP was first developed in 2011, previous versions have been used in more than a million flight hours on the Gray Eagle for U.S. Army units worldwide. 

“The CSP v3 is the latest iteration of the CSP, which resolves several critical subcomponent obsolescence issues present on the currently fielded CSP v2 and incorporates updated sensor hardware to provide enhanced imaging capabilities,” Doug Haskin, product manager of the U.S. Army’s Office of Aerial Enhanced Radars, Optics, and Sensors, said in the release. 

The U.S. Army awarded Raytheon initial partial funding for CSP v3 production in June of 2023, allowing Raytheon to begin work. The CSP v3 production systems are expected to begin delivering in June 2025, with a first unit equipped date planned for FY 2026, according to the U.S. Army.

Raytheon rebranded as RTX in June of 2023, a year after moving to headquarters to Arlington County. It has three subsidiaries: Collins Aerospace, an aerospace and defense technology supplier with headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.; Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer with headquarters in Connecticut and Raytheon, which was formerly Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense.

RTX, which is also based in Arlington County, has more than 185,000 employees.

Rocket Lab USA launches first US mission for NRO from Wallops

California-based Rocket Lab USA successfully launched a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office on Thursday from Launch Complex 2 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County, the aerospace company announced. 

The Eastern Shore mission, dubbed “Live and Let Fly,” was Rocket Lab’s first launch from U.S. soil for the NRO, which builds, designs, launches and maintains reconnaissance satellites and provides satellite intelligence, imaging and other data for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. Rocket Lab previously launched four successful missions for the agency from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. 

“We are proud to once again deliver mission success for the NRO on Electron,” Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “The NRO have placed their trust in Rocket Lab since our first launch together in 2020, and it’s an honor to continue delivering dedicated access to orbit for national security missions, this time from the other side of the planet.”

NRO missions provide critical information to a half-million government users, including members of the intelligence community, domestic agencies, the military and lawmakers.

The NRO selected Rocket Lab for the mission through the agency’s Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract. The contract process “enables the NRO to explore new opportunities for launching small satellites through a streamlined, commercial approach,” Rocket Lab said in the statement.

Beck added, “The RASR contract process is an innovative, forward-leaning approach from the NRO that has allowed the agency to capitalize on the speed and responsiveness of commercial launch services, and we’re thrilled to make it possible with Electron.”

Rocket Lab announced in February 2022 that it had selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new, reusable Neutron rocket.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, the Photon satellite platform and is developing the Neutron.​​ Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle is the second most-frequently launched U.S. rocket annually and has delivered more than 180 satellites to orbit for private and public sector organizations, according to the company. 

Rocket Lab has two launch sites in New Zealand in addition to the one at Wallops. The mission was Rocket Lab’s 46th Electron launch overall.

Inova receives $10M gift from Apex Systems co-founder

Apex Systems co-founder Win Sheridan has made a $10 million planned gift commitment to Inova Health System, Inova announced late Thursday. 

“When you’re battling a serious disease, having world-class care that you don’t have to travel for makes all the difference,” Sheridan said in a statement provided by Inova. “At the end of the day, I want Inova to continue providing the best possible care, if and when it’s needed by me, by my family, my friends [and] my community.”

In 2021, Sheridan gave a $1 million gift to Inova endow the directorship of the Inova Molecular Tumor Board at Inova Schar Cancer Institute. The board is made up of oncologists, geneticists and other health practitioners who work to match patients who have rare or recurring advanced cancers with personalized treatments. 

Sheridan’s latest gift will support Inova’s Greatest Needs fund, which supports critical projects and initiatives identified by Inova’s CEO, Dr. J. Stephen Jones. Currently the fund is being applied toward the expansion of Inova Fairfax Hospital’s emergency room, according to Sage Bolte, chief philanthropy officer and president of the Inova Health Foundation.

“We have seen nearly a 50% increase in patient volume over the last several years, and so the current space doesn’t fit the growing need of our emergency care response,” said Bolte, adding that currently the Inova Fairfax ER has too many patients for all to be accommodated in private rooms. 

The first phase of the $161 million expansion will likely be completed by the end of this year, according to an Inova spokesperson.

A Virginia Tech alumni, Sheridan co-founded Glen Allen-based Apex Systems in 1995 and is a director of ASGN, Apex’s parent company. Apex Systems and ASGN together form one of the nation’s largest IT staffing services. A venture capitalist who has invested in early-stage companies like Sweetgreen, EverFi and DataBricks, Sheridan runs investment and consulting firm BDW Investments. His many ventures include serving as a partner in Alexandria Restaurant Partners, a restaurant management company that owns, operates and/or manages nine restaurants in Virginia and Florida. He is a former chairman of the advisory board for the  APEX Center for Entrepreneurs at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business. As a philanthropist, he has supported organizations such as the Yellow Ribbon Fund and the One Campaign.

Bolte declined to state the total amount Sheridan has donated to the health system. 

According to Inova, Sheridan was motivated to give by the $75 million Schar Challenge, made by Northern Virginia philanthropists Dwight and Martha Schar in May 2023 to support the now-renamed Inova Schar Heart and Vascular institute.

Planned gifts like Sheridan’s, Bolte noted, are funds that are “securing for the future of this region. So, for his children and grandchildren [and] beyond, that is going to be a legacy that he continues to give and invest in far beyond the years he’s on this earth.”