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byline: Rich Griset

Northam commits additional $20M to economic recovery fund

Gov. Ralph Northam has allocated an additional $20 million in federal CARES Act funding to assist more than 300 small businesses and nonprofits through the Rebuild VA economic recovery fund.

The new funding will meet demand for the Rebuild VA program and fulfill pending grant applications for small businesses and nonprofits that applied before the last round of funding was exhausted in early December. This funding will bring the program total to $120 million. Eligible applicants still in the pipeline have been notified via email that their applications have been reopened.

“Small businesses and nonprofits are among those hit hardest by the pandemic, and many are bracing for an uncertain few months ahead as the virus surges and we await the widespread availability of the vaccines,” said Northam in a statement. “Virginia’s small business community remains diligent in protecting the health and safety of their employees and customers, and we must continue to support them in every way we can. With Congress finally acting on a long-overdue relief package, I am also grateful that Virginia businesses will now have another opportunity to apply for the Paycheck Protection Program in the near future.”

In early December, Northam announced that Rebuild VA had fully committed $100 million in federal funds that had previously been allocated to the program, which provided grants to 2,500 small businesses and nonprofits disrupted by the pandemic. More than 45% of that funding was awarded to nearly 1,000 small businesses and nonprofits located in low-income and economically disadvantaged communities; about $50 million was awarded to women-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses. To date, Rebuild VA has received nearly 20,000 applications. The average grant award was $35,636.

Administered by the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity (SBSD), Rebuild VA launched in August with $70 million in CARES Act funding. Northam directed an additional $30 million to the program in October and SBSD expanded eligibility so that businesses with less than $10 million in gross revenue or fewer than 250 employees could apply.

“Getting these dollars to more small businesses and nonprofits that have been impacted by COVID-19 is a top priority for our administration,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball in a statement. “The large number of applicants still in the pipeline for Rebuild VA funding demonstrates the tremendous need for this and additional financial support.”

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Richmond city government solicits proposals for resort casino

Richmond has issued a request for qualifications/proposals, the first step in launching a competitive process for bringing a resort casino to the state capital, subject to voter approval.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation allowing five economically challenged cities — including Richmond — to open casinos. Voters in Bristol, Danville, Norfolk and Portsmouth overwhelmingly approved casinos in referendums held during the November 2020 elections.

For Richmond’s casino project to go forward, Richmond city government must select a single preferred casino operator and location. Richmond voters must then grant approval for the proposal in a Nov. 2, 2021, referendum. Proposals are due to Richmond city government no later than 3 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2021. At that time, the selection process will begin, which will include soliciting feedback from city residents and consulting third-party experts.

“This competitive selection process will allow us to find the best opportunity for Richmond, an economic development project that includes well-paying jobs and workforce training opportunities,” said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney in a statement. “Ultimately, the operator selected for this project must bring to the table the economic opportunity and community benefits voters will support in November.”

The city will review the responses to the RFQ/P and evaluate the comparative merits of each potential operator’s vision for a Richmond resort casino and the socioeconomic benefits that such a project may bring to Richmond, its residents and its business community.

The request encourages interested parties to propose a casino project that accomplishes the following objectives:

  • induces capital and ongoing investment in the city to make a significant and lasting contribution to the community
  • creates sustainable and well-paying jobs, new employment opportunities, and workforce training programs for Richmond residents
  • acts as a catalyst for additional economic development in the city and enhances the city’s economic and community development objectives
  • contributes to the city’s efforts to attract sustainable economic benefits from tourism
  • maximizes the economic impact of the project by including components beyond gaming, including hotel, non-gaming entertainment, or other commercial activities
  • supports the city’s mission to facilitate, produce and advance opportunities for minority business enterprises and emerging small businesses to successfully participate in the full array of contracting opportunities available in the City of Richmond
  • adds to and support the existing Richmond entertainment community
  • provides a high-quality development of which Richmond can be proud
  • is located in an area supported by the community as an appropriate location for a casino and mitigates any potential adverse impacts on the community, the city and residents
  • provides resources and additional revenues to the city

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Industrial hemp company to locate in Rockingham

Using the trade name Pure Shenandoah, Elkton-based Shenandoah Valley Hemp LLC will invest nearly $3.3 million to establish an industrial hemp fiber processing and cannabidiol (CBD) oil extraction facility in Rockingham County, creating 24 jobs.

The company has committed to purchasing 100% of its industrial hemp from Virginia growers, resulting in nearly $5 million in payments to Virginia farmers over the next three years. Pure Shenandoah will become the first participant in the Virginia’s Finest trademark program to source the hemp used in its products.

Pure Shenandoah operates as a vertically integrated “seed to sale” company, with traceability of each product back to the seed and farm from which it came.

“Virginia’s industrial hemp industry continues to experience tremendous growth, creating a wealth of opportunity across our commonwealth,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. “Projects like this one are an important part of diversifying our economy and developing new markets for industrial hemp. Our administration remains committed to supporting growers and processors as we work to ensure this crop has a sustainable future in Virginia.”

Northam has approved a $50,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund for the project, which Rockingham County will match with local funds. Funding and services to support the company’s job creation will be provided through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

As part of its strategic marketing efforts, Pure Shenandoah is a participating member of the Virginia’s Finest program. Created more than 30 years ago with more than 500 participating companies, this program helps consumers know they are purchasing top-quality Virginia-produced specialty food products

 

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Arlington-based Magellan Federal gets $111M for DOD personnel assistance services

Arlington-based Magellan Federal, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Magellan Health Inc., has secured a potential five-year, $111 million contract from Washington Headquarters Services to help Department of Defense employees maintain work-life balance.

According to the DOD, Magellan will help the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service manage an employee assistance program under the indefinite-delivery/indefinitely-quantity contract. The company will provide personnel, equipment, facilities and transportation necessary to address EAP objectives. Contract work will take place in the National Capital Region through Jan. 9, 2026.

In November, Armed Forces Services Corp. rebranded as Magellan Federal. A military-focused provider of health care, human services and pharmacy solutions, Magellan Federal has more than 3,000 employees delivering services across 250 military bases, installations and agencies globally.

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Short Pump Hilton faces receivership, foreclosure

The Hilton Richmond Hotel and Spa in Short Pump, the flagship of Chester-based Shamin Hotels’ empire, may change hands as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a complaint filed in Henrico County Circuit Court on Dec. 2, 12042 West Broad Street Holdings LLC, the Bethesda, Maryland-based noteholder on the property, alleges a breach of contract, saying Shamin fell behind in its loan payments beginning in April 2020. The 254-room hotel in Short Pump was considered the gem of Shamin’s hotel portfolio when it opened in 2009. Now, Shamin CEO Neil Amin says his company is cooperating with the noteholder to allow them to take control of the hotel through receivership and a possible public auction.

The filing states that Shamin borrowed $45 million from JPMorgan Chase Bank National Association on Oct. 11, 2013. Amin says that the hotel was appraised at $68 million at the time of the loan. As of Dec. 1, 2020, Shamin owed $46.8 million on the loan, including a principal amount of $40.2 million, $1.18 million in accrued interest, $1.19 million in default interest and more than $127,000 in accrued late fees, according to the filing. The filing also requests that the court appoint Fairfax-based Crescent Hotel Management Services LLC to keep the property open and run it while a foreclosure sale is conducted. The plaintiff states that the property may be worth as little as $26 million.

Neil Amin, CEO of Shamin Hotels.
Neil Amin, CEO of Shamin Hotels.

Via email, Amin said that the purpose of the 2013 loan was to refinance the original construction loan.

“This is a unique situation that is affecting all conference hotels nationwide and with our revenue declining by $10 [million] since the start of the pandemic and a noteholder that is not being supportive, we felt that this is the best decision for our company and our organization,” said Amin, who runs the business his father began in 1979.

Amin added that Shamin, one of the largest independent hoteliers in the United States with more than 60 properties, reached out to the noteholder at the beginning of the pandemic to use a portion of its $1.8 million in reserves that were held by the lender to make mortgage payments, stating that the same request was approved by many of Shamin’s other commercial mortgage-backed securities lenders.

After initially seeming cooperative, Amin said the noteholder “demanded significant lender fees and unsuitable guarantees in order to access those funds. We then offered other solutions such as providing a [significant] influx of capital to support the hotel over the next few years or paying off the loan at value significantly higher than the lender’s valuation.”

Amin said they offered making interest-only payments for a time, then pay off the loan in full to avoid foreclosure, as well as pay a significantly higher value than the lenders’ own valuation of the loan. Amin says that his other hotels are performing better than the Short Pump Hilton because they are less dependent on conferences and the revenue gained from them.

Calls and emails to Stephen K. Gallagher and Caleb E. McCallum, the plaintiff’s lawyers listed in the filing, were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Amin said that new Shamin properties are on schedule to open in 2021, including The Landing at Hampton Marina, a Tapestry Hotel by Hilton in Hampton, as well as a Home2 Suites and a Hampton Inn and Suites in Short Pump.

This article has been corrected since it was published. 

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Dominion announces construction has begun on offshore wind vessel

Dominion Energy Inc. announced Wednesday that construction has begun on the utility’s new vessel that will ferry the workers and huge components needed for its planned buildout of the largest offshore wind farm in the country off the coast of Virginia Beach.

Named Charybdis after the sea monster from Greek mythology, Dominion’s U.S.-flagged ship will carry the materials and assist in construction of the wind farm’s more than 180 wind turbines, which will be visible 800 feet above sea level. The vessel, which will be the first of its kind in the nation, will cost an estimated $500 million, not including financial costs.

The vessel will be 472 feet long, 184 feet wide, 38 feet deep, and will be made of 14,000 tons of steel. Once it reaches its intended destination, the vessel will plant four legs into the ocean floor, jack itself above the waves, then use a crane with a 426-foot boom to stand up each of the 800-foot wind turbines planned for the project. Each turbine should take about three days to erect.

“It’s one of the largest vessels of its type in the world. There are very few vessels in the world that can install these next-generation turbines,” says Mark Mitchell, senior vice president of project construction for Dominion.

Global marine shipbuilding firm Keppel AmFELS has already begun construction on Charybdis in Brownsville, Texas, with an expected completion by the end of 2023. Construction is expected to create 700 direct jobs. Once in operation, the vessel will be available for charter hire, including by Dominion, subject to approval from the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

The vessel can hold up to 119 people, including somewhere between 20 and 30 maritime crew and 30 to 100 wind turbine workers, depending on the vessel’s mission at the time. While Dominion doesn’t have concrete numbers on the economic impact the vessel will have, it will be docked in Hampton Roads, though officials said they couldn’t yet disclose where.

Last year, Dominion announced its plan to erect the $7.8 billion offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach that would generate 2,640 megawatts using more than 180 turbines. In October, Dominion successfully completed reliability testing for its initial twin-turbine, 12-megawatt, $300 million Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project, the first phase in the wind farm’s construction. Construction on the wind farm is expected to begin in 2024 and to be completed by 2026.

For the pilot, Dominion used the Vole-au-Vent, a vessel registered in Luxembourg, to ferry construction materials for the turbines after shuttling them south from Nova Scotia. However, due to the Jones Act, a century-old federal law, wind turbines taken from a U.S. port to another port or place inside of U.S. waters must be ferried by a U.S.-flagged vessel.

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Kitty Hawk offshore wind project to create 600 jobs in Hampton Roads area

Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Avangrid Inc., submitted construction and operations plans on Dec. 11 for the first phase of its Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind project, a development it says will generate $2 billion in economic impact between 2021 and 2030 and create nearly 800 jobs in Virginia and North Carolina.

Located 27 miles off the shore of Corolla, North Carolina, the 122,405-acre project will include landing cables that will come ashore at a substation in Virginia Beach’s Sandbridge community. Roughly 600 jobs will be generated by the project within the Hampton Roads combined statistical area, which includes part of northeastern North Carolina.

The first phase of construction could begin as soon as 2024 and have the capacity to generate approximately 800 megawatts of electricity. When all phases are complete, the project is anticipated to have a total generation of up to 2,500 megawatts, or enough to power 700,000 homes.

From one of two possible landing sites in Sandbridge, a combination of underground and overhead cables will run to a substation or substations where they will connect to the grid. Several substation locations are currently being considered.

Avangrid signed the lease for the offshore land in 2017 with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Energy Management (BOEM), the same agency it filed its construction and operation plan with. Kitty Hawk’s three development phases would become operational in 2026, 2028 and 2029, if all goes according to plan. Avangrid declined to say how many turbines it plans to build, saying the number may change due to technological advances; earlier news reports say it will be at least 100 turbines.

The power generated by the project would enter the grid through the substation in Virginia Beach. From there, energy companies in the Virginia and North Carolina markets — including Dominion Energy Inc., Duke Energy Corp. and Appalachian Power — could purchase power from Avangrid.

“There is strong support for offshore wind in Virginia,” explains Ashley McLeod, spokeswoman for the Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind project. “Avangrid Renewables and our affiliated companies have extensive experience developing both onshore and offshore wind projects worldwide. We believe we have a lot to offer potential customers in the mid-Atlantic.”

Dominion announced plans last year to stand up an $7.8 billion offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach that aims to be the largest in the nation, with more than 180 turbines generating 2,600 megawatts. Its initial twin-turbine, 12-megawatt, $300 million Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project, located 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coastline, successfully completed reliability testing in October.

 

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Virginia leads nation in COVID-19 app use

Amid grim headlines related to the coronavirus, Virginia has one piece of bright news — the commonwealth leads the nation in the percentage of citizens who have downloaded a COVID-19 app to alert users about possible instances of exposure to the coronavirus.

According to a Dec. 7 report from The New York Times, a higher percentage of Virginians have downloaded the state’s COVIDWISE coronavirus exposure app, compared with apps offered by other states. As of Dec. 10, nearly 900,000 people had downloaded Virginia’s free mobile app.

Developed by the Virginia Department of Health in partnership with California-based tech company SpringML Inc., COVIDWISE notifies app users if they have been in close proximity with another individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. COVIDWISE launched on Aug. 5, making Virginia the first state to unveil a coronavirus app using a contact tracing system jointly developed by Apple Inc. and Google LLC using Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technology.

Once someone downloads the app and opts into its notification system, COVIDWISE generates an anonymous token for the user’s Android or iOS device. These anonymous tokens change every 10 to 20 minutes to ensure that they can’t be used to identify a user’s location. Devices that come in proximity with each other exchange tokens via Bluetooth LE technology. Twice a day, the app checks these tokens against those associated with COVID-19 cases over the past 14 days.

COVIDWISE cost $229,000 to develop and has a maintenance and operation fee of $29,000 to keep it working over the next year.

Even after the “honeymoon period” of the initial launch, Jeff Stover, executive adviser to Virginia’s health commissioner, says downloads of the app have been steady, usually averaging between 2,000 and 5,000 new downloads per day. As of Dec. 10, 10,643 notifications had gone out warning users of potential exposures.

Though The New York Times estimated that nearly 10% of Virginians had downloaded COVIDWISE, Stover says VDH puts its own figure higher. Looking specifically at the age group of Virginians who would mostly likely have a smartphone — 18- to 65-year-olds — and estimating that about 20% of people in that age group don’t have a smartphone, Stover says 21% of all probable Virginians have downloaded the app.

Stover says the fact that Virginia got its app developed so quickly has helped.

“We were first in the country to do this, so we were fortunate in that regard,” he says. “One of the pros in going first was we got a fair amount of media coverage from that, and that’s been good for marketing.”

Virginia has also spent $1.5 million marketing COVIDWISE, including promotions via social media, traditional media, billboards, bus wraps, ads in Metro stations and through TV and radio commercials.

“We needed to blanket the state with marketing so that they would know what it is and how to get it,” Stover says.

Still, he notes that some people may be reticent to download an app out of surveillance fears.

“We knew that exposure notification apps, particularly ones put together by the government, were not going to be an easy sell to the general public,” Stover says.

The public health benefits of downloading the app are real. Citing a modeling paper by Google, Stanford and Oxford that hasn’t been peer-reviewed, Stover says that if a locality has a 15% app adoption rate, infections can be reduced by about approximately 8% and deaths can be reduced by approximately 6%. The higher the app adoption rate, the greater the benefits.

COVIDWISE has also had some recent developments. On Dec. 9, it joined the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server, allowing for notifications across Washington, D.C., and all 15 states that have similar apps.

“Most states that have followed [Virginia’s lead] with Apple and Google notification apps are on this national key server,” Stover explains. “Virginia was not, because we were the first to go live and there was no such thing when we started.”

There’s also an express version on the horizon that will issue a simple push notification on iPhones.

“We’re hoping to have it by the end of the year, so that anyone who does not already have COVIDWISE would then have the ability to activate COVIDWISE Express on an iPhone.”

These developments come against some bleak pandemic news.

On Dec. 10, the number of Americans dead from COVID-19 surpassed the number of American combat deaths during World War II.

Four of the 10 deadliest days in American history took place last week, ranking among the likes of the Battle of Antietam and the September 11 attacks, according to CBS News. On Dec. 9, Virginia reported a record daily increase of 4,398 new cases.

America has averaged more than 200,000 new cases per day during the last two weeks; by comparison, September saw roughly 30,000 new cases per day.

For those who haven’t downloaded the app, Stover has a message: “It’s more than just about you. It’s about protecting you and your community, and it’s a really simple way to do that.”

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CACI receives $160M Air Force network operations support task order

Arlington-based federal technology contractor CACI International has secured a potential $160 million task order to provide information technology support for U.S. Air Forces Central Command’s Network Operations and Security Center (AFCENT NOSC).

On Thursday, CACI said it will offer networking, cyber, help desk and technical support to multiple AFCENT NOSC sites for four-and-a-half years through U.S. Central Command as part of the task order, which was awarded through the Air Force’s Acquisition Management Integration Center.

John Mengucci, president and CEO of CACI, said the network support the company provides through its partnership with AFCENT and the Acquisition Management and Integration Center is vital to countering violent extremism in Southwest Asia and the Middle East.

“CACI engineers will ensure reliable and secure communications to new air bases through the region so that U.S. service members can carry out their missions,” Mengucci said.

The company said it will also provide capabilities in systems engineering, database management, network transport support and satellite communications and help engineer, improve, protect and maintain AFCENT networks, including Secret Internet Protocol Router and Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network, within U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility.

Founded in 1962, CACI specializes in enterprise and mission technology. The company has approximately 23,000 employees and is on the Fortune 1000 list.

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Northrop Grumman books $73M Air Force contract to update missile tech

Falls Church-based Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. has received a $73.2 million delivery order from the U.S. Air Force to incorporate new capabilities into a remote visual assessment tool in support of the Minuteman III missile’s production and deployment.

The company will modify the Remote Visual Assessment II program to enable the procurement, production, removal, installation, testing and documentation of equipment, the Department of Defense said Thursday. The Air Force awarded the contract on a sole-source acquisition basis and obligated $1.1. million from fiscal year 2020 missile procurement funds. Contract work is slated to conclude by July 31, 2023, and will occur at various Air Force installations in Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana.

The Minuteman III is a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile developed by Boeing to carry single or multiple nuclear warheads and serves a role in America’s nuclear deterrence triad.

Northrop Grumman employs more than 90,000 people and reported $33.8 billion in 2019 revenue.

 

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