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byline: Courtney Mabeus-Brown

Auto parts manufacturer to expand in Emporia

Heyco Werk USA Inc., a subsidiary of Germany-based automotive parts manufacturer Heyco Group, plans to invest $5.4 million to expand its operations in Greenville County, adding 21 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday.

The location produces precision plastic molder parts for the auto industry and other industrial markets. Heyco Werk USA produces products for all BMW sport utility vehicles around the world, and its expansion will meet needs of BMW plants in South Carolina, China and South Africa, Youngkin said in a news release.

“A diverse, steadily growing ecosystem of automotive manufacturers, innovators and customers is thriving in the commonwealth, and Heyco Werk USA benefits from strategic access to our specialized supply chains and strong manufacturing base,” Youngkin said in a news release. “The Virginia operation has expanded Heyco’s production footprint to serve BMW plants worldwide, and we are thrilled the company will create more high-quality manufacturing jobs for the hardworking citizens of Greensville County.”

Founded in 1937 in Remscheid, Germany, by Max and Ernst Heynen, Heyco Group supplies products and engineering services in metal and plastic processing technology. The company has eight sites worldwide, with approximately 1,250 employees. Heyco Werk USA Inc. established a facility in the U.S. in 2014 and has operated the Greensville County plant, in Emporia, since 2019. According to Heyco’s website, the company took over the Emporia plant from former production partner Beach Mold and Tool and in 2019 had about 100 employees and more than 20 injection molding machines.

“We are honored to continue our partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia and extend our engagement at our Greensville County location as we build on the success of the last few years. Our production plant in Greensville County plays an important strategic role within the Heyco Group,” CEO & President Daniel Dittmar said in a statement. “With this latest investment, we set an important milestone for the future of our manufacturing operation and prepare the plant with new technologies, ensuring both the long-term success of our company and our position as an attractive and viable employer in Greensville County.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Greensville County to secure the project for Virginia, and Youngkin approved a $135,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the county with the project. The company is eligible to receive benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Funding and services to support the company’s employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

Valiant wins $748M language services task order

Herndon-based defense contractor Valiant Integrated Services LLC will provide linguist and translation support to the U.S. Central Command under a $748 million task order with a ceiling value of up to $1.4 billion, the government contractor announced Thursday.

Under the contract, Valiant will provide comprehensive linguist and translation support in CENTCOM’s area of responsibility, a region that covers the Middle East, as well as supplementary support in the continental U.S. from CENTCOM’s Tampa, Florida-based headquarters.  The task order was awarded by the Army Contracting Command-Detroit Arsenal/Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). CENTCOM is one of 11 unified combatant commands under the Department of Defense.

“Valiant is honored to continue our 10-year partnership with INSCOM by expanding our linguist support services to 19 CENTCOM countries in support of the U.S. and our partner nations,” Valiant CEO Dan Corbett said in a statement. “This award builds on Valiant’s successful strategy to expand and diversify our core markets and further expand our geographic footprint. We are proud to empower INSCOM’s critical missions by providing essential solutions against evolving global threats.”

Valiant’s 5,000 employees provide training, simulation, and readiness; mission and language support; advanced logistics and sustainment; intelligence and analysis solutions; global contingency and stability operations; and facility modernization, operations and maintenance to federal government clients, relief workers, global peacekeepers and disaster response teams. In addition to CENTCOM, Valiant provides language support in 17 other countries across U.S. Africa Command and U.S. European Command.

 

Navy awards $1.1B more for sub construction

General Dynamics Corp.’s Groton, Connecticut-based Electric Boat Corp. has received nearly $1.1  billion more from the Navy to continue building Virginia-class submarines, and its teammate, Newport News Shipbuilding, has received a $305 million chunk of that award to procure long-lead time material and components for the next two hulls.

The contract modification, announced by the Pentagon and Reston-based General Dynamics Tuesday, brings the total contract value to $10.2 billion. It includes procuring materials and major components for the future submarines 812 and 813, which are part of the Block V in the Virginia class of fast-attack nuclear submarines. Newport News Shipbuilding announced its portion of the award, which it received from General Dynamics, Wednesday.

“These funds are critically important to stabilizing and providing predictability to the thousands of suppliers across the country who support the Virginia-class program,” Jason Ward, Newport News Shipyards’ vice president of Virginia-class submarine construction, said in a statement. “The submarine industrial base is crucial to our shipbuilding success and we look forward to continuing to build these vital national security assets that will deliver to the U.S. Navy with the latest technology.”

Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., are the nation’s only two shipyards capable of building nuclear submarines. General Dynamics in 2019 won the largest-ever Navy contract for construction of the Block V of the Virginia class, which are capable of launching Tomahawk missiles. The two companies teamed up on a construction agreement to produce the class.

The Navy has said its submarine industrial base needs to hire as many as 100,000 workers in the next decade to keep up with the construction of its new submarines.

SAIC lands $249M Navy air warfare contract

Reston-based Science Applications International Corp. will continue servicing combat instrumentation platforms used by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division for training and test evaluation under a potential $249 million contract, the Fortune 500 contractor announced Tuesday.

Under the contract, SAIC will perform systems design and integration, hardware and software upgrades and modifications for combat environment instrumentation systems. The contractor will also provide services to support GPS-based range equipment, airborne electronic warfare systems, warning and countermeasures systems and range radio-frequency/electro-optical tracking systems and deliver test support and instrumentation for aerial drones and remote data sources. The work also includes field service support at more than nine test locations.

“SAIC’s expertise in systems integration and engineering provides solutions to support the U.S. Navy’s testing and training needs,” Bob Genter, president of SAIC’s defense and civilian sector, said in a statement. “We are excited to build on our progress and continue our work at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division.”

Primarily based in California, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division researches, develops, tests, evaluates and sustains integrated, interoperable ware fighting capabilities.

Forvis names new Va. managing partner

Forvis has named Jennifer Wold as managing partner of its Virginia practice unit, the accounting firm announced Monday.

Wold’s role becomes effective June 1. She succeeds Tom Hazelwood, who has served as managing partner for the past year. Wold will oversee offices in Richmond, where she will be based, and in Norfolk. She is a member of the firm’s commercial products practice and is coming from Wichita, Kanas.

Wold will lead day-to-day operations in Virginia with an emphasis on strategic growth, talent acquisition and development and client experience, the firm said in a news release. Wold and Hazelwood, who is returning to North Carolina and will continue serving clients as a partner, are collaborating with other Forvis leaders to ensure a smooth transition.

Wold has nearly 30 years of experience and joined Forvis in 2018 as an audit partner.

“I am honored to lead our Virginia offices as Tom Hazelwood passes the baton. He has done an incredible job overseeing growth in the market and building great relationships with clients,” Wold said in a statement. “Virginia is a dynamic state and business environment, and I can tell you from getting to know the local team that we are ready to continue unlocking potential for current and new clients.” 

Forvis is a top 10 accounting firm formed by the 2022 merger of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP and Springfield, Missouri-based BKD CPAs & Advisor.

“We are incredibly proud of the history of our Virginia practice and Jennifer will continue a tradition of great leadership,” Thomas Boothby, regional managing partner with Forvis, said in a statement. “She brings a passion for our people and clients that is second-to-none. She has worked hand-in-hand with Tom on this transition leading and she is ready to hit the ground running.” 

Wold’s career as an audit partner includes experience assisting clients through mergers and acquisitions, various accounting issues and new standard implementations.

“My role as a leader is to ensure that our people are able to unlock their full potential,” Wold said. “I truly believe it is my responsibility to ensure the next generation of our firm’s leadership is even more successful than the last.” 

Wold has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Wichita State University and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Virginia Society of CPAs and the Kansas Society of CPAs. In Wichita, she served on the boards of United Methodist Open Door, EmberHope Youthville and Music Theatre Wichita. 

 

Potomac Yard-VT Metro station opens in Alexandria

In its heyday during World War II, Potomac Yard handled freight for six different railroads and employed 1,500 workers to keep trains moving, until it succumbed to economic pressures.

On Friday, after decades of planning, the transformed former rail switching yard opened as Metro’s 98th station, serving the Yellow and Blue lines between the Braddock Road and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stops in Alexandria.

“Wherever Metro goes, community grows,” Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke said before a crowd of hundreds who gathered at the $370 million station — named for Potomac Yard and Virginia Tech — to mark the occasion. The ceremony concluded a four-year period of construction.

The Potomac Yard-VT station is viewed by the region’s leaders as an economic engine expected to help drive billions of dollars in investment in Alexandria. The station, just two stops away from Amazon.com Inc.’s new HQ2, is arriving where strip retail shopping centers and residential homes have infilled as officials lobbied to build the station, which has been included in planning documents for the neighborhood since the 1970s. Anchored by Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus, which is expected to open in 2024, WMATA forecasts that the station will bring in 26,000 more jobs and 13,000 more Metro riders.

“This has been a one of the most, if not the most anticipated economic development project, for the city in decades,” Stephanie Landrum, president and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, told Virginia Business.

While many elected leaders on hand Friday touted the benefits of Metro for boosting future economic development, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner also used it to rally behind the potential for a new FBI headquarters to move to Northern Virginia. The U.S. General Services Administration is eyeing federally-owned land in Springfield as one potential home for the agency as it seeks to relocate from its current location in Washington, D.C., and Virginia leaders have sparred with Maryland officials over which state is better suited for the building. Two sites in Prince George’s County, Maryland, are also in consideration.

Warner anticipated that at least some of those 13,000 new Alexandria residents “are going to be FBI agents” going to work in Springfield.

“Climb on this station, get to Springfield in about 11 minutes, at most,” Warner said, noting the area’s proximity to “all of the rest of the intelligence community … all across Northern Virginia. It’s going to be a great day.”

A ‘gravy train’ in Alexandria

Among the morning’s many train-related jokes, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat whose district includes the neighborhood, referred to the new station as a “gravy train” for the region, while noting that he would have preferred that it were named “Hokie Nation Station,” a reference to the Virginia Tech campus, which will be the university’s hub for computer science and engineering graduate studies. During construction of the first academic building, students are already attending classes in temporary space in a shopping center.

The combination of Amazon and Virginia Tech’s presences have contributed to more economic development. The Boeing Co. announced in May 2022 that it was moving its headquarters from Chicago to nearby Arlington County, after the company in 2021 gave $50 million to the university to support diversity at the Innovation Campus. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is a Tech alumnus.

Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, accompanied by the Hokie bird mascot on stage, said Friday there are about 60,000 Hokies “within a few Metro stops of this site.”

“We have about 1,500 students, faculty and staff that will be here in full buildout over the next several years,” Sands said. “We’ll have research programs up and running; they already have been started, [and] they will connect the technology worlds in this region.”

According to the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, about 555,000 square feet of commercial space has now been completed near the new station.

In addition to the Innovation Campus, the Institute for Defense Analyses’ 370,000-square-foot headquarters opened in Potomac Yard in January 2022, and the 100,000-square-foot headquarters and training center for the National Industries for the Blind opened in March 2019.

In April 2017, the American Physical Therapy Association’s board voted to purchase land for its new headquarters directly across from the new station after it determined that its previous location, about a mile away on the Potomac River waterfront, needed significant renovations and would be better suited for residential use. The association was attracted to the redevelopment underway at Potomac Yard and in 2020, opened its $70 million, 85,000-square-foot headquarters. APTA CEO Justin Moore told Virginia Business on Friday that five of the association’s workers used the new Metro station that morning.

The association hired about 30 new employees last year, Moore said, and has about 19 current openings. He credits being in a “dynamic neighborhood” with helping the organization’s recruitment efforts, and being close to public transportation fits the organization’s mission of improving health.

“In our old buildings, it was 99% single-car drivers,” Moore said, but with improved Metro access, “we’re already in the 80s.”

The opening of the station, originally set for April 2022, was delayed twice and follows Metro’s $3 billion Silver Line extension, which added six stations toward Dulles International Airport and stretched service to Loudoun County in November 2022. Clarke said 1.5 million passengers have now traveled on the new Silver Line.

Richmond loft apartment community sells for $14.8M

A 70-unit apartment community in Richmond’s Manchester neighborhood sold for $14.8 million May 12.

Putnam Mill LLC, an entity connected to First Priority Management of Washington, D.C., purchased The Mill at Manchester Lofts, a former paper mill and warehouse that now consists of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom loft style apartments at 815 Perry St. as an investment. The seller was Fulton Street Partners, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based multifamily investment firm.

The apartments were 95% leased at the time of the sale. According to the community website, the property is managed by BH Management Services LLC, with rentals starting at $1,005.

Jenny Stoner and John Pritzlaff, of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, represented the purchaser in the sale. Putnam Mill will complete an interior and overall renovation after closing.

Shenandoah Valley SBDC names new director

Shenandoah Valley’s Small Business Development Center, based in Harrisonburg, has named Allison Dugan its newest director. 

Dugan started with the regional SBDC as a part-time program manager in 2014 and became a business adviser in 2015, adding the title of assistant director in 2019. She took on the leadership role May 1, after serving as interim director since March 27, replacing Joyce Krech, who retired after more than two decades.

Dugan said that she plans to leverage the SBDC’s network for resources, including host institution James Madison University, the regional SBDC’s advisory council and other regional business programs to identify and develop services needed to build small businesses.

“The Shenandoah Valley SBDC is very adept at one-on-one advising that can be customized for each individual business,” Dugan said in a statement. “We want to continue to enhance those services by listening to what businesses and localities truly need, finding gaps in services and then using the expertise and resources available throughout our extensive network to drive business opportunities and skills to the next level.”

The regional SBDC is one of 27 Small Business Development Centers across Virginia. They provide no-fee, confidential advising, business training and connections to resources for new and existing businesses. Formed in 1989, the organization is hosted by JMU in partnership with George Mason University and is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration and local governments.

REC promotes principal engineering manager

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative has named Lee Brock as its principal engineering manager, the Fredericksburg-based utility announced Tuesday,

In the new role, Brock will lead and coordinate engineering, design and construction for REC’s large-scale power projects and focus on response and service to new members in the large commercial and industrial space. Her team will also work closely with REC’s economic development team to ensure consistent response and processes for smooth transition from project concept to completion.

“With Ms. Brock’s transition into this new role supporting REC’s service projects, we have a winning team to support economic growth in the communities we serve, maintain member focus from initial application through project completion, and ensuring grid health and reliability,” said John Arp, REC’s chief engineering and grid operations officer.

Brock previously served as REC’s managing director for engineering and power supply. In that role, her responsibilities included leadership and oversight of the electrical system planning, engineering and technical services, ensuring the successful implementation of the cooperative’s strategic plan while carrying out REC’s mission of providing reliable electric service.

Brock has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology and has 43 years of experience in the electric utility industry. Prior to coming to REC in 1995, she worked for 15 years for Atlantic City Electric Co. in New Jersey as an electrical engineer in the bulk power planning, distribution planning and technical services departments.

REC provides electric service to more than 174,000 connections in parts of 22 Virginia counties. It operates and maintains more than 18,000 miles of power lines through its service area, which ranges from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.

NG receives $244.6M for ballistic missile work

Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp. has received a $244.6 million modification to a previously awarded contract to continue work on ballistic missile defense system capabilities, the Pentagon announced May 9.

The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quality contract continues development, integration, testing and fielding of complex advanced discrimination techniques, operation and sustainment of complex modeling, and simulation techniques and tools to model the system’s capabilities. Work will be performed in Alabama, Colorado and California and is expected to be complete by March 4, 2026.