Members of the Timesland News Guild, which represents 30 employees of The Roanoke Times and Laker Weekly, will receive 2% annual raises, and minimum full-time pay will rise about 12% to $40,000 per year between now and 2023, according to a statement by the union. Equity adjustment raises also will take place, meaning that nearly half of the guild will receive raises of more than 2% this year.
Negotiations started in mid-February, with sticking points on wages and mileage rates. Layoff policies, more parental leave and paid time off also are included in the contract.
Lee had offered wage increases between 1% and 1.5%, while the guild sought an increase of 4%. The Iowa-based media company, which owns 31 newspapers in Virginia, also wanted to lower the mileage rate from 34 cents per mile to 32 cents per mile, while the union sought the 58.5 cents-per-mile rate set by the IRS. Lee announced it would voluntarily increase its rate by several cents beginning in April, the union said.
“We fought incredibly hard for additional pay raises and a higher minimum so The Roanoke Times can stay competitive with other papers,” Roanoke Times staff writer Alison Graham, the union’s vice chair and bargaining committee member, said in a statement. “Wages and other benefits ensure that our newspaper can continue to punch above its weight and drive important news coverage in Southwest Virginia.”
Eliza Vellines Phillips was named last week by the foundation as its new managing director of development, and Rick Hamilton, an inventor who holds more than 1,000 patents, joined as its managing director and chief technology officer.
Phillips will lead fundraising and manage development for the organization, which advocates for noninvasive medical technology to treat serious disorders. It funds research and builds awareness among health care providers and patients.
Phillips established Phillips Philanthropy Advisors, a firm connecting philanthropists with institutions, and she previously served as director of leadership gifts at the University of Virginia and as acting director of development for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello.
Eliza Vellines Phillips
“I am thrilled to be joining the foundation at such an important time, and I look forward to building on the incredible momentum created by former director Nora Seilheimer and her team,” Phillips said in a statement. “Rapid advances in research and clinical trials, combined with innovative technical developments in the field have created a unique opportunity to expand awareness and accelerate the timeline for making focused ultrasound the standard of care for millions of patients globally.”
Having served in various executive roles at IBM, Hamilton is an expert in cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and intellectual property. Most recently he was vice president and senior distinguished engineer at Optum Inc., a health care provider and pharmacy benefits manager owned by UnitedHealth Group.
Hamilton started his new position March 25 after serving as an adviser, consultant and a council member for the foundation.
“After successfully launching, nurturing and growing a multi-year program at my previous employer, I have been contemplating my next ‘grand challenge,'” Hamilton said in a statement. “The opportunity to be surrounded by brilliant clinicians, researchers, technologists and business leaders is highly appealing and promises to be an atmosphere where I can not only contribute but grow.”
The Roanoke-based subsidiary of crane automator Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corp. has completed the acquisition of Spanish maritime terminal business Orbita Ingeniería S.L.’s ports and terminals division, as of April 1.
The companies did not divulge financial details. The acquisition was completed through TMEIC Port Technologies S.L.
TMEIC Corp. Americas, with presences in Roanoke and Katy, Texas, designs and develops advanced automation systems, large AC and DC motors, and photovoltaic inverters. Orbita, based in Valencia, Spain, offers automation services and engineering for ports and terminals customers.
“It is my pleasure to announce that Orbita’s expertise is now available to TMEIC,” President and CEO Manmeet S. Bhatia said in a statement. “Orbita has an international reputation for on-time, on-budget delivery of sophisticated port control projects. This acquisition will allow the new business to leverage the TMEIC Group’s global footprint.”
Operations in Roanoke and Spain will remain the same, according to a spokesperson from TMEIC, and the acquisition will not immediately create any jobs. Orbita’s Ports and Terminals Division will become employees of TMEIC Port Technologies in Spain.
Norfolk-based Titan America LLC, a producer of heavy building materials, announced last week it will construct a 70,000-ton dome in Chesapeake, a project estimated to cost $37 million.
Titan will build the dome to hold bulk storage, adding to its current 35,000-ton capacity at its RoanokeCement import terminal. According to the company, the expansion will allow it to grow its truck and rail capabilities, distribute and import raw materials like fly ash, slag and aggregates that are in demand in the mid-Atlantic region, and expand its low-carbon cement offerings. The company also has a 70,000-ton dome under construction in Tampa, Florida.
“The major expansion and modernization of these two marine terminals is another important step toward meeting fast-growing demand for our products and services in critical infrastructure, commercial, and residential projects in our communities,” President and CEO Bill Zarkalis said in a statement. “These projects, along with our continued investments in low-carbon cement production capacity expansion and end-to-end digitalization of our plants, signify our commitment to meet evolving societal and consumer expectations in a world that is shaped by the need for climate change mitigation in a digitalized economy.”
The Chesapeake dome is expected to be finished in 2023. Titan America is part of the international Titan Cement Group, which employs about 5,500 people in more than 15 countries.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs Metrorail and Metrobus, released its first-ever strategic plan for joint development on Thursday, announcing an ambitious initiative to bring in 26,000 new housing units in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The document says that 40 Metro stations — including six in Northern Virginia — have more than 500 available acres that could lead to 31 million square feet of new multiuse development and yield $340 million in new annual tax revenue.
Northern Virginia stations with available space include: Braddock Road, Huntington and Van Dorn Street in Alexandria; East Falls Church and West Falls Church; and the Vienna/Fairfax station. West Falls Church has an existing joint development agreement with EYA LLC, Hoffman & Associates and Falls Church-based Rushmark Properties, which formed a partnership known as FGCP-Metro LLC, while Braddock Road and Huntington are expected to be under contract in the next 10 years.
The three remaining Virginia stations require additional planning for a variety of reasons, including property ownership divided between multiple parties, platform replacement costs and pending Virginia Department of Transportation plans.
At West Falls Church, plans include construction of townhouses between 2024 and 2026, pending the property sale and ground leases for the development’s first phase. In August 2021, WMATA signed an agreement with FGCP-Metro to build a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development.
Metro notes that completed joint developments in Arlington County, Alexandria and Fairfax County are expected to bring in $49.3 million total in tax revenue this year, and it anticipates the localities will receive $1.089 billion in taxes over the next 30 years. The Metro system has partnered with private real estate developers since 1975, and as of this year, there are 55 projects either finished or under construction at 30 out of the 91 total stations.
Last year, Amazon.com Inc. announced a $2 billion Housing Equity Fund to preserve and create more than 20,000 affordable housing units in metro regions where it has a heavy presence, including Arlington. That fund will provide $125 million in below-market loans to developers working with WMATA to build more than 1,000 residences near transit in the D.C. area. So far, the e-tail giant has pledged to assist in developing apartments in Maryland.
The Roanoke Times‘ newsroom union staged its first-ever picket line briefly Monday as a message to the newspaper‘s owners, Lee Enterprises, which the union says won’t budge on requested salary and mileage reimbursement increases.
Alison Graham, vice chair of the Timesland News Guild and a staff writer at The Roanoke Times, said earlier Monday that the guild, which also represents the Laker Weekly covering Smith Mountain Lake, has been negotiating a new contract for newsroom employees since Feb. 16. The picket line was scheduled to last only a half hour; unlike lengthy strikes, the event is meant to increase public awareness of the union’s negotiations.
“This is not something that’s going to be covered in our own paper, we assume,” Graham said.
The guild is seeking a wage increase of below 4%, which would total less than $60,000 a year, she said, but Lee’s offer has remained in the 1% to 1.5% range. Also, the cost of health insurance is potentially set to rise 13% for employees, according to the guild.
Lee Enterprises did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Also under negotiation are mileage rates, which are currently set at 34 cents per mile for Lee employees. Lee negotiators proposed lowering the rate to 32 cents, despite gas costs rising dramatically due in part to Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the subsequent U.S. ban on Russian fuel imports. The guild first requested the current IRS reimbursement rate of 58.5 cents and lowered its ask to 50 cents, but Graham said Lee has not raised its offer.
“We just live in a really big region,” she said, noting that reporters and photographers are often driving distances of more than 30 minutes each way. The Roanoke Times‘ coverage area includes the Roanoke Valley, New River Valley, Rockbridge County, Lexington, Pulaski and Franklin County, as well as occasional stories outside the immediate region, such as Danville or Southwest Virginia.
The decision to picket came a week after the guild purchased a one-page ad in the newspaper, asking readers to sign a petition in support of its requests to Lee, which owns 31 publications in Virginia, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Free Lance-Star, The Daily Progress, Danville Register & Bee, The News & Advance, the Bristol Herald Courier and others.
Last year, the Timesland Guild and other Lee newsroom unions joined in support of the Iowa-based company, which purchased BH Media‘s newspaper holdings in 2020, as it rejected a $144 million buyout offer by Alden Global Capital and fought off a slate of the hedge fund’s board nominations in February.
Graham said that members of her guild and other Lee newspaper unions are unhappy that Lee executives don’t appear to recognize the unions’ support in the matter. “We came to your aid when you were trying to stave off this purchase,” she said. “It’s not like we think [Lee is] a great steward of our newspapers, but they’re better than Alden.”
An Arlington native, Hazel also was an attorney who graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. In the 1950s, Hazel began promoting commercial and residential growth in then-rural Fairfax County, specializing in real estate and property law. One of his early projects involved acquiring land for the future Capital Beltway.
In 1962, working with developer Gerald Halpin, Hazel got county supervisors to allow rezoning on more than 100 acres in Tysons. He also was instrumental in bringing in Tysons Corner Center and the Tysons II mixed-use development.
In the 1970s, Hazel formed the Hazel/Peterson Cos. with Fairfax developer Milton V. Peterson, who died last year at age 85. The two developed several planned communities, including Burke Centre, Franklin Farm, Fairfax Station, Fair Lakes and Centre Ridge. Hazel also worked closely with his late brother, William A. Hazel, who owned a Chantilly construction firm.
“Fairfax County and Northern Virginia lost a visionary,” says Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “Til Hazel was as important as anyone in seeing Fairfax County’s potential to become one of the preeminent locations in the nation for corporate headquarters — and in reminding those who followed about continuing to invest in the assets that business needs in order to be successful here.”
Hazel also was a strong supporter of George Mason University. He was involved in purchasing land for its main campus in Fairfax and was on GMU’s Board of Visitors from 1972 to 1983, also serving as rector.
The city of Richmond‘s Office of Minority Business Development, in partnership with Capital One, will offer a free information session for current and prospective restaurant owners in April, covering topics such as setting menu prices, meeting city requirements and creating improvement plans.
Award-winning Richmond chef, restaurateur and consultant Jason Alley, who’s now the city’s policy adviser for restaurants and small businesses, will facilitate the virtual seminar, which will take place April 11 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The registration deadline is April 6, and as of Thursday afternoon, 30 out of 100 slots were filled.
Alley said in an interview Thursday with Virginia Business that this seminar — the first the city has offered through its Diverse Supplier Mentoring Program with Capital One, which started in 2020 — will cover “restaurant 101” subjects, including general industry trends, business requirements and knowledge, how to open a food service business in Richmond and determining appropriate business ventures.
“It’s really difficult to find help, and everything is more expensive,” said Alley, who co-owned the restaurants Comfort and Pasture in Richmond, as well as others. “And that’s true nationwide. The only way to be successful in an environment like this is to know what your costs are and be nimble. I’ve been trying to tell people for years, we have to charge what things cost. The business owners can’t continue to absorb those costs.”
Alley notes that nationwide labor shortages are impacting restaurants, and that pressure is raising hourly pay at many eateries. That’s a positive trend overall, he says, but it raises costs that need to be covered by higher menu prices much of the time. He also says that the city’s staff — people who approve building plans and rezoning, for example — are also affected by the labor shortage, which slows the process of opening new restaurants.
Supply chain constraints, meanwhile, are affecting construction, as well as the availability of certain foods. For example, Alley says he’s hosting a breakfast event next week that will not have any cream cheese, due to a widespread shortage. That will mean “dry bagels,” although Alley’s already considering substitutes like butter.
All of these are issues restaurant owners have to contend with, and they have to respond with creativity and flexibility, Alley notes, adding he hopes to share this advice with up-and-coming restaurant owners. If next month’s seminar is successful, he hopes to host more events, possibly delving into more specific issues experienced by local restaurateurs.
“I hope there are a lot of budding entrepreneurs hoping to open a food-related business” who attend April’s session, Alley says. “But I would love, love, love for existing restaurant owners to participate.”
Specific details — including all of the people and companies backing the six competing development proposals — have not yet been provided by the city, but some were formed specifically for the project.
According to a person involved with Vision300 Partners, which formed in 2020, the entity is “a local and diverse group” that includes about 40 Richmond-area businesses and community organizations, including lead developer Freehold Communities, which has a presence in Richmond; developer Spy Rock Real Estate Group; building company Hourigan; staffing firm Astyra Corp.; Canterbury Enterprises; Shamin Hotels; lead architect HKS; and engineering firm Timmons Group. The group also includes the Metropolitan Business League, the Better Housing Coalition and the YMCA of Greater Richmond, as well as former NFL player Mike Robinson and former soccer pro Greg Simmonds, who are involved with youth sports.
“We recognize there is a lot of interest in transforming this area based on the number of responses received,” said a statement from Vision300, noting that its proposal would align with the city government’s Richmond 300 master plan. “We’re a diverse group of local Richmond leaders who care deeply about the city’s development, design, youth development, community investment and wellness. Each of us is working in multiple ways to create a better future. We see this project as an opportunity to bring local government, business, and nonprofits together to move the region forward.”
MAG Partners is a woman-owned urban real estate company based in New York City; Weller Development Co. is a Baltimore-based real estate development firm, and LMXD is a mixed-income development-focused affiliate of L+M Development Partners Inc., a real estate development firm based in New York.
Richmond City Councilor Katherine Jordan, who represents the district where the development would take place and is one of two city councilors on the advisory panel, said Thursday that she wouldn’t provide further information on the three other partnerships in order to keep the process competitive. However, she said that the panelists were “intrigued by teams with local partners,” and that to her knowledge, all six groups have local members now.
Brambly Park Winery opened in Richmond’s popular Scott’s Addition neighborhood in summer 2020, offering an outdoor gathering area and an indoor events space. Photo by Shandell Taylor
According to the city, these six groups must provide additional requested information about their proposals by April 25 at 3 p.m. to continue the process. The new intermediary step is intended to obtain more detailed plans for the city’s evaluation panel — a group of 10 city and VCU representatives — to review. The application requests details on financing, project goals, development team organizational charts and a fully outlined project plan with deadlines and benchmarks, among other information.
The city expects to further narrow down the group of applicants during the week of May 9 and expects to host a public meeting during the week of May 24. Finalists will then submit their final formal requests by the week of June 6, and the panel will announce its preferred development team later in the month. At that point, Richmond City Council will vote on the final plan, which must pass with seven out of nine votes.
Jordan said that the council vote required seven votes instead of a simple majority because the development involves the transfer of city-owned land.
Rob Long, owner of the River City Roll bowling alley and president of the Greater Scott’s Addition Association, says that his group has held off on hearing from applicants so far, preferring to wait until the list of 15 was winnowed down. “I think now that we have a shortlist, all six finalists will sit down and get our input,” he said Wednesday in an interview with Virginia Business. “Our job as an association is to offer whatever guidance we can to make this neighborhood better, keep the current character of the neighborhood intact.”
Business owners in Scott’s Addition, which has quickly pivoted from a mostly industrial community to a mixed-use residential, retail and office neighborhood over the past decade, are interested mainly in the project bringing a “world-class ballpark” with an experienced builder, as well as broader community uses for that stadium when the Flying Squirrels aren’t playing home games. “VCU and the Squirrels want that,” Long said.
Other key priorities business owners have identified for the project, Long said, include affordable housing, green space and walkability from the stadium to the Scott’s Addition neighborhood — an often perilous journey across multiple lanes of traffic on Arthur Ashe Boulevard — as well as allowing locally owned businesses to take priority over national chains in the development. “We welcome conversations with all six groups.”
Jordan noted that the proposed Cordish Cos. casino project at the Bow Tie Cinemas property off Arthur Ashe Boulevard, a project she opposed and was ultimately passed over in favor of the One Casino + Resort on the South Side, was different from the Diamond District, which has been discussed extensively during the Richmond 300 planning sessions and other meetings to redevelop the area.
“I would say the primary difference from the [North Side] casino is [that] people love the Squirrels,” she said. “To me, we’ve got the buy-in for these uses. The casino didn’t have that. It was problematic from the start.”
John T. “Til” Hazel speaks to real estate students at George Mason University on February 10, 2014. Photo by Craig Bisacre/Creative Services/George Mason University
John T. “Til” Hazel Jr., a major force behind the development of Tysons Corner and several planned communities in Fairfax County in the late 20th century, as well as a significant booster of George Mason University, died Wednesday at age 91.
An Arlington native, Hazel was also an attorney and graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. When Hazel returned to the region, he worked as a private-sector attorney in Arlington. Fairfax County, where his family owned a farm, was then a rural outpost of Washington, with 150,000 residents and a “significant number of dairy farms,” he recalled in a 2017 video celebrating his career by the Virginia Law Foundation, of which he was a 1988 fellow.
In the 1950s, Hazel began promoting commercial and residential growth in Fairfax County, and specialized in real estate and property law. One of his early projects involved acquiring land for the future Capital Beltway in the area, providing an impetus for growth.
“I became one of two lawyers that tried contested cases in the courts,” Hazel says in the video. “So, I began to get very much involved with land use, zoning, land regulations. That was, of course, the business of Fairfax County in those years, because the county was just developing and I mostly did land use law of various kinds.”
Defeating “no-growth” opponents in Fairfax was one of the most meaningful parts of Hazel’s career, he said in the video, noting how different the county would be today had foes to development prevailed. Fairfax is now the state’s most populous county, with more than 1.2 million residents, as well as a hotbed for corporate headquarters, no doubt with growth that had an early assist from Hazel.
In 1962, working with developer Gerald T. Halpin, Hazel got county supervisors to allow rezoning on more than 100 acres in Tysons. He also was instrumental in bringing in Tysons Corner Center and the Tysons II mixed-use development.
In the 1970s, Hazel pivoted from law to development and formed the Hazel/Peterson Cos. with Fairfax developer Milton V. Peterson, who died last year at age 85. The two developed several planned communities, including Burke Centre, Franklin Farm, Fairfax Station, Fair Lakes and Centre Ridge. Often, Hazel worked closely with his late brother, William A. Hazel, who owned the Chantilly-based construction firm William A. Hazel Inc. William Hazel died in 2012 at the age of 77.
“Fairfax County and Northern Virginia lost a visionary today,” Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, said. “Til Hazel was as important as anyone in seeing Fairfax County’s potential to become one of the preeminent locations in the nation for corporate headquarters — and in reminding those who followed about continuing to invest in the assets that business needs in order to be successful here.”
Hazel’s son Richard M. “Dick” Hazel said Wednesday that his father was a hard worker and spoke openly about his thoughts and ambitions for Northern Virginia.
“The things he supported were so obvious,” Dick Hazel said, noting that higher education and prosperity were among his major priorities for the region. His father’s chief advice, his son said, was always, “Keep doing, keep going.”
In his spare time, Hazel enjoyed raising cattle on his Fauquier County farm, which was a lifelong occupation. “He characterized himself as a farmer,” Dick Hazel added. “He was a really good guy. He was widely, widely read, and really loved [Winston] Churchill. I think he had a great admiration of that driving spirit.”
On the philanthropic side, Hazel was a strong supporter of George Mason beginning in the 1950s, when the Fairfax County university was a branch of the University of Virginia. He was instrumental in purchasing land for its main campus in Fairfax and was on GMU’s Board of Visitors from 1972 to 1983, serving as rector for different periods during that era. He also served on the GMU Foundation’s board for 32 years and was a force behind the university’s establishment of a law school in 1979. He was also a co-founder of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.
Dan Clemente, another developer who has been instrumental in molding Northern Virginia, met Hazel when he was trying to grow George Mason. Hazel, he said, recognized the power of what bringing affordable, public higher education could mean in the fledgling region.
“He saw it,” Clemente said in an interview with Virginia Business. “He was brilliant with it, and everything [that] happened going forward was something from him.”
Hazel was married to Marion “Jinx” Engle until her death in 1995, and his second wife, Anne Barnett Merrill, died in December 2021, according to The Washington Post. Survivors include four children and two stepsons, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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