Sharing the wealth
Virginia small businesses are getting a piece of the biggest highway construction pie ever baked by the Virginia Department of Transportation: the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project. Since April 2019, VDOT has awarded 313 contracts worth a collective $455 million to companies that qualify under the Disadv[...]
A stitch in time
At the end of 2020, Eastern Virginia Medical School firmly rejected a study recommending that the medical school merge to become part of Old Dominion University. But time passes, minds change, and sometimes there’s turnover at the top. In August 2021, Dr. Richard Homan, who’d led EVMS for nearly a decade, retired. By Decem[...]
Supporting the ‘shining star’
Artwork adorns almost every wall of Joan Brock’s immaculate and welcoming Oceanfront home. It’s in the powder room and big, open kitchen. It takes pride of place in a downstairs office and over a fireplace mantle. Large, framed pieces dominate a bright stairwell landing and cozy upstairs sitting room. It’s the accumulation[...]
On the mend
After two years of severe staff shortages at health care facilities nationwide, conditions at the big three hospital systems in Hampton Roads are improving. “The last two years have been some of the most challenging times for nurses in our lifetime,” says Cassie Lewis, chief nursing and quality officer for Bon Secours’ Ham[...]
Launching pad
When COVID-19 hit in spring 2020, Cindy R. Earl lost her job as a furniture company’s sales rep. But the Portsmouth resident’s sudden unemployment came with a positive side effect: She had time to assume care of her ailing grandmother after the pandemic had shuttered the assisted living facility where her grandmother had l[...]
A slow shift
Jeremy Caleb Johnson is advising clients preapproved for a mortgage loan at the beginning of 2022 to adjust expectations. The price of houses they may have looked at just months ago likely not only went up significantly, but the low interest rates available then have also risen dramatically. “What you may have been able to [&h[...]
Money matters
For the most part, the most prominent banking institutions in Hampton Roads stayed the same in fiscal year 2021, with Suffolk-based TowneBank holding the top market share of 27.49% (up nearly 2% from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s June 30, 2020, report) and second-place holders Truist and Wells Fargo banks with just below 20% each. […]
Flood warning
Situated on a bank of the Hague, the Y-shaped inlet off the Elizabeth River that shares a name with the city in the Netherlands, Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art is no stranger to the impacts of high tides, as well as flooded streets and parking lots during heavy rainfalls. Right now, flooding is mainly a […]
Climbing the ladder
Four Hampton Roads companies made it into the elite top 1,000 of this year’s Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, based on revenue growth during the past three years. Although many industries were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the region’s top-ranked Inc. 5000 businesses are in g[...]
All hands on deck
The military’s impact on Hampton Roads is unmistakable. Drive along the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and it’s nearly impossible to miss the hazy gray of U.S. Navy vessels docked at Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval station. A few minutes spent in Virginia Beach and one is likely to hear the roar of a Navy [&h[...]
Opportunity floats
Read the feature on sea level rise in Hampton Roads. Although local, state and federal government officials are leading coordinated efforts to combat flooding, other groups in Virginia see business potential from the crisis. The OpenSeas Technology Innovation Hub, a collaboration between Old Dominion University and William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, is […]
Building up
Over the next several years, the Hampton Roads area will need about 8,000 more people ready to take skilled jobs in the maritime industry, officials at the Maritime Industrial Base Ecosystem estimate. Leaders from higher education and other organizations across the Hampton Roads area are stepping up to make sure those positions [...]