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AHLA: Va. stands to lose 86K+ hotel jobs without federal support
Virginia stands to lose 86,821 hotel-related jobs if Congress doesn’t extend Paycheck Protection Program loans or expand the Main Street Lending program, according to projections released Wednesday by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) — and the state may lose all but about 500 hotels to foreclosure. Pre-pandemic, Virginia was home to 1,532 hotels, […]
Fall enrollment down nearly 10% at community colleges
Early estimates indicate that fall enrollment at Virginia’s community colleges is down nearly 10% compared to fall 2019, and down by 6.6% at private four-year universities, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia in a study released Tuesday. However, public four-year universities are holding steady,[...]
Rising to the occasion
Under normal circumstances, event planners put together conferences by assessing the needs of their clients and then figuring out the logistics: the venue’s size, the agenda and, of course, the expected turnout of attendees. As with everything else, this normal routine has been upended by the coronavirus. The new normal is dig[...]
Good deeds
The pandemic hasn’t seemingly slowed down commercial real estate development and transactions in Hampton Roads. Despite significant financial hits to the hospitality industry, the $125 million, 305-room Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront opened in June, the second phase of Gold Key | PHR’s three-phase, $350 million renovatio[...]
2020 Virginia Meetings
Welcome to the second issue of Virginia Meetings. Below you’ll find content about how hotels have reopened with caution during the pandemic and how virtual conferences have become the new norm for meeting planners. Also included is a list of Virginia’s largest conference hotels. Checking in: Hotels reopen with cautio[...]
This burg has grown
Three-term incumbent Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw recalls when her city moved at a slower pace, as did surrounding Spotsylvania and Stafford counties. All that has changed, profoundly. Fredericksburg’s population has jumped by more than 50% during the past 20 years, from 19,279 in 2000 to an estimated 29,036 in[...]
The mother of innovation
Don’t try to be something you’re not. That’s one way to sum up the approach that Troy Paino has taken to guiding the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg since assuming the school’s presidency in July 2016. “I knew as an outsider that Virginia had a crowded and competitive marketplace for higher education,�[...]
Checking in
The impact of COVID-19 on hospitality was felt almost immediately in Virginia. According to the U.S. Travel Association, in the first week of March, travel spending was at $521 million across the state, but by the last week of the month, it had fallen to less than $120 million. Most conventions statewide have moved online [&hell[...]
Canceled oyster fest hits Urbanna’s wallet
Here’s a pandemic casualty unlikely to appear on Dr. Fauci’s radar: The annual Urbanna Oyster Festival, traditionally set for the first weekend in November, has been shucked off. Citing risks from COVID-19, the Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation, the event’s sponsor, called off the festival for the first time in 63 years, [...]
Slowdowns ahead
When the COVID-19 outbreak began in March, projects at Howard Shockey & Sons, a Winchester-based commercial construction company, kept moving forward. After all, construction is considered an essential business, and unlike some other states, Virginia did not restrict construction activity at the start of the pandemic. But wh[...]
Thicker than water
“It isn’t personal. It’s just business.” Those phrases are too often used in the commercial world, but they just don’t apply when talking about most family-run enterprises. The business of running these companies is deeply personal. The priorities of family businesses “go well beyond financial concerns,” says B[...]
Back to school
This fall, universities and colleges in Hampton Roads took baby steps forward as they reopened for the fall semester after shutting down in March during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Old Dominion University welcomed students back in late August with a combination of in-person and remote classes. Fall sports are canceled, and the […]
