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byline: Cathy Jett

Harrisonburg coworking hub slated to open in December

UPDATED NOV. 1

James Madison University in Harrisonburg has long wanted to be more involved with innovation and entrepreneurship in the Shenandoah Valley region. So, when a co-founder of the Staunton Innovation Hub coworking space announced plans in 2022 to renovate the historic Wetsel Seed building into the Harrisonburg Innovation Hub (HIH), JMU pre-leased 1,000 square feet of flex space there, says Keith Holland, the university’s associate vice provost for research and innovation.

“We love the principle of what they’re doing, creating community, supporting innovators,” he says. “We said, ‘We need to be part of that.’”

JMU was the first to sign up for space in the HIH, which is set to open Dec. 2. The three-story, 26,500-square-foot brick building includes 53 private offices, plus larger private spaces, conference rooms, coworking spaces, focus rooms for private calls, a wellness room and an outdoor workspace.

Part of “the magic” of these spaces is that they attract people from a diverse cross-section of industries, says Peter Denbigh, co-founder and co-owner of HIH. “And the other magic that it creates is the camaraderie and the conversation that happens and the collaboration.”

Tenants can sign up for multiyear or month-to-month memberships that include free coffee, happy hours and lunch-and-learn sessions in partnership with organizations like the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund.

Denbigh, who co-founded the Staunton hub in 2018, says Harrisonburg was chosen because it’s “just a wonderful, thriving town of energy and entrepreneurship and innovation and business. It just made a lot of sense to be here.”

JMU will use its space for the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center and the Shenandoah Valley Partnership. The university is also working with its College of Visual and Performing Arts to demonstrate “how to inject creativity into the business and innovation process,” Holland says.

HIH is managed by Innovation Management, a separate entity from the Staunton hub’s management, but members will have some privileges at both locations. A group of investors purchased the Wetsel Seed building for $2.88 million, spending more than $2 million on renovations. 

Next up is a location in Waynesboro, slated to open by the end of this year, Denbigh says. “We’re renting a really cool space in the Virginia Metalcrafters building, and we’re excited to bring some of this magic to Waynesboro.”  

Staunton Crossing industrial site gets ready for business

A $9 million state grant is helping Staunton reach the finish line on Staunton Crossing, its long-awaited industrial site.

The state Virginia Business Ready Sites Program (VBRSP) development grant awarded Aug. 8 will help pay for a 1 million-gallon water tower and water supply lines, which will help complete water and sewer access to the 300-acre site.

“It was the last big thing that we needed,” says Amanda DiMeo, Staunton’s economic development director.

Staunton Crossing is located at the junction of Interstates 81 and 64 with a mile of interstate frontage. The city and its economic development authority expect it will attract companies that will provide high-paying jobs, boost tax revenue and help “put Staunton on the map,” DiMeo says.

Target industries include light manufacturing; logistics and transportation; food, beverage and agriculture; professional services; data centers and IT; and industries using rail transportation.

“We’re hearing from the state that people are asking for Staunton Crossing, so our name is getting out there,” DiMeo says. “I think it’s because of the proximity to the different markets along the East Coast, and then what we have to offer here. It’s a prime spot.”

At Staunton Crossing, all infrastructure is in place or will be deliverable within 12 months, and all permitting issues have been identified. Some sections are ready for occupancy, and one company is in negotiations. Completing water and sewer access elsewhere will take time, so the site is being marketed as ready for development in 12 to 18 months, DiMeo says.

Staunton’s involvement with the property dates to 2009, when the EDA spent $15 million in a land-swap deal with Western State Hospital. The city sold the first 25 acres to Staunton Crossing Partners in 2016. That parcel now has two hotels, four restaurants and a 7-Eleven, and generated $4.35 million in tax revenue from 2000 to 2023, according to a county report.

“They just purchased a 4.9-acre triangular piece that will attach to what they already have, and they’re still working on more development there,” says DiMeo.

Staunton Crossing is “a very attractive product” for the Staunton-Waynesboro Metropolitan Statistical Area, says Shenandoah Valley Partnership Executive Director Jay Langston. “There is no doubt in my mind that we will be able to attract the kind of targets that we are after. The return on investment will be very good.” 

Culpeper tech zone attracts data centers

A Dallas-based developer seeking to build its fourth data center campus in Virginia had a problem.

Finding sites large enough was getting difficult in Northern Virginia, where DataBank has two locations in Ashburn’s Data Center Alley and one in McLean.

“Virginia is still a solid data center market,” says DataBank Chief Operating Officer Joe Minarik. “We looked around and said, ‘Hey, where’s expansion still growing and land [still] available?’”

DataBank found 85 acres where it plans to break ground by early 2025 in the 690-acre Culpeper Technology Zone (CTZ). It offers access to fiber, electricity, incentives and workforce training.

“Culpeper tipped the scale for our ability to get there,” Minarik says. “And it’s already starting to develop. You’re seeing other data center providers grow theirs there.”

Those include Peterson Cos., Cielo Digital Infrastructure, CloudHQ and Copper Ridge. Additionally, Red Ace Capital Management received county approval July 2 to locate in the zone.

Culpeper County created the CTZ in 2021 to consolidate data center development in one place, streamlining power needs and curtailing expansion elsewhere. Developers who invest $10 million and hire at least 10 new employees there get a tax rebate of 40% over a five-year period, says Bryan Rothamel, Culpeper’s economic development director.

Also located in the CTZ are the Culpeper Technical Education Center and the Daniel Technology Center, offering trades and IT training relevant to building and maintaining data centers.

DataBank plans to build three facilities totaling 1.4 million square feet in the CTZ, with the first coming online around 2027 or 2028. It’ll need hundreds of workers to build them, and then 50 to 60 people to manage each building. Tenants will bring their own IT staff. Having nearby schools provide workforce training is a plus, Minarik says.

The CTZ also ticked boxes for Peterson Cos., a Fairfax-based real estate developer with 10 other data center projects. The zone’s ordinance anticipates the needs of data centers, and the CTZ isn’t near schools and dense residential development, so developers face less opposition, says Adam Cook, Peterson’s managing director of development.

Peterson won approval in 2023 to build eight data centers totaling over 2.05 million square feet on 150 acres there.

“Staff members and elected officials have listened to their community and preserved the rural nature of their community, while still making space for data centers,” Cook says. “It’s really a tribute to fantastic leadership.”  

Richmond switches up stadium funding plan

UPDATED JULY 16

Richmond City Council this spring pitched a bit of a curveball on financing of the city’s new baseball stadium.

On May 8, councilors approved a plan that they say would save the city money and get the replacement stadium — part of the proposed Diamond District — completed in time to meet the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ 2026 season deadline.

Davenport & Co., the city’s financial adviser, recommended issuing $170 million worth of general obligation bonds to finance the Diamond District’s stadium and first-phase infrastructure work, rather than community development authority bonds, as planned.

That would put the city on the hook for paying off the bonds if projected revenue falls short, although the new structure would also have economic benefits, including a lower interest rate that is expected to reduce costs by $215 million over the next 30 years. Also, if the bonds were issued by July 1, the state would have chipped in $24 million through its sales tax incentive program, but Richmond missed that deadline.

“When cities take on the role of developer, they are assuming risk for taxpayers,” Terry Clower, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, says. “In this case, there are compelling reasons for the change in financing that recognizes market conditions and a particular state tax incentive.”

However, attorney and activist Paul Goldman filed a lawsuit in May, challenging the city’s plan to issue the bonds without a November ballot referendum.

“It’s the public’s money; it’s not the politicians’ money,” and residents should get a vote, Goldman argues, but his lawsuit was tossed out in June by Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant. The only way to force a referendum without a court order was to have roughly 11,000 Richmond voters’ signatures within 30 days of the city’s notice of the ordinance’s adoption, published May 12.

That’s a “task worthy of Hercules,” Goldman says. “It can’t be done unless you’re going to spend a fortune.” On June 28, Goldman said he wouldn’t appeal the court’s decision.

However, for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, the Squirrels’ new stadium is on deck.

“We are full speed ahead on delivering a world-class baseball stadium and an exciting new neighborhood for ALL to enjoy,” Stoney said June 10 in a statement. “The Flying Squirrels are here to stay in Richmond!”  

The Lake takes shape in Chesterfield

The first wave of commercial tenants is coming to The Lake, a long-planned, 105-acre mixed-use development that’s slated to bring a surf park to western Chesterfield County.

The Lake’s centerpiece will be a 13-acre artificial lake with a tow cable. It’s expected to be ready by summer 2025 for wakeboarding, kayaking, standup paddle boarding and other activities. It’ll be followed by an adjoining 6-acre surf park, one of a handful of such facilities nationwide that can generate waves large enough to surf.

“The anchor for our overall development is entertainment,” says project developer Brett Burkhart, founder of Lake Adventures and Flatwater Ventures. “We wanted to have restaurants and an amphitheater, and around that have some cool activities like surfing and wakeboarding on the lake.”

Burkhart lined up $323 million in financing for the development. Construction began in 2022 and is expected to take around five years to complete. Construction costs have increased, he says, though he declines to give a revised estimate.

In January, construction began on three buildings at The Lake’s entrance off Genito Road near State Route 288. A Chipotle and a Starbucks with a drive-thru will be the first tenants. The development’s initial phase also includes three retail and restaurant buildings by the lake. A Kilwins candy and ice cream shop has leased space in one.

Work should be completed by this fall, Burkhart says.

The Lake is also slated to include 150,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 170-room hotel, an amphitheater, 830 apartments and 360 townhomes.

Chesterfield’s primary interest in the project is its commercial component, which is expected to help retain visitors to the county’s nearby River City Sportsplex who might otherwise head to Richmond for hotels, restaurants and shopping, says H. Garrett Hart III, the county’s economic development director. He also hopes The Lake will attract talent for businesses to Chesterfield.

Supervisors approved an agreement in 2022 to provide Lake Adventures with local tax rebates of up to 80% over the next 20 years for the development’s mixed-use and commercial portions. The funds will help defray the cost of building a parking deck instead of surface parking, leaving more space for commercial offerings.

“That’s the benefit of tourism, keeping those dollars in Chesterfield to be able to put back into our own infrastructure,” says J.C. Poma, Chesterfield’s executive director of sports, visitation and entertainment.  

Henrico gets federal funding jolt for EV charging stations

People shopping for a new car or truck often hesitate to buy an electric vehicle because there aren’t many public charging stations.

However, that situation will improve in Henrico County, which was awarded about $1.45 million in January through the U.S. Transportation Department’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program. The funds, along with a $363,200 county match, will be used to provide 38 EV charging ports at seven publicly accessible facilities.

“We do have 69 EV charging stations in Henrico, but they’re not in areas that are necessarily publicly available,” says Cari Tretina, chief of staff to the county manager. “What our grant application focused on was the areas that were underserved but also would best meet the [grant] metrics.”

She says it will take 12 to 18 months to work through the grant process and find a company that will ultimately install the stations and operate them on a revenue-sharing basis.

The recommended locations are Tuckahoe Area Library, Fairfield Area Library, Henrico County Government Center, Eastern Government Center, Eastern Henrico Recreation Center, Henrico Sports & Events Center and Short Pump Park.

Henrico is the only locality in Virginia to receive one of the 47 grants awarded this year through the program’s community charging track. The feds’ priorities are rural areas as well as low- and moderate-income neighborhoods with low ratios of private parking or high ratios of multiunit dwellings.

Virginia passed a law in 2021 requiring every new car sold in the state to be fully electric by 2035, and public EV charging stations are essential to increasing buyers’ acceptance of plug-in electric vehicles. The Richmond area, which includes Henrico, has 503 charging stations, according to PlugShare, an app that tracks public charging stations.

Adding seven stations in Henrico is “huge” and will help dealers market EVs, says Ralston King, vice president of legislative affairs for the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association. The VADA is doing everything it can to promote EVs, he adds, and the National Automobile Dealers Association just created a sales training and certification program for dealerships.

By 2030, an estimated 500,000 EVs will be on the roads in Dominion Energy Virginia’s service territory, up from 100,000 out of 7 million vehicles now. Dominion will be able to meet the demand because it factors that into its forecast for infrastructure needs, says Kate Staples, the utility’s electrification director.  

Henry County airport expansion underway

Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Henry County has completed a larger apron for airplane parking and will soon extend its 5,002-foot runway to 6,000 feet — long enough to accommodate executive jets. A new terminal is also planned as part of a package of about $30 million in upgrades for the airport, according to Jason Davis, the airport’s managing director.

“We have multiple companies in the area that utilize what we have,” Davis says, “and we have to be able to meet the needs of those clients.”

The area’s biggest draws are Primland Resort, a 12,000-acre destination luxury resort and corporate retreat in Patrick County, and Martinsville Speedway, which hosts NASCAR Cup Series races and other events. Executives and clients of the area’s biggest employers also rely on the airport for transportation, says Davis.

The general aviation airport, which accommodates private and recreational aircraft, sees an average of 33 airplanes performing 66 takeoffs and landings each day, according to Davis.

Bad weather, however, sometimes means planes must divert to the Roanoke or Greensboro, North Carolina, airports. That’s a deterrent to busy executives and cuts into jet fuel sales, the airport’s top revenue source, Davis says.

Upgrading the airport “not only enhances accessibility for our guests but also elevates the overall experience,” says Primland’s general manager, Rajiv Malhotra.

The airport’s new apron, completed in October 2022, can now accommodate 25 to 35 jets, about triple the previous number, according to Davis. That project totaled $8 million, he says.

Work to shift part of Airport Road to make way for the runway extension began in October 2023 at a cost of about $5 million and should be finished this summer. Work can then begin on the runway extension, which will take about two years to complete and cost around $13 million, Davis says. He’s hoping to obtain 90% of the runway extension’s funding from the Federal Aviation Administration, 8% from the Virginia Department of Aviation and the rest locally.

The project’s final step will be to replace the airport’s circa-1987 terminal with a larger, modern facility that will include a pilot’s lounge, a conference room and Simply Suzanne’s Café, the airport’s restaurant.

“The new terminal will be a big improvement,” says Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville Henry County Economic Development Corp. “We consider it our front door for people who are traveling by plane.”

Southern Va. Big Deal: Shattering records

Poland-based Press Glass, a flat-glass fabricator for the commercial construction industry, will gain a competitive edge when it breaks ground on a $155.2 million expansion of its Ridgeway plant in the second quarter.

It’s the single largest investment by a business in Henry County’s history, topping packaging manufacturer Crown Holdings’ $145 million investment in 2021, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said during the company’s August 2023 announcement. It’s also expected to create around 335 jobs, nearly doubling Press Glass’ local workforce and making it one of the county’s largest employers.

Gregg Vanier, Press Glass’ director of manufacturing and technology, says the expansion, which will include automation upgrades, will help the plant become more competitive and increase production. “We’re always looking for new ways to automate and increase efficiency,” he explains.

Press Glass’ expansion will be a 360,000-square-foot addition to its plant at Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre.

Founded in 1991, Press Glass has grown into Europe’s largest independent flat-glass processing operation. With its headquarters in Konopiska, Poland, the company operates 13 factories in Europe and two in the United States — the Ridgeway plant and one 12 miles away in Stoneville, North Carolina. Mainly serving commercial construction clients, the company manufactures a variety of flat-glass products, including panels as large as about 10.5 feet by 19.5 feet.

Buildings where its glass has been used include the covered pedestrian walkway at Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, and Amaris, a 12-story waterfront condominium building with an all-glass façade in Washington, D.C.

Press Glass was Commonwealth Crossing’s first tenant when it built its 270,000-square-foot plant there in 2020. Press Glass chose the site because of its easy access to interstates and centralized location to its customer base on the East Coast.

The industrial park also contains the Commonwealth Centre for Advanced Training, a resource for Commonwealth Crossing tenants operated as a partnership by the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp., Henry County, Patrick & Henry Community College and The Harvest Foundation. Press Glass Talent Acquisition and Development Manager Karolina Styk says the training center was especially helpful during the plant’s initial stages of construction and installation by providing temporary offices, storage for large equipment and training for the company’s first group of local hires.

When Press Glass considered expanding, the Martinsville-Henry County EDC worked with VEDP to land the deal. Youngkin approved a $2 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Henry County, which owns Commonwealth Crossing, with the project. Additional funding and services to support workforce training will be provided through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

Press Glass already relies on local community colleges to provide leadership training, and some employees take classes to earn advanced manufacturing certifications needed for maintaining the plant’s automated machinery. Staff also visit the community colleges to promote career options available at the plant.

“Fostering connections with local entities like community colleges is very important to us,” Vanier says, “and we believe these relationships are mutually beneficial.”

Press Glass’ expansion, its first in Commonwealth Crossing, will make the plant one of the largest and most automated facilities processing architectural glass in the United States, says Styk. The plant will need employees with expertise in robotics and mechatronics, as well as those who can perform jobs such as shipping and receiving, quality control, estimation, customer service and IT, says Vanier. Hiring began in late 2023 and is continuing through 2025.

Henry County Administrator Dale Wagoner says that the county has seen a significant increase in average weekly wages for manufacturing jobs due to the presence of Press Glass and Crown Holdings in Commonwealth Crossing.

“These are good-paying jobs and they’re increasing wages at other companies,” he says. “For a while, we had a drain to the Roanoke Valley. Now those people are coming back to our area and people from other areas are coming here to work.”

Mark Heath, president and CEO of Martinsville-Henry County EDC, says he thinks that Press Glass and Crown Holdings will help attract other advanced manufacturing companies to the 765-acre industrial park.

“We’ve analyzed their workforce here, and we have proven that we can support industries in aerospace, food processing, automotive, so those are some of the target sectors that we’re going at recruiting,” says Wagoner.

“Companies generally like to locate where people are successful and where they can have the facilities they need to develop their site,” he says. “Who knows? That could be supplier companies or other spinoffs.” 

Southern Va. Year-in-Review: Hitting the jackpot

Southern Virginia is seeing years of preparation for economic development pay big dividends. Businesses ranging from a temporary casino to a biopharmaceutical company to a flat-glass manufacturer announced they were opening or planning expansions in the region in 2023.

Local economic development officials say the major draws they’ve worked hard to put in place include workforce training programs, shovel-ready sites and quality-of-life amenities that companies are seeking for their workers.

“As we have come out of the pandemic, talent attraction and the ability to access skilled labor has become increasingly important to industry, and our community has been ahead of the game,” says Danville Economic Development and Tourism Director Corrie Bobe.

Danville and neighboring Pittsylvania County can show prospects that they’ve established a skilled labor force pipeline by investing more than $93 million over the past 10 years in workforce training initiatives, she says. These involve partnerships with local public schools, Danville Community College and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

Danville also has invested a “substantial amount” in quality-of-life amenities, says Bobe. “We want to ensure that when CEOs visit our community, they understand that this is an area where they can attract talent and also retain that talent,” she says.

Companies are also seeking shovel-ready sites, says Mark Heath, Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp.’s president and CEO.

Press Glass, a Polish flat-glass fabricator for the commercial construction industry, found one at Henry’s Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in 2018 and opened there in 2020. It’s now planning a $155.2 million expansion of the facility, the single largest business investment in the county’s history. (See related story.)

In hopes of attracting more big manufacturers, Commonwealth Crossing is spending $32 million to finish grading a 93-acre pad site next to 57 acres that have already been graded in the industrial park.

“When it’s finished, we’ll have the only 150-acre pad site in Virginia, or one of the few with all utilities and rail in place,” Heath says. “These large sites are hard to come by, and one of the reasons is they’re costly to develop.”

Meanwhile, in November 2023, a Tennessee-based manufacturer of vehicle battery components, Microporous, confirmed to Virginia Business that it was eyeing the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County for a lithium-ion battery manufacturing project that could top $1 billion in investments and create 1,500 jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $100 million grant to support the project in November, but there have been no additional announcements about the project’s status since.

If the deal, which state economic officials dubbed “Project Stellar,” does happen, it could take away the sting the region felt after losing a proposed $3.5 billion Ford Motor electric vehicle battery factory that was considering Berry Hill in 2022. Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled Virginia out of the running for the deal over security concerns that a Chinese company would be involved in its operations. (Ford ultimately scaled back plans for the plant, which is being built in Michigan, amid heated union negotiations and pushback from Republican congressional members.)

Owned by the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facility Authority, Berry Hill is the largest industrial site certified by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and one of the largest megasites on the East Coast.

Danville/Pittsylvania County

In January, Caesars Virginia held a topping- off ceremony for its $650 million permanent resort casino, scheduled to become the state’s third permanent casino when it opens later this year. However, the joint venture between Caesars Entertainment and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has scaled back the number of hotel rooms at the 12-story resort from 500 to 320. The move was caused by rising costs on the project, according to city officials.

​The permanent casino is planned to have a 90,000-square-foot gaming floor with more than 1,300 slots, 85 live game tables, 24 electronic game tables, a poker room and sportsbook. The resort will feature a full- service spa, pool, bars, restaurants, a 2,500-seat theater and more than 50,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

In the meantime, Caesars Virginia’s 40,000-square-foot temporary casino generated about $145 million in revenue from its May 2023 opening through the end of 2023, according to the Virginia Lottery. So far, Caesars Virginia has hired 455 workers, with plans to hire hundreds more employees this year. It has also expanded offerings at the temporary casino, which now has 12 sportsbook betting kiosks; 808 slot machines; and 33 table games, including blackjack, roulette and baccarat.

In other local economic development news, Germany-based Zollner Elektronik is investing $14 million to expand its manufacturing operations in the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facility Authority-owned Cyber Park.

Its 60,000-square-foot plant in the 330-acre technology park in Danville had been owned by U.S.-based Electronic Instrumentation & Technology (EIT). Zollner Elektronik got it when it acquired EIT’s electronic manufacturing services division in 2022. The company employs 50 people there and expects to begin hiring another 50 in the second quarter.

Engineered BioPharmaceuticals announced in February 2023 that it planned to invest $6.1 million in an expansion in Danville that will create 34 jobs. Construction has started on an approximately 20,000-square-foot building and is expected to be completed midyear, says Bobe.

A group of investors launched the company in 2011 in the Dan River Business Development Center, the city’s business incubator. It uses technology that converts medications and vaccines into dry powder to make them shelf stable. As this technology became more refined, the company realized it could be applied to the food and beverage market as well, she says. It can take the bitterness out of stevia, for example.

“In order to accommodate these new nutraceutical and pharmaceutical product lines, they needed to expand to a larger footprint. They still hold their existing offices and have a space at the DRBDC and have plans to continue that if they develop new product lines and product types with this technology, but the new facility that’s under construction will be devoted to nutraceutical, the stevia product and pharmaceuticals,” Bobe says.

Brunswick County

Developer Project Whitehouse broke ground in May 2023 on Hotel Elle, the first hotel to be built in the county in decades. Located on U.S. Route 58 next to Brunswick Square Shopping Center, the 110-room boutique property is expected to cost $8 million, spur 167 temporary and permanent jobs, and open in spring 2025, according to Brunswick County’s Department of Economic Development.

Greensville County

Also in May 2023, automotive parts manufacturer Heyco Werk USA said it will invest $5.4 million to expand operations at its Greensville County Industrial Park facility over the next four years, adding 21 jobs to the plant’s 68 current employees. A subsidiary of Germany-based Heyco Group, the company supplies precision plastic molded parts for the automotive industry and various industrial markets. It’s expanding production to supply BMW plants in South Carolina, China and South Africa.

Halifax County

IperionX, a titanium development company, started work in December 2023 on the nation’s first 100% recycled titanium metal powder manufacturing facility in South Boston’s Southern Virginia Technology Park. In September 2022, IperionX announced it would invest $82 million over three years, with plans to create 108 jobs. It has started hiring and recruiting staff.

“We expect that to take eight months to complete the full buildout and commissioning of equipment,” says Kristy Johnson, executive director of the Halifax County Industrial Development Authority.

The IDA’s board approved a lease in November 2023 for a vacant 15,000-square-foot building in the technology park that had once housed a Virginia Employment Commission call center. IperionX plans to create an advanced manufacturing center there with office, research and development and advanced manufacturing space. It should be ready to occupy in the first quarter of this year, says Johnson. 

George Mason incubator helps immigrant entrepreneurs rise

George Mason University’s vision for creating an entrepreneurship program for immigrants and refugees “connected the dots” of Sumeet Shrivastava’s history, beginning with his family’s emigration from Bihar, India, in the 1970s so his father, Satyendra Shrivastava, could earn a master’s degree. Mentors guided his father, who founded McLean-based information technology firm Anstec. In turn, his father went on to mentor others.

“I grew up watching all that happening and realizing that even if people have good intent, they still need mentors, they still need to understand the basics, especially immigrants … or refugees who are newer to the country that don’t always have a feel for how does it work here,” says Sumeet Shrivastava, a George Mason alumnus and former president and CEO of Array Information Technologies in Fairfax. The company was sold to Fairfax-based CGI Federal in 2021.

Shrivastava made a $1.5 million gift to George Mason that led to the September 2023 launch of the Shrivastava Family Refugee and Immigrant Success through Entrepreneurship (RISE) program at George Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

An 11-month entrepreneurship training and business incubator, RISE includes a bootcamp covering basic tools, concepts and principles for launching and growing a business with limited resources. Almost all participants are Afghan immigrants referred through RISE partner Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a human services and immigration and refugee relief agency. RISE is the first of three programs that CIE hopes to launch under its Soar Initiative, which aims to provide access to entrepreneurship opportunities to communities lacking such training.

RISE started with 47 initial participants, with 27 advancing to the second phase, meeting with mentors every other week for three months and getting coached on setting up businesses. Beginning in late January, participants will be paired with Mason Honors College students to launch their startups.

Mohammad Rafiq Katawazai owned a restaurant in Afghanistan and is working with a mentor to open a restaurant serving coffee, tea and soup, a popular concept back home. He wanted to go into business before signing up for RISE but was confused about where to start. “I’ve learned a lot,” he says. “A lot of things in our culture are so much different. Business is different.”

Shrivastava’s donation is being used to create an endowment, and Shrivastava plans to reach out to other potential donors to help keep RISE going. “I think there’s a huge opportunity to scale it,” he says.