byline: Virginia Business

CENTRAL VIRGINIA

On Dec. 8, 2022, Arko Corp., a Fortune 500 holding company for Henrico County-based convenience store chain GPM Investments LLC, closed on its acquisition of Pride Convenience Holdings LLC, which operates 30 Pride convenience stores in Massachusetts and one in Connecticut. The $230 million acquisition (plus the value of inventory) brings Arko to its 34th state. A day earlier, Arko announced it agreed to acquire the retail, wholesale and fleet fueling assets of Texas-based WTG Fuels Holdings LLC, the owner of Uncle’s Convenience Stores and Gascard fleet fueling operations. The $140.4 million acquisition (plus the value of inventory) marked Arko’s entry into Texas. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Lynchburg-based BWX Technologies Inc. has begun producing the nuclear fuel that will power the first microreactor built and operated in the United States, the company announced Dec. 7, 2022. BWXT will manufacture a nuclear core for Project Pele under a $37 million award from the Idaho National Laboratory, as well as tristructural isotropic particle fuel, known as TRISO, for additional reactors and coated particle fuel for NASA. BWXT subsidiary BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC received a $300 million contract in June from the Department of Defense to build the microreactor, set to be delivered in 2024. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

A merger between Richmond-based CarLotz and California-based Shift Technologies Inc. closed Dec. 9, 2022. The deal was a stock-for-stock merger with the new company headquartered in San Francisco, and trading as SFT. CarLotz, which sells used vehicles on consignment and splits the profits with owners, started in 2011 with its first store in Chesterfield County. It reached 22 hubs across several states but it closed a majority of its locations and significantly reduced staff, closing 11 dealerships by June 2022. The company announced in August 2022 that it would close seven more locations in the third and fourth quarter of 2022, including a 60% reduction in the company’s workforce. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Metzger Bar & Butchery in Richmond canceled a Nov. 30, 2022, reservation for The Family Foundation, a Christian conservative political organization opposed to same-sex marriage and abortion. In a statement posted online Dec. 1, Metzger said the decision was made to protect its staff, many of whom are women and/or part of the LGBTQ community. Family Foundation President Victoria Cobb decried the restaurant‘s action, comparing it to “the 1950s and early ’60s, when people were denied food service due to their race.” Metzger posted a photo of a drink Dec. 2 to its Instagram account, announcing it would donate proceeds of its sales that day to LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Mondelez International Inc. opened its new 450,000-square-foot fulfillment and distribution center at 953 Airport Drive in Sandston. The company is the maker of popular snacks like Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and Chips Ahoy! and the new building is part of $122.5 million Mondelez is investing in its Henrico County operations. The new center brings 80 new jobs and will help reinforce the company’s bakery located off Laburnum Avenue. That plant will also get a 68,000-square-foot expansion to house a high-speed production line. The site was chosen for its centralized location along the coast for faster shipping to clients and other centers within a day’s drive. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

PEOPLE

Kim Soerensen, executive director of the nonprofit Riverviews Artspace in Lynchburg, announced her resignation Nov. 17, 2022, to become the next CEO of United Way of Central Virginia. Soerensen served in her role at Riverviews for more than six years and stepped down at the end of 2022. The board of directors at Riverviews has created a search committee to find a replacement. (The News & Advance)

 

 

---

EASTERN VIRGINIA

Rivers Casino Portsmouth plans to open to the public Jan. 15. The $340 million venue, part of a planned entertainment district along Victory Boulevard off Interstate 264, will feature 1,448 slot machines, 57 table games and 24 poker tables as well as 10 bars and restaurants and an event space. It also includes a Topgolf Swing Suite that will overlook a BetRivers Sportsbook. News of the opening came just days after the Virginia Lottery Board unanimously approved the casino’s operator’s license in November 2022. Rivers Casino obtained the second casino license issued in the state. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

Stihl Inc., the German chainsaw and power tool manufacturer, plans to spend $49 million to expand its Virginia Beach operations and add 15 jobs. The Virginia Beach Development Authority approved a $500,000 incentive grant to help facilitate the expansion in November 2022. The project will grow the company’s chainsaw guide bar manufacturing facility at 825 London Bridge Road from 60,000 to 86,000 square feet. The additional space will allow the company to install a third guide bar production line, increasing the facility’s production capacity by a third. (The Virginian-Pilot) 

Two employees of the Chesapeake Walmart where six employees were shot and killed in November 2022 have sued the company, each seeking $50 million in damages. Donya Prioleau, who filed the first lawsuit on Nov. 29, 2022, worked as an overnight stocker and trainer. She alleges the company ignored her complaints about Andre Bing’s troubling behavior in the months prior to the deadly shooting. James Kelly, an overnight stocker clerk, filed a lawsuit Dec. 1, 2022, alleging Walmart failed to act after he complained the shooter harassed and threatened him. Both lawsuits note the shooter had a “longstanding pattern of disturbing and threatening behavior” and that his continued employment at the store allowed him to have access to the break room and other employee areas. (The Virginian-Pilot) 

PEOPLE

Ed Aldridge, president of CMA CGM America and American President Lines LLC, retired Dec. 6, 2022, and Peter Levesque, who was previously Ports America Group’s president, will take over those roles, the French container ship company announced in mid-November 2022. Aldridge took over as president of CMA CGM America in 2020 and has been responsible for U.S. operations, including 22,000 employees. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

After nearly 30 years, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters President and CEO James Dahling announced his retirement from the Hampton Roads-based health system Dec. 2, 2022. Amy Sampson, CHKD’s senior vice president and chief engagement and innovation officer, will succeed Dahling, who will retire in 2023, but a transition date has not been set. The leadership structure of the health system will also change. Dr. Christopher Foley, vice president and chief of medicine, is being promoted to chief clinical operations officer, a new position that will replace the chief operating officer. Dahling, Sampson
and Foley will work together over the next several months toward the transition. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

TowneBank President and Chief Operating Officer Brad E. Schwartz retired Dec. 31, 2022, the Suffolk-based bank announced. Schwartz will also step down as a director when his current term expires at the 2023 annual shareholder meeting. He will serve as a senior adviser through 2025 to assist with the transition. William I. “Billy” Foster III will succeed Schwartz as president in addition to succeeding J. Morgan Davis as CEO. (VirginiaBusiness.com) 

---

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Reston-based Bechtel Corp. has been selected to design and build the first phase of Intel Corp.’s $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility near Columbus, Ohio, a project that will include as much steel as eight Eiffel Towers. The work will include a total
2.5 million square feet, 600,000 square feet
of which will be cleanrooms, according to a Nov. 28, 2022, announcement. Intel announced in September that it would invest $20 billion to construct two chip factories in Ohio, passing over a site in Chesterfield County. Bechtel will partner with the North America’s Building Trades Unions for the work, which is expected to create 7,000 construction jobs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Arlington-based Boeing Co. announced leadership changes and a consolidation of its eight divisions within the Boeing Defense, Space and Security unit into four on Nov. 17, 2022. The changes are aimed at operational discipline, quality and performance and streamlining senior leadership roles and responsibilities. The four new divisions are: Vertical Lift; Mobility, Surveillance and Bombers; Air Dominance; and Space, Intelligence and Weapon Systems. In December, United Airlines agreed to purchase 100 787 Dreamliners from Boeing, with an option to purchase 100 more, as well as 100 737 Max jets. The deal comes after federal regulators allowed Boeing to resume deliveries of the aircraft in August following manufacturing and regulatory issues.  (VirginiaBusiness.com, The Wall Street Journal)

Arlington-based defense contractor Leonardo DRS Inc. began trading on the Nasdaq composite Nov. 29, 2022, following the completion a day earlier of its all-stock merger with Israel-based radar company Rada Electronic Industries Ltd. Rada shareholders will retain 19.5% ownership of the company, with Leonardo DRS’ parent company, Italian defense contractor Leonardo SpA, owning the other 80.5%. Rada is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leonardo DRS and is one of eight lines of business under the company. Leonardo DRS Chairman and CEO William J. Lynn III said going public will give DRS “more operational independence, financial flexibility [and] more strategic bandwidth.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Reston-based Octo is being acquired from Arlington Capital Partners by IBM. The federal contractor, founded in 2006 by CEO Mehul Sanghani, has 1,500 employees who were slated to become part of IBM Consulting’s U.S. public and federal market arm when the deal was expected to close by the end of 2022. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Octo has been recognized as one of the fastest growing U.S. federal contractors, and in May 2022, it opened oLabs, a $10 million research and development lab focused on artificial intelligence and other projects. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Virginia Tech is piloting a new project-based curriculum for local engineering students ahead of the 2024 full opening of its $1 billion Innovation Campus. Four companies are presenting small groups of master’s of engineering students with real-world problems to tackle and solve with the help of faculty members now based at the university’s center in Falls Church. In addition to Arlington-based Boeing and Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp., the university is partnering with Deloitte, which has a presence in Arlington, and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Arlington’s Raytheon Technologies Corp. (Washington Business Journal)

After more than two decades of planning, Alexandria’s Potomac Yard Metro station has a finalized opening date — May 2023 — according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The new station will open in Alexandria between the Braddock Road and Reagan National Airport stations on Metro’s Yellow and Blue lines, with an entrance located near Virginia Tech’s future Innovation Campus. In July 2021, the station’s opening was pushed back from April 2022 to September 2022 and was again delayed at that time. (Washington Business Journal)

---

ROANOKE/NEW RIVER VALLEY

Former Carilion Clinic CEO Tom Robertson and his wife, Sue, have given $250,000 to establish a fellowship training program at Carilion in honor of Dr. Charles L. Crockett. For more than three decades Crockett served as director of medical education at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, overseeing the development of fully accredited residencies in a half-dozen specialties with 100 residents each year. Crockett, a hematologist, came to Roanoke Memorial in 1967 from the University of Virginia, where he was assistant dean for continuing education and associate professor of internal medicine. He died in 2001. (Cardinal News)

Roanoke Gas Co. in early December 2022 requested an increase in its base rate which, if approved by state regulators, would amount to a $5 bump in the monthly bill of an average residential customer. The utility cited inflation in the costs of labor and benefits, bad debt and the rising expense of various operating and maintenance activities in its application to the State Corporation Commission. As ratepayers are asked to pay more for the basic operations of a utility that serves about 63,000 customers in the region, they are also shouldering the rising cost of natural gas. (The Roanoke Times)

The Virginia Tech board of visitors approved adding a 5,000-bed student housing complex to the university’s master plan in mid-November 2022. The Student Life Village could become a priority in coming years to help ease a Blacksburg housing crunch caused by Virginia Tech’s large enrollment increases the past five years. The resolution does not mean that project is a done deal, however, because future plans and capital spending would have to go through several layers of university review and oversight, which would include additional approvals from the board. The project would be built in three phases at a cost of $935 million. (Cardinal News)

Virginia Tech‘s real estate program in November 2022 earned approval from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to become the Blackwood Department of Real Estate. Becoming a department housed under the Pamplin School of Business will offer the program more resources, enhance its academic and experiential learning offerings and boost its ability to recruit top faculty talent and advance research programming. The intention is to grow from 400 real estate majors to 500, and limit real estate minors to about 150 or 200 students. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Lee Enterprises Inc. in mid-November 2022 named a new president and director of sales for The Roanoke Times and newspapers in Lynchburg, Martinsville and Danville. David Cuddihy will move into the role after most recently serving as regional market president for Lee Enterprises newspapers in Washington and Oregon. Cuddihy will replace Kelly Mirt, president and publisher of The News & Advance, Martinsville Bulletin and Danville Register & Bee, and Sam Worthington, who has been named vice president of digital sales for Lee Enterprises in western Virginia. Cuddihy has served as president, publisher and director of sales for The Roanoke Times since early 2021. Worthington will remain in Roanoke and continue as a lead for business development and community engagement for The Roanoke Times. (The Roanoke Times)

Danielle Poe became Roanoke County‘s assistant director of economic development on Nov. 28, 2022. Poe comes from the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission, where she was business manager for nearly three years, managing day-to-day operations within the organization and overseeing risk management strategies. She has more than 15 years of experience, including serving as economic development specialist for Downtown Roanoke Inc. (News release)

---

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Shockey Properties hosted a public meeting in Strasburg on Nov. 29, 2022, about its rezoning request for the Glendale Property, which consists of 98.8 acres on Oranda Road in Shenandoah County. The property’s owner, Glendale Properties LLC, has long sought to have the site rezoned from agricultural uses to general industrial zoning. Shockey officials said they won’t know what will be developed at the property unless it is rezoned, but Gray Farland, its chief operating officer, said potential industrial uses include food preparation and storage, cold storage, dairy preparation and storage, technology services and automotive parts distribution. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, and Rachel Reibach, regional director for Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine’s northwestern Virginia office, attended the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber‘s federal legislative forum held at the Winchester Country Club on Dec. 5, 2022. Cline said he believes slowing clean-energy initiatives while supporting fossil fuel production could lower prices for Americans and ease inflation. Kaine voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, intended to curb inflation, lower prescription drug prices and promote clean energy. Cline, who voted against the act, said he is “concerned that the amount of government spending may have artificially kept some industries afloat.” (The Northern Virginia Daily)

Valley Health announced in November 2022 it had opened a new Urgent Care Express at 5301 Main St. in Mount Jackson. Valley Health operates two Valley Health Urgent Care Express locations, in Front Royal and Strasburg, and six full-service Valley Health Urgent Care locations across the region. The new location is in a building that housed a clinic through CareTeam, which partnered with Holtzman Oil Corp. to provide health services to its employees. The Urgent Care Express will now be the main provider of employee health services for Holtzman Oil. (Daily News-Record)

In November 2022, Winchester City Manager Dan Hoffman established a Department of Community Development in Rouss City Hall that was expected to bolster the number of homes in the city that could be rented at prices working-class individuals and families could comfortably afford. The new department is tasked with working with developers, state and federal agencies and local residents to find solutions for bolstering the city’s supply of affordable housing. Starting Jan. 1, the department will administer the Housing Choice Voucher Program that the Winchester Department of Social Services previously administered. (The Winchester Star)

Eighteen months after Winchester officials declared a pair of residential properties on South Loudoun Street derelict and blighted, and 12 months after suing the property owners, Wayne and Laura Gavis, to force them to make repairs, the Winchester Board of Architectural Review issued a certificate of appropriateness on Dec. 1, 2022, to demolish the rear portion of a single-family home at 411 S. Loudoun St. One month prior, the BAR had issued a similar certificate authorizing the total demolition of town houses at 514 to 520 S. Loudoun St. (The Winchester Star)

PEOPLE

Harrisonburg-based organic poultry producer Farmer Focus announced leadership changes on Dec. 6, 2022. Stephen J. Shepard is the company’s new president and chief operating officer, a promotion from executive vice president of operations, a position he had held since April 2022. Kathryn Tuttle was promoted from chief marketing officer, the position she’d held since 2020, to the newly created position of chief commercial officer. Farmer Focus added 750 retail locations in the fourth quarter of 2022, making its chicken available in more than 3,100 stores throughout the East Coast and Midwest. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 

 

---

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

Appalachian Community Capital, a Christiansburg-based community development financial institution that provides capital for small businesses across the Appalachian region, including 25 counties in Southern and Southwest Virginia, will receive $10 million from the Ford Foundation, the nonprofit announced in December 2022. ACC raises capital for 32 member CDFIs and other lenders, which manage more than $1 billion in assets. The Ford Foundation invested $3 million in ACC in 2015. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Bristol, Virginia, City Council narrowly approved giving the Birthplace of Country Music Museum $100,000 in a 3-2 vote on Nov. 22, 2022. The payment was the last installment of a $500,000, five-year pledge made by a previous council that began in fiscal 2011-12. Bristol, Tennessee, made a similar commitment and has paid all of its $500,000. The 2017 Bristol, Virginia, City Council removed the $100,000 balance from its budget, saying the city needed the money for other things. The balance was never reinstated.  (Bristol Herald Courier)

Officials broke ground at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol‘s permanent home at the former Bristol Mall, located at 500 Gate City Highway, on Dec. 7, 2022. The $400 million permanent casino, set to open in July 2024, will replace a 30,000-square-foot temporary venue that opened in the former Belk store at the Bristol Mall in July. The permanent casino will include a 3,200-seat performance venue and a 20,000-person capacity outdoor entertainment venue. The casino will be open 24/7 and is expected to generate about 1,200 to 1,500 jobs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Jennifer and Greg Bailey, owners of Wise County’s first brewery, Sugar Hill Brewing Co. in St. Paul, and Norton’s first cidery, Sugar Hill Cidery, closed both operations on Dec. 4, 2022. The brewpub had been open for six years, and the cidery for three, and 36 people worked at the two operations. In an email, Jennifer Bailey attributed rising inflation and gas prices making it difficult for people to eat out and discouraging customers who drove from Kentucky and the Tri-Cities.
(The Coalfield Progress)

PEOPLE

Jim Florence joined the Appalachian College of Pharmacy as a professor and the first dean of the new ACP Department of Public Health, the college announced in early December 2022. Previously a professor in Liberty University’s master of public health degree program, he served as the lead faculty member on the accreditation committee, helping secure the Council on Education in Public Health accreditation of Liberty’s master’s in public health degree program in 2019. Before that, Florence chaired the Department of Community and Behavioral Health in East Tennessee State University’s College of Public Health.
(Cardinal News)

The United Way of Southwest Virginia named Mary Anne Holbrook, who has been with the nonprofit since 2016, to the newly created position of vice president of community impact on Nov. 1, 2022. In her new role, she provides strategic leadership for UWSWVA’s programs and community initiatives. She previously served as vice president of development and outreach, a role the regional nonprofit is now seeking to fill. Holbrook holds a master’s degree in English with concentrations in Appalachian studies and business and technical writing from Radford University. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

---

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA

A new solar facility in Climax — set to power local homes served by Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative — was nearing the finish line at the end of 2022. Known as Monroe Solar, the 2.8-megawatt facility will be able to supply about 2,100 meters serviced by the cooperative’s substation in Climax. The facility has more than 7,400 panels that slowly move throughout the day to track the sun. Even on a day when clouds loom large, the panels can still work since the design focuses on reflected light. (Danville Register & Bee)

A judge on Dec. 5, 2022, declined to dismiss a lawsuit claiming Virginia’s ban on slotslike skill machines violates free speech and indicated a state senator’s involvement in the case means it won’t go to trial until after the 2023 General Assembly session is over. At a hearing in Greensville County Circuit Court, Judge Louis Lerner also rejected a claim the General Assembly violated the Virginia Constitution by quietly adding legislation to the most recent state budget that sought to reinforce the purported illegality of the machines that have proliferated in Virginia convenience stores, truck stops and sports bars. (Virginia Mercury)

No decision was made at a Dec. 5, 2022, hearing on Martinsville‘s desire to revert from an independent city to a town within Henry County, but the judges presiding offered plenty of comments during the proceeding, and none of them appeared to be in support of Martinsville. Martinsville v. Henry County was heard virtually by a special court. Martinsville claims a memorandum of understanding between the localities is still binding, but judges noted that even though Martinsville City Council approved a cooperative agreement on reversion last year, the Henry County Board of Supervisors rejected it. (Martinsville Bulletin)

Skip Barber Racing School will relocate from Connecticut to Halifax County, building an $8.9 million performance driving school at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) that’s expected to create 24 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in late November 2022. VIR will build a 25,000-square-foot facility to be leased to Skip Barber Racing School at VIR’s onsite Motorsport Technology Park. The school was founded in 1975 in California by retired racer John “Skip” Barber III. Barber, 86, no longer owns his namesake racing school, but more than 400,000 students have completed the program since 1975, some of whom have competed in NASCAR and Formula 1 racing. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Averett University reached a historic milestone when Annie Wimbish was named chair of Averett’s board of trustees, becoming the first woman of color to serve in that position. A 1981 graduate of Averett, she has been an educational leader for nearly four decades. Her roles span from teacher assistant to superintendent across four states. Serving as a trustee on the Averett University board of directors since 2015, she started her new role in July 2022, and in November 2022 led the 30-member board in her first meeting as chair. (Danville Register & Bee)

Virginia Commonwealth University Health Community Memorial Hospital in Mecklenburg County announced Nov. 10, 2022, that Sheldon Barr would be its next president, effective Dec. 11, 2022. Barr will be the first woman to lead the South Hill hospital in its 68-year history. Barr was most recently CEO of HCA Florida South Shore Hospital. Prior to that, she served as chief operating officer at HCA Virginia’s Chippenham Hospital in Chesterfield County. HCA Healthcare named Barr its HCA Executive Development Program 2021 Mentor of Year. She is also a recipient of the Frist Humanitarian Award, named
for HCA co-founder Dr. Thomas F. Frist Sr.
(VirginiaBusiness.com)