FOR THE RECORD

Central Virginia 

Electronic circuit board manufacturer and supply chain service provider Jabil plans to establish a
new plant at Crosspointe Logistics Center in Prince George County, creating an expected
352 jobs, Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced in late May. The facility, scheduled to open this fall, will produce critical power distribution systems for Siemens, the Germany-based technology and manufacturing giant specializing in automation, industrial systems, rail transportation and healthcare technology. According to Siemens, the companies plan to invest $30 million to open a 300,000-square-foot facility. The funds will go toward scaling up equipment, tooling, production readiness and operations. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In late May, Richmond Flying Squirrels Managing Partner Lou DiBella filed a federal lawsuit against Thalhimer Realty Partners and its principal, Jason Guillot, for defamation, seeking “tens of millions of dollars.” The lawsuit alleges Guillot told the Richmond Economic Development Authority director that DiBella had threatened to kill Guillot and his family if Guillot did not sell DiBella a land parcel, and that Guillot knew that statement was false. The Squirrels’ new stadium, CarMax Park, is the anchor of the $2.4 billion Diamond District mixed-use development led by Thalhimer. Also in May, City of Richmond officials made progress on an agreement allowing site preparation to move forward on the adjacent Sports Backers Stadium property slated for redevelopment. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Shamin Hotels broke ground in May on a 12-story hotel near Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood that will cost more than $100 million to build. The 253-room hotel, which at 123 feet will be one of the neighborhood’s tallest buildings, will be a dual-brand Marriott International property, with rooms from both Residence Inn and AC Hotels. The project is expected to create about 160 jobs and is slated to be completed in mid-2028. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

After months of debate, the Hanover County Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 in late May to reject a proposed 430-acre data center campus. Denver-based data center developer Tract had sought approval for a conditional-use permit and rezoning for the Mountain Road Technology Park, a multi-building data center development planned along Mountain Road near the Henrico County line and the Chickahominy River. The project was expected to generate an estimated $901 million in property tax revenue and $2.1 billion in sales/use tax revenue. But residents opposed it over water use, plus environmental, traffic and noise concerns. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Hampden-Sydney College President Larry Stimpert will retire at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, the men’s private college announced in June. Stimpert has been president since 2016 and overseen significant fundraising during his tenure, including doubling HSC’s endowment to exceed $300 million. He also led multiple capital projects over the past decade, including construction of the Pauley Science Center. The executive search firm WittKieffer is identifying candidates for Stimpert’s successor, who will become Hampden-Sydney’s 26th president. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Richmond-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Phlow announced in May that co-founder Dr. Eric Edwards has stepped down as its CEO, and board Chairman Tim M. Mayleben has succeeded him. Edwards now serves as chairman emeritus and strategic adviser at the public benefit corporation, which he started in 2020 with Frank Gupton, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor. With more than a quarter-century of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, Mayleben joined Phlow’s business advisory board in 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Eastern Virginia 

St. Louis-based beer producer Anheuser-Busch Cos. announced in late May it is investing $5.8 million to upgrade and expand its Williamsburg brewery. The investment will support increased production of Michelob Ultra, the nation’s top-selling beer, and fund a new technical skills training center in Williamsburg. The facility will be one of 15 the company plans to open nationwide to train workers in areas such as technical fundamentals, digital tools and electric and management systems. Anheuser-Busch said it wants to upskill more than 90% of its manufacturing workforce over the next five years. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Bon Secours broke ground in mid-May on a $200 million, four-story patient tower at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News, a project that will expand emergency and critical care capacity and modernize the facility. The 144,000-square-foot tower will feature redesigned main and emergency entrances meant to improve access and make it easier for patients and their families to navigate the hospital. The health system expects construction on the tower to be completed in 2028. The expansion will double the emergency department’s capacity from 15 to 30 beds, with 10 additional observation
beds. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

KBR Wyle Services, a subsidiary of Texas-based government contractor KBR, in early May said it planned to lay off 118 employees at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on June 30 after the company lost a major follow-on contract for launch range operations support to another company. According to a notice sent to the state, the layoffs are tied to the end of KBR’s Range Operations Contract II, or ROC II, at Wallops Island in Accomack County. In January, NASA awarded the follow-on Wallops Range Contract to McLean-based ARES Technical Services. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

During a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on May 20, Navy official Jason Potter revealed that Newport News Shipbuilding will likely be the final assembly site for the Navy’s proposed Trump-class battleship, a nuclear-powered vessel. The shipyard already builds nuclear-powered submarines for the Navy and is the only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The Navy expects construction on the first ship in the class, the Defiant, to begin in 2028 with delivery targeted for 2036. A HII spokesperson said the shipyard is ready to support the Navy’s requirements and is collaborating with the Navy on the battleship’s design and engineering. (The Virginian-Pilot)

Virginia Beach City Council unanimously agreed in early June to direct staff to draft an ordinance prohibiting large-scale data centers and hyperscale facilities within city limits, while allowing certain colocation facilities and subsea cable landings sites to seek approval through the conditional-use permit process. Once drafted, the amendment will go before the Planning Commission and then later City Council for a final vote. Deputy City Manager Amanda Jarratt noted that the city is not actively recruiting data centers or hyperscalers and doesn’t plan to, due to the projects’ acreage requirements, power demands and water usage needs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Reese Jackson’s tenure as president and CEO of Chesapeake Regional Healthcare president ended May 30 after a decade leading the Hampton Roads health system. Chief Operating Officer and Nursing Officer Amber Egyud was tapped to serve as interim CEO. The leadership change comes as the health system continues to face litigation related to former OB-GYN Javaid Perwaiz, who was convicted in 2020 of healthcare fraud. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Northern Virginia 

Arlington County-based AvalonBay Communities and Chicago-based rival Equity Residential plan an all-stock merger with an enterprise value of about $69 billion, the real estate companies announced in late May. If completed, the merger could reshape the U.S. apartment market, as the combined companies would control more than 180,000 apartments nationwide. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, and AvalonBay President and CEO Benjamin Schall would lead the combined business. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

After five hours of public comment and debate, including a speaker dressed as its namesake beaver, Buc-ee’s received rezoning approval from the Stafford County Board of Supervisors in May to build a travel center in the county. The Texas chain plans to build a 74,000-square-foot store on a 38-acre site off Interstate 95 at Courthouse Road and Austin Ridge Drive, including 120 fuel pumps and 830 parking spaces. It’s expected to create roughly 200 jobs and generate nearly $1.9 million in annual revenue for the county. Buc-ee’s declined to provide a timeline for construction or opening. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

CoStar Group plans to acquire homebuilding data and software firm Zonda for $800 million in cash, the Arlington County real estate data and technology company announced in late May. Zonda provides data, software and online marketplaces for land acquisition, development planning, construction forecasting and home sales, and it has more than 3,000 customers, including builders, developers, suppliers and lenders. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

General Dynamics Information Technology, the Falls Church IT services business unit of Fortune 100 aerospace and defense contractor General Dynamics, might lay off 236 employees at two Northern Virginia locations, depending on the fate of two contracts. GDIT filed two notices with the state in June to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The contractor said it may lay off 133 employees in Falls Church and 103 employees in Arlington if it doesn’t receive contract awards or extensions. Layoffs would take place in late July, GDIT wrote. The unit won a Joint Strike Fighter F-35 IT program support contract with a ceiling value of $155.6 million in 2019. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Privately held IT firm Spatial Front will soon relocate its corporate headquarters from Bethesda, Maryland, to Crystal City in Arlington County, creating 450 jobs in Virginia. According to a June announcement from Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Spatial Front is investing $6 million in the relocation. Founded in 2008, Spatial Front provides IT and professional services to federal agencies, specializing in geospatial technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning and cloud services. Spanberger approved a $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Arlington with the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

A pair of Maryland real estate firms are exploring their options, including partial redevelopment, for an aging Tysons office complex the duo acquired late last year for pennies on the dollar compared to previous sales. An affiliate of Rockwater Ventures and Buchanan Partners in December jointly bought the two-building American Center office complex for $15.25 million, according to public records. The seller was an affiliate of Banyan Street Capital, which paid $68.5 million for the same property in 2016, and in 2007, American Center sold for $120 million. Banyan Street continues to manage American Center on the new owner’s behalf. (Washington Business Journal)

Roanoke/ Lynchburg/ New River Valley

Roanoke-based Carilion Clinic plans a joint venture with Pennsylvania-based Select Medical
to build and operate a 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital on Ninth Street in southeast Roanoke, the health system announced in May. Select Medical, a provider of critical illness recovery hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and outpatient rehab centers, will serve as the majority owner and manager of Carilion Rehabilitation Hospital. The facility is scheduled to open in 2028. Carilion will then close its 34-bed acute rehabilitation unit at Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital. The project carries an estimated capital cost of $112.2 million, and construction is expected to begin this year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Centra Health announced plans in early June to lay off about 90 employees, about 1% of its workforce, although 35 have been offered open jobs. The Lynchburg-based health system, which serves more than half a million people across Central and Southern Virginia, has about 7,300 employees. The restructuring will help Centra respond to pressures facing the health care system because of the federal budget reconciliation, which is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over a decade as well as other economic challenges. Centra said it continues to hire nurses and other health care providers. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Jerry “Trey” Falwell III, son of former Liberty University President and Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. and grandson of the private Christian university’s late founder, is suing the school for $1.75 million. He alleges that Liberty breached his employment contract by failing to pay salary and benefits he says he was owed after the university terminated him in 2021. The lawsuit comes about two years after Liberty and Falwell Jr. settled three lawsuits following Falwell’s 2020 resignation amid a sex scandal involving his wife and a former pool boy. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Construction is underway on Rocky Forge, a nearly 80-megawatt wind farm on North Mountain in Botetourt County and the state’s first onshore wind farm. Government officials and community boosters gathered June 6 with Apex Clean Energy and its contractors to sign a 254-foot wind turbine blade, marking a milestone as workers begin erecting 13 wind turbines. Twelve years have passed since Charlottesville-based Apex first announced plans for the wind farm, which faced community pushback. The company expects the facility to be operational by the end of the year, with Google purchasing its power. (Radio IQ)

Virginia Tech received an anonymous $75 million gift, the largest commitment in the university’s history, according to a June 4 announcement. Much of the donation will support Virginia Tech Athletics and its “Invest to Win” strategy, which aims to strengthen the Hokies’ competitiveness in the NCAA’s Division I and Football Bowl Subdivision. A sizable portion will benefit the Honors College, including the Calhoun Honors Discovery Program, an interdisciplinary initiative that brings students together to address real-world challenges in collaboration with faculty, industry and nonprofit partners. Officials said details, including the funding split and timeline, are still being finalized. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors unanimously elected Jim Miller as rector June 2, days after Gov. Abigail Spanberger removed former Rector John Rocovich from the board. Miller, founder and CEO of Leesburg-based Quantum Leap and a 1997 Virginia Tech alumnus, will begin his term July 1. Rocovich filed a lawsuit in June against Spanberger, the university and its board following his removal. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Southern Virginia

A new facility will help the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program in Danville move toward its goal of graduating 1,000 workers a year. The ATDM Maritime Training Center will serve as the program’s new home on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. Local officials joined leaders from the U.S. Navy, the Submarine Industrial Base and the Department of Defense on June 3 for a ribbon-cutting for the 100,000-square-foot facility. Since 2021, ATDM has graduated 1,400 workers trained to repair, upfit and build submarines, with skills transferable to other defense industry jobs. (Cardinal News)

Appalachian Power purchased Henry County’s Patriot Centre II, about 1,202 acres, for $1.2 million on May 25, according to County Administrator Dale Wagoner. The utility is considering options for the undeveloped site, according to Appalachian Power spokesperson George A. Porter. The Henry County Industrial Development Authority purchased the land in 2007 for about $2.3 million. Occupants of the original Patriot Centre include Nathan Trotter, a supplier and recycler of tin and tin alloy products; Eastman Chemical, a specialty materials company; and Howmet Aerospace, which provides engineered solutions for the aerospace and transportation industries. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Billy Wooten, former executive director of the Center for Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness at Averett University, pleaded guilty on Nov. 5, 2025, to federal wire fraud in connection with the theft of $145,000 in 2023. He was sentenced May 1 in U.S. District Court
in Roanoke. Wooten, who has already paid restitution to the university, will serve a year and one day in prison and pay a fine of $10,000. Court documents reviewed by the Danville Register & Bee do not reveal any link to financial troubles that started to surface at Averett early in 2024. (Danville Register & Bee)

Ohio-based BrightView Health has expanded its Martinsville facility with a new opioid treatment program that will provide methadone treatment along with counseling, medical care and recovery support services. The program, operating at BrightView’s center on Virginia Avenue, is designed to improve access to treatment for people with opioid use disorder by offering multiple services in one location. Company officials said the approach helps address barriers to care, including transportation challenges, work schedules, childcare responsibilities and stigma associated with addiction treatment. BrightView operates more than 70 addiction treatment centers across several states. (Martinsville Bulletin)

Danville City Manager Ken Larking does not expect significant changes at Caesars Virginia after Caesars Entertainment entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Fertitta Entertainment for about $17.6 billion, including the assumption of about $11.9 billion of Caesars’ debt. The Danville casino, which opened in December 2024, is owned in partnership with Caesars Entertainment and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Larking expects the casino to keep the Caesars Virginia name if the deal is completed. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

More federal funding is flowing to Danville Regional Airport. U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced $439,850 in May for the airport as part of $21 million in Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program grants awarded to eight airports in the state. In Danville, the funding will support design work to rehabilitate the lighting system for the primary runway and parallel taxiway, according to Marc Adelman, the city’s director of transportation services. The grant is separate from $11 million in ongoing projects designed to make the airport a stronger educational hub. (Danville Register & Bee)

Southwest Virginia

Bristol Virginia City Council approved spending nearly $400,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding May 26. The city received more than $287,600 in new funding for the fiscal year that began July 1, combined with more than $109,400 in unspent funds from previous years. More than $187,000 will support city projects, including sidewalk repairs, demolition of blighted structures, emergency home repairs and code enforcement. Another $43,000 will go to seven local agencies, including Crossroads Medical Mission, a mobile clinic providing medical services for people
in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, while $57,500 is allocated for administration.
(Bristol Herald Courier)

Abingdon-based Friends of Southwest Virginia has launched Destination Southwest Virginia, a regional initiative aimed at strengthening the economy through tourism, outdoor recreation, arts, culture and heritage. Funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, the effort will serve 19 counties and four cities. The organization is partnering with Destination by Design, a North Carolina-based destination planning and community development firm, and Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based nonprofit research group, to assess regional assets, the visitor economy, market opportunities and economic impact. The project will inform a 10-year strategic plan. (News release)

More than 200 employees at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol voted to join the Teamsters, according to a June 2 announcement. The table game dealers and dual-rate supervisors approved representation by Teamsters Local 519. They are seeking a first contract that includes higher wages and improved benefits. Dealers operate table games such as blackjack, roulette and poker. The newly organized workers account for about 17% of the casino’s workforce. (News release; Bristol Herald Courier)

Southwest Virginia needs at least 8,600 new housing units in the short term to support regional economic development, Gov. Abigail Spanberger told developers, executives and local leaders May 21. Spanberger, the keynote speaker at the Southwest Virginia Economic Forum at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, said housing shortages are a major barrier to job creation and investment in the region. Speaking later with reporters, she said company leaders attending May’s SelectUSA Investment Summit, which promotes foreign direct investment in the United States, expressed interest in Southwest Virginia but are concerned about housing availability for workers and executives. (Cardinal News)

A developer plans a large data center complex in eastern Wythe County, off Interstate 81, near the Pulaski County line. The project by Charlotte, North Carolina-based TAC Data Centers would require more than a gigawatt of power capacity and would consist of about nine to 11 buildings totaling 3.5 million to 4 million square feet on approximately 1,000 acres. This is the second data center project announced for Wythe County. A company called Solis Arx plans to develop a data center campus in the county’s Progress Park. (Cardinal News)

Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced May 21 a $127,500 Rural Health Transformation grant to Virginia Highlands Community College to expand its licensed practical nursing program through additional course offerings, increased student capacity and instructional support. Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation initiative will provide $189.5 million in first-year funding to modernize rural healthcare systems across the state. During a visit to the college, Spanberger also met with local healthcare leaders to discuss workforce shortages, access to care and financial pressures facing rural providers. The state will engage local governments, healthcare systems, educational institutions and others as the initiative moves forward in the coming months. (News release)