A 10,044-square-foot office and warehouse building in Norfolk sold Tuesday for $1.3 million.
The building, on 1.71 acres at 1301 Marsh St., was previously owned by Daughters Trust 3557. Piedmont Land Development bought the property, which is fully leased, as an investment. It is currently leased to Hepaco, an environmental cleanup company.
William C. Throne and Robert L. Phillips with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled sale negotiations on behalf of the buyer.
The first eight monopiles, the wind-turbine foundation posts for Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion offshore wind farm, arrived at Portsmouth Marine Terminal on Oct. 19, and state officials and Dominion executives celebrated their arrival from Germany Friday.
In a ceremony Friday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Dominion Chair, President and CEO Bob Blue and state and local dignitaries marked the arrival of the monopiles, instrumental components in the construction of the planned 176 wind turbines to be erected 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, making up a 2.6-gigawatt wind farm that will power 660,000 homes.
Dominion’s proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm and aligns with a state mandate that Richmond-based utility Dominion Energy generate all power from carbon-free sources by 2045. The Biden administration also has a goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.
The monopiles, which are each about 272 feet long — about the length of a football field — and 31 feet in diameter, will be driven into the seabed. Each turbine, when fully assembled, will be 836 feet high.
Construction on the wind farm is set to begin in May, and the turbines will be operational by the end of 2026, Blue said.
“This is the real beginning of the offshore construction part of the project,” Blue said. “To get the first delivery of them, on time and on budget, is critical for our company, for our customers, for the state, and we’re very excited to have all those partners here,” he said.
He described seeing the monopiles arrive at Portsmouth Marine Terminal as “a great moment. … Seeing these and seeing the size makes it even more real.”
Massive single vertical steel cylinders, the monopiles are manufactured in Germany by EEW SPC, and the trip to ship the. across the Atlantic takes about 2 1/2 weeks. Eight will be delivered at a time until all 176 arrive in Hampton Roads.
In late September, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it completed its environmental assessment of the project, a little more than two years after the review began. Approval of the entire project from BOEM is expected in the coming days.
Should the project attain approval, Dominion would still be required to receive BOEM’s final OK for its construction and operations plan, which could occur by February 2024. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission approved the project in August 2022.
Dominion is already operating two wind turbines off the Virginia Beach coast as part of a pilot project. The company said that more than 750 Virginia-based workers, about 530 of whom are in Hampton Roads, are working on the project or with businesses supporting it. Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be created to operate and maintain the turbines.
John O. “Dubby” Wynne only had one setting: giving 110%.
He didn’t know how to do any less than that, even after years as a successful media executive who helped launch The Weather Channel, the 24-hour cable weather news channel. Instead of slowing down after his retirement as president and CEO after 27 years working for Landmark Communications, he continued to make waves in Hampton Roads and the commonwealth, co-founding statewide economic development initiative GO Virginia.
Wynne died Wednesday at 78 following an illness. His survivors include his wife of 50 years, Susan, as well as two children and six grandchildren.
Frank Batten Jr., whose family owned Landmark Communications, credits Wynne with The Weather Channel’s success. Landmark, which had interests in newspapers such as The Virginian-Pilot and The Roanoke Times, and broadcasting, cable programming and digital publishing. Wynne joined Landmark in 1974 and served on its board for years after his 2001 retirement. In an interview with the Syndeo Institute at the Cable Center, he talked about the ways Frank Batten Sr., his late mentor, built the media corporation by finding new opportunities each decade, including as an early cable television pioneer and investing in community newspapers, The Weather Channel and digital publishing.
“The biggest thing is that [Wynne] was the true founder of The Weather Channel,” said Frank Batten Jr., chairman of Dominion Enterprises and president of the Landmark Foundation. “Dubby Wynne was the person who really made it happen. The Weather Channel would not have been successful without his ideas and drive and determination and conviction that it would be successful.”
The Weather Channel was started by Landmark Communications in 1982, and Wynne led the sale of it to NBC Universal for $3.5 billion in 2008. Wynne received the NCTA Vanguard Award for Programmers and the Governor’s Award from the National Academy of Cable Programming in 1997 for “his leadership and insight in making The Weather Channel the preeminent provider of weather information, and one of the most innovative and popular networks on television.” He was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame in 2016.
“When we launched our service, most people were just laughing at [the 24-hour weather concept],” Wynne said in an interview for his Cable Hall of Fame induction. “Although in some areas like New York City, people already carried an umbrella all the time. In California, they said, ‘I don’t care, it never rains here.’ But we knew from our television and radio experience that weather in most communities was a subject of high interest.”
When Wynne and Landmark executives became aware that the ad-supported broadcasting wasn’t sufficient to support The Weather Channel, he pivoted to charging fees to cable operators to put the channel in the black. “We needed subscriber fees. We showed our finances to the cable operators. It was just a few pennies per subscriber, but getting that done was what made The Weather Channel successful,” he said.
After his retirement, Wynne stayed involved in the business community as a civic leader. In 2006, the National Governor’s Association gave him the First Citizen Award for Distinguished Service to State Government for his role in establishing the Council on Virginia’s Future, an organization that was focused on strategic planning and performance leadership in state government. Later, the CIVIC Leadership Institute in Norfolk presented Wynne its Darden Award for Regional Leadership in 2014.
“He was a visionary, he was an implementer and he could motivate elected officials with his passion for Virginia,” said Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. “His vision for cities and counties working along economic boundaries became a passion for his community involvement, and many organizations benefited from his leadership.”
Along with co-founding GO Virginia, a state economic development initiative started in 2014 by business leaders and state officials, he chaired multiple boards promoting regional cooperation, such as Reinvent Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. He also served on boards for organizations such as Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, Junior Achievement of Tidewater, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the United Way of South Hampton Roads and many others. He was also a founding member of Reinvent Hampton Roads, which was launched in 2016 by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation to administer GO Virginia grants for local economic development projects.
DuVal said Wynne was the “driving force behind Virginia building regional economic strategies with private sector leadership.”
Calling Wynne a friend and mentor of the past 10 years, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement that “Dubby Wynne has left a forever mark on the commonwealth. He dedicated his immense experience and his life to improving economic opportunity and prosperity across Virginia. His heart for philanthropy and his giving spirit truly made a difference in people’s lives.”
And, for Hampton Roads, “Dubby Wynne was a giant in our region,” Bryan K. Stephens, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber, said in a statement. “He was a man of action, a true impact player who knew how to get things done. His contributions to the citizens and economy of Hampton Roads are too many to enumerate [in a statement]. Suffice to say ‘Dubby’ will always be synonymous with regional collaboration. His leadership in this region will be sorely missed.”
Nancy Grden, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, said Wynne “had a personal passion for the region and felt the region had so many assets and opportunities it needed to leverage.”
Batten said what made Wynne a great leader was that he was demanding, but people knew he was motivated by working for the betterment of others.
“Dubby was a visionary leader and passionate advocate for the people and businesses in the Hampton Roads area,” Sentara Health President and CEO Dennis Matheis, co-chair of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, said in a statement. “As a founding member of GO Virginia and Reinvent Hampton Roads, Dubby paved the way for business leaders to come together to think creatively about unlocking the power of the region and all of its collective resources.”
Wynne earned his bachelor’s degree in 1967 from Princeton University, where he later served as a charter trustee for 14 years and as a member of the executive committee of Princeton’s board of trustees. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1971 and later served on U.Va.’s board for eight years, including a term as rector. After law school, he was an attorney for Willcox & Savage before he went to work for Landmark in 1974, where he served as the company’s general counsel and was general manager of KNTV in San Jose, California. By 1980, he was head of the company’s broadcasting and video division and was responsible for new business development. He eventually worked his way up to president and CEO. Landmark Communications later spun off Landmark Media Enterprises, which formerly owned The Virginian-Pilot and The Roanoke Times newspapers.
Wynne was often consulted as a regional leader.
“He could work at a strategic level and a very personal level to encourage all of us to lean into it,” Grden said, adding that Wynne supported young talent and cultivating a new generation of leaders in Hampton Roads. “It’s hard to replicate someone who can do that, someone who has vision but knows it takes people at the ground level to make this stuff happen. He was very interested in incorporating more innovation in our region.”
Wynne’s work, Matheis said, “ultimately led to the creation of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, passing the baton to the next generation of business leaders in the community. Our regional growth can be directly connected to his work, and it is up to all of us to continue his legacy.”
Wynne was incoming board chairman for the Hampton Roads Community Foundation in 2012, when Debbie DiCroce became the foundation’s president and CEO. “He’s that rare visionary leader who understood the importance of strategic execution,” she said. “There’s not much that matters that he hasn’t touched in some fashion or another in advancing the vision of the thriving community with opportunity for everyone.”
Hampton Roads — and by extension, the commonwealth — is stronger region because of his leadership, she said.
“Of course, the challenge for all of us is to pick up the baton and carry on.”
Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster contributed to this story.
Edinburg-based Shenandoah Telecommunications, better known as Shentel, plans to acquire Horizon Telcom for $385 million, the company announced Tuesday.
Shentel will pay $305 million in cash and the rest in common stock. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2024.
Ohio-based Horizon, founded in 1895, is a commercial fiber provider with a 7,000 route-mile fiber network and more than 9,000 net locations.
“The acquisition of Horizon is a transformative transaction that we believe will allow us to accelerate our fiber-first strategy by doubling the size of our commercial fiber business and creating a new beachhead for our Glo Fiber business. We now expect to pass 150,000 additional homes with fiber in greenfield markets, targeting 600,000 total passings by the end of 2026,” Shentel President and CEO Christopher E. French said in a statement.
Shentel serves customers in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky and has laid down Glo Fiber residential fiber-optic broadband lines all over the commonwealth.
The Medical Society of Virginia elected Richmond-based Dr. Alice Coombs as its next president at the organization’s annual meeting Oct. 14.
Coombs, a critical care specialist, anesthesiologist and internist, as well as the chair of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s anesthesiology department, is the fourth woman and first Black president of MSV, which was founded in 1820 and is headquartered in Richmond. She has more than 35 years of experience in private and academic settings.
Coombs’ agenda as president includes a focus on physicians’ and physicians’ assistants’ mental health and wellness, and developing and supporting new programs for patients and physicians. Her term will last one year.
A USC and UCLA School of Medicine graduate, Coombs completed her medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in internal medicine and anesthesiology, and she completed a MGH critical care medicine fellowship and a Tufts University cardiothoracic fellowship. Coombs is also a past president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and represents Virginia in the American Medical Association House of Delegates. She’s also on the AMA Council on Medical Service. She served two terms as commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations to Congress annually regarding payment for Medicare beneficiaries.
MSV serves more than 30,000 physicians, residents, medical students, PAs and PA students in Virginia.
Vienna-based roadside assistance tech company Urgent.ly has merged with Israel-based Otonomo Technologies, another vehicle technology business, and the combined company publicly listed its stock on Nasdaq on Oct. 19.
The all-stock acquisition — a reverse merger allowing the combined business to go public, as an alternative to a traditional initial public offering — was first announced in February. Urgent.ly’s existing stockholders — among them BMW iVentures, Mithaq Capital and Iron Gate Urgently — now own 60.3% of the business. Shareholders of Otonomo, now a subsidiary of Urgent.ly, will own 39.7% of the company, now trading under the ticker symbol ULY.
The combined company’s value on Oct. 19 was estimated to be $282 million, with common stock valued prior to closing Oct. 18 at $21.18 per share. At opening on Oct. 19, Urgent.ly’s stock was trading at $12 per share on Nasdaq, and at 2:15 p.m. Monday, it was down 22% to $4.11 a share.
In 2022, Urgent.ly was valued at $185 million, according to the company, and Urgent.ly has been named to Inc. 5000’s list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. multiple times. In 2017, it raised $10 million in Series B funding and two years later raised another $21 million. In documents filed earlier this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Urgent.ly reported $187.6 million in revenue for 2022, as well as a $96 million net loss for that year.
“I am thrilled to announce the completion of this transaction, which further strengthens Urgent.ly’s unique market position as a leading roadside assistance software provider,” Matt Booth, CEO of Urgent.ly, said in a statement. “This acquisition is the result of the outstanding contributions of our employees and the support of our powerful ecosystem of customer partners and service provider professionals. We are committed to leading the transformation to connected mobility and we look forward to continuing to improve proactive and preventative customer experiences.”
Booth leads the combined company as CEO, Tim Huffmyer continues as chief financial officer, and Otonomo’s CEO and co-founder, Ben Volkow, joins the new company’s board of directors and serves as an adviser. Booth has been CEO of Urgent.ly since August 2022 and has been president since December 2020, according to his LinkedIn page. Urgent.ly was founded in 2013, and has customers in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Virginia Beach-based DroneUp has promoted Rishap “Rish” Malhotra to be its growth officer, a newly created position at the autonomous drone delivery company.
Malhotra had been DroneUp’s senior vice president of corporate development, and heading up the company’s mergers and acquisitions will be part of his new job, which the company announced Thursday. He will also be responsible for overseeing growth initiatives, including corporate strategy, sales, marketing and corporate development.
“Over the course of several quarters, I have been working closely with Rish to develop our growth strategy centered on our autonomous last mile delivery ecosystem, and I couldn’t be more pleased that we have found a leader in Rish who is ideally suited to now execute that strategy,” Tom Walker, CEO and founder of DroneUp, said in a statement. “With an impressive track record in business growth and a deep understanding of the retail and technology industry, Rish is well-equipped to bring our affordable last mile delivery solutions to leading retailers, [quick-service restaurant] chains and logistics partners.”
Prior to working for DroneUp, Malhotra served in executive roles for J. Walter Thompson, Saatchi & Saatchi and CNBC India.
He earned an MBA from the Mason School of Business at William & Mary, a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Delhi University and a bachelor’s in business administration from Annamalai University.
Hampton-based Old Point Financial has named Paul M. Pickett senior vice president and chief financial officer of Old Point National Bank, effective Oct. 24, the bank announced Wednesday.
Pickett joins Old Point National Bank from Richlands-based First Sentinel Bank, a subsidiary of First Region Bancshares, where he had also been chief financial officer and senior vice president since 2020. Before that, he was CFO for Odyssey Engines, a multistate aviation holding company, for three years. Pickett spent 26 years in public accounting prior to those roles and worked with community banks and bank holding companies. He earned a bachelor’s in business administration in accounting from Radford University and is a certified public accountant.
“We are excited to welcome Paul to the Old Point family,” Rob Shuford Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Old Point Financial, said in a statement. “He is an accomplished addition to our high-performing executive team and reflects Old Point’s commitment to excellence. His wealth of financial services experience collaborating with many community banks will be integral for executing Old Point’s strategies for continued profitability and growth.”
Old Point National Bank has 15 local offices and $1.18 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2022, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Vienna-based government contractor MindPetal has entered into an agreement to purchase Arlington County-based IT firm VerticalApps, the companies announced Tuesday.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
MindPetal and VerticalApps hope to become “a premier [artificial intelligence/machine learning] firm by accelerating intelligent automation and modernization programs with machine learning, predictive analytics, application/workflow modernization and data science,” according to a news release.
“This is an exciting moment for MindPetal and for our customers,” MindPetal President and CEO Sony George said in a statement. “VerticalApps brings an experienced team with deep expertise and superlative past performance that will accelerate our growth and deliver immediate value to our federal customers.”
VerticalApps specializes in intelligent automation, software development and data management for the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Executives from VerticalApps will be integrated into MindPetal’s leadership. Will Choi, VerticalApps’ CEO, will become chief operating officer. Paul Grace, currently chief financial officer, will stay in that position in the new company, and Michael Grace, currently chief technology officer, will serve as senior vice president for program delivery.
MindPetal’s chief operating officer, Michael Agrillo, will become president of the combined company.
“We are thrilled to join forces with MindPetal,” Choi said in a statement. “Our partnership will allow us to expand our team, share our expertise and help federal leaders embrace the promise of AI to build better digital experiences.”
VerticalApps will become a wholly owned subsidiary of MindPetal on Nov. 1.
The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility will lead a $300 million to $500 million data science computing hub that will make scientific data more accessible to sciences nationwide, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday.
Known as the High Performance Data Facility hub (HPDF), the project will be based at the Newport News-based lab in a new data center to be funded by the state, which has allocated $6 million in seed funding and committed to provide $43 million for construction. Jefferson Lab, one of several U.S. labs run by the DOE, will partner with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the DOE’s facility in Berkeley, California, and the new data center will have room for upgrades and expansions, according to the announcement.
The data center will initially be 65,000 square feet, but can be extended up to 110,000 square feet, and it’s expected to be operational by fiscal year 2028. The DOE estimates an operational budget of $75 million a year, beginning in FY2028.
“It opens the opportunity for significant research grants through federal agencies at our Virginia universities,” Jefferson Lab Director Stuart Henderson told Virginia Business on Monday. “The facility will be utilized by many thousands of scientists and engineers annually, including researchers [scientists and engineers] from private industry, academe, national labs and other government labs.”
The investment includes creating 150 jobs, to be added over time as the project ramps up, including 50 for computer scientists and engineers, Henderson said. The facility will be organized as a hub and spoke model, with the lead infrastructure to be at Jefferson Lab in Newport News and mirrored at the Berkeley Lab. The spoke sites will be based on the Jefferson Lab-Berkeley Lab model.
The HPDF will be led by Amber Boehnlein, Jefferson Lab’s associate director for computational science and technology, and the lab will collaborate with several Virginia universities, including Old Dominion University, William & Mary, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.
The hub’s primary mission is to create “seamless integration” of scientific data from multiple facilities, allowing researchers to use and share large, complex datasets with other scientists quickly, as they pursue scientific advancements. Also, the hub will use “FAIR data principles, meaning data will be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable,” according to the announcement. Artificial intelligence tools and machine learning are also expected to make data more easy to find via search.
“High-quality research data is the rocket fuel of the AI era and all other forms of emerging technologies,” Geraldine Richmond, DOE’s under secretary for science and innovation, said in a statement. “At the same time, modern collaborative science demands linking distributed research resources. The High Performance Data Facility will play a central role in the operation and success of the [Integrated Research Infrastructure] program, which is designed to serve the data and analysis needs of our many DOE national laboratory user facilities and more.”
Sign In
Free Newsletter
