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byline: Robert Powell, III

Herndon-based Northwest Federal Credit Union acquires Park Place Equity

Herndon-based Northwest Federal Credit Union has acquired Park Place Equity LLC, a business loan company in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Park Place, which specializes in government-guaranteed loans, will operate as a division of Northwest Federal.

“Over the past two years, Northwest Federal has been developing a government lending platform to serve the needs of our business members,” Chris McDonald, the president and CEO of Northwest Federal, said in a statement. “By adding Park Place and the company’s expertise to our existing platform, we immediately gain a nationally known brand and substantial, additional experience in this lending field.”

McDonald said the deal will enhance the credit union’s lending products and add high-quality assets to the organization’s loan portfolio.

Seven-year-old Park Place focuses on the origination of loans under the Small Business Administration’s 7a and 504 lending programs along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Business and Industrial lending program.

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP served as outside legal counsel to Northwest Federal and Sandler O'Neill + Partners LP. served as financial advisor to the credit union. Becker Peters PLLC served as outside legal counsel to Park Place Equity LLC and CrossGate Capital Funding LLC provided advisory services.

Life-sciences firm to become first tenant of the Prince William Science Accelerator

ISOThrive LLC will become the first tenant of the Prince William Science Accelerator.

The startup, life-sciences company will occupy 603 square feet of space in the facility on May 15.

The company plans to use a new patented process in the field of microbiome health to bring dietary supplements to market.

Microbiome refers to the collective genomes of the microbes that live inside and on the human body.

The Prince William Science Accelerator, located on Discovery Boulevard in Manassas, is designed to support startup and fast-growing life sciences and biotechnology companies.

The accelerator contains about 9,000 square feet of wet laboratory space, which can be subdivided into nine laboratories.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors committed $9,200 to ISOThrive from the county’s economic development opportunity fund.

The money will be used to offset a portion of the costs of equipment purchases by ISOThrive and to help it in locating in the accelerator.

ISOThrive plans to invest $143,000 in the project.

Reston-based Clarabridge Inc. acquires Market Metrix

Reston-based Clarabridge Inc. has acquired  Market Metrix, a California feedback management firm serving the leisure and hospitality industries.

Clarabridge, the nation’s seventh fastest-growing software company specializes in customer experience management, a strategy focusing on operations and processes designed to meet customer needs.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sid Banerjee, Clarabridge’s CEO, said in a statement that customer experience management “is becoming mission critical to many enterprises.

“A common vision that emerged from our engagement with thousands of organizations is the market’s need for an end-to-end solution that integrates customer feedback from all sources, apply advanced text and sentiment analytics to identify themes and drivers of customer satisfaction, as well as surface critical operational issues, and coordinate engagement activities that ultimately help companies drive customer loyalty and profitability,” he said. “The merger between Clarabridge and Market Metrix enables us to bring this vision to reality, as the currently fragmented CEM market starts its convergence toward a complete solution suite.”

The acquisition follows the completion of an $80 million equity investment last September by investors General Catalyst Partners, Summit Partners and Unica founder Yuchun Lee.

Founded in 2006, Clarabridge uses sentiment and text analytics in development customer experience management programs for companies such as Dell, Fidelity, Wendy’s International, United Airlines, Best Buy, PetSmart and QVC.

The company said it is seeing 60 percent revenue growth this year compared with 2013.

Based in Larkspur, Calif., Market Metrix has long-standing business relationships with hospitality companies such as Wynn Resorts, Langham Hospitality Group and Red Roof Inn.

“These two companies could not be more complementary, Lenny Nash, CEO of Market Metrix, said in a statement. “The combined offerings will equip enterprises with everything they need to put the voice of the customer to work.”

South Hill hospital to join VCU Health System

Virginia Commonwealth University Health System is expanding in Southern Virginia.

South Hill-based Community Memorial Healthcenter (CMH) — a hospital with 99 licensed, acute-care beds — will become part of the Richmond-based health system under a deal that is expected to be completed by June 30.

As part of the deal, VCU will invest at least $75 million in CMH, including a new hospital facility, health-care technologies, clinical initiatives and physician recruitment.

The South Hill hospital will be renamed VCU Community Memorial Hospital.

“Both organizations are deeply committed to improving the health of the communities they serve, and we recognized that joining forces with the VCU Health System enhances our ability to fulfill our mission. We are excited about the future of health care for this region,” W. Scott Burnette, president and CEO of CMH, said in a statement.

One of the biggest employers in the South Hill area, CMH has 800 employees. They will join a workforce of about 9,000 at VCU Health System.

Eighty-five physicians representing 30 medical specialties have privileges at CMH.

Under the affiliation agreement, CMH will continue to have a board of directors, with local and VCU Health System appointments.

The VCU Health System already had a presence at CMH through a partnership with the VCU Massey Cancer Center that provides outpatient medical hematology-oncology and radiation oncology in South Hill. In addition, the hospitals collaborated on other clinical and educational services.

Former transportation secretary to head hospital trade group

Sean T. Connaughton, the former Virginia secretary of transportation under Gov. Bob McDonnell, has been named president of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association.

He will succeed Laurens Sartoris, who will be retiring after 26 years at the helm of VHHA and 35 years in total with the association.

“Hospitals and health systems not only take care of our citizens but are major economic drivers in our communities,” Connaughton said in a statemnent. “As they continue to face numerous challenges, including closing the coverage gap in Virginia, I look forward to working with our health-care partners, business community, our state and federal policymakers and elected leaders to improve upon Virginia’s already exceptional health care delivery system.”

Connaughton is a former chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. He served as head of the U.S. Maritime Administration under President George W. Bush.

He made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2005, losing to Bill Bolling who won the general election.

Connaughton become the association’s third president in 88-year history.

The appointment is the result of a succession plan begun two years ago. The group’s board of directors worked with Sartoris in appointing a selection committee to find a successor.

FDA approves auto-injector for treatment of painkiller overdose

The Food and Drug Administration has approved an auto-injector developed by a Richmond pharmaceutical company for emergency treatment of an overdose involving powerful painkillers.

EVZIO is a pre-filled, single-use auto-injector that works by temporarily blocking the effect of an opioid, potentially reversing life-threatening respiratory problems and allowing the patient to breathe more regularly.

EVZIO  was developed by Richmond-based Kaléo (formerly known as Intelliject). It says EVZIO is the first auto-injector with the active ingredient naloxone that is intended to be available for use by family members or caregivers on a patient with a suspected opioid overdose.

Opioids are part of a class of pain medications that affect the body’s perception of pain. They can cause a fatal overdose when the drug amount in the body is too high. An overdose can cause a person’s breathing to severely slow down and even stop.

Naloxone has been used for more than 40 years for treatment of opioid overdose. However, it has been primarily used by medical professionals and in limited distribution programs. EVZIO will be available to patients and their family members or caregivers via prescription.

The new drug application for EVZIO was granted fast-track status and received a priority review by the FDA. Fast-track status accelerates the review and approval of products that fill an unmet medical need.

EVZIO is expected to be available in pharmacies this summer.

GSA renews lease in Newport News

The General Services Administration has renewed its lease for more than 40,000 square feet of space in Newport News.

The agency occupies 41,348 square feet in the SunTrust Building at 11817 Canon Boulevard.

Virginia Beach-based Divaris Real Estate Inc. manages and leases the building.

Chris Bendit of Divaris’ Newport News office handled lease negotiations on behalf of the landlord, Oyster Point Investors LP.

Federal agency leases more than 82,000 square feet in Sterling

The  U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has signed a 10-year lease for 82,116 square feet at Atlantic Corporate Park in Sterling.

The lease was announced by Bethesda, Md.-based First Potomac Realty Trust, a major owner of office and business park properties in the Washington, D.C., region.

First Potomac acquired the newly constructed property in December 2010 for $22.5 million. The lease brings the property's occupancy rate to about 82 percent.

The Washington Business Journal reported that the space in new Sterling will be 47,900 square feet smaller compared with its current home at 381 Elden St. in Herndon.

The corporate park includes two, four-story Class A LEED Gold Certified office buildings, totaling about 220,000 square feet.

The buildings offer a fitness center, conference rooms and green space.

As of Dec. 31, 2013, Potomac Realty’s consolidated portfolio totaled 9.1 million square feet.

The portfolio consists of 51 percent office properties and 49 percent business park and industrial properties.

Vectrus will be the name of Exelis spinoff

The missions systems division being spun off by McLean-based Exelis Inc. will be named Vectrus.

Exelis announced in December that the division, currently part of the company’s information and technical services segment, will become a new, publicly traded company.

The spinoff is scheduled for completion this summer.

Exelis is a diversified aerospace, defense, information and services company with about 17,000 employees. It had 2013 sales of $4.8 billion.

Exelis itself was created in 2011 in a spinoff from ITT Corp.

Company officials describe Vectrus is a blended name derived from the words “vector” and “trust.”

The new company will have nearly 7,000 employees operating in more than 100 locations in 18 countries.

Vectrus is well-positioned to continue to deliver its broad range of capabilities as an independent entity. 
After the spinoff, Exelis will focus on four strategic growth platforms:  critical networks, ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and analytics, electronic warfare and aerostructures.

It also will continue its mature business areas of networked communications and night vision.

Ad agency finds many uses for Google Glass

I have seen the future. Fortunately, I was not driving at the time, or I might have had a wreck.

Thanks to the generosity of Daniel Fell, the CEO of the Richmond-based advertising, marketing and public relations firm Neathawk Dubuque &  Packett, I recently got a chance to try on the Google Glass.

This invention, as you probably have heard, puts many of the capabilities of a smartphone in devices that resemble eyeglass frames.   Glass features a tiny screen over the right eye and can do amazing things: take a picture, record a video, perform a Google search, find directions or send a dictated message.

The position and size of the screen are designed to provide you with information without being distracting.  Avoiding distraction, however, could take some practice.  One writer reviewing the device found it difficult not to fixate on the screen. That could make walking, much less driving, a hazardous task.

In my brief trial, I was surprised not only by the range of capabilities the device offers but also the fact you can perform tasks with voice commands. I had seen news clips of people tapping or rubbing the frames to get things done, but I did not know you could summon its powers just by saying, “OK, Glass, take a picture.” Click, there you have a photo of whatever you’re seeing at the moment.

While I am convinced that Glass is an intriguing device, the question remains: Is this a toy or a tool?

Fell is exploring that question with his employees, who work in offices in Roanoke; Tampa, Fla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Raleigh/Durham, N.C., in addition to Richmond. (The device has not yet gone on the market, but he obtained one through the Glass Explorer program, which allows some consumers to test the product and offer their feedback.)

Fell launched a companywide competition asking employees to submit ideas on ways to use Glass to help clients in various industries.

“Obviously, we are not endorsing the product or Google in any way,” he explains in an email. “Our interest is on staying ahead of the tech curve and giving our employees and our clients an opportunity to experience new devices and technologies as they come out.” 

Fell thinks Glass technology is amazing, “but like any new technology like this you have to see (no pun intended) beyond the current iteration and understand the underlying advances and trends that will change our lives in the future — in this case, it’s about wearable technology, augmented reality, user-interface design, etc.”

One intriguing example of how   Glass can be used is seen in a YouTube video. It follows Rocky Mount, N.C., firefighter Patrick Jackson on a training exercises in which he uses   Glass to locate the nearest fire hydrant, obtain the floor plan of a burning building and find the right way to remove the roof of a wrecked car to free a trapped motorist.

Fell’s employees offered other ideas. Here are some of their responses.  (These aren’t necessarily the winning entries, but they give you an idea of the wide-ranging suggestions the contest prompted.)

The collector
“Collectors of anything (antiques, coins, records, books, etc.) can quickly and easily access their personal catalog to avoid repurchasing same/similar items. Also: price check on aisle 3!”

The ghost tour
Provide Glass to guests for a “ghost” tour of a hotel to explain its history. “The app uses GPS to guide the guest through the hotel to specific spots. At each spot the wearer will be instructed to look at an image on the wall that will trigger a Glass video. In each video a person dressed in period garb will be the tour guide. They will appear as holograms and share info and stories pertaining to the historic facts they are sharing.” Guests can also take pictures and video along the tour for upload to social media sites.

The bike race
During the UCI World Road Cycling Championships scheduled to take place in Richmond next year, a rider would be asked to wear Glass. Using an app, spectators would view what the racer is seeing in real time during the competition.

The device also could be used to gather information on each rider, such as nationality, team affiliation and career record.

The memory care unit
“Glass could be incorporated into Alzheimer’s and dementia care. Glass would help stimulate the minds of patients by giving them games and puzzles to play.

“The ability to document daily life could help patients remember events that may seem cloudy.”

So will Glass be a personal technology game changer like the iPhone? Only time will tell. Remember that before Segways finally were unveiled 13 years ago, the hype was so intense that some people expected the machines to make a bigger splash than the personal computer.

My advice is to try out Glass if you get a chance but stay off the road until you’re used to it.