byline: Virginia Business

Central Virginia

Fortune 500 company CarMax will be the naming sponsor for the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ new ballpark starting with the 2026 season, the Double-A Minor League Baseball team announced Sept. 4. The Diamond’s replacement will be known as CarMax Park. Although Squirrels President and Managing Partner Lou DiBella said that the deal with CarMax had been signed several months ago, few other details were revealed about the transaction, including the amount CarMax agreed to pay and how long the sponsorship will last. In August, the Richmond Economic Development Authority’s board approved a 30-year lease and stadium development agreement between the EDA and the Flying Squirrels. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Henrico Economic Development Authority is launching a global business gateway program for internationally headquartered companies seeking to establish a presence in the United States. The Henrico Global Business Gateway, which the EDA announced Sept. 10, will provide international businesses with office space for up to three staffers each in the upcoming Gather Workspaces coworking location at Innsbrook, set to open in early 2025, as well as wraparound business services. Richmond-based Gather, which has coworking properties in Hampton Roads and the greater Richmond area, is currently renovating the interior of its roughly 19,000-square-foot space at 4101 Cox Road. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Henrico County’s LL Flooring, which declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, has signed an agreement to sell 219 stores and other assets to F9 Investments. In its Sept. 6 announcement, LL Flooring said it planned to close 211 other stores nationwide, up from 94 stores previously announced. With this agreement, F9 Brands owner Tom Sullivan, the founder and former CEO of Lumber Liquidators and founder of Cabinets To Go, was likely to assume ownership of the 219 LL Flooring stores, the company’s name and other assets by the end of September, following approval by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

NASCAR officials confirmed on Aug. 27 rumors that the Cup Series — the association’s premier series — would no longer make one of its two annual stops at the Richmond Raceway beginning next season. NASCAR removed a Henrico County track stop on the schedule, traditionally held in the spring, because it added a Cup Series race in Mexico City in 2025. The second stop at the Richmond Raceway, traditionally held in the summer, remains on NASCAR’s 2025 schedule. The three-fourths-mile track has held 136 Cup Series events thus far. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Goochland County-based Performance Food Group, the largest Richmond-area company on the Fortune 500 list at No. 84, is borrowing $1 billion to help pay for its $2.1 billion cash acquisition of Cheney Brothers, a privately held Florida food distribution firm. PFG announced the definitive agreement to acquire Cheney Brothers, which generates about $3.2 billion in annual revenue, on Aug. 14 and announced its plan to pay for the acquisition with internal cash resources and proceeds from a $1 billion, eight-year note bearing interest at 6.125% on Sept. 4. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The University of Virginia was the first Virginia college to publish the demographic data of its first-year students after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action, or race-conscious admissions, last year. The share of new students who are Black, as well as the share of Asian and Asian American students, declined. The only ethnic group whose numbers increased among first-year and transfer student populations was Latinos. Of the 3,989 first-year students who started class on Aug. 27, 53.9% — 2,150 students — identified as a race other than white. (The Daily Progress)

Eastern Virginia 

Anheuser-Busch, which produces Budweiser, Bud Light and other beers, is investing $6.5 million into its Williamsburg brewery to uphold quality standards, improve infrastructure and drive efficiency, the company announced in August. Part of the money will go toward increasing the capacity and capability of the Williamsburg brewery’s warehouse. Located in James City County near Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the brewery has operated since 1972. It employs more than 400 people, making it one of the area’s major economic drivers. (Daily Press)

Former Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, filed paperwork to mount his second run for Virginia attorney general. Jones served in the House of Delegates starting in 2018 and resigned in December 2021, a month after he was reelected to the House. The same year, he lost the Democratic primary for attorney general to incumbent Mark Herring, who then lost a close race to Republican Jason Miyares. As of early September, Jones had not officially announced his candidacy for attorney general.
(Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, a subsidiary of Norway’s Kongsberg Group, plans to establish its first U.S. defense assembly plant in James City County, investing more than $100 million and creating an estimated 180 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in September. The plant will be tasked with maintaining and refreshing cruise missiles for the U.S. Navy, as well as joint strike missiles for F-35 fighters purchased by the Air Force. (VirginiaBusiness.com))

Norfolk will have a temporary casino open by November 2025 and a permanent resort in 2027 if all goes to plan, as the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and casino giant Boyd Gaming, its new corporate partner, received a fresh start on the long-delayed project from Norfolk City Council in September. Council members and the mayor voted 7-1 to approve a development agreement between the city, the tribe and Boyd Gaming, which replaces Tennessee investor Jon Yarbrough as the King William County tribe’s corporate partner. The partners have scrapped the casino’s old name, HeadWaters Resort & Casino, and plan to start construction of a temporary casino and a permanent structure in early 2025. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

A month before the Something in the Water festival was scheduled to return to Virginia Beach, founder Pharrell Williams announced the music fest had been postponed from October to April 2025. In a social media post, Williams wrote, “It just isn’t ready yet.” The Sept. 13 announcement came hours after tickets went on sale for Virginia residents. Virginia Beach City Council members said they felt “blindsided” by the postponement. (13NewsNow)

Overseas travel, stays at high-end hotels and schmoozing with industry stakeholders are some of the perks that come with being head of a large city’s department of economic development. But former Virginia Beach Director of Economic Development Chuck Rigney may have overstepped. His travel expenses are under review, as the city has opened an investigation into department travel costs that did not adhere to city policies. Over 12 months, Rigney expensed roughly $47,000 in travel and other spending, according to expense reports. He resigned July 24. Rigney said in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot, “I’m certainly not trying to hide anything.” (The Virginian-Pilot)

Northern Virginia

Amazon.com has acquired part of an industrial park slated for data center development in Manassas for $56.6 million. Minnieville Capital Acquisitions bought eight parcels totaling about 39 acres at and around the Colchester Industrial Park just north of Dumfries Road. The company, led by McLean’s Jeff Mulhausen, assembles and entitles data center land for its clients. The buyer’s Seattle address in certain Prince William County property records, is associated with a P.O. box used by Amazon. The parcels are part of a 64-acre assemblage approved for rezoning for three data centers and an electric substation.
(Washington Business Journal)

NASA’s decision to send Boeing’s Starliner capsule home without astronauts follows years of missteps by the aerospace and defense company in its space business and raises doubts over the future of the unit, analysts and industry sources said. Taking astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station was to have been a turning point for Starliner after years of delays, technical glitches and supply chain mishaps. Starliner has cost $1.6 billion in overruns since 2016, according to Reuters. Wilmore and Williams will be brought home in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule next year, NASA decided after deeming its propulsion system unsafe for the return journey. (Reuters)

Comstock is facing a new lawsuit from a Japanese company that alleges the prominent Reston Station developer has shorted its stake in a jointly owned apartment complex to the tune of $10 million. Tokyo developer and multi asset manager Daito Trust Construction Co. and Comstock, through affiliates, developed BLVD Reston Station, an apartment tower at 1908 Reston Metro Plaza, in the heart of Comstock’s mixed-use mega-development at the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station. Daito claims Comstock breached its contract by wrongly reducing Daito’s ownership share in the joint venture, according to its complaint filed Aug. 30. (Washington Business Journal)

The company behind the Dulles Greenway has for the first time been told it cannot raise fares again. Now some Northern Virginia leaders want to go a step further and force its owners to either lower tolls or turn the road over to the state. The toll road connects the east and west of Loudoun County from Leesburg to the airport. In 2023, the Greenway tried to raise tolls from $5.80 to $8.10 during rush hour and $5.25 to $6.40 other times. But the Virginia State Corporation Commission ruled in September that the proposed hike was unreasonable and “contrary to the public interest.” (The Washington Post)

After a lengthy and contentious debate, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved a revised zoning ordinance that imposes strict regulations on data center development in the county. The ordinance requires data centers be a minimum distance of a mile from any Metro station, a 200-foot setback from any residential area, an 80,000-square-foot size limit in most industrial zones, noise studies before site plan approval, and enhanced screening and equipment enclosure requirements. The ordinance includes a grandfather clause for any projects in the pipeline before July 2024 to proceed under earlier rules. (FFXnow)

PEOPLE

Stu Shea, Peraton’s chairman, president and CEO, has stepped down, and Steve Schorer has been named to succeed him at the Reston-based federal contractor owned by Veritas Capital, Peraton announced in September. Schorer, previously CEO of Alion Science and Technology, which Huntington Ingalls Industries purchased for $1.65 billion from Veritas in 2021, was also president of DynCorp International. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Roanoke/Lynchburg/New River Valley

Commercial real estate firm JLL has been hired to roll out a strategy on attracting potential developers for the former Central Virginia Training Center in Amherst County. At one time the county’s largest employer, CVTC closed in 2020 after relocating its last remaining resident. The state-owned residential campus in Madison Heights served people with developmental disabilities and had a controversial history of eugenics-driven sterilizations from 1924 through 1979. It has close to 100 buildings on site. The Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance unveiled a master plan in 2022 that envisioned a mix of residential and commercial retail uses. (Amherst New Era-Progress)

A rupture of the Mountain Valley Pipeline during pressure testing in May was caused by a manufacturer’s defect in an elbow joint, a fitting used to accommodate a curve in the pipe, according to an analysis released in late August. The failure was an isolated incident, the project’s owner, EQT Midstream, said in a letter to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and there is no risk of a similar incident in the future. The rupture occurred on Bent Mountain in Roanoke County during hydrostatic testing, when water is run at high pressure through the pipe to test for leaks or flaws before potentially explosive gas is introduced. (The Roanoke Times)

Crews will work up the last, large undeveloped piece of land at the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology so it will be ready if a business wants to locate there. It spans 82 acres, about two-thirds of which is suitable for building. Funding for the $10 million project comes from the state. The objective is to make the land shovel-ready for a building as large as 400,000 square feet, including securing permits, clearing forested land and smoothing out the building pad. (The Roanoke Times)

Roanoke County-based TMEIC Corp. Americas, a subsidiary of Japanese TMEIC Corp., will move its corporate headquarters to Texas early next year, but a company spokesperson said few local jobs will be affected. The new plant in Brookshire, Texas, west of Houston, will begin operations in October to make utility-scale photovoltaic inverters for solar energy systems and could create about 300 jobs there, the company said. (Cardinal News)

Following complaints from co-workers and patients’ parents over sexual and profane comments, the Virginia Board of Medicine suspended the medical license of Roanoke-area pediatrician Dr. Dalton M. Renick on Aug. 22, stating that “a substantial danger to public health or safety” warranted Renick’s summary suspension. He formerly worked for Carilion Clinic in Roanoke County and New Beginnings Pediatrics in Blacksburg, both of which issued statements noting that he is no longer employed at either practice. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

BWX Technologies in September tapped Gary D. Camper to be president of BWXT Nuclear Operations Group. Based in Lynchburg, Camper will lead more than 5,000 employees at five sites across four states, all of whom are manufacturing nuclear reactor components and fuel for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. Camper has worked for four decades at BWXT and previously served as vice president of contracts and procurement and as chief operating officer of the Nuclear Operations Group. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

President of Virginia Western Community College since 2001, Robert Sandel steered the two-year college into the 21st century, more than doubling enrollment and overseeing more than $138 million in construction and renovations. In August, the Roanoke-based college announced Sandel’s plans to retire at the end of June. Details on the search for his replacement will be released later. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Southern Virginia 

Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Henry County has been awarded more than $6.2 million from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program to extend an existing paved runway. On Sept. 4, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced $18.7 million in new federal funding for improvements to airports across Virginia, with the airport near Spencer receiving a third of the total money allocated. A total of $6.22 million was designated to add 998 feet of runway to the regional airport serving the Martinsville area, allowing access to a broad fleet mix. (Martinsville Bulletin)

In September, deli meat company Boar’s Head Provisions Co. indefinitely shut down its meat production facility in Jarratt, the source of a listeria outbreak that killed at least nine people and hospitalized 57 others. The plant has not operated since late July. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened an investigation earlier that month, and on July 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service notified Boar’s Head it was withholding its federal marks of inspecting and suspending operations of ready-to-eat products at the Jarrett facility. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

An Aug. 13 job fair in North Carolina attracted more workers for Caesars Virginia, which plans to add another 500 employees by the time its casino resort is completed at the end of this year. More than 150 job candidates attended the job fair in Browns Summit on Aug. 13 — about 35 miles south of Danville on the way to Greensboro — and more than 70 trainees were enrolled in Caesars Virginia’s Dealer Academy. Another hiring event was held at the Greensboro Coliseum on Aug. 22. Eighty-five job candidates attended, with 33 enrolled in the academy and five hired on the spot. (Danville Register & Bee)

Danville Utilities plans to build a battery storage facility at Mount Cross Road to reduce dependence on the regional electric grid. If constructed, the storage system would discharge energy into the city’s electric system during extremely hot or cold weather when electricity demand is at its highest, said Jason Grey, director of Danville Utilities. The project, expected to be up and running by April 2026 at 900 Mount Cross Road between Averett University’s North Campus and Abundant Life Church, would decrease Danville Utilities’ demand on the regional PJM grid during peak usage. (Danville Register & Bee)

RBW Sports & Classics, a United Kingdom manufacturer of hand-built electric vehicles that have designs inspired by British sports cars from the 1960s and 1970s, plans to invest $8 million to establish a manufacturing facility at Cane Creek Centre in Danville, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Aug. 22. The project is expected to create 144 jobs. Those workers will produce RBW’s first left-hand drive, electric Roadster and GT models for the U.S. market. RBW delivered its first cars in 2022 and opened its first factory in the United Kingdom in 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Shalag US, a nonwoven fabrics manufacturer, will invest $16.6 million to open a new manufacturing and production facility in Mecklenburg County, creating an anticipated 52 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sept. 12. Founded in Israel in 1983, Shalag expanded to the United States in 2010 and manufactures a wide range of nonwoven fabric for use in products such as diapers, air filtration and cleaning wipes. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Mecklenburg and Virginia’s Growth Alliance to secure the project. Youngkin approved a $117,460 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. (News release)

Southwest Virginia 

A project aimed at expanding recreational opportunities at the Big Cherry Reservoir in Big Stone Gap received $2 million Sept. 4 from the Virginia Department of Energy’s Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) program. The project is expected to total $3.4 million and is still in the environmental review stage. Improvements will include cleared trails, a general store, rental cabins, safari tents and yurts. The existing boat ramp and dock will be improved, too. Also on Sept. 4, the Bird Dog Distributors expansion project in Dickenson County received $525,000 from the AMLER program. (Cardinal News; news release)

On Sept. 10, Bristol, Virginia, City Council unanimously approved proposals to redevelop two shuttered elementary schools. Developers Clyde Stacy, president of Par Ventures in Bristol, and James Bunn will convert the former Stonewall Jackson Elementary School into a boutique hotel and the former Washington-Lee Elementary into residential housing. They will pay $150,000 for each parcel. Hotel construction is expected to take at least two years once the sale is complete. The developers said the 5-acre Washington-Lee site would be multifamily housing, with the first units available within two years of closing on the property. (Bristol Herald Courier)

Camrett Logistics, a third-party logistics firm based in Wytheville, is investing $575,000 to upgrade a warehouse it recently acquired in the town, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Aug. 29. The company bought the approximately 162,000-square-foot warehouse on Industry Road for $3.9 million in May and expects to create 10 jobs there. The project will include new docks, bathrooms and offices at the former Donnkenny apparel manufacturing facility, which closed in 2015. Camrett currently operates 11 facilities in Virginia, including in Pulaski County, Roanoke and the town of Bluefield, and provides warehousing and distribution services for clients including the Volvo Trucks North America plant in Dublin. (Cardinal News)

Four Southwest Virginia economic development projects have been recommended to receive a cumulative $10 million in federal Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) grants, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, announced Aug. 19. The recommended grants for the four projects are: $4.75 million for Project Intersection in Wise County, $2 million for the Richlands Electric Diversification Project in Tazewell County, $2.75 million for the Cumberland Outdoor Recreation project in Dickenson and Buchanan counties and $500,000 for Project Wildcat in Wise County. The projects are on sites where coal was mined prior to 1977, the year the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The University of Virginia’s College at Wise will serve as the Virginia state lead on a $398,000-plus Appalachian Regional Commission grant focused on improving the use of geographic information system and geospatial technologies in land record management to foster economic development, the college announced in early September. U.Va. Wise has partnered with the University of Tennessee, the University of Kentucky and West Virginia University on the grant, which is part of the Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies program. The University of Tennessee is managing the grant. (The Coalfield Progress)

A Sept. 1 report from the Virginia Port Authority shows that the authority and its consultants are continuing to assess the feasibility of locating Virginia’s second inland port on a site adjacent to the Norfolk Southern mainline in the Oak Park development in Washington County. A 2022 study from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and Port of Virginia concluded that Southwest Virginia’s Mount Rogers Planning District met criteria as a potentially successful site for a second inland port. The county and its industrial development authority offered the Oak Park site. (Bristol Herald Courier)