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Richmond casino plan goes to polls
Early voting is underway across Virginia, and in Richmond, residents will also decide by Nov. 2 whether Silver Spring, Maryland-based Urban One Inc. can establish its proposed $565 million ONE Casino + Resort in the city. Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins has high hopes for what could be the nation’s only majority Black-owned casin[...]
Plastics company to revive textile mill site in Hurt
At the site of what was once a Burlington Industries textile mill in Hurt, Staunton River Plastics is building a 250,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Staunton River Plastics is the first tenant for the newly named Southern Virginia Multimodal Park, says Linda Green, executive director at the Southern Virginia Regional All[...]
Commercial realty: Demand remains high
Read our residential real estate story. Trends are also pointing in a mostly positive direction for the region’s industrial, commercial and retail real estate markets, according to Ed Kimple, a senior vice president with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. Office vacancy rates were at 9.2% for the second quarter, an increase [...]
Letter from the publisher: Big impact
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the positive role that Hampton Roads plays in Virginia’s economic health. The region doesn’t fit neatly into a single name, location or brand. Is it coastal, is it the beach or is it the Port of Virginia? Is its economy mostly maritime, mostly military, mostly manufacturing, mostly international trade, or […]
An overview of Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the state’s second-most populated region, with approximately 1.75 million residents in 17 localities, including Virginia Beach, the state’s largest city by population with about 459,000 residents, according to the 2020 population count. More than 120,000 active-duty and reserve members of the military, as we[...]
Under construction
Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Hampton and Norfolk In October 2020, crews broke ground on the state’s largest-ever infrastructure project: the expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which is expected to be completed in 2025. Much of the work will not be visible to drivers because it will be taking place underwater, as a ma[...]
Leaders of the pack
Although TowneBank remains at the top of the Hampton Roads’ region banking market, with just over a quarter of local market share, there is a newcomer in the second position: North Carolina-based Truist Bank, created from the SunTrust-BB&T megamerger in 2019. Truist holds nearly 24% of the market and has 72 locations, taking Wells Fargo’s […]
Recovery time
More than a year into the pandemic, the commercial real estate market in Hampton Roads isn’t hurting. “The pandemic wasn’t as bad as we feared it might be for commercial real estate,” says Larry Colorito Jr., chair of the board of directors and a senior managing director for national appraisal firm Valbridge Property Advisors. Geoff […]
Back to the beach
After a strong summer comeback, the Hampton Roads tourism industry is facing uncertainty once again as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers. This summer, Virginia Beach hotels saw slightly higher occupancy rates than in 2019 — a welcome return to normalcy. But an autumn and winter of hospitality industry revenue declines related to e[...]
Larger shovel-ready sites key to success
Workers with Franklin County-based Bowman Excavating Inc. have hauled off 250,000 cubic yards of dirt since beginning work last November on Wood Haven Technology Park in Roanoke County, according to Devin Bowman, company vice president. With 30 acres of trees cleared and load after load of dirt scooped away from the berm next to[...]
Magical thinking
Listening can be difficult; that’s often an early lesson learned and hopefully one paid better attention to as life goes on. I’ll admit that’s been the case for me. Listening is especially important in business. Customers, co-workers, suppliers and vendors all have points of view that are worthy of consideration. Listening[...]
