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Rising to the challenges
Last summer, as I was eating dinner at a Norfolk bar with a group of my Lead Virginia classmates from far Southwest Virginia, one of them asked what decision makers in Richmond thought about their region. “Most of them don’t think about it at all,” I replied bluntly and not a little sadly. During my […]
Embedded finance
Several years ago, Blue Ridge Bank President and CEO Brian Plum began to notice a movement across the broader economy. “We live in a world where data has value,” Plum says. “It only made sense that over time, [as] you would see more sellers or other service providers that have built out platforms to try […]
AeroFarms plants roots in Cane Creek Centre
AeroFarms won’t harvest the first crops at its new Cane Creek Centre facility until summer, but the company is already expanding. In December 2019, the Newark, New Jersey-based indoor agriculture company announced it would invest $42 million and create 92 jobs in the 136,000-square-foot facility building in the industrial [...]
Hitting a brick wall
Casey Renner has worked in four states over the course of her teaching career, and she’s never liked a school more than Arlington County’s Wakefield High School, where she teaches science and special education. But she has also never had as much difficulty finding housing near work as she has during her 17 years teac[...]
SW community colleges to create wind manufacturing workforce
The presidents of four community colleges in Southwest Virginia signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to establish a wind manufacturing workforce development partnership. “Today’s MOU signing is meaningful because it demonstrates our resident and abiding interest in collaborating. Our four community college [...]
VFCCE names Ben Davenport chairman
Davenport Energy Inc. Chairman Ben Davenport is the next chairman of The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, the Richmond-based foundation announced Tuesday. In 2016, Davenport and his wife, Betty, invested $1 million through VFCCE to create a pilot program with four community colleges that provided early childh[...]
Bermuda insurer to establish U.S. HQ in Henrico
Bermuda-based Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd. will invest at least $415,000 to establish the U.S. headquarters of its subsidiary in Henrico County, a project estimated to create more than 70 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday. Hamilton’s wholly owned subsidiary, Hamilton Select Insurance Inc., is a commercial insurer[...]
Peraton receives $254M State Department award
Herndon-based Peraton Inc. has been awarded a five-year, $254 million contract to support the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service’s cybersecurity operations. The federal contractor announced the award Thursday. Under the contract, Peraton will provide cyber support, including incident management, threat analysis and penetration testing. Peraton will also help the department protect its global IT infrastructure [&h[...]
Richmond, Capital One offering restaurant 101 seminar
The city of Richmond‘s Office of Minority Business Development, in partnership with Capital One, will offer a free information session for current and prospective restaurant owners in April, covering topics such as setting menu prices, meeting city requirements and creating improvement plans. Award-winning Richmond chef, r[...]
Hilb Group acquires N.J. risk management firm
Henrico County-based insurance company The Hilb Group LLC announced Thursday that it has acquired New Jersey-based E.B. Cohen Insurance and Risk Management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “E.B. Cohen aligns perfectly with our strategy for growing among industry leaders — bringing a terrific histor[...]
Perdue AgriBusiness plans $59M Chesapeake expansion
Perdue AgriBusiness will invest $59.1 million and expand operations in the city of Chesapeake, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced Thursday. The company, an affiliate of Perdue Farms Inc., will modernize facilities and increase production of high protein soybean meal, soybean oil and hulls. The expansion will position P[...]
Richmond pares down Diamond District developer pool
Story updated, March 24 at 11:45 a.m. The city of Richmond announced Wednesday that six competing development teams have been chosen out of 15 applicants to continue in the competition to redevelop the Diamond District area near the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ stadium. The city requested applications late last year for the [...]
