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byline: Kate Andrews

Oral arguments set for Virginia Credit Union, bank dispute

Oral arguments are set for Jan. 6 in a dispute between the and seven small community and the Virginia Bankers Association (VBA) over the credit union’s offer to include the Medical Society of Virginia’s 10,000 members.

A. Ann Berkebile, a senior hearing examiner at the , scheduled oral arguments for the case at the ‘s Richmond courtroom following a Nov. 26 order by the SCC assigning her to conduct proceedings in the case, which was filed in July.

The VBA and the banks — Abingdon-based First Bank & Trust Co., Altavista’s First National Bank, Danville’s American National Bank & Trust Co., Windsor’s Farmers Bank, Luray’s Blue Ridge Bank, Chesapeake Bank and the Bank of Charlotte County — argue that smaller local banks stand to lose customers to the Virginia Credit Union, which is seeking to extend membership to the Medical Society of Virginia.

The state credit union said that the Medical Society of Virginia approached them about offering membership as a benefit for their members. The state Bureau of Financial Institutions approved the credit union’s request in July, but the SCC placed an immediate stay on the expansion’s approval while it examined the banks’ petition for rehearing or reconsideration.

Virginia Beach building sells for $1.84M

JFS Real Estate LLC has paid $1.84 million to acquire a Virginia Beach office/warehouse building that will house tenants Conte Bicycle Group LLC and Hospital Warehouse LLC, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced Friday.

Nicholson Properties LLC sold the 20,400-square-foot building at 2028 Virginia Beach Boulevard, with Thalhimer representing both the purchaser and the seller.

Conte’s Bike Shops is headquartered in Virginia Beach and has 13 bicycle stores in Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C., and Hospital Warehouse is a pre-used medical equipment store based in Virginia Beach.

Janet Whitbeck handled negotiations on behalf of the purchaser, and Geoff Poston represented the seller.

Charlottesville retail space sells for $3.15 million

A former Verizon Wireless store in Charlottesville has sold for $3.15 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced Friday.

The 10,548-square-foot retail building on 1.21 acres at 874 Rio East Court was purchased by JK Investments LLC as an investment; the seller is East Rio Court LLC.

Evan M. Magrill of Thalhimer handled negotiations for the purchaser, while John Pritzlaff and Jenny Stoner, also of Thalhimer, represented the seller.

Amazon and Richmond’s Martin Agency join LGBT-friendly workplaces program

Amazon.com Inc., AT&T Inc., The Martin Agency and Washington Gas are the latest companies to join Equality Virginia’s Virginia Competes program, which encourages safe and welcoming workplaces for LGBT employees. The employers made an announcement Thursday in Tysons. 

Launched in 2017, the program requires that member companies have a score of at least 75 out of 100 points on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. Companies must also have policies protecting the rights of LGBT employees. Nineteen companies are enrolled in Virginia Competes, including Altria Group Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., CarMax, Dominion Energy, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, Northrop Grumman Corp., SunTrust Inc. and Williams Mullen. 

LGBT people are not explicitly protected from workplace discrimination under current Virginia law.

“The business community in Virginia has a strong and influential voice,” Equality Virginia Executive Director James Parrish said at the Virginia Competes luncheon at the Tower Club. “We welcome these new members to Virginia Competes and are glad to see them leading the way with workplace protections and cultural awareness.”

The event also included remarks from the Human Rights Campaign’s state legislative director, Cathryn Oakley, about the current lack of statewide protections for LGBT Virginians in housing, public accommodations and the workplace.

Woodbridge senior community set to open August 2020

A new active senior community is under construction in Prince William County near the Occoquan River and Belmont Bay. Aspire at Belmont Bay, a 124-unit rental property, is set to open in August 2020, according to a statement by the community’s manager, Solvere Living.

Located on Clear Lake Circle in Woodbridge, the four-story, 113,178-square-foot apartment building includes an indoor pool, fitness center, salon and spa, art studio, theater, meeting and game rooms. The grounds will feature walking trails, a full-service restaurant with a main dining room and private dining room, and a bistro-style restaurant and bar. The rental office opened in October.

Rent starts at $2,995 per month, along with a one-time community fee of $2,500, and includes utilities, landscaping, dining plans, weekly housekeeping, programs and events, and maintenance and repairs. The manager expects to create 35 full-time jobs to run the property.

Missouri-based J. Price Architecture Inc. designed the project, and Arlington general contractor Bonaventure is the community’s owner and developer. Solvere Living, the operations management division of Florida-based Solutions Advisors Group, will manage the property.

SCHEV: State needs to spend more to become ‘best-educated’ state

In 2014, Virginia set a goal to be the best-educated state by 2030, which requires that 70% of its working-age population will need a workforce credential or degree. A report released Friday by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia says the state will need to spend $400 million more annually to achieve that goal. 

According to 2017 demographics, 53.9% of Virginians between the ages of 25 and 64 have a postsecondary school certification or degree, and numbers vary widely among race, income and region. In some areas of the state, more than 80% of the work-aged population have degrees, so many of the gains in the next decade must come from underrepresented regions and from low-income and minority populations.

Statewide, 68.4% of Asians and Pacific Islanders, 52.2% of whites, 34.4% of blacks and 33.1% of Hispanics have a postsecondary certificate or degree, according to “Strategic Finance Plan for Virginia,” prepared by Lumina Foundation’s Strategy Labs for SCHEV.

Virginia’s cost per degree year, at $19,400 (based on a 10-year average from 2006-2015), is lower than the national average of $23,350 — showing that the state’s students get a good return on investment. However, to close significant gaps in access and success, SCHEV estimates the state must allot $400 million more in additional annual expenditures to reach its 70% goal by 2030.

The report suggests that Virginia can align existing funding with completion priorities, increase college affordability and provide support to target populations, including Virginians older than traditional college age. After 2025, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds will decline, so the state’s colleges and universities will have to market themselves to older students, a relatively untapped opportunity according to the report.

The report acknowledges the importance of private institutions in Virginia, which granted more than 17,000 bachelor’s degrees, nearly 1,300 associate degrees and nearly 400 certificates in the 2017-18 school year, but focused on operations at state-funded colleges and universities.

IQOS shop opening in Richmond

In a minimalist-chic storefront in Richmond's Carytown shopping district, Henrico-based Altria Group and Philip Morris USA are launching their second U.S. market — and the first in Virginia — for the IQOS heated-tobacco device on Saturday.

With its light wood-and-glass displays of multicolored holders and other accessories, the IQOS (pronounced eye-kōs) boutique at 3402 W. Cary St. resembles a cell phone shop or perhaps an Apple Store. It conveys a sense of respectability, avoiding the neon lights, funky logos and dark walls common among the vape shops that have popped up across the state in recent years. 

That’s by design, as Altria Group and its Philip Morris USA subsidiary are marketing the product to current smokers over the age of 21 — not to teens or to nonsmokers of any age, company officials emphasized Friday during a media preview for the Richmond IQOS store. Customers will be carded at the door to make sure they’re 21 and salespeople will ask if they’re current smokers.

The system, which retails for $80, includes an IQOS holder, the electronic device that heats a cigarette-like tobacco stick called a “HeatStick,” a charging device and plug, and 10 packets containing 20 HeatSticks each. Packaged in Marlboro-branded packs, HeatSticks come in two flavors: regular tobacco and smooth menthol, soon to be joined by fresh menthol.

“That’s what the FDA has authorized,” said David Sutton, director of media affairs at Altria Group. “It’s not an e-vapor or e-cigarette product.”

In other words, the heated-tobacco product will not feature any of the fruit or candy flavors that have been blamed for luring underage vapers, particularly products sold by the San Francisco-based Juul Labs Inc., in which Altria holds a 35% stake.

IQOS, by contrast, is “not significantly appealing to youth or to nonsmokers,” according to a statement from Philip Morris International Inc., which sells the product in more than 50 markets worldwide. Through an agreement with PMI, Altria has exclusive commercial rights to the IQOS system in the United States, and PM USA is responsible for marketing and sales here.

More than 8.8 million adult smokers in overseas markets have fully switched to IQOS, said Corey Henry, director of United States communications for PMI. It was a two-year process to bring the product to the U.S. market this year, including a large chunk (which Henry declined to specify) of the companies’ $6 billion budget dedicated to research and development of non-cigarette products.

In October, Altria and Philip Morris USA launched its first IQOS store in Atlanta. Richmond is the second U.S. market.

In its approval, the Food and Drug Administration said that IQOS produces “fewer or lower levels of some toxins than combustible cigarettes,” although the companies are prohibited from making any health claims yet about the device’s impact compared with that of cigarettes. The FDA is still considering an application submitted for IQOS in December 2016, a year before its sales application was submitted, Sutton said.

Boxes of HeatSticks will cost about $5.75 each in Richmond, roughly the same as a pack of cigarettes. HeatSticks “closely mimic the cigarette-smoking experience,” with a blend of three types of tobacco, Sutton said. Although the boutique will be the only location locally where customers can buy the device, soon there will be 170 retail locations — such as 7-Eleven, Wawa and Sheetz — where customers can buy packs of the HeatSticks.

Specific retail locations are still under discussion, Sutton said, as the company wants to hear Richmond-area customers’ preferences, but over the past couple of months in Atlanta, he noted, “We’ve had a lot of adult smoker interest.”

Harbor’s Edge hires new marketing VP

As it plans to double in size, Harbor’s Edge in Norfolk has hired Christine Carruthers as its vice president of marketing, the company announced Monday.

Carruthers has more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing, and has worked with more than 100 retirement communities across the country. She previously worked as vice president of strategic services/health service marketing for Love & Co. Harbor’s Edge is a full-continuum retirement community with assisted living, memory support and nursing services.

In 2021, the complex will expand with the scheduled opening of the $200 million River Tower, a 24-story luxury waterfront residential building with 147 apartments and 75,000 square feet of common areas. Construction started in April for the tower on Colley Avenue in the Fort Norfolk area.

Ralph Sampson stars in regional bank commercial

A commercial for Atlantic Union Bank featuring University of Virginia basketball legend Ralph Sampson launched this week, showing the 7-foot-4 Harrisonburg native back on the basketball court — sort of.

The spot, which will air statewide on broadcast and cable channels, is titled “Loyalty,” begins with a boy supporting his brother, who has a bit to learn about shooting hoops. The 59-year-old Sampson then shows up on the outdoor basketball court, praising the boys for their loyalty to each other. Richmond-based West Cary Group, Atlantic Union Bank’s advertising agency, created the TV spot, which was shot earlier this year in Los Angeles.

In a phone interview Thursday, Sampson said that the idea for the commercial came up after he had done appearances for the past couple of years for the Richmond-headquartered bank and had built relationships with its executives. “It became something special,” he said.

As for what else he's been up to lately, Sampson says his 2019 has been “surreal,” beginning with his former team’s NCAA basketball championship win in April and followed by the May demolition of University Hall, which was nicknamed “Ralph’s House” during his record-setting early 1980s tenure at U.Va.

“I watched some of the process, when they gutted the inside out,” he said, and then he helped push the button at the implosion of the arena, a “very surreal and emotional” moment for him.

After winning three Naismith Awards as the National Player of the Year, Sampson graduated from U.Va. in 1983 and played for the Houston Rockets through 1987. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year award in the 1983-84 season, but knee and back problems started to plague him after the ’87-88 season. Over the years, Sampson played for the Rockets, the Golden State Warriors, the Sacramento Kings and the Washington Bullets in the NBA, and he served stints as coach for James Madison University, the Richmond Rhythm and the Phoenix Suns.

Earlier this year, Sampson returned home to Virginia from Los Angeles and he splits his time between Harrisonburg and Newport News. His mom and dad are in their 80s and are healthy, Sampson says, and he has various business interests, including with Atlantic Union. He also is a brand ambassador for Puma, which in March re-released his signature basketball shoes from the 1980s, then called the Majesty and now named after him. One pair in the sneaker line, the “Virginia Lo” model, is bedecked in U.Va. blue and orange and sports the Virginia state seal on its heels.

“It’s been a wild ride for me,” Sampson says, with the shoe attracting young, obsessive sneakerheads and the attention of GQ magazine, which named it the “sneaker of the week” in October.

He stays in touch with “pretty much all” of his former U.Va. teammates — Ricky Stokes, Othell Wilson, Jeff Jones, Jeff Lamp and others — and he relished being at every single NCAA tournament game the Cavaliers played last spring.

His advice to the players from the 2018-19 squad who have gone on to play in the NBA: “You have to go back where you were made. You’ve got to come back and build that relationship with the university. The loyalty program is what I’m about.”

Virginia Institute of Autism to open new facility for adults with autism

On Wednesday, the Charlottesville-based Virginia Institute of Autism will announce plans for a new facility for adolescents and adults with autism.

The Center for Adolescent and Autism Services (CAAAS) will renovate a 21,788-square-foot space now occupied by The Center, a nonprofit-owned facility for senior citizens on Hillsdale Drive that VIA is acquiring. The nonprofit plans to close on the purchase April 1, according to Larry Garretson, VIA’s director of communications and foundation relations. The Center for seniors, meanwhile, will move to Belvedere, a 55-plus neighborhood in Charlottesville.

The Center, built in 1991, is listed at $3.2 million by Colliers International.

Details — including cost of the project — are still being nailed down, but VIA expects the rehab and renovations to be finished by next fall, and for all staff and services to be fully moved in by early 2021, Garretson says. Part of the expansion is to provide a home for VIAble Ventures, a candle-making business that provides adults with autism an opportunity to earn income, he added, with other new businesses in the center’s future.

Cathy Purple Cherry, principal of Purple Cherry Architects and Purposeful Architecture, will design the renovations; she specializes in special-needs architecture and is the mother of an adult son with autism. She will discuss her plans at an open house VIA is hosting Wednesday at The Center to announce the plans.

“We know that as people with autism age and graduate from high school, their opportunities for learning, for jobs and for social connection diminish severely,” Ethan Long, VIA’s president, said in a statement. “VIA has been focused on finding solutions to that problem for a number of years. As our programs have developed, they’ve grown beyond the capacity of our existing facilities.”