A shopping center in Chester has sold for $4.04 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group announced Wednesday.
The strip mall, Centralia Crossing, is located at 9801 Chester Road and its anchor tenant is Food Lion, which recently extended its lease. The property sold by Berman Kappler Properties was 86% leased at the time of the sale.
Centralia Crossing is 47,743 square feet and recently underwent more than $550,000 in renovations, including resurfacing the parking lot and applying new roofing, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group. Centralia Crossing LLC, Marcos Investments LLC and Marcos Properties LLC bought the property in the transaction that closed on April 21.
Catharine Spangler of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented the seller, and Thalhimer Vice Presidents David Crawford and Reilly Marchant handled leasing efforts at the property for Berman Kappler Properties.
More than 80,000 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment last week, down nearly 21% from the previous week, according to a news release issued Thursday by Virginia Unemployment Commission.
During the week that ended April 18, Virginia saw 82,729 workers file for unemployment, bringing the most recent five-week total for jobless claims to 493,501 — more than the total number of initial unemployment claims filed during the last three economic recessions combined, according to the VEC.
Despite this, there were 21,000 fewer claimants than the previous week.
“The 20.9% decrease indicates that initial claims volumes may have peaked during the April 4 filing week, even as they remained stratospheric compared to historical trends,” VEC Economist Timothy Aylor said in a statement.
The number of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the U.S. during the week that ended April 18 was 4.427 million — 810,000 fewer than the week before, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. Most states showed decreases in claims from the most recent week.
The hospitality industry is still the largest occupational group impacted by the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 pandemic. Other occupations that have high unemployment numbers include office and administrative support, personal care, sales and management, among others.
The nonprofit Virginia 30 Day Fund and the Fairfax County NAACP announced Thursday they have launched a partnership to provide funding to minority-owned small businesses in Northern Virginia that have been hurt economically by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Virginia 30 Day Fund was founded two weeks ago by Pete Snyder, a technology entrepreneur and CEO of investment company Disruptor Capital, and his wife, Burson. The couple seeded the fund with $100,000 and garnered additional support from the local philanthropic and business communities. The nonprofit aims to offer a “lifeline” to small businesses struggling to get federal funding.
Snyder has promised applicants that they’ll receive an answer about their funding application within three business days, a nod to the organization’s name, which came from the projected one month between the federal government approving small business relief funding and the small businesses actually receiving it, said Chris Bond, a Virginia 30 Day Fund spokesperson.
“Having to wait 30 to 45 days … [small businesses] won’t be here anymore,” Snyder said during a Thursday press conference. “We want to make sure that when we bounce back out of this we actually have an economy that’s working. Small business fuels the economy of Virginia and the economy of America.”
Since the Virginia 30 Day Fund was launched on April 6, it has raised more than $600,000 and funded 91 small businesses in Virginia. Eligible organizations are able to get up to $3,000 in forgivable loans.
The challenge the organization faces now is that there’s a backlog of 1,500 applications and not enough funding to go around.
“The destruction is that vast,” Snyder said.
The Fairfax County NAACP started contributing by fundraising for minority-owned businesses in the community. Snyder found out about the Fairfax County NAACP’s efforts, and approached them for the partnership.
“The need is tremendous,” Fairfax NAACP President Sean Perryman said during the press conference, “but our will is just as mighty,” adding that minority-owned businesses comprise 41% of the small business community in Fairfax and employ a total of 80,000 people.
Businesses are able to apply if they have at least three employees, are based in and operate in Virginia and have a Virginia resident as its owner or operator. Applicants are able to apply in just a few minutes and are asked to make at least a 90-second video sharing details about their business and what they expect to do with the funding for which they’re asking.
Funding can be used for payroll, rent or health care benefit costs, and applicants can apply for up to $3,000 in funding. At this point, however, with the funding the organization currently has, it won’t be able to fund all applicants.
“We cannot fund everyone. It’s a numbers game right now. There’s a greater demand than supply that we have right now. That being said, I’m very optimistic that the work we’re going to do with the Fairfax County NAACP will allow us to do much more.”
Chantilly-based government contractor Perspecta Inc. announced Wednesday that its research arm, Perspecta Labs, has landed a $14.5 million U.S. Army contract to use machine learning to develop a suite of capabilities for the Army to protect against cyberattacks.
The project was awarded by the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), which does research, engineering and analytics for Army technology.
“Perspecta Labs will leverage its extensive expertise in machine learning, cybersecurity and tactical networking to provide innovative and effective autonomous defensive cyber operations to the Army,” Perspecta Labs President Petros Mouchtaris said in a statement. “We are honored to have been selected to develop a solution that meets the Army’s tactical needs for autonomy, security, ease of use, adaptability, efficiency and robustness.”
Perspecta Labs will research, design, develop, demonstrate and deliver machine learning to the Army that can be used for its defensive cyber operations, which are used for training and deploying cyber sensors, which detect cyberattacks and malware. The company will use its machine learning model, Learning Using Privileged Information (LUPI), to create the sensors and test them against malware.
Perspecta employs more than 14,000 workers and won several big federal contracts last year, including an $824 million, five-year deal with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and a $657 million extension on its Next Generation Enterprise Services (NGEN) contract to continue IT services for the U.S. Department of the Navy.
Arlington-based digital media company Axios Media Inc. announced Wednesday it received nearly $5 million in funding from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the $349 federal relief fund that ran out of funding on April 16 after 13 days due to overwhelming demand from small businesses hurt by the COVID-19 crisis.
“This loan ensures we can avoid layoffs and pay cuts for our almost 200-person staff for the rest of the year, regardless of how much the overall economy deteriorates,” Jim VandeHei, the co-founder and CEO of Axios, said in a statement on Wednesday. The former co-founder and CEO of Politico, Vandehei was listed among Virginia Business magazine’s 50 most influential Virginia business leaders for 2020.
Before the PPP fund ran out, Virginia banks processed more than 40,000 applications totaling nearly $9 billion, according to the Virginia Bankers Association. Small businesses that received the forgivable loans can use the funds toward payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent and/or utilities payments. But many applications didn’t gain SBA approval before funding ran out.
There has been a debate whether companies like Axios, which was founded in 2016, should be eligible for the PPP funding since it has access to venture capital financing.
”We have taken a financial hit like other small businesses,” VandeHei responded. “Our physical event business is gone until the crisis subsides, and some ad buyers are pulling back to measure the economic fallout.”
Since its inception, Axios has raised $30 million in venture capital from entities including Lerer Hippeau, Greycroft, e.ventures, NBC News and Atlantic Media. Axios attracts 7 to 10 million unique visitors per month generated $25 million in 2018 revenue. At the end of 2019, the company was poised to raise an additional $20 million in venture capital, which raises its valuation to $200 million. It also has a documentary series on HBO.
The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would provide an additional $310 billion in funding, according to the SBA, but it still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives and signed by the President before any additional funding can be made.
UPDATED FRIDAY, APRIL 24:The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors allocated an additional $250,000 to its existing $1 million COVID-19 Business Interruption Fund on Thursday, aimed at helping small businesses in the county that have been harmed by the COVID-19 crisis. The board allocated an extra $105,000 for businesses with 3-50 employees, $110,000 for businesses with 51-100 employees, and $35,000 for agriculture-based businesses.
TUESDAY, APRIL 22: The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the creation of $1 million to create the COVID-19 Business Interruption Fund, a relief fund for Loudoun County businesses that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.
“Small businesses are the heartbeat of Loudoun’s economy, and this funding is critically important to protect the jobs and livelihood of residents in Loudoun County,” Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair at Large Phyllis Randall said in a statement. “At a time when unemployment is spiking, both locally and around the world, every job that gets saved brings us one step closer to recovery.”
The application process opens on April 29, and the county will take applications for only 72 hours. Eligible businesses must have between three and 100 employees, bring in less than $2.5 million in gross annual receipts, have lost at least 25% in revenue due to the COVID-19 crisis and be licensed and operational in Loudoun County.
Eligible businesses that meet the deadline will be randomly selected until the funding has expired. The fund will be divided so that 60 applicants who have three to 50 employees will receive a $7,500 grant and 55 applicants who have 51 to 100 employees will receive a $10,000 grant.
The funding is being diverted from the county’s $2.1 million Commercial Business Incentive Fund, which is used for business attraction and retention. The board will be able to disperse funds beginning in early May. Applicants are encouraged to test the application before filling it out, since the applications will be time-stamped and are web-based only.
Loudoun also has a separate $150,000 relief fund for agriculture-based businesses based in the county with up to two employees. Applicants must be participants in the county’s Loudoun Made, Loudoun Grown marketing program, which provides free promotional materials for agriculture companies in the county. These applicants can receive up to $5,000.
Danville Community College has hired Faith O’Neil as its director of public relations and marketing.
O’Neil was most recently the senior manager of customer development and marketing at Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital. During her career, she has specialized in crisis communications, media relations and strategic planning.
A Southern Virginia native, she attended Danville Community College and Southside Virginia Community College. O’Neil also earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Old Dominion University and a master’s degree in business administration from Liberty University.
Danville Community College is a two-year institution that is part of the Virginia Community College System. It serves students in Danville and Pittsylvania and Halifax counties.
The Focused Ultrasound Foundation, based in Charlottesville, announced Tuesday that it has named Patrick Edelmann as its managing director.
Edelmann was most recently an executive at New York City-based investment management company BlackRock Inc.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Virginia.
The foundation was founded in 2006 and works to accelerate development of focused ultrasound, a noninvasive therapeutic technology that is being explored as a treatment for numerous medical conditions, including neurological disorders.
Virginia Tech researchers announced Wednesday they have developed in-house COVID-19 testing kits and lab processing services to assist Southwest Virginia health departments with patient testing. Test results can be returned to the health departments as soon as same day.
The initiative is being led by Dr. Michael Friedlander, Tech’s vice president of health sciences and technology and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke, with the help of professors, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, lab technicians and graduate students.
Other Virginia universities and health systems, including VCU Health System, U.Va. Health, Sentara Healthcare and Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, have also developed in-house COVID-19 testing capacity.
“We’re going to be able to turn it around, in many cases, the same day we’ll be reporting results back to the health districts, or if not, the next day,” Friedlander said during a virtual news conference Wednesday. “We’re not going to be facing those very long turnaround times you’ve heard about at the state level and national level.”
Tech researchers gained federal and state approvals to process samples at on-campus labs in Blacksburg and Roanoke. University labs were already equipped with much of the necessary equipment needed to manufacture and process tests, Friedlander said, but more will be necessary as testing ramps up. To begin with, Tech will have the capacity to process a couple of hundred samples from local health departments per day and the university it hopes to increase that to 1,000 per day in the next two months or so, Friedlander said.
“Testing has been in short supply from the get-go and [that] created a slow response to the pandemic,” said Dr. Noelle Bissell, director of the New River Health District. Increased turnaround times will help protect medical workers and other first responders from outbreaks, she said. “Having those same-day results really does inform our decision-making and our guidance about staff issues and quarantining.”
Friedlander added, “We need our health care workers on the front lines. We need our first responders.”
To avoid false negative test results, Tech uses an RNA-amplification method for reviewing samples, said Dr. Carla Finkielstein, an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Science and affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, who helped develop the test. Once a patient sample is delivered to the lab, the sample is amplified, meaning that multiple copies of genetic material — RNA, in this case — are generated to produce a larger sample size.
Viruses make very specific genes only found in these viruses, said Dr. Harald Sontheimer, the director of the Center for Glial Biology in Health, Disease and Cancer at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, and executive director of Tech’s School of Neuroscience in the College of Science, who also helped develop the new COVID-19 test. The test seeks four genetic matches for the virus. “That gives us a high level of specificity,” Sontheimer said.
Currently, Virginia Tech has 15 people processing samples. The university estimates it will need approximately 35 to 50 people to process tests as it increases capacity, Friedlander said.
“In the long run, we can’t staff this entirely with Virginia Tech faculty, students and staff,” Friedlander said. Tech is recruiting recent graduates and people with biomedical technician degrees from other universities and community colleges for the testing, he added.
“We’re part of this community. We’re committed to this,” Friedlander said. “And it’s going to make a difference as we do this testing. Virginia Tech is here for the long haul.”
The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday announced the launch of Project Rebound, a local economic recovery initiative to address the COVID-19 economic crisis.
The project, hosted by The Chamber and economic offices at the University of Virginia, Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville, aims to bring together local businesses to discuss challenges of COVID-19’s economic impact and to prepare solutions.
“There’s a lot of people in this community trying to help each other, and there are businesses that are trying to collaborate and partner, and we felt like we had an opportunity to bring all of those ideas together so that we’re not duplicating efforts,” Chamber President and CEO Elizabeth Cromwell said during a news conference held via Zoom teleconferencing Tuesday.
Last week, 846 people in Albemarle County and 621 people in Charlottesville filed for unemployment — and since the pandemic began, more than 7,000 people in both localities have filed jobless claims, according to Virginia Employment Commission data.
Project Rebound will bring together seven teams from industries including hospitality and tourism, information technology, financial, defense and nonprofit organizations to brainstorm solutions for revitalizing the local economy once businesses are open again.
Teams will meet to gather ideas and discuss pain points, Cromwell says. These ideas will be presented to the chamber’s steering committee, which will create a recommendation document to be shared with the community, ideally before June 10, when Gov. Ralph Northam’s stay-at-home order is scheduled to be lifted, Cromwell says. The project will act as a “blueprint” to help businesses to emerge from the stay-at-home order, Chamber spokesperson Ann Marie Hohenberger says.
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