PRA Group hires communications exec
Norfolk-based PRA Group, a $1.1 billion debt-purchasing company, has hired Giovanna Genard as vice president of external affairs and marketing leader. Genard will develop and oversee PRA Group’s global external communications, public relations and brand strategy. Before joining PRA Group, Genard served as Old Dominion Univ[...]
Potter’s Craft Cider plans expansion
Albemarle County-based Potter’s Craft Cider will expand its production operation and add eight jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office announced Friday. The company will undertake adaptive reuse of a vacant 11,500-square-foot warehouse in the Woolen Mills District near downtown Charlottesville. The new cidery, which will [...]
Northrop Grumman receives $3.3B missile defense contract
Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp. has received a contract worth nearly $3.3 billion from the Missile Defense Agency to help defend the homeland from ballistic missile threats. The Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor will design, develop and sustain new capabilities for the next Ground-based Midcourse Defense Wea[...]
The Breeden Co. restructures property management division
The Breeden Co., a Virginia Beach-based real estate development firm, is restructuring its property management division. Barry Tomlin, vice president of property management at The Breeden Co. in Virginia Beach, will leave the company Aug. 5, Breeden announced last week. Tomlin has been with Breeden since 2007. “Over the last 10 years, we have created […]
Albemarle retail building sells for $2.3M
Woodhaven Development Group LLC purchased a 3,204-square-foot retail building in Albemarle County from First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. for $2.3 million. The property is located at 1815 Fortune Park Road in Albemarle and will be redeveloped. The building is on 1.35 acres of land off U.S. Route 29 near the Charlottesville-Albe[...]
Prosperity drives formation of regional group
Interim Pittsylvania County Administrator Clarence Monday knows what’s better than two localities working together: a whole region working to support them in a joint effort. “The partnership between Danville and Pittsylvania County is unusually strong, so it makes sense that Pittsylvania County is a partner in the economic a[...]
Growth industry
When manufacturers thinking about setting up shop in Southern Virginia visit Pittsylvania County, the county’s economic development director, Matt Rowe, doesn’t just show off expansive, shovel-ready industrial sites. He also touts the region’s workforce, which includes many workers with advanced manufacturing skill sets. E[...]
CVTC property inches closer to redevelopment
Once home to more than 3,600 people with intellectual disabilities and other conditions, the Central Virginia Training Center property in Amherst County is drawing closer to a different future. In June, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law the latest state budget, which removed $25 million in tax obligations from the 350-acre sit[...]
Gambling on Hampton Roads
Roy Corby’s first job at a casino was as a dealer. Now, Corby is general manager of the $300 million Rivers Casino Portsmouth, which is on track to become the first Virginia casino to open in a permanent location. It plans to open in January 2023 at the intersection of Victory and Cavalier boulevards, off […]
Southwest Va. builds outdoor rec centers
Southwest Virginia has two new centers welcoming outdoor adventurists and another on the way. With a grand opening set for August, the $1.5 million Back of the Dragon Welcome Center opened in Tazewell in May 2020. In Coeburn, Spearhead Trails opened a 22,000-square-foot activity center in its renovated Coeburn headquarters last [...]
Shenandoah University creating tech hub
Shenandoah University is connecting the future to the past. It’s renovating an armory on its main campus in Winchester where National Guard soldiers once trained before D-Day, turning it into a Hub for Innovators, Veterans and Entrepreneurs — the HIVE. “This building will be a game changer for economic development in the N[...]
‘Brainy’ couture: Biomed grad designs high-tech fashion
Leah Thomas became a fashion designer to cap off her undergraduate degree in Virginia Tech’s biomedical engineering program. A member of the university’s first cohort of 40 undergraduate biomedical engineering students who graduated in spring 2022, Thomas designed a dress and headpiece fitted with biosensors for a biotech co[...]