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Leveraging the past
Vernon Green served 20 years, five months and 18 days in the Army, retiring in 2014 as a chief warrant officer after three deployments to Iraq and one to Kuwait. Today he heads his own information technology and cybersecurity business responsible for 10 major government projects. And he hires veterans like himself. During his ti[...]
On deck
There’s massive work underway in the Hampton Roads maritime industry, with much more on the horizon. The region is hiring, big-time. But are there enough qualified candidates to fill the jobs? Regional leaders want to get ahead of the question, they say, considering the window of opportunity and what’s at stake for the area�[...]
Charlottesville Chamber launches local economic recovery initiative
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 […]
Regional group forms to bring in manufacturing jobs
Like many rural communities, Mecklenburg County relies on regional cooperation to boost its economy. A newly formed partnership — Virginia’s Manufacturing Region — is a regional coalition to market Southern Virginia as a top destination for manufacturing jobs. It’s a bit like a supergroup, with Virginia’s Growth Allian[...]
Crossing the line
A city famous for birthing country music and straddling the Virginia-Tennessee state line, Bristol, Virginia, has spent the last decade struggling to recover from the Great Recession and the coal industry’s steep decline. However, a new surge of economic life is reenergizing Bristol as it enters the 2020s. More visitors are fl[...]
Opportunity Appalachia hopes to match investors, projects
A group of Southwest Virginia community leaders are helping regional entrepreneurs market their ideas to investors as part of Appalachian Community Capital’s multistate Opportunity Appalachia economic development initiative. Through the initiative, Appalachian Community Capital is seeking to match investors to 15 “shovel-rea[...]
Amazon scoops up more NoVa land
Another quarter, another Amazon.com Inc. buying spree in Northern Virginia. In January, the company bought 6.2 acres in Arlington County, the location of HQ2, for $154.95 million. According to county records, Acorn Development LLC, an Amazon subsidiary, bought the land from JBG Smith Properties, from which it leases its current [...]
Surf park project in Chesterfield moves forward
Phase one of what is being touted as the “world’s largest surf park” is a go in Chesterfield County, and developers and the county have emerged with environmental permits despite a gap in the state’s regulatory framework. The Lake, a 105-acre, mixed-use development between state Route 288 and Genito Road, is set to move [...]
Former Colortree factory to be taken over by new company
Tulsa, Oklahoma-based marketing conglomerate Moore DM Group will invest $31 million in reopening the Henrico County printing plant formerly operated by Colortree Group Inc., which abruptly went out of business in June, leaving 240 employees out of work. The new plant will be run as Richmond Print Group, a subsidiary of Moore DM [...]
Cyclical patterns
Last June, Volvo Group announced plans to invest nearly $400 million, add 350,000 square feet to its Dublin complex in Pulaski County — already the largest Volvo truck plant in the world — and hire 777 new workers over the next six years. Five months after that announcement, though, Volvo said it would lay off […]
Banner year
You’d be hard pressed to find an economic development official who had a better first year on the job than Jay Langston did in 2019. With Langston at the helm, the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, a regional economic development group, announced a record $1.5 billion in business investment last year, anchored by Merck &[...]
Changing times
Town houses and apartments, storefronts and restaurants, grassy medians, pocket parks, sidewalks everywhere. Doesn’t this look a lot like a downtown? Picking up his mail in slippers and shorts on a brisk January day, Tandy Harris pauses to consider the question. “It does,” he agrees. “It’s got all the bells and whistle[...]
