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Port of Virginia
In fiscal 2021, the Port of Virginia set cargo records, generating more than $100.1 billion in ancillary economic impact, according to a report from William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business in conjunction with Glen Allen-based Mangum Economics. The six-terminal system generated 436,667 jobs, $47.4 billion in Virginia gross state product, $27.2 billion […]
Next stop — civilian life
“About every 15 minutes,” Shawn Avery’s phone at the Hampton Roads Workforce Council rings with an employer calling to find skilled workers to fill vacancies, he says. Avery is president and CEO of the council, which oversees federally funded workforce development programs and links employers and workers. In the presen[...]
Forward motion
Shenandoah is known for apple blossoms, but something else is popping up this spring in Front Royal: a new 340,000-square-foot warehouse logistics center. About a half-mile from the Virginia Inland Port, the center is one of roughly a dozen projects in the region built by Equus Capital Partners Ltd., a commercial real estate age[...]
Solid prospects
Detlev Peters has walked into convenience stores in the Hampton Roads area a couple of times recently to find the candy aisle shockingly empty. “Hershey’s, Reese’s, M&M’s, everything, like they would just have a clean shelf of just nothing,” marvels Peters, who graduated with a degree in maritime and supply chain m[...]
Commentary: Adjusting to a new shipping reality
Ocean shipping patterns established during the first year of the pandemic have taken root, and it’s time for shippers to adjust strategies for the long term. That was the takeaway from the first in-person Trans-Pacific Maritime (TPM) Conference in three years, presented in Long Beach, California, in March by IHS Markit Ltd. (n[...]
Ways of the water
Back in 2016, Virginia Coastal Zone Management program planners began talking about ways to protect the Lower Chickahominy River watershed. “We’re like, ‘Well, let’s get ahead of this,’” says Jefferson Flood, an appropriately named coastal planner for the CZM, a network of individuals from Virginia agencies and local[...]
Executive insights
Leaders from Virginia’s maritime and logistics industries share their thoughts about where their sectors stand amid labor shortages, growing cargo volumes and the pandemic’s lingering impacts. Devon C. Anders President, InterChange Group Inc.; Chair, Virginia Maritime Association Valley Logistics Chapter Harrisonburg VB: How is your company hiring and retaining staff? Anders: We have intensified through […][...]
Digging in
As the largest highway construction project in state history, the $3.8 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion is without question the most notable road project currently underway in Virginia. Construction began in October 2020, and workers made a lot of progress last year, remaining on track to reach the Virginia Departme[...]
Harder, better, faster, stronger
On March 20, 1922, the U.S. Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier: the USS Langley. A century later, the Navy is hosting centennial events around the country, including in Norfolk, where the USS Langley was converted into the Navy’s first carrier from the USS Jupiter, the Navy’s first electrically propelled ship. The [...]
Tilting toward windmills
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A.’s October 2021 announcement that it will build the nation’s first offshore-wind blade factory at Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT) has put Hampton Roads on a trajectory to become a supply chain hub for the country’s nascent offshore-wind energy industry. The Spanish wind turbine company [...]
Sound investments
Let’s simply call it a magazine publisher’s reality check. When news reports of supply chain disruptions and record backups at West Coast ports began to appear last year, I immediately thought, “What’s going on at the Port of Virginia?” When I leave downtown Norfolk, it is almost always via the Midtown Tunnel. Emerging[...]
Amazon be nimble, Amazon be quick
When it comes to building warehouses and distribution centers, one company has sought out Virginia over and over again: Amazon.com Inc. The e-commerce giant began opening facilities in Virginia in 2006 and since then has opened more than 30 facilities in the commonwealth, with more on the way as it seeks to shrink the time [&hel[...]
