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Remote learning
For Virginia’s college students and faculty, 2020 was the year of Zoom. For the institutions themselves, though, it was a year that brought economic heartbreak and difficult decisions, although it also had a few brighter spots. Many universities faced budget crises due to the costs of housing refunds and moving classes online,[...]
Rolling forward
Once a big economic development is announced, it can be years before it comes to fruition. But that wasn’t the case with Mack Trucks Inc., one of North America’s largest producers of heavy-duty trucks, which took only nine months from announcement to starting full production of medium-duty trucks in the Roanoke Valley. In Ja[...]
The VirginiaBusiness.com Top Five
The top trending stories on VirginiaBusiness.com from Jan. 16 to Feb. 15 included the news that Herndon-based national security contractor Peraton was following up its $3.4 billion cash acquisition of Northrop Grumman’s federal IT and mission support services business by purchasing Perspecta. Perspecta to be acquired for $7.1B in all-cash deal: Following sale rumors, the […]
A new landmark for Alexandria
Mark Jinks sees the unoccupied, former site of Landmark Mall as a blemish on Alexandria. “When everybody drives by, they’re like, ‘What’s going on here? It’s closed. Why doesn’t the city do something?’” says Jinks, the city manager of Alexandria. After working for 16 years to see the 52-acre site redeveloped, Jin[...]
Shooting for the moon
Heading into 2020, plenty of signs pointed to sunny skies ahead for Leidos Holdings Inc. A few years earlier, the Reston-based science, engineering and technology company had become an IT behemoth. It doubled in size after its 2016 acquisition of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business segme[...]
Chambers of commerce
Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Richmond 804.644.1607 vachamber.com CENTRAL VIRGINIA Altavista Area Chamber of Commerce Altavista 434.369.6665 altavistachamber.com Amherst County Chamber of Commerce Amherst 434.946.0990 amherstvachamber.com Appomattox County Chamber of Commerce Appomattox 434.352.2621 appomattoxchamber.org Be[...]
Great expectations
There was perhaps no greater portent last year of Virginia’s rising fortunes than the news that the Old Dominion had regained its perch as the nation’s No. 1 state for business. After eight years, CNBC once again ranked Virginia No. 1 in its annual Top States for Business study. The business news network cited Virginia’s [[...]
Winds of change
In September, Dominion Energy Inc. unveiled an ambitious, $8 billion project to erect the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the Virginia Beach coast. If all goes to plan, it will power 650,000 Virginia homes by 2026. This year, Dominion expects to bring its offshore wind pilot project online and start ocean survey work o[...]
Cyclical patterns
Last June, Volvo Group announced plans to invest nearly $400 million, add 350,000 square feet to its Dublin complex in Pulaski County — already the largest Volvo truck plant in the world — and hire 777 new workers over the next six years. Five months after that announcement, though, Volvo said it would lay off […]
Banner year
You’d be hard pressed to find an economic development official who had a better first year on the job than Jay Langston did in 2019. With Langston at the helm, the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, a regional economic development group, announced a record $1.5 billion in business investment last year, anchored by Merck &[...]
Changing times
Town houses and apartments, storefronts and restaurants, grassy medians, pocket parks, sidewalks everywhere. Doesn’t this look a lot like a downtown? Picking up his mail in slippers and shorts on a brisk January day, Tandy Harris pauses to consider the question. “It does,” he agrees. “It’s got all the bells and whistle[...]
The bigger they are …
After 31 years in business, LeClairRyan, the state’s fifth-largest law firm, announced in August 2019 that it would be shutting down. It filed for bankruptcy in September and entered liquidation proceedings a month later. The firm had faced financial and legal struggles, as well as the exodus of many of its associates and shar[...]
