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byline: Stephenie Overman

Virginia Tech Innovation Campus gets early start

Virginia Tech will launch its new Innovation Campus in Alexandria earlier than expected by opening a temporary space next year in an Alexandria strip mall near the campus’s future permanent location in Potomac Yard.

One of the reasons Amazon cited in locating its $5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Virginia is the state’s tech-talent pipeline initiative, of which the $1 billion Innovation Campus will be the centerpiece. The campus, which will be part of a 65-acre mixed-use development in National Landing, is set to open in about 10 years, the university says. In the meantime, Tech wants to get started enrolling students to attend classes in the temporary facility next fall.

“We are planning for about 150 full-time Innovation Campus students and  65 part-time students in the fall of 2020,” says Virginia Tech Media Relations Director Michael Stowe. 

The Virginia Tech Foundation filed for a special-use permit to operate classroom, marketing and laboratory space in the Potomac Yard Center on U.S. Route 1, according to the zoning permit filed with the city. The initial 17,400-square-foot start-up space is the site of a Rack Room Shoes and a former Dress Barn, and there is room to expand, says Karl Moritz, Alexandria’s director of planning and zoning. “Spaces are vacant or soon to be vacant.”

The seven-member Alexandria Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing about the permit application for Sept. 3.

Ultimately, Moritz says, the new 1-million-square-foot Innovation Campus will be built behind the shopping center, on land that is now occupied by a movie theater. In August, 175 architectural firms attended the RFP meeting to design the campus’ first building, a 300,000-square-foot academic facility expected to be complete in 2024. Stowe says the university expects to operate in the startup space until then.

The future campus site has been long marked for renovation. The new Potomac Yard Metro station is being developed on the Yellow/Blue lines at the south end of the property, which will provide mass transit service about a quarter-mile from the Innovation Campus. Amazon HQ2, with 25,000 jobs expected by 2030, will be two stops away.

Attractive alternative

High land costs in Northern Virginia have encouraged distribution and data-center developers to look for better deals elsewhere, says Curry Roberts, president of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance.

They’re finding those opportunities midway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond in the Fredericksburg area, which includes Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline and King George counties, Roberts says.

Plus, they’re tapping into a pipeline of skilled technical workers, he adds. “The engines are the University of Mary Washington and Germanna” Community College.

Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg itself may be small, only 10.52 square miles, but “it benefits from the growth in the region, from being the downtown of the region,” says Bill Freehling, the city’s director of economic development and tourism.

Fredericksburg’s population grew 26% from 2000 to 2010 and another 20.5% from 2010 to 2018 to an estimated 29,144. That pace makes it one of the fastest-growing localities in Virginia. Rapid growth has been taking place in surrounding counties for decades.

Lots of redevelopment is taking place in the city, where two developers are transforming the 4.5-acre former headquarters of the Free Lance-Star newspaper into commercial space, restaurants and a garage. “It will be a gateway into downtown and will provide a lot of energy,” Freehling says.

The city also is seeing “a healthy amount of in-fill growth,” he says, adding that the architectural review board protects the core of the city, a 40-plus-block National Historic District.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in February for Fredericksburg’s $35 million baseball stadium. “We’re shooting for an April 2020 opening,” says Freehling.

While the Carolina League’s Potomac Nationals will be the anchor tenant, the stadium also will host additional activities including concerts and other sporting events, Freehling says.

“It’s multipurpose. It’s a new amenity for the whole region,” says Roberts, adding  “the new baseball stadium is ‘place making’ in a lot of ways. The more attractive you make the area, the more you can attract business.”

Stafford County
Stafford County has “the opportunity to develop a new urban core with all the bells and whistles,” at the redesigned Interstate 95/state Route 630 (Courthouse Road) interchange, says John P. Holden, the county’s economic development director.

The interchange is undergoing about $189 million in improvements to widen the highway and add lanes. Near the new interchange is the proposed George Washington Village, a 1,078-acre mixed-use development that has been described as the largest development tract in the Washington area to come on the market in the past 10 years. The property was put up for sale last year and as of early May was still on the market.

Stafford’s location and its fiber and power infrastructure already make it attractive for business, Holden says,

Gary Snellings, the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, says the county’s recently lowered tax rates for distribution centers and data centers “provide a bonus to a small component of existing businesses and encourages new large e-commerce, warehouse, distribution, logistics and data centers to take a serious look at Stafford.”

The county also has reorganized its tourism program, combining it with economic development efforts, Holden says. “We’re looking to expand the sports tourism market” by promoting the Jeff Rouse Swim and Sport Center, a 76,000-square-foot facility housing a 50-meter competition pool that has seating for more than 800 spectators.

Stafford (and Spotsylvania County) partner with VisitFred.com to promote tourism. “It’s about branding,” Holden says. “At the end of the day, people don’t care where the line is. We work with partners where it makes sense or we work on our own” to attract visitors.

Spotsylvania County
Plans for the massive Spotsylvania Solar Energy Center are moving forward.

Many residents near the site fought the proposed 500-megawatt solar energy facility, which would sit on 6,350 acres in the western part of county, but the Board of Supervisors approved special-use permits in April. Protesters raised concerns about possible health and environmental risks. The project, being developed by Sustainable Power Group (known as sPower) will be built in phases over the next two years.

The project will create approximately 800 construction jobs and 35 full-time jobs, according to sPower CEO Ryan Creamer. “We [will] be able to generate enough power with this project to supply the equivalent of approximately 111,000 homes and offset 340,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year,” he says.

Other recent developments, according to Michelle McGinnis, the county’s director of community engagement, include a 900,000-square-foot Lidl distribution center (a $125 million investment expected to create 200 jobs); a 250,000-square-foot idX commercial interiors manufacturing plant located in a former General Motors facility; and an 85,000-square-foot Piovan Una-Dyn plastics industry equipment manufacturing plant.

The Spotsylvania Courthouse District, a Virginia Historic Landmark, continues to see lots of development. In the last year, McGinnis says, a five-story building with apartments on the upper floors and business space on the first floor opened in the 118-acre Spotsylvania Courthouse Village. Work is underway on another apartment building near the new, mixed-use building and single-family homes in the Courthouse Commons section of the development.

Work also continues in nearby 158-acre Keswick, a mixed-use development that includes apartments, town houses, age-restricted villas and single-family residences. A 36-acre public park is also part of the project.

Caroline County
In Caroline County, fruits and vegetables are replacing candy. Coastal Sunbelt Produce LLC is taking over a 123,575-square-foot distribution center previously occupied by Russell Stover Candies. Coastal Sunbelt Produce, a subsidiary of Maryland-based Coastal Cos., plans to hire 50 employees over three years and invest about $6 million in the project.

Supermarket chain Harris Teeter is gearing up for construction of a 1.5-million-square-foot distribution center, which will add about 500 jobs, says Gary R. Wilson, Caroline’s economic development director. And Tysons-based M.C. Dean Inc., an electrical design-build and systems integration company, plans to invest $25.1 million to incorporate a new product line at its existing Caroline fabrication and distribution facility. That will add about 100 technology jobs, Wilson says.

“We have our fingers crossed for a stellar year,” he says. “We’re available for other private investors that are looking for space, fiber and great land.”

In March, the Secretariat Heritage Center was formed to celebrate the legacy of Triple Crown-winning racehorse Secretariat and his birthplace, Meadow Stable at The Meadow Event Park. The nonprofit organization plans to expand the current program of Secretariat-related tours. The site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, also is home to the State Fair of Virginia.

“The county has been instrumental in working on this from 2000,” Wilson says, adding that he hopes fundraising will be spurred by next year’s 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s birth. Two years later, 2023, will be the 50th anniversary of the horse’s dominating performance in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.

King George County
King George County is expecting a big boost in traffic. A new four-lane bridge is set to be built to replace the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge, a 77-year-old two-lane structure that connects King George with Charles County, Md. Construction is expected to begin early next year and finish in 2023.

“We’re pretty excited about that,” says Ryan Gandy, the county’s director of economic development and tourism. “We started a year and half ago, trying to identify what areas the county should focus on and how to grow smartly.”

Gandy hopes that a Pamunkey Indian Tribe proposal to develop and build broadband service will improve internet traffic in the area. “We’re looking at ways to get better coverage throughout the Northern Neck. People need to be online for education, health care, shopping,” he says. With better service, “contract employees who work for government could [telecommute] from home.”

Another problem the county wants to address is limited housing stock. “It’s hard for a single individual to find something that’s not a big house,” he says.

A big plus for the county is the U.S Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, which Curry Roberts describes as an engine for growth for the area. Roberts and Gandy note that the county and Fredericksburg Regional Alliance are helping inventors there commercialize their patents.

“We have some patent holders starting businesses,” Gandy says. “We have to get the ball rolling.”

Defining its targets

Prince William County is decades beyond the time when it was known as the home to acres of dairy farms that supplied milk to the Washington, D.C., area.

Today, Virginia’s second-most-populous county has acres of data centers and is home to innovative firms involved in life sciences and information technology. 

The county is looking for a new economic development executive director to continue its high-tech growth. Jeff Kaczmarek retired at the end of last year after six years at the helm. During his tenure, the county attracted projects totaling more than $4.3 billion in private capital investment, which created more than 3,000 jobs.

The county hopes to have a successor in place this spring, says Chris Price, a Prince William deputy county executive who is serving as interim executive director of the economic development department. “We’re taking our time, focusing on what we want,” he says. “Jeff did a great job at upping our game.”

Five targeted areas
For the county’s next economic development director, expect “someone with a track record, with a pattern of achievement. It’s a bonus if the person has expertise in the industries we have targeted,” Price says.

Those industries include: life sciences; information communications technology (ICT); advanced manufacturing; federal agencies and corporate facilities; and specialized logistics and supply chain.

Consultants hired by the county recently examined progress made in those industries and “validated four of the five,” Price says. With advanced manufacturing, the consulting group recommended that the county concentrate its efforts only in the areas where advanced-manufacturing intersects with life science and ICT.

“Advanced manufacturing covers a huge range. We want to focus on the places where the skill sets are transferable, where we have demonstrated advantage,” he says. “We want to make sure we’re getting the best bang for the buck.”

The target industry study, which was released in November, gave the county high marks for: its proximity to East Coast markets, including Washington, D.C.; its excellent access; talented workforce, particularly in ITC; and its quality of life. On the minus side, the study noted that the county has limited space available for development and a tight labor market with relatively high wages.

As a result of the study, Prince William is making one significant modification to its economic development plan, Price says. That’s a move from greenfield development to more redevelopment, especially in the eastern part of the county along the U.S. Route 1 corridor.

“Redevelopment is a little different animal than greenfield. So, the incentives are for the project itself, not just the company,” he says.

Data center projects
One of the places that new companies are setting up shop is Innovation Park, a 1,500-acre corporate research park. Its tenants include the FBI Northern Virginia Resident Agency and Virginia’s State Forensics Lab. Insurance technology firm BerkleyNet also has its headquarters there.

The two-decades-old research park is a part of the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District. The district offers more than 10,000 acres designated to support data centers. County taxes on computers used for business purposes are $1.25 for every $100 of assessed value.

Prince William is in the heart of one of the densest concentrations of fiber networks in the world and has 34 data center projects amounting to $6.9 billion in capital investment.

The county hopes that the incentives it offers will entice businesses related to Amazon’s planned second headquarters in Arlington, Price says. “We’ve been actively engaged in making sure that we can make the region attractive for Amazon. We have the talent, land, infrastructure to support their supply-chain vendors and customers so we can grow and prosper.”

The next step for Innovation Park itself will be a mixed-use town center. “The town center is the critical placemaking component with office and flex space. The last piece of the puzzle is housing, retail and restaurants, amenities to make the campus everything it can be,” Price says.

Innovation Park already benefits from its longtime partnership with and proximity to George Mason University’s Science and Technology Campus, referred to as the SciTech Campus. “That dovetails nicely with our targeted industries,” Price says. The campus is home to the globally affiliated Virginia Serious Game Institute, which supports entrepreneurship in the simulation and game-design industry.

Two NOVA campuses
Price says the county also benefits from having two Northern Virginia Community College campuses — near SciTech in Manassas and in Woodbridge — with strong educational programs in fields that have been targeted by the county.

The Regional Center for Workforce Education and Training, on the Woodbridge campus, offers specialized continuing professional education in IT, cybersecurity, health care and program management. NOVA is a founding member of the National CyberWatch Center, a national consortium of colleges and universities focused on cybersecurity education.

The county’s first co-working space recently opened in Woodbridge, next to the NOVA campus. Price expects many of its tenants to be involved in  cybersecurity. “That’s the type of industry we want to invest in.”

Price is proud of the county’s emphasis on small business as well as large-scale development, noting that it recently launched the Small Business Project Management Program. “We did a soft launch; we’ve learned a lot. In only about three months we’ve had more than 80 clients,” he says.

Tourism, too
Tourism is not one of Prince William’s targeted industries but it generated $592 million in travel-related expenditures in 2017, according to a survey released last year. The county ranked ninth in total visitor expenditures in Virginia.

“People come out here for open space, for the quality of life. What sets us apart is so much public green space,” says Ann Marie Maher, director of the Prince William County Office of Tourism. She notes the county has the largest amount of public green space in the metro Washington area — 38 square miles, the equivalent of the area occupied by Paris.

Those open spaces include two national parks — the  Manassas National Battlefield Park and Prince William Forest Park — and the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail. Recreational opportunities range from water activities on the Potomac and Occoquan rivers in the east to hiking the Piedmont in the west.

The county also is the home to the National Museum of the Marine Corps, which opened in 2006 next to the U.S. Marine Corps Base at Quantico. The museum is completing a multiyear expansion.

The county is counting on agritourism to help preserve some of its rural character, Maher says. Its Steins, Vines, & Moonshine Trail features 20 wineries, distilleries and breweries.

One stop on the trail, 2 Silos Brewing Co., is part of Farm Brew LIVE, an 8-acre food and entertainment venue on the site of the historic Thomasson Barn.

A nearby historic site has been restored as a weddings and events space. Sweeney Barn began its history around 1939 as a one-story dairy barn with a hayloft.

Both of those markers of the county’s early 20th century rural roots are located in the Innovation Park area, giving visitors a perspective on how much the county has changed in recent years.

‘It’s bigger than Amazon’

Manassas expects to reap benefits from a giant deal made last year.

That would be Micron Technology’s $3 billion expansion of its semiconductor plant in the city.

“It’s bigger than Amazon. It’s the largest in Virginia history,” says Patrick J. Small, Manassas’ economic development director.

Micron, which is based in Boise, Idaho, plans to expand during the next dozen years, adding an estimated 1,100 jobs by 2030.

Micron has been making semiconductor chips in Manassas for 15 years. The company doubled down on its investment in the local plant, Small says, because the host of benefits the area offers.

“It has a highly qualified, skilled workforce, which is a hallmark of Virginia,” Small says, adding that the Manassas site has good access and affordable utilities.

He says the company also has been able to take advantage of a special tax classification for semiconductor equipment manufacturing.

Small notes that Micron and two other technologically advanced companies — BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin Corp. — have facilities on the city side of the county line, directly across from Prince William County’s Innovation Park.

Besides Amazon

If Amazon hadn’t an­­nounced plans last year to locate half of its second headquarters in the Arlington/Alexandria area — investing about $2.5 billion and creating 25,000 jobs over 12 years — what might Northern Virginia business leaders be talking about now?
Baby food. Semiconductors manufacturing. Soccer stadiums. Here’s a look at other major developments around the region.

Arlington County
The second-biggest deal in Arlington last year was the relocation of Gerber Products Co.’s headquarters from New Jersey to Rosslyn where it will join Nestlé USA, another subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestlé S.A.

Nestlé plans to invest $5 million to relocate Gerber. The baby food/baby products purveyor is expected to occupy 23,392 square feet of office space and create 150 jobs. That would raise Nestlé’s total footprint in Arlington to 252,000 square feet. Nestlé USA moved to Arlington from California in 2017.

Although the Gerber deal “was in the shadow of Amazon, Gerber is an iconic, global brand. It’s a small footprint but a big name,” says Arlington Economic Development Director Victor Hoskins. “It gives us lots of exposure and allows us to continue our story of being the location for corporate headquarters.”

He adds the arrival of Nestlé USA and Gerber reflect the county’s effort to diversify its economy, moving from government agencies to companies in areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and green energy.

Meanwhile, coworking space company WeWork, which already has space in Crystal City, has signed a lease for 66,000 square feet in Rosslyn. “That’s only five new jobs, but it brings in startup companies,” Hoskins says. “It helps them keep their costs low. We’re building our tech ecosystem. It’s an important part of our overall market.”

March of Dimes also chose Arlington as the site of its new headquarters. Relocating from New York, the nonprofit will occupy approximately 28,000 square feet of office space in Crystal City and create 80 jobs, Hoskins notes.

He also cites as significant the Drug Enforcement Administration’s deci­­­­­­­­­­­sion last year to stay in its 511,000- square-foot Pentagon City headquarters. “People don’t realize how much we work on retention. That’s 2,200 jobs.”

Alexandria
As part of the plan bringing Amazon to Virginia, Virginia Tech plans to build a $1 billion, 1-million-square-foot Innovation Campus in Alexandria. The state and the university promised $250 million each as seed money for the project. “It’s the biggest deal we’ve done in a very long time,” says Stephanie Landrum, president and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership.

Last year brought lots of changes to Old Town, where Asana Partners purchased “a significant number of parcels of land along King Street. All of a sudden we have a major property on our main street,” Landrum says.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based firm began buying properties on and around the street in 2017. Asana now has spent more than $100 million on nearly two dozen buildings, including purchase of the landmark Old Town Theater for $4.4 million.

Manassas
Manassas landed one of the biggest deals in Virginia history last year when Micron Technology Inc. announced a $3 billion investment to increase semiconductor production at its local operations. The expansion is expected to create 1,100 additional jobs by 2030. (See related story).

Prince William County
Last year, Prince William County had a total of $652 million in capital investment in projects promising 435 new jobs, marking another record-breaking year, according to Ginny Person, communications, marketing and research manager for the county’s Department of Economic Development.

The Manassas area saw plenty of activity. In addition to Micron’s announcement, a division of Corporate Office Properties Trust plans to construct two data centers in the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District in the county-owned Innovation Park.

And Medliminal, which specializes in medical-cost containment, moved its headquarters to Innovation Park. The company will invest $2.4 million in the project, initially employing 10 people with plans to hire up to 70 more.

Also in the works is a mixed-use Innovation Town Center. The Prince William Board of Supervisors agreed in August to sell 23.7 acres for the project to developer Miller & Smith for $5.2 million.

The parcel is adjacent to another 125 acres already under contract to Miller & Smith. Plans call for the development of 1,120 residential units, 200,000 square feet of retail space, 200,000 square feet of office space and a 125-room hotel.

Adding to the mix, the United States Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Section announced that it will locate its new headquarters and state-of-the-art tennis facility in Innovation Park. 

Loudoun County
Loudoun’s big deals for 2018 include a soccer stadium, with a minimum capacity of 5,000 seats, plus a 40,000-square-foot indoor training facility, four full-size soccer fields and a parking lot (including commuter parking).

Two soccer fields will be used by D.C. United and its subsidiary, Loudoun United, which is part of the United Soccer League. The other fields will be for county use.

Loudoun County is providing the land and about $15 million in financing for the construction. DC Soccer Management Co., a D.C. United affiliate, will make regular lease payments to the county to offset any debt payments incurred as part of the financing package. Construction on the project got underway in December near Leesburg airport.

“The county did a one-of-a-kind deal. It’s a great deal for Loudoun,” says Buddy Rizer, executive director of the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development. The Northern Virginia chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women agreed. It gave Loudoun’s economic development department its “Deal of the Year” award for scoring the pact.

Last year also saw “incredible growth in the data centers among all the major players,” Rizer says. “Obviously the data centers have been great for us, but we’re most excited about getting a government agency here.”

That would be the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency’s Office of Information Technology (OIT). It plans to consolidate its operations near the Silver Line’s future Ashburn Metro stop. OIT will bring almost 4,000 jobs to the county, Rizer says.

A major aerospace and defense company, Collins Aerospace (formerly Rockwell Collins), built a 30,000-square-foot addition to its nearly 180,000-square-foot simulation and training facility in Sterling. The $3.5 million project is expected to bring more than 90 jobs to the county.

Fairfax County
Big deals in Fairfax County included:

  • Appian, a low-code and business process management platform provider, announced it will invest $28.4 million to expand and move its headquarters from Reston to Tysons. The project will retain 600 existing jobs and create 600 more over the next five years.
  • MicroStrategy Inc., which provides business intelligence, mobile software and cloud-based service, added 300 jobs.
  • Engineering and construction giant Bechtel consolidated its headquarters in Reston. The consolidation added 200 jobs, according to the Washington Business Journal.
  • KPMG will invest more than $30 million to expand its operations in the county. The tax, audit and advisory firm expects to add about 500 jobs.
  • IDEMIA, a firm specializing in augmented identity, plans to move its North American Identity & Security headquarters to Reston. The company develops, makes and markets security technology products and services for the telecommunications, payments and identity markets.

Another highlight for the county was the completion of Capital One’s 31-story headquarters in Tysons. In December, S&P Global Market Intelligence ranked Capital One 10th on a list of largest U.S. banks in terms of total assets.

Northern Virginia’s recent deals

Company Location #Jobs
Amazon Inc. Arlington County 25,000
Micron Technology Inc. Manassas 1,100
Appian Corp. Fairfax County 600
KPMG LLC Fairfax County 521
Accenture* Arlington County 500
OneWeb LLC Fairfax County 350
Rosendin Electric Loudoun County 300
MicroStrategy Inc. Fairfax County 300
Discovery Inc. Loudoun County 240
1901 Group Fairfax County 225

*Company has headquarters in another country                             Source: Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Don’t forget Micron

While all eyes were on Amazon’s HQ2 project, Virginia landed another deal — one that will result in $3 billion in investment and the creation of 1,100 jobs.

The plan to expand Micron Technology Inc.’s semiconductor plant represents “the largest deal in commonwealth history. It’s really doubling down on manufacturing in Manassas,” says Julie Coons, president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

One of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, Micron will make its $3 billion investment over the next dozen years, creating 1,100 additional jobs by 2030. Before the expansion, the plant employed about 1,500 people. The Boise, Idaho-based company has more than 34,000 employees in 17 countries.

As part of the expansion, Micron plans to establish a global research and development center for memory and storage solutions, primarily in the automotive, industrial and networking markets.

The R&D center will include laboratories, test equipment and about 100 product engineers focused on fields such as unmanned and autonomous automotive systems, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other industrial and networking applications. The initial clean-room expansion is expected to be completed in the fall with production ramp up in the first half of 2020.

“Micron’s expansion in the city of Manassas … will position the commonwealth as a leader in unmanned systems and Internet of Things,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. The investment also “solidifies Micron” as one of the commonwealth’s largest exporters, he said.

The Micron deal was a major factor in Business Facilities magazine’s decision to name Virginia its “2018 State of the Year.” Virginia’s Amazon HQ2 victory “was the second volley in an impressive one-two punch that also saw Micron announce in August a $3 billion expansion of its semiconductor complex in Manassas,” according to the magazine.

“Virginia snared more than $5.5 billion in capital investment for its top two projects, and its top five job-creation efforts netted nearly 28,000 new jobs in a diverse and well-executed growth strategy that has made Virginia a high-tech force to be reckoned with,” according to Editor-in-Chief Jack Rogers.

To seal the Micron deal, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) developed an incentive package with Manassas and the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission. The centerpiece of the package is a $70 million performance grant to Micron for site preparation and other facility costs.

Micron’s Manassas site “manufactures our long-lifecycle products that are built using our mature process technologies,” Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.

Mehrotra told the Reuters news agency that the expansion aims to meet increasing demand for more powerful computer chips that run collision-avoidance systems and other semi-autonomous automotive systems. He said the company expects that market to double to $6 billion by 2021. “Think of the automobiles of the future as data centers on wheels.”

Virginia was chosen for expansion because the Manassas plant has been making chips for 15 years for carmakers that demand high levels of durability and reliability, Mehrotra said. “We have a deep culture in the Manassas facility of supporting the demanding requirement of these customers.”

Founded in 1978, Micron became one of the world’s largest memory-chip producers with the 1998 purchase of Texas Instruments’ memory operations. The company’s roots in Virginia go back to 2002 when it acquired Toshiba’s commodity DRAM operations at Dominion Semiconductor LLC in Manassas.

When the expansion was announced, Micron also pledged to help educate the next generation of scientists, engineers and technicians at Virginia universities and community colleges. The Micron Foundation, the company’s philanthropic organization, will commit $1 million to that effort.

Faculty members, program directors and student groups from universities and community colleges in the commonwealth will be eligible. With a focus on women and underrepresented minorities, programs that support low-income and first-time college students also will receive special consideration.

“Micron’s outreach in our schools, through robotic programs, internships and STEM education, is helping to prepare our kids for the jobs of the future. The city of Manassas plans to work closely with major education institutions, including Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University, to ensure Micron has a continuous pipeline of qualified, technically skilled labor,” state Sen. Jeremy McPike said in a statement.

The recruitment crunch

 

Concentrating on the “Cs” — culture, community, career, college connections — helps Virginia businesses attract skilled workers at a time when the unemployment rate is unusually low.

Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.1 percent in July, the lowest level since 2007. Even companies in areas of the state with relatively high unemployment rates are finding it hard to fill jobs in some sought-after specialties.

It’s a widespread problem. Forty-five percent of companies around the world say they can’t find the skills they need, according to the Manpower 2018 Talent Shortage Survey. For companies with 250 or more employees the number is even higher, with 67 percent reporting talent shortages this year. Most of the top 10 in-demand roles today require post-secondary training and but not always a university degree.

Software company Appian counts on its culture — one that prizes discussion and debate — to set it apart in Northern Virginia’s highly competitive market. The company recently announced plans to move its headquarters from Reston to Tysons Corner. Both communities are in Fairfax County, which had an unemployment rate of 2.4 percent in July.

Appian also announced plans to add as many as 600 jobs. “We do brand-led recruiting. Benefits and compensation don’t sway people the way culture does,” says Dawn Mitchell, Appian’s senior director of talent acquisition.

Mitchell says the company doesn’t worry about competing with other companies for talent and isn’t concerned that Amazon could locate its second headquarters in Appian’s backyard.

“The focus on that isn’t important. Not every company is for everyone. We want to attract the right candidates who have a generosity of spirit, who are working toward one goal. We were founded by debaters. That way of working is inherent to Appian. Debate is core to who we are.”

Appian makes sure potential employees get a good look at what Mitchell calls a  “fantastic company” by offering lots of points of contact on social media. “Appian values the whole person, and we want the channels to reflect that.” 

Appian employees are excited to be moving to Tysons Corners, says Mitchell, where “a campus environment will provide more opportunities for employees to run into each other.”

Traffic in the area is a problem, she admits, but the company offers flexibility and is promoting the availability of the relatively new Silver Line Metro. And the Northern Virginia community itself is a big draw, with good schools and plenty of amenities.

In Hampton Roads, even major employers are having trouble finding the right skilled workers. In particular, the region has a “very low” supply of cybersecurity workers, according to Cyberseek, an online recruitment tool provided by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“We’re having to get kind of clever” to fill technology positions, says Caitlin Johnson at ABS Technology’s headquarters in Virginia Beach. The unemployment rate in Virginia Beach was 2.8 percent in July; it was 3.6 percent in Norfolk and Newport News.

ABS Technology provides managed IT services and is an IT staffing agency.
Johnson, who is a staffing solutions manager, says she sees clients in Southeast Virginia “getting more creative with specific benefits. They’re beefing up what they can offer.”

Among the benefits she’s seeing are cash bonuses, increased profit sharing, 100 percent health-care coverage, cellphone reimbursement and gym reimbursement. “One of our clients gives people a floating holiday for community service” as a way both to motivate employees and to give back to the community.

Hampton Roads companies are partnering with local universities to build cybersecurity curricula, Johnson says, and “they’re expanding internship opportunities so students get to shadow employees and get hands-on experience.”

Even in counties where unemployment remains higher than 5 percent —  Buchanan, Dickenson, Northumberland and Wise — there are often shortages of skilled workers in areas such as IT and health care. 

Ballad Health, which operates 21 hospitals in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, emphasizes the abundance of opportunities for career development, says Debbie Dover, senior vice president of talent engagement and chief human resource officer. Ballad was formed earlier this year in the merger of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System.

There are plenty of examples of employees coming into entry-level positions  such as food service who take advantage of tuition reimbursement and move up into IT, nursing, even leadership positions, says Dover. Employees may start in a small rural area but move choose to larger locations such as Johnston City, Tenn., or the Bristol area.

“In a health system our size, you can grow your career. We have opportunities,” Dover says. Ballad has three critical-access hospitals, three tertiary referral centers, community hospitals, a children’s hospital, a behavioral health hospital, an addiction treatment facility and long-term care facilities. It also offers home care, hospice services, outpatient services and retail pharmacies. “Once you’re here, the doors are open.”

The company offers flexibility where possible, she says. “It depends on the position. It’s hard for employees who are working with patients,” but many workers can choice to be full time, part time or on call.

Ballard works its college connections in the region: Virginia Highlands Community College, Southwest Virginia Community College, Mountain Empire Community College, Wytheville Community College, Emory & Henry College and University of Virginia at Wise.

“We have interns who come through to become registered nurses. It’s to our advantage as well as theirs because then potential applicants will already know where they want or don’t want to go, instead of having no exposure to the job,” Dover says.

Ballad believes in a getting a jump on developing homegrown talent, she adds. “We start in high school, even in middle school, because we want to introduce health-care careers as an option.”

Ballard also likes to be able to emphasize the community service aspect of its work.

“We work with area schools and we build on staying local. We tell kids: We will employ you; you can serve your local community,” Dover says.

Bonding time

A few Virginia companies are dipping a toe into the paid parental leave pool. But Iron Bow Technologies has jumped in with both feet.

The Herndon-based company not only offers a week of paid leave for mothers, along with short-term disability for physical recovery, and a week of paid leave for fathers. It offers grandparental leave as well.

The benefit is well-suited to the company, where the average age is just over 40, says Debbie Yassine, vice president of human resources. “For grandparents, this is just a joy.”

Yassine understands this firsthand. “Yes, I’ve taken full advantage of it. There have been six additions to my family — three in the last year alone. It’s great to take care of my daughters, and I don’t have to deplete my [paid time off].”

But only about 14 percent of U.S. workers currently receive some type of paid parental leave from their employers in order to bond with newborns, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ralph Northam signed an executive order granting eight weeks of leave at full pay to state employees for the birth or adoption of a child. Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia announced recently they were expanding the policy to cover additional employees.

U.S. workers at companies that have at least 50 employees are covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows up to 12 weeks of leave per year to care for family members, including elderly parents. But that’s unpaid leave.

Both political parties have made attempts to address paid leave over the years, so far without success. The White House included a paid parental leave plan in its 2019 budget proposal but offered few specifics. This summer U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) proposed legislation that would allow new parents to receive early Social Security benefits to use for paid leave, in exchange for delaying Social Security benefits when they retire.

It may not yet be a commonplace benefit, but the concept of paid parental leave is popular. Seventy-four percent of registered U.S. voters said they supported requiring employers to offer paid parental leave for new parents, according to a Fortune-Morning Consult poll.

And four out of five respondents to a Deloitte survey said they would be happier in their workplace if additional parental leave was an option. In that survey, 77 percent said the amount of parental leave offered could sway their decision when choosing one employer over another.

Business case, legal pitfalls
The business case for providing such leave is “pretty solid,” says Tom Spiggle, founder of The Spiggle Law Firm in Arlington. “You don’t want people coming back early after having a child just because they can’t afford to stay home. It helps with morale. It helps with branding. It says, ‘We are family friendly.’

“More sophisticated companies want to do the right thing; they want to retain employees,” he says. “Paid leave can mean the difference between staying or leaving, between taking the job or not taking the job, especially for millennials.”

But paid parental leave “is so complicated, it’s easy to get it wrong,” according to Spiggle. “Under the law there are no specific terms,” but pregnancy-related needs might be seen as “a subset of parental leave. Pregnancy could mean for physical recovery.”

And Spiggle warns that although a policy can allow extra time for a woman to physically recover from childbirth, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the policy cannot treat women and men differently when it comes to allowing leave to bond with a newborn.

He notes that last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Estée Lauder, claiming the company provided new fathers less paid leave to bond with a newborn, or with a newly adopted or foster child, than it provided new mothers. The parental leave was separate from medical leave received by mothers for childbirth and related issues.

The EEOC announced in July that Estée Lauder had agreed to pay $1.1 million and is required “to administer parental leave and related return-to-work benefits in a manner that ensures equal benefits for male and female employees and utilizes sex-neutral criteria, requirements and processes.”

Maternity and paternity leave “should be balanced, if you want to stay on the right side of the law,” Spiggle says. “If I were advising a company, I’d say, why not make it completely equal?”

Paid parental leave for adoption is covered by Title VII, Spiggle says, but it’s not clear whether Title VII covers leave in the case of same-sex spouses. “From a business perspective, I don’t know why you wouldn’t offer it. Unless the company is trying to make a moral or legal point, it doesn’t make sense to not cover them.”

Concerns about leave
Male employees may express support for paid leave, but they often worry about actually taking it. Although 63 percent of respondents to the Deloitte survey said that women and men should receive similar amounts of leave, one in three men surveyed said they were concerned that taking leave would jeopardize their careers. More than half of the men said they felt that using those benefits would be viewed as a lack of commitment to their jobs.

At Iron Bow Technologies, Yassine says male employees have been reluctant to take extended unpaid Family and Medical Leave Act leave, but “most are comfortable with a week” under the paid-leave policy.

The American Association of Airport Executives doesn’t see any reluctance from male employees. The Alexandria-based association offers 20 days of paid paternity and maternity leave to full-time employees.

“We started two or three years ago with 20 days of maternity leave and 10 days of paternity leave, but we bumped up paternity leave. Our staff suggested we level that off,” says Maria Bremis, vice president of compliance, diversity and human resources. The policy includes four weeks of paid leave. “Everyone who has had the opportunity has taken it. Mother and father.”

Companies that offer paid parental leave have the right to set eligibility rules and can require employees to use their vacation, sick leave or personal time off benefits before collecting parental leave pay, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

At AAAE, paid parental leave runs concurrent with unpaid leave from the Family and Medical Leave Act. That means for four of the 12 weeks of unpaid leave mandated by federal law, AAAE employees are actually getting paid, according to Bremis. All other forms of paid leave run consecutively.

“Women who give birth also may use their paid sick leave or their short-term disability insurance or both. These would run concurrent with the unpaid FMLA leave as well,” she says. Short-term disability insurance pays a percent of an employee’s income up to a certain maximum amount, while sick leave at AAAE covers the entire income.

Parents may take the leave at any point in the first year after a birth or adoption, Bremis says. “Different employees have different needs for child care. The first father who took leave took it in spurts over the course of the year. Mothers tend to take it all at once at the beginning.” 

The association, which has about 70 employees, finds that the policy has been very good for staff morale, she adds. “It’s been a driving force. It’s something the staff was looking for.”

Aeronautics enrollment rises as airlines seek more pilots

Enrollment in Averett University’s aeronautics program has soared, the Danville school reports, from about 40 students a few years ago to more than 100 now.

More and more young people recognize that demand for pilots is increasing, says Travis Williams, the university’s chief flight instructor. 

Boeing’s 2018 Pilot & Technician Outlook, released in July, projects a demand for 790,000 pilots during the next 20 years, double the current workforce.

Airline representatives are visiting campuses and recruiting through social media, Williams says. “Over the last two or three years, the word has kind of spread” about the shortage and “starting salaries have almost tripled.”

He believes students choose his school because “you know if you come to Averett you’re going to be in an airplane right away. Our students fly the first year. The first week of school, students are out flying already.”

Another attraction is the university’s partnership with Piedmont Airlines and PSA Airlines Inc., both of which are subsidiaries of the American Airlines Group.

“It’s a pretty good deal,” says Williams. There’s tuition reimbursement, and students can build up hours working as instructors. “Once they hit the minimum hours of flight training, they head to the airlines.”

Averett is one of about a dozen Virginia colleges and technical schools with aviation and/or aeronautics programs.

The university plans to cap enrollment in its program at 125, Williams says, because “we don’t want to get too big. We want to give one-on-one attention.” Total enrollment at Averett is about 1,600. 

Most students hope to become commercial airline pilots, but aviation jobs also are available in surveying, forestry, crop dusting, law enforcement and government contracting.

Averett offers undergraduate degrees in aerospace management with fields of concentration in aviation business and flight operations. The program also offers a joint major in aerospace management and criminal justice. The flight center is located at Danville Regional Airport, near campus.

“I don’t think most people realize how much you have to know about things like meteorology and factors that affect the body while flying,” Williams says. “And you have to learn how to instruct. It’s like an education major, you have to learn how people learn. It’s more than just coming out to the airport and just flying.”

Combating the opioid crisis

Virginia businesses are teaming up with health-care providers in an effort to break the cycle of opioid addiction.

Last year, Virginia saw 1,227 opioid-related overdose deaths, according to the governor’s office.

Dr. Hughes Melton, the state’s commissioner of behavioral health and developmental services, told a Virginia Chamber of Commerce health conference in June the economic impact of opioid addiction in the commonwealth is about $1.4 billion a year.

At the conference, Dr. Dheeraj Raina, Anthem’s medical director, said those costs include absenteeism, tardiness, turnover, theft and increased workplace conflict. The opioid epidemic also reduces the pool of potential employees.

In June, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed a lawsuit accusing Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma of violating the Virginia Consumer Protection Act with “false claims about the purported safety, efficacy and benefits of its opioids, including OxyContin.” The company has denied the allegations.

A growing number of Virginia localities — including the city of Alexandria and Dickenson, Bland, Caroll, Smyth and Washington  counties — also have filed suit against opioid manufacturers.

In August, Gov. Ralph Northam, a physician, began a series of lectures on the opioid crisis to students at four Virginia medical schools. The lecture tour was scheduled to end Sept. 5 at Liberty University.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) have begun a “Partnering for a Healthy Virginia Initiative” to address community health needs. Jeff Stover, the VDH’s acting deputy commissioner for population health, says “opioids are high on the agenda” of the initiative. Opioids include prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic drugs such as fentanyl.

The group’s advisory committee includes nearly two dozen representatives of companies, hospitals, foundations and local health departments. “We’re trying to catalog the various projects in communities,” Stover says. “We’re creating a puzzle, then finding where there are missing pieces. We plan to evolve into specific projects.”

Need for top-notch safety
Fredericksburg-based Quarles Petroleum Inc. is acutely aware of the dangers of prescription drug misuse, says Danîs Brown, the fuel company’s manager of health and safety. “A propane truck has a bomb on the back. Your health and safety program needs to be top notch,” he says. In addition to complying with Department of Transportation drug-testing requirements, “we make sure we go above and beyond what’s required by law,” Brown says.

The company conducts pre-employment testing, quarterly random testing and post-accident testing. “People are truly vetted,” he says. “We haven’t had a positive on random testing.”

In safety-sensitive jobs, employees cannot use opioids, even those prescribed by health-care providers, Brown says. If  workers must be prescribed opioids, they are put on short-term disability or moved to other positions.

Quarles strives to educate all employees about the dangers of over-reliance on opioids, he says. “If they have a personal health issue or an injury outside of work, we expect them to talk to their doctor about maybe forgoing an opioid prescription for something less dangerous.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend non-opioid therapy for chronic pain outside of cancer, palliative and end-of-life care. The CDC says that “when opioids are used, the lowest possible effective dosage should be prescribed to reduce risks of opioid use disorder and overdose.” The agency suggests alternative strategies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acupuncture, medical massage and physical therapy for treating chronic pain.

Drawn into the crisis
Alex Shaw, a risk performance specialist with Scott Insurance in Richmond, and Stephanie Wesolowski, a Scott health-risk management consultant, advise companies on ways to prevent employee misuse of prescription drugs.

Many companies don’t even realize they have been drawn into the crisis, Shaw says. “We’ve heard from people who say, ‘We don’t see it in our company.’” These businesses, however, often don’t see the problem because their drug testing is too limited. “Many drug-testing panels do not capture all opioids, just morphine, codeine, and heroin,”  Shaw says. “So, you need to find out:

What drug testing are you using? Specify what you want to test for. It’s a huge blind spot for many organizations.”

He also recommends that employers build strong relationships with their occupational medicine providers. “Talk with physicians and make sure opioids aren’t the first drug of choice. Let them know your preference is something other  than an opioid,” he says.

Wesolowski emphasizes the importance of educating supervisors, managers and HR directors as well as employees about effective alternatives to opioids. “Behavior change through physical therapy is seen as more difficult than ‘just give me a pill,’” she says. “The view often is: ‘Isn’t there something I can take?’”

Dr. Robert Trestman, chair of the department of psychiatry at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, says that businesses and society must address addiction as a chronic disease that needs to be managed, not punished. “If we can reconceptualize that it is akin to something like diabetes, that makes it easier to understand” and provide appropriate treatment, Trestman says.

“Three EAP [employee assistance program] visits will not be enough.”

In contrast to the stereotypical drug addict, the majority of people addicted to opioids “are employed or employable,” Trestman says. He also notes that many people using opioids started with legitimate pain prescriptions.

Employees must understand that the goal of treatment is not to eliminate pain completely, but to manage it at a tolerable level, says Trestman. “Sometimes doctors just write a prescription — people take it even when it is unnecessary.”

People on opioids for more than 30 days are at risk of becoming addicted, he notes, because in addition to relieving pain, opioids activate regions in the brain causing euphoria, a high. “Our brains were never designed to cope with this,” Trestman says. “The challenge we need to recognize is that even really solid employees are at risk. But it is treatable — with appropriate support.”