‘Where the game is happening’
Touting one of North America’s largest ports, congestion-free shipping channels and the nation’s highest percentage of maritime workers, Hampton Roads is charting a course to become the East Coast supply chain hub for the offshore wind industry. Those attributes, say local leaders, set the region apart in the race to build t[...]
A developing picture
As Norfolk prepares for some sizable development projects, city officials don’t plan to forget the strong business base that positioned the area for such investments. “We’re really focused on business expansion and our primary employers,” says Jared Chalk, Norfolk’s director of economic development. “That’s been ou[...]
Measured steps
Although Hampton Roads health care systems conducted some significant business over the past year, the biggest news was a deal that didn’t happen. Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare’s plan to merge with North Carolina-based Cone Health, which was announced in August 2020 and would have created a 17-hospital system with a combi[...]
Virginia’s largest conference hotels
Related: Despite pandemic, hotels press forward Meeting planners roll with the punches
Questioning the daily grind
Before last year’s pandemic shutdowns, 24-year-old Julia Swanson had been commuting from Newport News to her job as a civil engineer for the Virginia Beach office of Kimley-Horn, a national engineering firm headquartered in North Carolina. It could take 35 minutes to an hour and a half traveling only one way, and Swanson says [...]
Be our guest
It’s no secret that the hospitality industry is hurting from the ongoing pandemic. Although widespread shutdowns are in the past, hotel executives are now challenged by the sector’s labor shortage and the slow recovery of business travel. In July, hotel revenues were down 3% compared with the same month in 2019, according to[...]
Long Bridge expansion to speed up D.C.-Va. rail traffic
Plans for constructing a $1.9 billion, two-track railroad bridge connecting Virginia to Washington, D.C. — doubling the number of tracks going across the Potomac River from the U.S. capital to the commonwealth — are chugging right along. “We’re now moving forward to advance the engineering design and that should be compl[...]
Catching up
As he completed his senior project last spring at Old Dominion University’s Batten College of Engineering & Technology, Kristal Sunuwar researched the development of the global offshore wind industry. Learning how China, South Korea, Japan and European nations had developed their offshore wind programs, Sunuwar reached an [...]
Roanoke plant still empty after FreightCar America exit
More than two years after FreightCar America left town, eliminating about 200 assembly jobs, the buildings once occupied by the railcar manufacturer in downtown Roanoke remain empty. Chicago-based FreightCar America opened its Roanoke plant in 2005, leasing space at the East End Shops, a locomotive workshop and maintenance compl[...]
Manifest destiny
Taking on a new job during a pandemic could spell rough waters, particularly if the job relies on global commerce. But the past eight months largely have been smooth sailing for Stephen Edwards, the new CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, which oversees the Port of Virginia. Edwards came onboard in January[...]
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Brought to you by Virginia Business and Bank of America, join us every other month for the Diversity Leadership Series — virtual fireside chats with a diverse group of Virginia business leaders sharing their insights and thoughts on leadership, their career paths, and diversity and equity. Our series kicked off on July 20 with[...]
Caution ahead
This year was expected to be a rough one for employers, following predictions of a coming tidal wave of costly employee lawsuits and labor complaints powered by the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s racial justice protests. So far, though, that onslaught of litigation hasn’t materialized. Why not? Partly because the pandemic[...]