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byline: Mindy Toran

NW Harrisonburg sees revival with investment

Northwest used to be a place to buy a tire. Beyond the 116-year-old City Produce Exchange building, which was converted into lofts in 2006, and the Local Chop & Grill House, which opened in the same building in 2009, there wasn’t much else to draw people to that corner of the city.

That’s changing, though. The resurgence of Harrisonburg has spread from its core, bringing attention to what’s informally known as the “Bird District,” due in part to a partnership between local entrepreneur Kirsten Moore and real estate developer Bismarck, and several businesses with bird-themed names.

In 2017, Bismarck’s president, John Sallah, purchased a former tire store and garage along with an adjacent lot and a 21,000-square-foot warehouse along North Liberty and West Gay streets for a little more than $1 million. He approached Moore, who operated The Hub, a coworking space, with the idea of expanding her operation into the former tire store.

“I walked into the building and knew it could be so much more than a coworking space,” recalls Moore. In August 2020, she opened the Magpie Diner and the Bakery at Magpie in the space, and also moved her coworking hub, rebranded as The Perch, there too. The building is also home to Chestnut Ridge Coffee Roasters. Across the street, Sage Bird Ciderworks opened in 2020 in the garage Sallah renovated.

In October 2023, after a $2.5 renovation, Moore opened the Liberty Street Mercantile, a collection of shops and an event space, in the warehouse, the former home of the Harrisonburg Grocery, which closed in the 1970s. In December, the city’s first wine bar, Rootstock, opened in the mercantile.

More than $150 million was invested in the city’s downtown between 2004 and the end of 2022, says Andrea Dono, executive director of Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, or HDR. (A breakdown for Harrisonburg’s northwest corner was not available.) 

HDR and the city are funding a public art installation in the northwest end of town to welcome people into the district. A bike lane along Liberty Street, funded by a $14.3 million federal grant, is also planned to open by 2029.

While the Bird District may not be an official spot on maps yet, Dono says, it’s an extension of local entrepreneurship happening across downtown Harrisonburg. “It’s authentic to us, [and] that’s what tourists like, too. It’s really the best of all worlds.” 

‘A world of opportunities’

From its founding as a two-year junior college designed to expand opportunities in the Appalachian coal-mining country of Southwest Virginia, the University of Virginia’s College at has expanded into a four-year liberal arts college with an influential impact on regional economic and workforce development.

Many of the programs of study at the college have evolved in response to student interest, as well as workforce demands from growing regional industries such as health care, education, information technology, and hospitality and tourism.

“Here at the college, we really try to lean into our region and support new opportunities through our academic programming and engaging students through internships and service projects throughout the community,” says Donna Price Henry, who has served as U.Va. Wise’s chancellor since 2013. “One thing we heard from our students as they were leaving to head off into the workforce or continuing on to graduate school was the need to understand big data, so data analytics came onto our radar as something our students were interested in learning more about.”

U.Va. Wise is currently developing its Institute of Applied Data Analytics, which will open in Darden Hall in spring 2024 and be led by Gurkan Akalin, the new chair of the college’s Department of Business and Economics. Prior to joining the faculty in August, Akalin served as assistant chair for administration and an associate professor at Eastern Illinois University’s Lumpkin College of Business and Technology.

“Data analytics is an exploding area,” says Akalin, who also will serve as the institute’s executive director and a professor of business analytics. “When you think about it, every industry uses data in one form or another, whether it’s journalism, real estate, marketing, finance, human resources, transportation or banking. We are all consumers of data, as well as generators of data. We need to teach our students how to use this data in a responsible way.”

Gurkan Akalin, who joined U.Va. Wise in August as chair of its Department of Business and Economics, is overseeing the establishment of the Institute of Applied Data Analytics as well as a new hospitality and tourism program. Photo by Mark Robertson-Baker II/U.Va. Wise

Starting out as a vehicle for research and consultancy, the institute plans to develop and offer academic programs — pending approval from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia — that will provide students with a foundation in applied data analytics. In spring 2024, U.Va. Wise’s Business and Economics and Mathematics and Computer Science departments will begin offering classes in data analytics and modeling, artificial intelligence, and data visualization and analytics. Akalin says the institute will eventually develop certificate programs and workshops to assist regional businesses and provide employment opportunities for students.

“We want to provide skills and knowledge to enhance students’ education and prepare them for careers which will be useful to local companies and increase in the region,” says Akalin. “The mission is not to just train and graduate these students, but to keep them here in Southwest Virginia.”

The institute also plans to branch into topics such as AI and applied analytics in fields such as accounting, cybersecurity and cloud computing, says Akalin. Additionally, the college is in the process of developing a new master’s degree program related to data analytics, with the aim of launching it within the next few years.

“We want to be at the forefront of the new technologies that are shaping businesses and organizations,” he stresses. The institute will also support and conduct research collaboratively with college faculty, and consult with local businesses and governments to support their needs.

The institute, Henry says, “will provide much-needed consulting services and research to fuel businesses and entrepreneurial efforts in the region. Our programs will train and equip students to succeed after graduation in those emerging fields on day one and even create startups for new innovative businesses of their own.”

Akalin, whose background is in industrial engineering and business administration, has considerable hands-on business experience that he plans to bring to the classroom. His time in the corporate world includes roles as a quantitative and data analyst for financial services firm Morningstar and as an operations analyst for Norfolk Southern.

Progressive ‘Rock’

In addition to overseeing the institute, Akalin is helping to develop the college’s hospitality and tourism program, which is also under the umbrella of the U.Va. Wise Department of Business and Economics.

“We are at the center of a growing region, just one hour from Bristol and Kingsport, [Tennessee], in the Southwest corner of the state, and about two hours from Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina,” says Akalin. “It’s an extremely picturesque area that’s very attractive to tourism in terms of scenery and access to outdoor activities. This region has so much potential, and U.Va. Wise wants to be part of that innovation.”

The college recently hired its first hospitality and tourism management assistant professor, Cherry Brewer, who has taught hospitality courses internationally, including serving most recently as an assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management at North Carolina’s Western Carolina University. Her industry experience includes a stint as a tour guide in Bangkok, working in a hotel in Paris and operating a restaurant in Australia.

Southwest Virginia, Henry says, “is looking to reinvent itself in the tourism and hospitality industry, with a number of boutique hotels on the horizon and the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Bristol, Virginia, which will bring numerous jobs and provide tourism potential for the region.”

The first casino to operate in Virginia, the temporary, 30,000-square-foot Hard Rock Bristol opened in July 2022 in the former Bristol Mall. The $500 million-plus, 90,000-square-foot permanent Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol is under construction nearby, with plans to open in July 2024. The temporary casino has created about 600 jobs, and when the permanent casino opens with a 2,200-seat theater next year, it is expected to generate 1,300 direct jobs and bring in more than $21 million in annual tax revenue for Bristol. (The temporary casino has generated $24 million in its first 10 months.)

Founded in 1954, U.Va. Wise now encompasses a 396-acre campus in the Appalachian Mountains, serving more than 1,900 students. Photo courtesy U.Va. Wise

“We’ve already had conversations with the CEO of the Hard Rock, indicating that internships will be a big part of that opening and noting that they want to engage with our students as they go through their academic programs,” Henry says. She stresses that U.Va. Wise is “looking to build a program that will not only partner with that facility but will also support the region more broadly in the areas of tourism and hospitality.”

Marina Alvidrez, vice president of human resources for Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol, says the casino “is excited to partner with U.Va. Wise. We look forward to supporting students in the college’s new hospitality and tourism program. As U.Va. Wise students from Southwest Virginia want to remain here in the region to pursue hospitality and tourism careers, Hard Rock wants to work with those students to offer rewarding and enriching career opportunities.”

Career launch pad

A new hospitality and tourism management major will be available at U.Va. Wise in fall 2024, pending approval of the college’s Academic Program Committee, and will offer courses in foundations for business management and specialized segments of hospitality and tourism, including hotel and lodging management, tourism development, event planning, food and beverage, business ethics, and casino operations. These six courses will be the cornerstone of the college’s hospitality and tourism undergraduate program. Additionally, pending approval from SCHEV, U.Va. Wise plans to offer a certificate program in hospitality and tourism management.

Brewer is currently teaching two hospitality and tourism courses, an introductory course and a marketing class. “These new classes will provide great transferable skills that students can use in many parts of their education and their lives,” she says. “We are building a program so students will have both the soft and hard skills that will be essential in this emerging industry in our region.”

Internships and experiential learning will play a key role in the hospitality and tourism major.

“We plan to work with local tourism organizations in this region so our students can gain hands-on experience, establish connections and network, which will provide a pathway for their future careers,” Brewer says. “We’re also making connections with local businesses like wineries, hotels, the upcoming casino and other hospitality-based organizations in the region that can provide career opportunities for our students.”

Students enrolled in the hospitality and tourism major will be eligible for up to 21 hours in internships with local businesses and will be encouraged to work in the industry in conjunction with their classes.

“If students have experience working, for example, at the casino or in a hotel management position, we would like to count that experience as part of their curriculum credits,” Akalin says. “We don’t want our students to feel that they need to learn everything in their classes; we want them to take advantage of the opportunities and the industry around us.”

Hospitality and tourism studies are not only focused on hotel and restaurant management, however, Brewer notes. “The industry combines so many different sectors,” she says, “including transportation, health care, theme parks, resorts, airlines or working as a tour guide. A student can get a business foundation through this program and work in any industry they like. Education is the key that will open the door to a world of opportunities.”

U.Va. Wise’s hospitality and data analytics programs are being designed to work together to support economic development and workforce needs in the communities and industries surrounding the college, as well as encouraging students to remain in the area after they graduate.

“Economic development is critical to the continued growth and success of our region and our students’ future careers and lives,” Henry says. “The institute and our new business programs are building a foundation to provide the skills, education, internships and research opportunities to prepare them for cutting-edge careers.”

At a glance

Founded
Founded in 1954 under the umbrella of the University of Virginia as Clinch Valley College in Wise County, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise was established to serve students living in Southwest Virginia’s mountainous coal-mining country. The public liberal arts college was started on a farm with two sandstone buildings and operated as a junior college throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. The college began offering four-year degrees in 1966 and was officially renamed the University of Virginia’s College at Wise in 1999. Today, the campus encompasses 396 acres amid the scenic Appalachian Mountains, with 26 main buildings serving more than 1,900 students, just 60 minutes from the Tri-Cities of Tennessee and Virginia. 

Enrollment*

Undergraduate: 1,907
Graduate: 22

Student profile*

Male-to-female enrollment ratio: 1:17
In-state students: 83%
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) students: 12%
Out-of-state students: 5% (outside ARC)
International students: 35 students from 20 countries

Academic programs*

U.Va. Wise has 33 majors and 40 minors, including a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree, an online business administration degree and a new Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in curriculum and instruction. Fields of study include business and economics, visual and performing arts, natural sciences, communications, mathematics and computer science, social sciences, language and literature, history and philosophy, nursing, and education.

Faculty and staff*

U.Va. Wise has more than 100 full-time and 30 part-time faculty members. Students and faculty are supported by 230 full-time and 30 part-time staff members.

Tuition, fees, housing and dining*

Virginia resident: $11,780 per year
Out-of-state resident: $32,530 per year
ARC/TAG** resident: $12,508 per year
Housing: $7,058 per year
Meal plans: $5,299 per year (commuter meal plans are also available)

*Fall 2023 enrollment numbers
** Students who live in Kentucky, Tennessee or the Appalachian Region Commission’s service area

A bigger piece of the pie

For the past 15 years, Vibhaa Vermani has led a successful woman-owned small business, providing integrated technical solutions and services to numerous U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Internal Revenue Service.

Vermani’s Virginia Beach-based company, Chitra, is one of many Virginia small businesses thriving in the space. According to the General Services Administration (GSA), more than $24 billion in federal contracts were awarded to small businesses in Virginia in fiscal 2021, validating the fact that a business doesn’t have to be a huge Fortune 500 corporation to carve out a profitable niche in federal contracting. But the marketplace remains competitive.

In fiscal 2022, the federal government awarded $162.9 billion, a record 26.5% of total contracting dollars, to small businesses as prime contractors, an increase of $8.7 billion from the prior year, according to the Administration. Last year’s rate of small businesses receiving prime contracts surpassed the 23% target set by the Biden Administration, and small businesses also received $79.1 billion in subcontracting awards last year, accounting for 30.9% of federal subcontracting expenditures.

However, despite landing a bigger slice of the federal contracting pie than ever before, the number of small businesses receiving prime contracts has been cut almost in half during the past decade, shrinking from 121,270 to 65,428 between 2010 and 2021. 

“There have been a record number of dollars awarded to small businesses in the government contracting space, but the number of awardees is down,” says Jerry McGinn, executive director of the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University.

So, what changed?

Partnering with other small businesses has helped Suffolk-based Reed Integration expand its federal contracting opportunities, says founder and CEO Becky Reed. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

Rose-colored reports?

“We’re seeing bigger contracts being awarded to fewer small businesses,” explains McGinn. “In many cases, this is due to a trend in government contracting called category management, where solicitations or offerings are grouped together to simplify procurement for the government but reduces the number of companies receiving contracts.”

Additionally, McGinn says, “there are definitely a lot more companies involved below the prime contractor level than are being reported, so if a small business is serving as a subcontractor on some of these awards, it may not be counted in the publicly available data.”

Randal Wimmer, founder of the McLean-based Government Contracting Academy, a company offering instructional courses for entrepreneurs trying to break into the industry, agrees. “The picture is not as rosy as the government makes it out to be,” Wimmer says. “Of the 24 government agencies that fall within the small business set-aside purview, 17 agencies failed to meet either their prime or subcontracting goals when it came to HUBZones [Historically Underutilized Business Zones], and the numbers were not much better for women-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses.”

In many cases, says Wimmer, the government is using tactics like hiring small businesses to serve as resellers, using contract vehicles to place multiple orders for products and services with a preselected group of vendors over an extended period of time, and skewing the numbers when it comes to scorecards for small business set-asides, all of which limits the opportunities for small businesses seeking to break into the industry.

“I still believe this is the best industry going for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs,” Wimmer says. “However, whenever there’s a scorecard or grading system to measure their success, I think the government takes a lot more credit than they actually deserve on how they execute these programs and score themselves.”

‘So many opportunities’

For companies like Chitra that are already doing business in government contracting, challenges include keeping up with the needs of the agencies you’re serving, as well as continuously reevaluating your company’s offerings, says CEO Vermani.

“Before I started my business in 2008, I was doing commercial work in marketing and film production while living in Virginia Beach. I became aware that the Navy and the Department of Defense had a need for public service announcements and training videos and decided to look into that market to determine their needs,” Vermani says.

She connected with Virginia APEX Accelerator (also known as Virginia PTAC), a DOD-funded accelerator that helps small businesses learn how to navigate the procurement process and gain the training needed to participate in government contracting. It works in cooperation with the SBA’s Small Business Development Centers, which provides additional training, assistance programs and counseling.

“There are so many opportunities in the government contracting industry for women-owned small businesses,” says Vermani. “I did a lot of research about the government contracting industry and the agencies I wanted to do business with, got to know the small business officers at the various agencies, attended a number of conferences, then took a leap of faith and started bidding.”

Chitra, which recently branched into software development, now provides cybersecurity support and services, training and education, logistics support, and other services to the DOD, the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security.

Whether working as a prime contractor or a subcontractor, teaming up with other small businesses can be a winning proposition for getting the scale needed to win contracts.

“We’re providing services that impact our community in a positive way and help to support our country,” says Robin Mack, CEO of Mack Global, a Richmond-based government contracting firm. Photo courtesy Mack Global

Even after 20-plus years of doing business as a government contractor, partnering with other small businesses has helped Suffolk-based Reed Integration expand its business opportunities with an array of federal defense and civilian agencies.

“There are so many opportunities coming out right now for small businesses that can work together as a team,” says Reed Integration founder and CEO Becky Reed. Teaming arrangements can increase small businesses’ competitive edge by allowing companies to pool their capabilities with those of others and focus the contracting officer’s attention on combined core capabilities.

Additionally, teaming up as a subcontractor to another small business can provide opportunities through programs such as the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program, which helps socially and economically disadvantaged owners of small businesses land federal contracts.

“Teaming helps keep us connected to previous 8(a) contracts even though we’ve graduated from that program,” Reed explains. “We’re able to maintain those relationships we’ve developed with our 8(a) customers by serving as a sub for our 8(a) team members, as well as serving as a prime for some of our partners that have gone outside of the small business arena.”

Most recently, Reed Integration has been awarded a contract to provide support services under the federal Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative for the Coast Guard’s Force Readiness Command (FORECOM) Training Division. Through the ADL contract, Reed Integration will support the Coast Guard’s transition of their training system into a learner-centric model with on-demand access to learning and performance support products.

Listening for needs

For Robin Mack, CEO of Mack Global in Richmond, starting as a subcontractor helped her get her foot in the door as a woman-owned small business in the federal contracting arena, and it gave her the confidence to go out and bid as a prime contractor on future projects.

“I had a background in state government and understood how it operated,” says Mack. “In 2008, I began doing telework consulting, providing training to managers to put together policies to help them develop a robust program for staff to be able to work from home in some capacity.” She began working on telework initiatives with the Virginia Department of Taxation, which led to government contracts with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, the Food and Drug Administration, and the GSA.

“Over the years, what has been a recipe for success for us has been a combination of diversification and making sure that we have prime opportunities, as well as subcontractor opportunities,” says Mack.

In addition to telework solutions, staffing and training, Mack Global now offers project management, youth and family services programming, professional development and training, and transportation management services for government agencies. One of the company’s most recent contracts includes working with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Petersburg to provide spiritual guidance services to inmates to help them transition to life after incarceration.

“Through our Life Connections Program, we’re providing inmates with a curriculum that will help with their reentry back into society,” says Mack. “The program aims to strengthen participants’ understanding of what it means to live and work effectively in the community. While it’s not what you’d think of as a typical government contract, we’re providing services that impact our community in a positive way and help to support our country.”

For companies looking to break into the government contracting industry, there are myriad opportunities.

While the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program has been temporarily suspended for new application submissions, the SBA’s Small Business Development Centers offer counseling and training to small businesses seeking assistance with procurement of government contracts, informational tools and support, and financing/loans for business startups and existing business expansions.

Other agencies aiding small businesses looking to get involved in government contracting include the DOD’s Office of Small Business Programs, Women’s Business Centers, Veteran’s Business Centers, and trade associations such as the National Association of Government Contractors, the Government Contractors Association, the Coalition for Government Procurement, and the National Contract Management Association. In addition, many government agencies provide information on their websites about how to reach out for contracting opportunities.

“The availability of government contracting opportunities definitely goes in cycles,” says Reed. “There seem to be a lot of opportunities coming up through the Department of Transportation, due to the Infrastructure Bill, as well as through OTAs [Other Transaction Authorities] on the research and technology development side of things. We’re also seeing more chances to partner with academic and research institutions. Doing your research and working with other government contractors in the industry can definitely help you get your foot in the door.”

Adds Vermani, “The need for government contractors is there; you just have to listen. The trends are favorable to people who want to innovate, create and are willing to learn. I am grateful to be doing this work, and I’m thankful for the encouragement I’ve received from small business program offices, contracting officers and CIOs who have been willing to look at our products and contract with us for our services. It has been an exciting journey from our start as a video production company to moving to training, cybersecurity and now software development. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”