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byline: Kate Andrews

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer names HR senior manager

Ryan Murchison has been promoted to senior human resources manager, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced Friday.

Murchison joined the Richmond-based real estate firm in 2015 and will oversee human resources for all the company’s business lines and offices, which are in Richmond, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Fredericksburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Lynchburg and three locations in South Carolina.

The company has more than 100 brokers and employs more than 425 associates. Thalhimer represents, on behalf of its clients, a property portfolio of more than 57 million leasable square feet, management of more than 32 million square feet of commercial property, and more than 9,600 multifamily units. In 2020, Thalhimer completed more than 1,700 transactions with a transactional volume more than $1.35 billion.

 

Norfolk Family Dollar store sold for $2.47M

A Family Dollar store in Norfolk has been sold for $2.47 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced this week.

The building at 2328 E. Princess Anne Road was sold on April 30 by Twin Rivers Capital to 527 Kings Hwy LLC, with sale negotiations handled by Catharine Spangler with Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group and Nicki Jassy from the firm’s Richmond office. The 9,180-square-foot building is leased by Family Dollar.

Woodbridge office building goes for $3.25M

A commercial office building in Woodbridge has sold for $3.25 million in an off-market deal, Edge Capital Markets Group announced this week. The 11,200-square-foot building sits on a 1.56-acre parcel of land at 13370 Minnieville Road.

Currently the building is occupied by a social services center focused on workforce training and job placement run by SkillSource Group, a nonprofit organization funded by the state. The seller is Bethesda-based Madison Farm LLC, represented by Joe Friedman, Christine Kleine, Joshua Norwitz and Wilson Purcell of Edge, and the Virginia-based buyer was represented by KPI Commercial LLC.

The property also includes a surface parking lot and is about two miles from the Potomac Mills shopping center. It was assessed at $1.45 million in 2021, according to Prince William County property records.

 

Downtown Culpeper mixed-use property sold for $3.95M

The Waters Place mixed-use property in downtown Culpeper has been sold for $3.95 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced this week. The redevelopment and new building at 201 Waters Place includes 25 residential units and nine commercial spaces.

Waters Place sits on half an acre and includes a renovated warehouse from circa 1900, as well as the South Building completed in 2018. Commercial tenants include the Beer Hound Brewery, Wine and Design, and Velo Concepts Café. The property was purchased from OPRE Culpeper LLC as an investment, and John Pritzlaff and Jenny Stoner of Thalhimer handled the sale negotiations on the seller’s behalf. The firm said it could not divulge the buyer’s name.

The property was appraised at $1.89 million in 2020, according to Culpeper records.

Técnico Corp. buys Newport News building for $3M

An industrial building in Newport News’ Oyster Point Park was sold for $3.125 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced this week.

Técnico Corp. purchased the 53,414-square-foot building on 3.93 acres from Beja LLC and will occupy the property at 806 Bluecrab Road. Clay Culbreth of Thalhimer handled the sale for the purchaser. The building was occupied by Kloke Group Moving & Storage.

Técnico is a marine and industrial contractor headquartered in Chesapeake and has a location in Norfolk, among other locations in Alabama, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Va. GOP prepares for nomination convention on Saturday

On Saturday, roughly 54,000 Virginia Republican convention delegates will have the opportunity to choose their party’s 2021 nominees for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Unlike the typical “firehouse convention,” currently prohibited due to COVID-19 precautions, the state GOP has opted for an “unassembled convention” with 39 voting locations open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and delegates will vote in ranked order — picking their top choice, followed by second, third and so on. This means the candidate with the lowest number of votes at the end of each round of counting will be dropped, and this will continue until one candidate has a majority (rather than a plurality) of votes.

About 54,000 people are signed up as delegates to choose the GOP candidates who will appear on November’s ballot.

Because the paper ballots must be counted by hand, it will likely take a while to get results. The party has reserved a ballroom at the Richmond Marriott through Thursday, May 13, where tabulators and party officials will gather, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Although the Virginia GOP has previously run unassembled conventions during the pandemic, this is the first of this size and scale, and the process getting there has been fraught with disagreement, with gubernatorial candidates pushing back on the type of ballot-counting software and state Sen. Amanda Chase’s filing a failed lawsuit against the party in an attempt to force a state-run primary election that could have drawn an expected electorate of 300,000. State Democrats have opted for a primary on June 8, and early voting started April 23.

Here are the candidates under consideration:

Governor

Seven candidates are in the race, but the race appears to favor a group of four:

  • State Sen. Amanda Chase, the pro-gun rights and strongly pro-Trump conservative, has been criticized by those in her own party and was censured by the state Senate earlier this year, in part for her participation at the pro-Trump rally that preceded the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Although she led in early polling and fundraising, Chase’s momentum appears to have slowed down since other candidates entered the race. However, polls are of less importance in a convention format than in primaries and general elections, and Chase has strong support among Virginia’s Trump fans.
  • Del. Kirk Cox, former House of Delegates speaker and a retired high school teacher, is considered a more moderate candidate compared to Chase, although he has nonetheless brought up conservative talking points such as “cancel culture.” Cox argues that he is the best prepared candidate to face off against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has a wide lead in the Democratic field of candidates, and has openly courted convention delegates to mark him as their second choice, if not their first.
  • Pete Snyder, an entrepreneur from Charlottesville who made a splash last year by starting the Virginia 30 Day Fund to financially assist Virginia small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, is well-known among state Republicans. Although he previously ran an unsuccessful campaign for the state GOP’s nomination for attorney general, Snyder has cast himself as an outsider candidate and is focused on opening state schools for in-person learning.
  • Former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin, another Northern Virginia businessman, also claims the “outsider” title and is touting his business expertise and promises to create jobs. (Youngkin and Snyder have largely self-funded their campaigns, according to reports filed with the State Board of Elections in April.)
  • Other candidates include: Sergio de la Peña, a retired Army colonel and former Trump administration Pentagon official; Peter Doran, a former think tank head; and former Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson.

Lieutenant governor

Six candidates are in the race, but two candidates have significant fundraising leads on the others, based on campaign filings for the first quarter:

  • Virginia Beach Del. Glenn Davis is a telecommunications entrepreneur and leads the field in fundraising. An unsuccessful candidate for the lieutenant governor nomination in 2017, Davis has filed a lawsuit to find out who sent out an anonymous text message to GOP voters calling him a “Gay Democrat,” although he is married to a woman.
  • Former Del. Tim Hugo was also named in the mysterious text message, which supported his candidacy as a “real conservative,” but Hugo’s team says it is not behind the message. Hugo previously represented Fairfax County in the House of Delegates, losing his seat in the 2019 election.
  • Other lieutenant governor candidates include: Puneet Ahluwalia, a political and business consultant; Lance Allen, a national security executive; Maeve Rigler, an attorney and financial consultant; and Winsome Sears, a former state delegate who represented Norfolk in the early 2000s.

Attorney general

There are four candidates running for the GOP attorney general nomination, and two have outpaced the others in fundraising:

  • Del. Jason Miyares of Virginia Beach leads the field in fundraising. The former Virginia Beach prosecutor says he would focus more attention on crime victims and would investigate the Virginia Parole Board, which has come under fire for releasing an inmate last year who killed a police officer in 1975.
  • Jack White, a partner at Tysons-based corporate law firm FH+H who has represented police officers. He is a former Trump administration appointee to an Army panel on sexual assault and sexual harassment and served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. An Army veteran, he also chaired the Foundation for Fairfax County Public Schools. He entered the race in March but raised close to $100,000 before March 31.
  • The other two candidates are Chesterfield County Supervisor Leslie Haley, a partner at the Park Haley firm and chair of the Greater Richmond Partnership; and Chuck Smith, a retired commander in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps and former Virginia Beach GOP chair.

Va. sees 67% drop in weekly jobless claims

The state’s number of initial unemployment claims continues to fluctuate wildly, with only 12,231 Virginians submitting new jobless claims for the week ending May 1, a drop of 25,125 claims from the previous week, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday.

For the April 26-May 1 filing week, the state saw a 67.2% decline in new claims, after a 171.6% week-over-week increase reported for the April 19-24 filing week. A year ago, 59,631 Virginians filed initial claims, 79.4% higher than last week.

Continued claims remained much steadier, with 55,195 filed last week, an increase of 914 from the previous week. A year ago, however, 376,689 people filed continued claims, 85.3% higher than last week. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

More than half of the claimants who filed for benefits last week (and the prior four weeks) reported being in the accommodation/food service, administrative and waste services, retail trade and health care and social assistance industries, according to the VEC.

The regions of the state that have been most impacted continue to be Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. 

Meanwhile, the VEC received a brief extension this week to respond to a federal class-action lawsuit filed in February by Virginians complaining of long delays in processing unemployment claims. Although the agency asked for three weeks of extra time, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson granted only four days. Also, some state legislators have said they wish to see a study on VEC’s delays by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission expedited, saying the matter deserves more urgency than a November report.

Below are the top 10 localities, listed by number of initial unemployment claims, for the week ending May 1:

  • Fairfax County, 731
  • Prince William County, 532
  • Norfolk, 514
  • Richmond, 508
  • Virginia Beach, 491
  • Newport News, 316
  • Alexandria, 310
  • Loudoun County, 302
  • Chesapeake, 295
  • Henrico County, 275

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 498,000, a decrease of 92,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 2,793,245 initial claims during the same week last year.

Northam: Many restrictions likely to be lifted June 15

Virginia will relax most COVID-19 mitigation measures by June 15 if vaccination numbers continue to increase and spread of the virus continues to decrease, Gov. Ralph Northam said Thursday, but lifting the face mask mandate will likely take longer.

“We will continue to evaluate our mask guidance,” the governor added, but social distancing requirements and caps on attendance will be lifted as long as COVID trends continue to remain on a positive trajectory in the state. Northam also encouraged more Virginians to get vaccinated, noting that 60% of residents age 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, and federal authorities are expected to approve the use of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine for people ages 12 and older as soon as next week.

Meanwhile, the state has recorded fewer than 1,000 new COVID cases per day over the past two weeks, as well as declines in hospitalizations and deaths.

“The vaccines are working,” Northam said. “They’re helping reduce the spread of the disease.”

According to a survey by Virginia Commonwealth University, 66% of parents polled said they plan to get their adolescent children vaccinated as soon as doses are available for younger people, and many also would vaccinate their children younger than 12 when they are eligible, Northam said.

At this point, the state is expanding how it delivers vaccine doses, including the introduction of mobile vaccine units next week, making it easier for people without reliable transportation to get vaccinated. There are several reasons people may not have gotten vaccinated yet, Northam said, ranging from those who don’t know they’re eligible to others who are nervous about receiving a newly developed vaccine.

“We’re going to keep reaching out to all of these folks,” Northam said, adding that since he came down with the coronavirus late last year, “seven months later, I still can’t smell or taste anything.” He noted that the virus is an “unpredictable disease” and that Virginia residents should get vaccinated to protect themselves and others.

Northam said he’s hopeful that the state will meet a new goal set by President Joe Biden to administer at least one vaccine dose to 70% of all Americans 16 and older by July 4.

AMPAC expanding Petersburg operation, adding 156 jobs

AMPAC Fine Chemicals plans to grow its Petersburg manufacturing facility, investing $25 million and creating 156 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.

AMPAC manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and is a partner with Richmond-based Phlow Corp., Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medicines for All Institute and nonprofit drugmaker Civica Inc., on a federally funded, $354 million contract to reduce America’s dependence on foreign supply chains and produce domestic production sources for medications and pharmaceutical ingredients at risk of shortages, including treatments for COVID-19.

Phlow was awarded the four-year contract by the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in May 2020. This January, Utah-based Civica Inc. announced it would establish its North American manufacturing operation in Petersburg, investing $124.5 million to establish a new facility next to Phlow’s future operation and AMPAC’s existing facility. With Tuesday’s announcement, AMPAC will expand its current plant, where it moved in 2019. Civica’s plant will convert active pharmaceutical ingredients produced by AMPAC and Phlow into vials and syringes to be used in hospitals.

“AMPAC’s investment will further advance the pharmaceutical cluster that has emerged in Petersburg and solidify our commonwealth as a significant player in domestic drug manufacturing,” Northam said in a statement. “This critical partnership between Phlow Corp., Medicines for All Institute, Civica Inc. and AMPAC will have a positive and far-reaching impact, ensuring greater access to high-quality, lifesaving medications while also creating much-needed jobs to support our economic recovery in Virginia.”

AMPAC was founded in 1945 and currently employs 109 people in Virginia, which competed for the project against California and Texas, where AMPAC has two other operations.

“Of our three AMPAC locations, Virginia offers an enabling environment for developing and sustaining the growth in capacity and infrastructure demanded for the pharmaceutical industry,” William DuBay, AMPAC global vice president of research and development, said in a statement. “Our growing relationship with the commonwealth, [the Virginia Economic Development Partnership], the city of Petersburg and others, including VCU, Phlow and Civica, is a cornerstone of our vision for American-based manufacturing of critical pharmaceutical ingredients.”

VEDP worked with the city of Petersburg, Virginia’s Gateway Region, the Community College Workforce Alliance and Dominion Energy Inc. to secure the project, and Northam approved a $640,000 opportunity fund grant and a $250,000 Virginia Investment Performance grant. VEDP’s Virginia Talent Accelerator Program will provide training and recruitment to AMPAC at no cost to the company.

COVID roundup: Northern Va. could reach herd immunity by June/July

According to the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute, estimated rates of “vaccine acceptance” — residents’ willingness to be vaccinated — differ regionally and could delay herd immunity in some parts of the state. The U.Va. report, released April 30, shows that an estimated 88% of Northern Virginia adults are willing to be vaccinated, but Eastern Virginia has an approximate acceptance rate of only 43%, the lowest in the state.

“In this model, Northern Virginia could reach community immunity in June or July,” the report says. “Other regions may not reach it this year.” Central Virginia is just below 70%, followed by Northwest, far Southwest and near Southwest regions, which range between 45% and 56%.

Virginia is now seeing less demand for COVID-19 vaccines than in previous weeks as shots have become more accessible. State vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said Friday that 57% of all eligible Virginia residents age 16 and older have received at least one dose.

At this point, there are more opportunities for walk-up vaccination without an appointment, and more primary care providers will start receiving shipments of Pfizer Inc. vaccines so Virginians can get vaccinated at their doctors’ offices, Avula added in a Friday press call. There will now be more focus on convincing younger people — ages 16 to mid-30s — to get vaccinated, because the state is still aiming for 75% vaccination, the approximate benchmark for herd immunity, Avula said. “Convenience is such an important piece now.”

As for younger Virginians, it’s likely that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will approve Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children ages 12 and older sometime in May, and Virginia expects to engage school systems to start in-school vaccination clinics in the final weeks of the academic year, Avula said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ralph Northam announced last week a partial rollback of the state’s mask mandate, although he didn’t go as far as other governors who have completely called off face-covering restrictions, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Following CDC recommendations, vaccinated Virginians are now able to gather in small groups outdoors without wearing masks, but they still need to wear them indoors and at large, crowded events outside, such as sporting events and graduations. Up to 1,000 people also are now allowed to attend outdoor recreational sporting events, a change that will let more people see high school conference games in person this spring.

Vaccination in Va.

As of Monday, 45.1% of all Virginians have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 32% are fully vaccinated, according to the Virginia Department of Health. And after a nearly two-week nationwide pause, state health care providers are now administering Johnson & Johnson vaccines again. Avula said Friday that he did not know yet if Virginians are shunning the one-dose vaccine, which was paused for investigation when six women had blood clots after receiving the vaccine, including a Virginia woman who died.

Statewide, 3,849,303 people have received at least one dose, while 2,727,811 people are fully vaccinated as of Monday, and the state is administering 69,526 doses per day. Avula said he believes the state’s vaccine demand has now peaked, and VDH’s focus will now shift toward making shots easier to get without advance appointments. People who missed their second shot appointments also may hear from the state’s VDH call center, he added.

All adult residents of Virginia can now find vaccination locations at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling (877) VAX-IN-VA, or (877) 829-4682.

Statewide spread

Over the past week, the state recorded 6,996 new COVID-19 cases, a decrease from the previous week, which saw 7,818 cases, and 101 people died last week of virus-related causes, VDH reported. The previous week, there were 111 COVID fatalities. As of Monday, the state has reported 661,925 total cases and 10,807 deaths, and the current seven-day positivity rate is 4.6%, down 0.8% from last week.

The state now ranks 16th in the nation for percentage of vaccine doses administered, according to CDC data analyzed by Becker’s Hospital Review.

According to U.Va.’s COVID-19 model, the state expects new virus variants to drive a summer peak of 45,413 cases in the week ending July 25.

As of April 28, the Alleghany and Rappahannock health districts are seeing a surge in cases, defined as “sustained rapid growth and exceeds recent inflection points.” Districts experiencing slow growth include Central Shenandoah and Piedmont. As of April 29, Portsmouth has a seven-day positivity rate of 11%, up from 8.6% on April 22. The rest of the state’s health districts now have rates below 10%.

State demographics

With race and ethnicity information available for only 58.4% of people who have received shots in the state, the majority of shots have been received by white, non-Hispanic people — 62.4% as of Monday, according to VDH. Black Virginians have received 14.1% of shots, although they make up 19.9% of the state’s population, according to 2019 estimates by the U.S. Census;  11.4% of vaccines were given to Latino residents, who comprise about 9.8% of Virginians.

State health officials have focused attention on equitable administration of vaccinations, especially as Latino and Black residents are heavily represented among people who have been infected, hospitalized and died from the coronavirus. Among Virginia’s COVID deaths for which ethnicity and race were recorded, 24.9% were Black, and 6.4% were Latino.

National and global news

Globally, there are 152.9 million reported COVID-19 cases and 3,205,000 confirmed deaths, as of May 3. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 32.4 million confirmed cases so far, with 577,055 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February 2020. According to the CDC, 147 million U.S. residents have received at least one vaccine dose, or 44.3% of the nation’s population, and 104.7 million people, or 31.6% of the U.S. population, are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, India continues to experience surges in new cases, with more than 300,000 cases per day over the past six days and an overall death toll of 198,000, although that number may be low, The New York Times reports. The U.S. government has pledged to send up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to other nations, as well as raw material for coronavirus vaccines. The U.S. and other countries have restricted travel from India to prevent spread.