For the Record – December 2016

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
  Commonwealth Assisted Living   has completed its acquisition of Danville-based Stratford House. Financial details of the purchase were not disclosed. Charlottesville-based Commonwealth will invest $3.5 million to update the senior-living community and add its memory-care program. The expansion is expected to create 25 jobs. The renovations are expected to take about 18 months. The community will be called Commonwealth Senior Living at Stratford House. Stratford House is Commonwealth’s second senior-living community in Southern Virginia and its 23rd in the state. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

  Danville  ,  Patrick Henry ,  Virgin ia Western  and New River community colleges will coll aborate on The Davenport Early Childhood Development Institute, aimed at improving early childhood education in Southern and Southwest Virginia. The purpose of the project is to create a talented workforce in Southern and Southwest Virginia by ensuring access to high-quality training and education for individuals working in child-care centers or family child-care homes. The institute also will focus on increasing access to high-quality child-care options for working parents. The program is being funded by a $1 million gift by philanthropists Ben and Betty Davenport of Chatham. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The owner/developer of the former Burlington Industries/Klopman Mills site in Hurt announced its initial plans to develop the site. Construction of the 800-acre business park will begin in the coming year, according to a joint news release from Samet Corp., Hurt Partners LLC, Pittsylvania County and Hurt. The name of the business park will be the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park. (GoDanRiver.com)

The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) will entering a partnership with Siemens, a global technology company, to establish a noncredit Level 3 mechatronics training program. The field of mechatronics combines mechanical, electrical, computer, and software and control engineering to design and manufacture products. Siemens Mechatronic Systems training and certification allows industrial maintenance technicians working in any industry, with any equipment, to reap the benefits of the training and certification. (News release)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Henrico County-based  Alpha Omega Investment Advisors , which also operates as Alpha Omega Wealth Management, has acquired Diveley Lind & Associates, an investment advisory firm based in Augusta County. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Diveley Lind name was changed to Alpha Omega Investment Advisors at the close of the deal. The purchase will not result in any job reductions or disruptions. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The  Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce  held its Salute to Small Business Awards in Waynesboro in November. Zeus Theaters received the small business award; Michelle Gallaugher of Staunton Olive Oil Co. received the entrepreneur of the year; the United Way of Greater Augusta County received the nonprofit of the year; and Lt. Minday Craun of the Augusta County Fire/Rescue was named the community hero. (News Leader)

A new brewery has opened in Rockbridge County joining the  Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail . Great Valley Farm Brewery is located in Natural Bridge. Owners Nathan and Irma Bailey moved to the area from  Charlotte, N.C., to open the brewery. They plan to grow hops and many other ingredients in Great Valley beer on site. (The Roanoke Times)

The Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport Commission announced a new partnership with ViaAir, offering daily nonstop service to Charlotte, N.C., and one-stop service to Orlando/Sanford, Fla. Both routes will be operated utilizing a 50-seat Embraer ERJ 145 regional jet. This is the first time the Shenandoah Valley has had a partner airline offering daily commercial flights with a jet aircraft. This new service will replace the current air carrier at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport, Silver Airways. (News release)

The Shenandoah Valley Partnership received a Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council in September for its Harvest Box Save the Date project. The partnership created a Save-the-Date marketing promotion to entice a select group of site location consultants to attend a September 2016 familiarization tour, where consultants visited 11 local businesses in six different localities. (News Leader)

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
Chubb, a global property and casualty insurance company, has filed a state notice confirming that 71 staffers at its Salem office are losing their jobs. The job cuts will take effect Dec. 31, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. Chubb, formerly ACE Limited, said that the Salem downsizing is part of a realignment prompted by ACE’s purchase of Chubb Corp. in January.  ( The Roanoke Times) 

Downtown Roanoke Inc. has created a pilot parking program for downtown retailers and restaurants to encourage more people to park downtown. The new program allows merchants to give parking passes to their customers. Passes can be used for up to two hours of free parking at designated parking garages any day before Jan. 31. (The Roanoke Times)

The New River Valley Commerce Park, which has sat mostly unused since its inception two decades ago, received its latest marketing tool in November when it was deemed “business ready” by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. That means the 1,000 acres of rolling hills in Pulaski County have the kind of industrial-grade water supply, electric, sewer and gas that major manufacturers are looking for when they decide where to build a new facility. A handful of sites around the state received the designation as part of the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program. (The Roanoke Times)

Radford University’s Reed and Curie halls will get a state-funded $34 million facelift, the school announced in October. The university is receiving the money as part of a 2016 state bond package. The connected academic buildings primarily house the university’s College of Science and Technology. (The Roanoke Times)

Bristol-based Strongwell Corp. has been named Manufacturer of the Year by the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Manufacturing (SVAM). Presented in Abingdon, at SVAM’s annual Manufacturers’ Appreciation and Awards Dinner, Strongwell was recognized for its overall achievements in manufacturing and its role as a corporate citizen and advocate for the manufacturing industry. (News release)

Carilion Clinic has broken ground on a new family practice location in Rocky Mount. The site will replace the current Rocky Mount Family Practice location at 195 Maple Avenue. Dr. James Maxey, Dr. Sarah Stubbs and nurse Tina Muse will see patients in the new location once it is completed. Another physician is also being recruited to join the practice. (News release)

EASTERN VIRGINIA
 Armada Hoffler Properties Inc.  held a groundbreaking ceremony in October for its newest $35 million mixed-use development project in the Town Center of Virginia Beach. The addition is expected to include 39,000 square feet of street-level retail and restaurant space and about 120 luxury apartment homes. Zeiders American Dream Theater will invest about $8 million in a performing arts theater, while the city of Virginia Beach will invest approximately $3 million in public infrastructure. The project is scheduled for completion in spring 2018. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The  Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization  v oted unanimously in October to recommend widening the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel to six lanes from four. The project, known as Alterna tive A, is one of four alternatives proposed to fix congestion at the tunnel and Interstate 64 under the Hampton Roads Water Crossing study. Alternative A was the cheapest — $4 billion — and smallest of the proposals. Under the plan, the expanded HRBT would open in 2024. (The Virginian-Pilot)

Newport News-based  Huntington Ingalls Industries  plans to acquire Camber Corp., a government services company based in Huntsvi lle, Ala., for $380 million. Camber has annual revenue of about $364 million and 1,700 employees. HII is the parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia’s largest industrial employer. When the Camber acquisition closes, HII will reorganize its services businesses to establish a new segment, HII Technical Solutions. The acquisition is expected to close in late 2016. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The voters of Virginia Beach have spoken: They overwhelmingly don’t want light rail, voting down a referendum 57-43 percent. More than 166,000 voters weighed in on the nonbinding referendum proposing a $243 million, 3.5-mile rail extension from Norfolk to Town Center. A majority of council members said they will follow the results of the referendum. (The Virginian-Pilot)

High-Occupancy Toll Express Lanes are coming to Hampton Roads in 2017. The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted in October to approve making HOT lanes out of 8.4 miles of reversible HOV lanes from the Interstate 64/264 interchange to I-564 near Norfolk Naval Station. The goal is to open the under-utilized carpool lanes to drivers willing to pay a toll to get out of congestion. (The Virginian-Pilot)

The Navy’s economic impact on Hampton Roads surpassed $10 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2015, increasing by about $770 million over the previous year, according to figures released in October by Navy Region Mid-Atlantic. This is the first time in three years that the Navy’s direct economic impact on the region has passed the $10 billion mark. Since then, the Navy’s economic impact has rebounded, though it remains below the nearly $15 billion in 2011, when the service had 87 ships homeported in the region and 83,095 active-duty personnel. (The Virginian-Pilot)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA
E. Hunt Burke, chairman and CEO of Burke & Herbert Bank, was honored as the 2016 Alexandria Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year at the chamber’s Business Awards Celebration held in October. Other winners were: The Campagna Center (Association/Nonprofit Business of the Year); Access National Bank (Rising Star Business of the Year); Alexandria Cupcake (Small Business of the Year); Halt, Buzas & Powell LTD (Medium Business of the Year); Carr Workplaces (Large Business of the Year); Cotton & Co. LLP (Overall Business of the Year); and Town Crier Ben Fiore-Walker (Spirit of the Chamber Award) (Patch.com)

Chantilly- based Engility  Holdings Inc. announced in October that it was awarded a five-year $369 million contract with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems — the company’s largest win since its inception in July 2012. Engility will provide engineering, technical assistance, financial and program management services to support NextGen, a program to modernize the nation’s air traffic management system. (Washington Business Journal)

Virginia expects to save $2.5 billion in a public-private partnership contract that the state intends to award to a consortium to build express toll lanes and other improvements along 22.5 miles of Interstate 66 outside the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia in order to relieve the worst traffic congestion in the state. The state has selected Express Mobility Partners — a consortium of Spanish multinational company Ferrovial; a subsidiary, Cintra; global investment and asset management firm Meridiam; and construction firm Allan Myers — to finance, design, maintain and operate the toll expressway under a 50-year concession. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Orbital ATK returned to flight Oct. 17 by christening a refurbished Virginia launchpad with a smooth rocket liftoff two years after an explosion caused $15 million in damage. Flying an updated Antares rocket with new engines, the company sent its unmanned Cygnus spacecraft into orbit at 7:45 p.m., chasing down the International Space Station on a cargo resupply mission for NASA. (The Washington Post)

Boston-based Iron Mountain Inc. has begun construction at its 83-acre data center campus in Manassas. Kessinger/Hunter & Co. is the developer of the first 150,000-square-foot data center on campus. Iron Mountain’s Northern Virginia data center campus will have 60 megawatts of capacity spread across at least four facilities. The first building, expected to open next summer, will offer 10.5 megawatts of critical power. Iron Mountain is a major provider of storage and information management services. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Tysons-based Nehemiah Security, a cybersecurity services company, has acquired Rockville. Md.-based Triumfant, a company that creates software detecting and preventing cyberattacks. Financial details of the acquisition were not released. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

CENTRAL VIRGINIA
Kilmarnock-based  Bay Banks  of Virginia Inc. and Petersburg-based Virginia BanCorp. Inc. signed a merger agreement that would create a Richmond-based combined bank with $794 million in total assets. Bay Banks is the holding company for Bank of Lancaster and Bay Trust Co., while Virginia BanCorp.’s subsidiary is Virginia Commonwealth Bank. The holding company will continue to be called Bay Banks of Virginia Inc. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In one of the biggest office deals in downtown Richmond this year,  CoStar Group Inc. , a major provider of real estate information and analysis, plans to establish a research operations headquarters expected to create 732 jobs. State and local officials said the $8.17 million project will have an economic impact of $250 million on the Richmond area. CoStar plans to have 200 employees in its Richmond office by the end of the year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Richmond-based  Dominion Resources  has acquired the development rights to a 60-megawatt solar facility in Currituck County, N.C., as part of a power purchase agreement with three Boston institutions looking to cut their carbon footprints. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will buy electricity for at least 25 years, along with Boston Medical Center and the Post Office Square Redevelopment Corp., from the 650-acre Summit Farms facility near Moyock. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

 The Hilb Group LLC , a Henrico County-based insurance broker, has acquired Indianapolis-based Fundamental Insurance & Retirement Planning (FIRP) Inc. No financial details were released about the deal, which closed Oct 1. With this acquisition, The Hilb Group expands its footprint into the Midwest. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

 Virginia Commonwealth University  and the Richmond Flying Squirrels will be “major contributors” to ward the construction of a roughly $55 million baseball stadium near the Boulevard, according to an announcement made in October. Plans are still in the early stages, according to a news release issued jointly with the city of Richmond, but the university and the team signed a memorandum of understanding at the end of last month outlining how they hope to proceed. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The Charlottesville-based University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business is the third-best “overall MBA program” in the world, according to The Economist. Only the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management were ranked higher in the magazine’s annual list of the top 100 full-time MBA programs in the world. (Daily Progress)