A steady stream of developers considered purchasing South Boston’s long-shuttered John Randolph Hotel during the past decade, but none sealed the deal until Julian and Karie Brittano toured the downtown property last fall.
This spring, the couple’s High Point, North Carolina-based firm, The Brittano Group Inc., and its subsidiary, The Rook Hotels, entered into a private-public partnership with the town to redevelop the four-story building into a boutique hotel with 32-plus rooms and a rooftop bar under the name “The Rook at South Boston.” A city-owned building adjacent to the hotel will be revamped into a restaurant and conference center. Construction is slated to start this summer and take about two years.
Karie Brittano, a licensed general contractor, had been an adjunct professor at Danville Community College where she worked with Brian Jackson, the college’s vice president of workforce services. Jackson knew of the couple’s interest in economic revitalization and told them about the hotel.
“Its historical content drew me in,” says Karie Brittano, who envisions combining the Depression-era hotel’s past with its proximity to the South Boston Speedway and Virginia International Raceway. “We want to have a historical feel where old world meets new world, including a tie-in with the raceway and checkered flags.”
Built in 1929, the John Randolph Hotel is the largest building in downtown South Boston but has sat empty since closing more than 30 years ago. The Halifax Industrial Development Authority acquired the property in 2011 and gutted the interior in preparation for redevelopment.
Julian Brittano has traveled throughout Southern Virginia scouting locations for filming upcoming TV pilots. “Exciting things are happening in Southern Virginia with the speedway and the raceway,” he says. “South Boston is a great central location, and the hotel will be the anchor of a new downtown.”
IDA Executive Director Kristy Johnson says the boutique hotel will be a turning point for downtown South Boston, which has seen a flurry of recent small retail and restaurant investments. “A redeveloped hotel that’s a boutique hotel adds a very cool downtown vibe,” she says. “Any investment into the area benefits our community as a whole.”
Town Manager Tom Raab estimates the renovation will cost about $11 million. The town has obtained more than $650,000 in grants, and the IDA, which owns the hotel, has applied for state industrial revitalization funds.
After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, Hampton Roads Business Outreach (HRBOR) is reviving its mission to empower and support LGBTQ businesses and their allies.
HRBOR was established in 2006 and promotes LGBTQ influence through business ownership, workforce equality and diversity and inclusion.
“We’re in a regrowth process,” says Eric Hause, HRBOR’s membership director and a member of its board. “Like most nonprofit organizations, we struggled to get through COVID and canceled membership dues for two years.”
HRBOR had as many as 150 members pre-pandemic but took a break during it, deciding not to charge dues, Hause says. During that time, a subcommittee of HRBOR’s volunteer board looked at what LGBTQ chambers in similar markets, including Richmond, Baltimore and Raleigh, North Carolina, were doing. Based on what they learned, HRBOR reset memberships, adding an individual category for self-employed entrepreneurs and loweringdues for nonprofits and small businesses. The chamber also added sponsorship levels that come with several exclusive benefits.
“It can be any organization that wants to pay to help support our mission and get much more visibility,” Hause says.
During the winter, HRBOR resumed monthly in-person networking events for the first time since the pandemic began. And on March 30, HRBOR co-presented an LGBTQ+ career expo at Old Dominion University in collaboration with ODU and Hause’s magazine, Outwire757. The event featured recruiters from 40 companies, including Sentara Healthcare, Dominion Energy Inc. and Dollar Tree Inc.
By April, HRBOR was back up to 72 members. Jarrod Hunt, a local mortgage loan officer for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Dolfin Home Loans, joined after attending a networking event at an art gallery in January. “I just wanted Dolfin’s name to be out there,” he says. “We’re newer to Virginia Beach.”
HRBOR also is partnering with Busch Gardens Williamsburg to sponsor the theme park’s first Pride Day on July 10. The event grew out of a member picnic HRBOR hosted at the park last fall. “It was well attended and led to further discussion with Busch Gardens about offering Pride events,” Hause says.
Hause says HRBOR also gains visibility through established allies including the Virginia Arts Festival, Freedom Boat Club and Samaritan House. “We’re casting a wider net to the community at large and saying this is how to reach the LGBT community. Our members look for strength in numbers.”
Justin Ferrell is toasting Danville’s new Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, which allows visitors to sip alcoholic beverages while strolling through part of the city’s River District.
“It’s going to be unique for all businesses downtown because tourism is happening in Danville and people are excited about moving into the downtown community,” says Ferrell, a partner in Culture Restaurant and Grill, which opened in the River District in February.
On April 5, Danville City Council voted to establish the district, allowing adults to drink in public from 8 a.m. to midnight daily in a 159-acre area.
Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority approval of the district will take 60 to 90 days after Danville submits its official application to the state, which the city hadn’t done as of early May, an ABC spokesperson confirmed.
Visitors will be able to buy drinks at about 10 state ABC-licensed establishments and walk within the designed area while consuming alcoholic drinks.
City and business leaders are confident the area will draw more visitors to the revitalized River District, which has numerous bars, restaurants and other businesses and hosts the Danville Wine Festival, Bright Leaf Brew Fest, Shrimp Fest and other events.
“This will be a great benefit to the River District,” says Mayor Alonzo Jones. “We’re trying to relax things and make people feel comfortable and enjoy themselves responsibly. It’s a win-win.”
Logan King, assistant general manager of Mucho Taqueria, says the tequila bar is looking forward to having the designated drinking area. “People want to be able to walk outside and go to other restaurants. This is going to bring in more business for the River District.”
Ferrell, a Danville native, is confident the zone will capitalize on recent downtown growth. “In the last 10 years, we’ve seen more public and private investment,” he says, adding that while the additional pedestrian traffic will generate excitement, details remain to be worked out, such as charging fees to bring in alcohol from another establishment. “We’re in a remarkable position because this is new and has not been tried in Virginia before.”
Danville is the first city in the state to take advantage of a 2021 state law allowing localities to establish up to three designated outdoor drinking areas. Jones says future zones could be created in Schoolfield, where the Caesars Virginia casino is set to open in 2024, and North Main Hill.
Each week, MDV SpartanNash LLC, the nation’s leading supplier for overseas U.S. military commissaries and exchanges, loads 100 to 200 containers filled with everything from peanut butter to clothing aboard steamships bound for Europe, Africa, Bahrain, Kuwait and Honduras, as well as Puerto Rico and Guantanamo Bay.
“In places like Guantanamo Bay and Bahrain, there’s nowhere else to shop,” says Sharon Fleener, MDV’s director of export services and regulations. “There are no Walmarts over there. If we don’t ship it to them, they don’t get it.”
Headquartered in Norfolk, MDV is among a multitude of companies impacted by disruptions in the global supply chain. Logjams triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have plagued production and distribution of products and created mayhem for ports, railroads and truckers. While some experts say the worst is over, others believe disruptions will continue through 2022.
An economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City told The New York Times in March that demand-driven increases in shipping costs are expected to worsen in coming months, adding that shipping rates usually take 12 to 18 months to fully impact consumer prices.
Fleener began noticing issues last summer when ships coming from Europe were delayed up to four weeks. By fall, containers and intermodal chassis were at a premium, and a nationwide shortage of truck drivers added to the bottlenecks. “It was a huge myriad of things,” she says. “We’ve had to watch very closely to make sure we have enough power and truck drivers because we can’t stop the shipments.”
MDV has advised commissaries and exchanges to anticipate delays and plan accordingly. “If we start to see items go into short supply, we have the military order additional supplies so they will have a surplus,” Fleener adds. The government also ensures that MDV has enough shipping containers. “We are No. 1 on the priority list because it’s for the military.”
Containers headed to Europe and Africa are shipped through the Port of Virginia, while cargo bound for Puerto Rico and Guantanamo Bay goes through the Port of Jacksonville in Florida. “We’ve not had any bumps at the ports,” Fleener says, adding that the Port of Virginia has been especially supportive. “They make sure all customers are taken care of and we have what we need.”
Some shipments from Europe were delayed as much as four weeks last summer, says Sharon Fleener, who directs export services for Norfolk-based MDV SpartanNash, the nation’s top supplier of U.S. military commissaries and exchanges. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Praise like that confirms the Virginia Port Authority’s investments at Norfolk International Terminals and Virginia International Gateway, its two primary container terminals, have paid off, says Stephen Edwards, the authority’s CEO and executive director. While global supply chain challenges and the resulting backlogs overwhelmed other ports, particularly those on the West Coast, the Port of Virginia grew 25% in volume during 2021 and posted its most productive year on record. “We outperformed just about all other ports,” Edwards adds. “Our investments delivered a modern port, and we continue to invest and modernize.”
The port, the third largest on the East Coast, has invested more than $800 million in upgrades at Norfolk International Terminals and Virginia International Gateway. VIG underwent an 800-foot expansion, and automated stacking cranes were purchased for both terminals, ensuring the port does not have to run extra shifts, especially when ships are late.
“The cranes allow us to be agile,” Edwards explains. “We can adjust load planning and yard management and don’t have to take our labor force and put them on reworking yard capacity. It keeps everything in rhythm.”
NIT’s central railyard is undergoing an $80 million expansion to accommodate 610,000 annual container lifts. Completion is set for late 2023. Also on tap is an expansion of NIT North, which would increase the port’s overall capacity by 20%.
Meanwhile, dredging of the port’s channels to 55 feet — making it the deepest port on the East Coast and able to accommodate the biggest modern container ships — will be completed in 2024. “It will allow the biggest ships to come in full to their weight limits and two-way traffic in the channels,” says Edwards. “It’s like going from a one-way to a two-way highway.”
Aside from modernization and expansion, Edwards says, the port’s stability and success are a reflection of its “Virginia Model” operating plan in which the VPA owns and operates the terminals and manages the chassis fleet. “We’re not working in a competing environment,” he says. “We have one conductor — our chief operating officer — who decides what is best to keep the port moving. That allows us to work with our labor force and make smart decisions.”
By contrast, the nation’s largest ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, have two operators, two port authorities and multiple other providers — all competing for business. The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have experienced significant backlogs over the past year, with more than 75 vessels waiting offshore to be unloaded at one point last fall. The Port of Virginia, meanwhile, has remained less affected by such congestion.
“We’re the fastest growing import-and-export port,” Edwards adds. “We give exporters a clear window of when they can deliver cargo and quickly load the cargo and get the containers back into port without losing a lot of time.”
Logistical issues
Some cargo lines are refusing export cargo because it’s quicker and more profitable to send empty containers back overseas to be filled, says Holly Pearce, a global logistics executive for battery manufacturer C&D Trojan. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
Holly Pearce can attest to the challenges of exporting goods in a world hampered by the pandemic. She leads global logistics for battery manufacturer C&D Technologies Inc.’s Trojan Battery Co. subsidiary, which has five North American plants and global subsidiaries, serving customers in more than 110 countries. “Before the pandemic, I had always been able to secure space on vessels,” she says. “Now, sometimes steamship lines have said ‘no,’ even when we offer a higher rate to export our product. That’s unprecedented.”
Pearce, who’s based in Richmond, explains that steamship lines often prefer to send empty containers back overseas rather than wait for exporters to fill them. “The steamship line loses out on about seven days with me loading the container, so it’s more profitable for them to send empty containers overseas and get additional revenue when they are filled and returned to the U.S,” she says, noting that imported containers command 10 times the revenue of exported cargo. “It’s very frustrating.”
C&D Trojan is paying premium rates to ship its products overseas, and those increases are being passed along to its customers.“At first there was definite pushback,” Pearce acknowledges, “but as time passed and the situation was not improving, it got to the point where customers were willing to work with us on creative solutions and bear the costs.”
Port congestion and slowdowns increase frustrations. “We’ve had to identify alternatives,” she says. “On the East Coast, we use the Port of Virginia and the Port of Charleston, which have more space and less wait time than the Port of Savannah. On the West Coast, we go through Montreal instead of Los Angeles.” C&D moves its freight on trucks from California to Montreal, and then its cargo is loaded on container ships bound for European ports, Pearce says.
Domestically, C&D Trojan also has had to deal with the nationwide truck driver shortage. Pearce recalls a supplier calling to complain that a driver left without picking up his cargo after receiving a better offer from another supplier. “Demand is so significant [that] it allows drivers to be more picky,” she says, “so we’ve had to put contracts in place for our protection.”
The Turman Group, a family-owned forestry products company in Carroll County, is dealing with similar obstacles. Earlier this year, the company was able to ship only about 50% of its orders. “Steamship lines are manipulating the earliest return dates when containers can be delivered back to the port to maximize the amount of imports they can ship,” says Ryan Turman, the company’s director of business development. “The ports are doing the best they can, but it has been devastating to exporters and owner-operator truckers.”
Turman is not optimistic that things will improve in the short term.
“As demand stands today, there’s no end in sight to the congestion,” says Ryan Turman with The Turman Group, a forestry products exporter in Carroll County. Photo by Earl Neikirk
“As demand stands today, there’s no end in sight to the congestion,” he says. “If the economy goes south, then it’ll be easier to get through the ports, but there will be less demand for exports. It really is a double-edged sword.”
A way out
Last year, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership announced a yearlong program to help companies manage their supply chains more efficiently. “The supply chain optimization program will help Virginia businesses find new markets and help companies that import intermediary products to turn them around to export,” says David White, executive director of the Virginia Maritime Association.
In the face of supply chain uncertainties, many businesses have increased their inventories, leading to lack of storage space. “Hampton Roads is running out of warehousing and distribution space to meet all of the demand,” White says. “It’s at nearly 100%, and there’s little additional space to bring in more product.”
There is also a workforce issue. “We initially lost a lot of people out of warehousing and distribution due to COVID,” White adds. “Facilities don’t have enough people to move product out one door and bring other products in the other door.” Firms are increasing wages to attract workers, but White says new employees are coming onboard during unprecedented consumer demand. “Companies are already facing backlogs, so there will be additional time before we start to see things easing.”
Jeffrey Smith, however, believes things are already improving. Smith, who is the information systems and supply chain management chair for Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Business, says he thinks the U.S. is past the worst of its supply chain woes.
“We’re definitely on the upswing in terms of having everything we need. The COVID effect is largely going away,” he says. “We definitely will see much more regularity as we move into summertime and get to the point where COVID is not as viral, and supply chains won’t be as impacted by people not working.”
Nevertheless, Smith counters his optimism with the reality of the cascading impacts of Russia’s March invasion of Ukraine.
“Now, we’re watching for the geopolitical effect, and countries issuing sanctions against Russia,” he says. The conflict has led to a surge in oil and wheat prices, while jeopardizing the supply of aluminum, platinum and other products. Russia and Ukraine are also key suppliers of components used to produce semiconductor chips, which have already been in short supply, leading to disruptions for tech companies, automakers and appliance manufacturers.
There’s a silver lining to the pandemic-era supply chain woes though, Smith adds: “It’s pushed companies and countries to really think about their supply chains instead of taking them for granted. Companies will look to tradeoffs in terms of costs, time, flexibility and risk assessments.”
South Hill merchants figured out ways to keep business going during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing Facebook Live videos from downtown stores that helped people shop from home, then pick up their treasures curbside.
Sometimes featuring a rescue dog named Duncan, the videos have continued even as restrictions are rolled back. Now, the town in Mecklenburg County has received extra help from a $50,000 “Welcome Back to Business” grant the South Hill Chamber of Commerce received in October 2021 from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
With the grant, the chamber is supporting 30 local businesses with façade improvements, mentoring and technical assistance to help owners navigate digital platforms.
“We have a wealth of talent and possibilities in South Hill, and we can help maximize that wealth to benefit businesses and ultimately the community at large,” says Shannon Lambert, the chamber’s executive director. “If people feel welcomed in the community, they’re going to stay in the community and keep their shopping dollars in the community.”
Mary Edmonds, owner of New 2 You Consignment Boutique, had new windows put in with the grant, as well as a new awning and sign that swings over her door. “I designed it — the top of it is a clothes hanger,” she says. “I’ve gotten more businesses complimenting me on that.”
Edmonds says that now that people are returning to town, some new businesses are emerging, including a brewery and a Starbucks. She and other business owners who belong to The Shops of South Hill group have begun telling customers about what other businesses are up to, in hopes of keeping people in town longer.
In short, “stay in town and shop around,” Edmonds says. “By doing that, you’re building a rapport. On Saturdays, we have a lot of out-of-town people.”
That sort of camaraderie is not unexpected in a town that rallied around small businesses during the worst days of the pandemic. Amid widespread shutdowns when people were reluctant to leave home, the South Hill chamber helped start up a temporary delivery service, staffed by volunteers, in order to keep local restaurants and small businesses operating.
“A lot of business owners grew up here,” says Mayor Dean Marion. “To be able to stay here, they have to create ways to attract people to our town and support businesses.”
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A.’s October 2021 announcement that it will build the nation’s first offshore-wind blade factory at Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT) has put Hampton Roads on a trajectory to become a supply chain hub for the country’s nascent offshore-wind energy industry.
The Spanish wind turbine company is investing $200 million to build the factory, including more than $80 million to construct buildings and install equipment on an 80-acre leased site at PMT. Upon completion in early 2023, the factory will be able to produce patented Siemens Gamesa Offshore IntegralBlades for 100 wind turbines annually.
That includes providing blades for the 176 turbines Dominion Energy Inc. plans to erect in federal waters 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast for its 2.6-gigawatt, $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. Installation of the wind turbines is expected to begin in 2024. When completed in 2026, the CVOW project will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, powering up to 660,000 homes with clean, renewable energy.
Siemens Gamesa is partnering with Dominion on the offshore wind farm, and the blade factory will be up and running in time to support deliveries to the project. Additionally, about 50 of the 310 jobs planned at the factory will be service technician roles to support the CVOW farm. Overall, 1,100 direct and indirect jobs are expected to come to Hampton Roads from Dominion’s wind farm, along with almost $210 million in economic activity. Other wind energy companies are also looking to establish operations in Hampton Roads.
Dominion also is leasing 72 acres at the 287-acre terminal over 10 years to stage and preassemble the foundations and massive, 800-foot-tall wind turbines. And, Danish offshore wind developer Ørsted is leasing 1.7 acres at PMT to stage equipment through at least 2026, with the option to expand to 40 acres.
“This location at the Port of Virginia is second to none,” Dominion Chair, President and CEO Robert Blue said in August 2021. “It has deep water access, no overhead restrictions, a strong, experienced maritime workforce and sufficient space for these large wind infrastructure components. It is perfectly situated to serve the Virginia offshore wind project and grow the domestic supply chain needed to complete other offshore wind projects in the United States.”
The combination of PMT’s facilities, proximity to the CVOW project and state incentives for site improvements factored into Siemens Gamesa’s decision to come to Virginia, says Steve Dayney, the company’s head of North American offshore wind operations. “Siemens Gamesa carefully considered all options for U.S. blade localization. Virginia moved swiftly to create a positive environment focused on spurring development of offshore wind in a competitive market.”
“Hampton Roads has incredible advantages for offshore wind,” says industry consultant Jennifer Palestrant, former chief deputy for the Virginia Department of Energy. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Dayney adds that the blade facility is the first step in developing PMT into an offshore wind hub. “We believe a local supply chain is the right choice for offshore wind in the U.S.” he says. “The establishment of a blade manufacturing facility is a major investment. Siemens Gamesa will look to potentially expand the facility if awarded future projects in the region and create additional jobs in the future.”
State and local boosters have touted Hampton Roads as the ideal supply chain hub for the offshore wind industry.
“Hampton Roads has incredible advantages for offshore wind,” says Jennifer Palestrant, former chief deputy for the Virginia Department of Energy and now an offshore wind consultant. As she points out, the region boasts a deep, wide harbor free of air-draft restrictions from bridges and other overhead structures, not to mention an abundance of waterfront industrial sites with lay-down room for the large components used in wind projects.
Plus, she adds, the local maritime workforce is one of the best in the nation. “People ask me what we do well here in Hampton Roads, and I tell them large-scale maritime steel.”
About 90% of the skills required to work in offshore wind are comparable to those in other local maritime industries such as shipbuilding. To maximize those skills, the state has launched training programs at Virginia Beach’s Centura College, Norfolk’s Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy and Martinsville’s New College Institute, all of which provide wind-related training courses certified by the Global Wind Organisation. Community colleges and universities also offer similar courses.
Dominion also expects its $500 million, 472-foot wind component installation vessel, Charybdis, to help establish Hampton Roads as a supply chain hub. The nation’s first offshore wind vessel built in compliance with the Jones Act, which requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be carried aboard American-built ships, Charybdis will be homeported in Hampton Roads when it enters service in 2023. As of March, shipbuilders in Brownsville, Texas, were about halfway done building the vessel.
“It starts to create a domestic supply chain that can serve nationally,” says Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton. “It will maximize local economic development opportunities.”
Virginia’s largest electric utilities are deploying an array of technologies as they decarbonize, digitalize and decentralize their power grids to meet the state’s and their own clean energy goals.
Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. and Charleston, West Virginia-headquartered Appalachian Power are expanding their solar, wind and battery storage portfolios while advancing a massive power grid transformation. Both utilities have companywide goals of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Those objectives took on more urgency after former Gov. Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) in 2020. The landmark Democratic-led legislation includes a strict mandate that all electricity consumed in the state must have zero carbon emissions and be generated from renewable sources by 2045 for Dominion, which serves 2.5 million Virginia customers, and 2050 for Appalachian Power, which has about 524,000 customers in the commonwealth, stretching from Southwest Virginia to the New River and Roanoke valleys to southern Albemarle County.
Although Republicans wield more power in Richmond this year and have expressed dissatisfaction with the VCEA, utilities do not expect significant changes to the policy.
“We’re optimistic that we will see the VCEA stay as it is,” says Chris Beam, president and chief operating officer of Appalachian Power. “It’s a good piece of legislation that moves the state forward.”
Dominion officials also are watching closely as new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin advances his agenda. “We look forward to and stand ready to work on a collaborative basis with Gov. Youngkin and the General Assembly,” says Katharine Bond, the Fortune 500 utility’s vice president of public policy, state and local affairs. “Reliability and affordability are important to people of both parties, and our customers and other key stakeholders urge us to continue focusing on those tenets as we transition to clean energy.”
Most prominently, Dominion has significantly expanded its offshore wind and solar portfolio. The utility’s largest project to date — the $9.8 billion, 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project off the coast of Virginia Beach — will provide clean, renewable energy to 660,000 homes when it’s completed in 2026. Dominion’s solar output has increased from 1 megawatt of solar power in 2015 to more than 5,240 megawatts now available or under development.
Dominion Energy is developing a $9.8 billion, 180-turbine wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach, with construction slated to take place from 2024 to 2026. Photo courtesy Dominion Energy Inc.
Strengthening the grid
Along with adhering to the VCEA, utilities must also ensure that customers’ lights stay on, costs remain low, and grid security is maintained. “The key to grid transformation is ensuring safety, reliability and affordability,” says Joe Woomer, Dominion’s vice president of grid and technical solutions. “Those things are all connected.”
Dominion has invested in renewables and grid transformation while keeping customer rates lower than the national average, notes Mike Doyle, an Edward Jones senior equity analyst specializing in utilities. “That gives them potentially more opportunities and wiggle room to make investments.”
In 2018, Dominion launched its 10-year grid transformation plan. Slated to run from 2019 to 2028, the initiative aims to boost grid reliability and security, while replacing its aging customer information system with a new platform to provide consumers more power usage information. It will also pave the way for the utility to integrate more renewable energy sources into the grid while maintaining service standards.
“Part of our mission is to make sure our grid is reliable,” Woomer says. “That’s why we need digitalization of our distribution system so we can see what’s happening at all times and respond to that.”
In January, the State Corporation Commission gave Dominion the green light to embark on Phase 2 of the utility’s 10-year plan. Totaling more than $650 million, the second phase, which runs through 2023, will focus on smart meters and grid devices that offer real-time data to optimize the assimilation of distributed energy resources, including solar, wind, battery storage and electric vehicles.
Phase 2 includes the deployment of smart meters, which the SCC had previously rejected due to concerns over potential customer rate increases. The smart meters will allow Dominion to offer new programs, such as a voluntary time-of-use rate, which encourages customers to shift their energy usage to off-peak hours.
“It takes the energy grid from something designed decades ago to harness technological improvements for the benefit of our customers,” notes Bond. “Not only will the grid be able to tell us if there’s an issue and where the issue is, we will also ready the grid for transferring power from large centralized power plants to multiple plants.”
Dominion is investing $198.3 million to replace approximately 1.1 million electric meters with smart meters that will allow customers to track and adjust their energy usage based on timely data, with deployment to be completed by 2024.
“Smart meters will help modernize our grid and improve the customer experience with enhanced two-way communication, as well as increase operational efficiencies,” Woomer says. “There will be an end-of-line sensor in every home that will tell us usage and voltage. We will be able to see in advance problems that may arise and respond to problems quicker.”
But the Southern Environmental Law Center says Dominion’s grid transformation plan is not cost effective.
“We don’t believe the majority of those investments are worthwhile,” says Will Cleveland, a senior attorney with the Charlottesville nonprofit. “They do not necessarily accelerate or improve the transfer of renewable energy onto the grid.” For example, Cleveland says, Dominion opted to purchase software to monitor distributed resources, as opposed to paying a lower licensing fee for the program. “We want to make sure every dollar is spent to maximum value to the customer.”
With more renewables coming online, multiple smaller generation facilities, such as those for solar power, will allow two-way directional energy flow as opposed to a large central power plant. “The modern grid will be able to accept and, in some cases, store energy from solar and wind, which are intermittent,” Dominion’s Bond says. “It will be able to know when another resource needs to be ratcheted up or down to ensure [the] flow of reliable sources of energy to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
Dominion also is expanding its energy storage capacity to reach the VCEA-mandated 2,700 megawatts of storage by 2035. The utility’s 20-megawatt Dry Bridge Energy Storage facility in Chesterfield County is slated to open this year, and another project with 50 megawatts of storage is on tap in Loudoun County. Four battery pilot projects in Central Virginia also will provide data on how to incorporate batteries on Dominion’s grid.
Net-zero goals
Meanwhile, Dominion recently announced a goal to achieve net-zero emissions outside its direct operations, including those generated downstream by customers and upstream by suppliers.
Appalachian Power has charted a similar path to reach net-zero carbon emissions. “It’s great to have a goal,” Beam says. “The meat and potatoes is, how do you do that?”
Appalachian Power plans to have about 3,300 megawatts of solar power, 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind power and 2,600 megawatts of energy storage in Virginia by 2040. “We will be net zero by 2050,” Beam asserts. “Right now, there is no technology that has net-zero carbon emissions, but we will offset emissions through other things.”
Last fall, Appalachian added 20 megawatts of solar power through a power purchase agreement with a solar generation facility in Henry County, and the utility will add 35 megawatts of contracted solar power in Campbell and Wythe counties this year. In January, Appalachian announced plans to acquire or contract for 294 megawatts of solar and 204 megawatts of wind power over the next three years, Beam says.
Modernizing the power grid is another top priority. “The grid has to be designed differently and work differently in the future,” Beam says. “Originally, large central power stations generated power transmitted through power lines to users as one-way flow. With more renewables and distributive generation assets, the grid needs to have two-way flow.”
Like Dominion, Appalachian is providing smart meters for its Virginia customers. “It’s an integrated network that allows us to know about an outage at a specific household and lets us have a more accurate map of how big the outage is so we can respond faster,” Beam explains.
Smart circuits also are vital to modernization. “These circuits can detect an outage and look at the configuration of the entire system and shrink the outage to as small as possible,” Beam says. “The dispatch center is notified that the outage has been shrunk and where to dispatch crews to solve the problem. If we can reduce it, it’s a better experience for our customers and employees.”
State regulators in 2020 approved Appalachian Power’s pilot project to install fiber optic cable on its utility poles in Grayson County to support deployment of smart meters and technology to pinpoint problems on the circuits. As a bonus, internet service providers can lease the fiber and offer broadband service to residents in rural areas underserved by high-speed internet.
Appalachian Power also is encouraging customers to switch to electric vehicles. “We see that as the next game changer from a big emitter of carbon in the transportation sector,” Beam says.
Appalachian Power entered into a purchase agreement in October 2021 to acquire power from the Leatherwood Solar plant in Henry County. Photo courtesy Appalachian Power
Different kinds of green
Youngkin was willing to fine-tune the VCEA, but he seeks to end Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an 11-state coalition working to tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the power industry. In a December 2021 speech to the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, he described RGGI as a “carbon tax that is fully passed on to ratepayers.”
So far, his efforts have failed, with the Democratic-controlled state Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources voting to stop a bill that would have amended the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act that authorized the state’s participation in RGGI beginning last year.
The Southern Environmental Law Center disagrees with Youngkin’s position on RGGI. “Virginia’s participation has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars directly used to fund recurrent flooding adaptation measures across the state and fund energy efficient programs, particularly for low-income customers,” Cleveland says.
Bond says, though, that a central component of RGGI does result in higher costs for customers. “Virginia’s clean energy goals require an investment,” she says. “When you layer RGGI onto that, there’s unintended consequences in terms of increased costs and higher emissions. There may be more effective ways to lower carbon in the future than the way RGGI was designed.”
Finding those answers, while modernizing the power grid and meeting state and national environmental goals, requires both technology and talent, says Jim Thomson, vice chair and U.S. power, utilities and renewables leader at Deloitte.
“People want to know the company they work for is a green organization,” he says. “Traditionally, that hasn’t been utility companies, but now they are proactively working to make sure talent understands that utilities are one of the greener industries focused on the planet right now.”
A greener industry that still prioritizes keeping the lights on and rates affordable, Beam notes. “That’s the challenge. We can transform to carbon free, but we have to make sure we’re still affordable and don’t sacrifice reliability. Those are things we have to figure out between now and 2050.”
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected from the version originally published. Phase 2 of Dominion Energy’s 10-year plan was approved by the State Corporation Commission following its first filing. Additionally, smart meters discussed in the story provide timely data for customers to track and adjust their energy usage, but not real-time data.
With COVID-19 limiting travel and site visits for companies considering coming to Hampton Roads, economic development officials focused on shoring up existing businesses in 2021. That strategy appears to have paid off, judging by the number of companies expanding throughout the region.
“2021 has been a banner year for us,” says Norfolk Economic Development Director Jared Chalk. “We’ve had a really great year in terms of business expansions and retentions. We have a lot of talent and companies here and need to grow what we’ve got.”
Chesapeake’s economic development department followed a similar approach. In addition to offering virtual tours of available business and industrial space, the department dealt with COVID-imposed constraints by administering a small business grant program that awarded $5 million to assist firms affected by the pandemic.
“Chesapeake has long been a community that aggressively goes after international foreign direct investment,” says Steven Wright, Chesapeake’s economic development director. “COVID grounded our efforts in that regard, but it gave us an opportunity to look inward into our existing business community.”
However, Vinod Agarwal, Old Dominion University professor of economics and director of the Strome College of Business’ economic forecasting project, notes that Hampton Roads’ recovery from the pandemic continues to trail the rest of the state and the nation. He adds that the region’s growth in 2022 hinges on private sector economic expansion. “Unless the private sector kicks in, we will still lag.”
Regional collaboration is key to attracting new businesses to Hampton Roads, Agarwal says. “Working together as a region will go a long way. It doesn’t matter where a firm is located as long as it locates in Hampton Roads.”
Along with private sector job creation and Department of Defense spending, collaboration among Hampton Roads’ 17 municipalities will strengthen the region’s economy in 2022, Agarwal says. “Barring an unforeseen COVID situation, it should be a better year than 2021.”
Norfolk
With CMA CGM Group’s decision to keep its North American headquarters in Norfolk and $36 million expansion in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, “That solidifies us as a maritime hub on the East Coast,” Chalk says, noting that the bulk of the more than 400 jobs CMA CGM is adding in Virginia will be in Hampton Roads. The French shipping and logistics company’s 1,300-foot container ship Marco Polo stopped at the Virginia International Gateway last May.
International logistics firm Katoen Natie is also enlarging its plastics and polymers warehousing and distribution operation. The $61 million expansion includes creating 35 jobs at the company’s assembly plant.
Other companies announcing expansions include Lyon Shipyard Inc., adding 119 jobs and investing $24.4 million to build a new marine travel lift and larger waterfront dry dock on the Elizabeth River;communications equipment producer Tabet Manufacturing Co. Inc., adding 68 jobs when it opens a new $6.5 million facility next to its current Ballentine Boulevard operations this spring; and California-based Dante Valve Co. Inc., undergoing a $1.9 million expansion and adding 40 jobs.
Groundbreaking for the $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino took place in December 2021 on 14 acres adjacent to Harbor Park, and builders say the project is supposed to be finished by late 2023. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe’s project is expected to produce 2,500 permanent jobs, along with 2,000 construction positions.
Portsmouth
HeadWaters isn’t the only Las Vegas-style casino coming to Hampton Roads. In December 2021, Rush Street Gaming broke ground on a $300 million gaming and entertainment complex near Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth. Rivers Casino Portsmouth is slated to open in early 2023, bringing 1,300 permanent jobs to the area and adding $16.3 million in annual tax revenues to the city’s coffers.
Portsmouth also scored a major economic development deal last fall when Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A. announced that it will build the nation’s first offshore wind blade factory at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal. The Spanish wind turbine manufacturer will invest $200 million to build the factory on an 80-acre site at PMT. The project will create 310 jobs, including about 50 to support Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. (See related story.)
Chesapeake
In June 2021, the General Services Administration announced that it will build a $251 million Veterans Administration health care clinic adjacent to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center. Construction on the two-story outpatient facility is expected to begin in late 2022, with opening slated for fall 2024.
“That certainly was a big win for us,” Wright says, noting that the clinic is expected to bring 100 jobs to the city. “It’s privately owned but fully taxable. That’s a significant investment being made.”
Meanwhile, Chesapeake-based government contractor Prism Maritime LLC built two $4 million, 12,000-square-foot fabrication and welding facilities and added 166 jobs in the Greenbrier North Commerce Park in 2021.
Virginia Beach
Naval Air Station Oceana inked a deal with the city last fall to lease about 400 acres of the jet base to private businesses, giving Virginia Beach highly sought-after land for economic development. In exchange, Oceana will receive up to $3 million in in-kind infrastructure projects and maintenance.
Nearby, agriculture startup Sunny Farms LLC is building a $59.6 million, 32-acre hydroponic operation and creating 155 jobs over three years off Dam Neck Road. During the first phase, the growing, cleaning and packing operation is building a 120,000-square-foot greenhouse, one of the largest on the East Coast. In phase two, the facility will expand to 640,000 square feet and to 1.2 million square feet in phase three.
Suffolk
In November 2021, Celadon Development Corp., which recycles brown pulp, announced it would invest nearly $6.8 million to establish operations in Suffolk. The company plans to hire 60 employees.
Kansas-based Flint Development purchased 72 acres in Coastal Logistics Park for $4.1 million last summer. The industrial developer plans to construct an 813,721-square-foot speculative logistics center by September 2022.
“It’s one of the larger speculative buildings in the city,” says Gregory Byrd, Suffolk’s interim economic development director. “Suffolk has the good fortune of having quite a number ofindustrial parks primed for construction of larger distribution facilities.”
Three new buildings are planned at the Virginia Port Logistics Park off U.S. Route 58. A 348,500-square-foot building leased by GXO Logistics Inc. was scheduled to be completed in February, while the other two buildings are expected to be completed later this year.
Hampton and Newport News
Smithfield-based Pack Brothers Hospitality LLC is investing $40 million to build a conference center, hotel and 500-seat restaurant and revamp the Old Point Comfort Marina at Fort Monroe. The company signed a 40-year lease with the Fort Monroe Authority. The project is expected to be completed in about four years.
In Newport News, modular housing manufacturing indieDwell will invest $2 million and bring 220 jobs to the city when it opens its first East Coast factory in late 2023 or early 2024.
Defense contractor Aery Aviation LLC announced a $15.3 million expansion of its headquarters and the addition of 211 jobs. Construction on a 60,000-square-foot hangar and an engineering technology center began in the fall, with completion scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022.
Other projects
Global Concentrate, a New Jersey-based supplier of traditional and organic fruit and vegetable juice concentrates, announced that it is investing $121 million to establish its largest U.S. processing operation at Pretlow Industrial Park in Franklin. The company purchased 170 acres at the park and is starting construction on a 2-million-square-foot facility by this spring. Fifty full-time jobs are expected to be created over the next three years.
Concrete ready mix maker Coastal Precast Systems is investing $7.5 million to expand a decades-old concrete plant it has operated since 2019 in Cape Charles, adding more than 40 jobs to its Eastern Shore operations.
Nestlé Purina PetCare Co. is investing $182 million to expand its manufacturing operations in King William County. The expansion, including 138,000 square feet to increase capacity and enhance business operations and 100,000 square feet of additional warehouse space, is scheduled to be finished by late 2023.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A.’s October 2021 announcement that it will build the nation’s first offshore-wind blade factory at Portsmouth Marine Terminal has put Hampton Roads on a trajectory to become a supply chain hub for the country’s nascent offshore wind energy industry.
The Spanish wind turbine company is investing $200 million to build the factory, including more than $80 million to construct buildings and install equipment on an 80-acre leased site at PMT. Upon completion, the factory will be able to produce patented Siemens Gamesa Offshore IntegralBlades for 100 wind turbines annually.
That includes providing blades for the 176 turbines Dominion Energy Inc. will erect in federal waters 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast for its 2.6-gigawatt, $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. When completed in 2026, the CVOW project will be the United States’ largest offshore wind farm, powering up to 660,000 homes with clean, renewable energy.
Siemens Gamesa is partnering with Dominion on the offshore wind farm, and the blade factory will be up and running in time to support deliveries to the project. Additionally, about 50 of the 310 jobs planned at the factory will be service technician roles to support the CVOW farm. Dominion also is leasing 72 acres at the 287-acre terminal to stage and preassemble the foundations and 800-foot-tall wind turbines.
The combination of PMT’s facilities, proximity to the CVOW project and state incentives for site improvements factored into Siemens Gamesa’s decision to come to Virginia, says Steve Dayney, the company’s head of North American offshore wind operations. “Siemens Gamesa carefully considered all options for U.S. blade localization. Virginia moved swiftly to create a positive environment focused on spurring development of offshore wind in a competitive market.”
Dayney adds that the blade facility is the first step in developing PMT into an offshore wind hub. “We believe a local supply chain is the right choice for offshore wind in the U.S.” he says. “The establishment of a blade manufacturing facility is a major investment. Siemens Gamesa will look to potentially expand the facility if awarded future projects in the region and create additional jobs in the future.”
State and local officials have enthusiastically touted Hampton Roads as the ideal supply chain hub for the offshore wind industry. “Hampton Roads has incredible advantages for offshore wind,” says Jennifer Palestrant, former chief deputy for the Virginia Department of Energy and director of offshore wind. As she points out, the region boasts a deep, wide harbor free of air-draft restrictions from bridges and other overhead structures, not to mention an abundance of waterfront industrial sites with lay-down room for the large components used in wind projects.
Plus, she adds, the local maritime workforce is second to none. “People ask me what we do well here in Hampton Roads, and I tell them large-scale maritime steel.”
About 90% of the skills required to work in offshore wind are comparable to those in other local maritime industries such as shipbuilding. To maximize those skills, the state last year launched training programs at Virginia Beach’s Centura College, Norfolk’s Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy and Martinsville’s New College Institute, all of which provide wind-related training courses certified by the Global Wind Organisation. Community colleges and universities also offer similar courses.
“We have been working to get our workforce ready for offshore wind,” says Palestrant, who was recognized by the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s Ventus Awards in December 2021 for her workforce training work. (Palestrant left the Virginia Department of Energy in January and the state was seeking a new offshore wind director in early February.)
Other wind energy companies are also looking to establish operations in Hampton Roads. “Siemens Gamesa is a tier-one supplier, but there about 6,000 pieces in a wind turbine,” Palestrant notes. “We look forward to Siemens Gamesa being our big first player and attracting other tier-one suppliers and lots and lots of tier-two and -three suppliers. We don’t often see opportunities like this.”
Dominion also expects its $500 million, 472-foot wind component installation vessel, Charybdis, to help establish Hampton Roads as a supply chain hub. The nation’s first offshore wind vessel built in compliance with the Jones Act, which requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be carried aboard American-built ships, Charybdis will be homeported in Hampton Roads when it enters service in 2023.
“It starts to create a domestic supply chain that can serve nationally,” says Dominion media relations representative Jeremy Slayton. “It will maximize local economic development opportunities.” ν
The Broadway blockbuster “Hamilton” generated more than $1.2 million in admissions taxes for Norfolk during its monthlong engagement at Chrysler Hall in December 2019. However, city officials warn that similar productions could bypass Norfolk unless the theater undergoes major renovations.
City Manager Chip Filer has proposed $76 million in upgrades, including adding loading docks, expanding the box office and concessions spaces, updating the sound system, adding women’s restrooms and installing a center aisle to make it easier for patrons to reach their seats. Renovations could begin in 2023 and are expected to take 18 to 24 months, during which Chrysler Hall would be closed, with some shows performed at the Harrison Opera House.
Refurbishing the 50-year-old performance hall would ensure it continues to draw touring companies from major Broadway productions, Filer says. “Larger shows like ‘Hamilton’ and ‘The Lion King’ need multiple bays for loading and unloading sets and equipment. As shows get larger, we are becoming increasingly concerned that if we don’t make renovations, some of those shows will pass us by.”
To help underwrite the project, Filer has proposed using $40 million of the city’s $154 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. About $30 million would come from the city’s 2019 capital improvements plan, historic tax credits and philanthropy. City Council was expected to vote on using the ARPA dollars by early February. If council rejects Filer’s proposal, the refurbishment would become part of the city’s annual budget process in the spring.
“We have to do the project so we don’t lose shows,” Filer says. “Chrysler Hall is an anchor experience venue in the city. If an individual buys an experience, including a hotel room, a night out for dinner and tickets to a performance, that generates about $50 in local revenue.”
The 2,500-seat Chrysler Hall has the largest seating capacity of the region’s performance venues, says John Rhamstine, director of SevenVenues, which manages the theater. “For that reason alone, we get most of the touring theatrical shows. Some of the biggest touring shows in the country have played our building, and that creates a financial engine in downtown Norfolk.”
Rhamstine notes that downtown restaurants were booked to capacity and parking facilities filled during the “Hamilton” performances. “It becomes a tourist destination and a very important part of what the city’s budget is built on every year.”
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