For the Record – February 2017

EASTERN VIRGINIA
Glen Allen-based Cushman & Wakefield|Thalhimer announced in December the sale of approximately 2.95 acres of land at 845 S. Battlefield Blvd. in Chesapeake. Big Ugly Brewing Co. purchased the land from TKW Group LLC for $375,000 for the relocation and expansion of its Great Bridge Brewery. (News release)

Students interested in becoming paramedics have a new opportunity at ECPI University. The Newport News campus has added an associate’s degree program in emergency medical services to its catalog, a 16-month year-round program for those new to the field. Existing emergency medical technicians can graduate in about a year. The first cohort of 17 students started in December. (Daily Press)

Virginia Beach-based Globalinx Data Center LLC agreed to buy 10 acres of land in the Corporate Landing Business Park from the Virginia Beach Development Authority for $2 million, the city said. The company plans to develop a 138,000-square-foot international data center. The facility would be near the recently announced Telefonica cable landing station, Globalinx CEO Greg Twitt said. (Daily Press)

Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries has received a $1.4 billion contract to build a 12th San Antonio-class amphibious warship. The contract will allow HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding to proceed with detailed design and construction of the future USS Fort Lauderdale. Ingalls has built and delivered 10 ships in the San Antonio class. The 11th is the future USS Portland. It launched last year and is scheduled for sea trials in mid-2017. (Daily Press)

Hunt Mortgage Group, a New York City-based lender, has provided a $14 million Fannie Mae loan to finance the acquisition of a multifamily property in Virginia Beach. Waterside at Lynnhaven includes 25 apartment buildings with 192 units and a leasing office. The buildings, situated on 15.7 acres, were developed in 1966 with 168,360 square feet of space. The property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units. According to Hunt Mortgage Group, the property is self-managed by the borrower, Waterside DNB LLC. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Isle of Wight County lost one-third of its entire cotton crop in 2016, mainly due to extreme amounts of rain that drenched the area in September and October, experts said. The Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors voted in December to ask Gov. Terry McAuliffe to declare the county an agriculture disaster area, which would enable farmers to apply for low-interest emergency loans. The total loss was estimated at $2.4 million. (Daily Press)

James City County is searching for a new director of economic development. Former director Russell Seymour has moved to the General Services department, says Patrick O. Teague, county director of human resources. Seymour had been the county’s director of economic development since 2010. Teague said the county hopes to have the position filled by February or March. (The Virginia Gazette)

Chesapeake-based LTD Hospitality Group has bought the 183-room Magnuson Hotel in Newport News. LTD planned to close and restore the guestrooms, lobby, restaurant and more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotel is scheduled to reopen by the end of 2017 as a full-service Holiday Inn. The price of the purchase and the amount to be spent on the renovation were not disclosed. Founded in 1983, LTD Hospitality Group has several business units, including asset management, hotel management and development specializing in the lodging real estate sector. (Virginia­­Business.com)

Murphy Business & Financial Corp. LLC, a full-service business brokerage firm with more than 180 offices in the United States and Canada, recently announced the opening of an office in Virginia Beach. The office will support entrepreneurs with the sale of their businesses, purchases, valuations, and mergers and acquisitions.  The new office serves Hampton Roads and surrounding communities in southeast Virginia. (News release)

The  Port of Virginia  broke its annual record for container cargo volume in 2016. The port moved 2,655,705 containers, measured in standard 20-foot units, or TEUs. That’s up 4.2 percent from the 2,549,270 units handled in 2015, previously the port’s highest-volume year on record. Import and export volumes were up 6 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, year over year. The fourth quarter of 2016 was also the best in the port’s history, with double-digit gains in volume as well as increased market share of East Coast cargo volume, which grew from 12.9 percent to 14.5 percent. (The Virginian-Pilot)

Norfolk-based  Smartmouth Brewing Co . is adding a second location in Vir ginia Beach. The new brewery site is expected to open in the fall at 313 32nd St. Smartmouth’s Norfolk brewery, located in the Chelsea neighborhood, will remain the company’s primary brewing, packaging and distribution facility. The new space includes 7,957 square feet inside, plus a 1,500-square-foot porch/loading dock in the back. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust Inc., a Virginia Beach-based commercial real estate investment company, announced in December that it acquired Rivergate Shopping Center, a 205,811-square-foot, Publix-anchored shopping center in Macon, Ga., for $37.25 million. Rivergate has eight outparcels with diverse national tenants including a stand-alone Starbucks and Buffalo Wild Wings. Wheeler REIT said it will evaluate the potential sale of all or a portion of the outparcels as part of its capital recycling strategy in the near future. (Inside Business)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY
The Budget Inn in Shenandoah has new owners and will eventually be getting a redesign and new name. Buck Shifflett, who owns two Lydia Mountain Lodge motels in Stanardsville, purchased the Budget Inn in November. The 20-room motel was purchased for $250,000. Construction is expected to begin early this year and be completed by the end of 2017. The Budget Inn will become a Lydia Mountain Lodge motel. (Page News and Courier)

In December, federal and state officials said the commonwealth will benefit from a $50 million settlement with DuPont stemming from the release of mercury from the company’s former Waynesboro plant. They say the settlement with the chemical company would be the largest natural resources settlement in Virginia history. The settlement terms are outlined in a proposed consent decree filed in federal court in Harrisonburg in December. The settlement is subject to final approval by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

DuPont Community Credit Union has announced plans to expand its presence in the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County community with the construction of its fourth Harrisonburg location. The new office will be located on the corner of Stone Port Boulevard and Stone Spring Road in the new Stone Port Development area near Sentara RMH Medical Center. Construction is set to begin this spring. (The Northern Virginia Daily)

Eight counties and five cities in the Shenandoah Valley are teaming up to launch a branding campaign aimed at increasing regional tourism. The Today’s Shenandoah Valley campaign combines marketing efforts from Frederick County in the north to Rockbridge County in the south. (The Shenandoah Valley-Herald)

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
 Blue Ridge Aquaculture  will invest $3.2 million to expand its operation in Henry County and create five new jobs. Incentives for the project included a $50,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, which Henry County matched with local funds and a $25,000 grant from The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission. Founded in 1993, Blue Ridge Aquaculture is the largest producer of aquaculture-raised tilapia in the world. (Martinsville Bulletin)

There were almost 2,000 available jobs in the  Dan River Region  in 2015-16, nearly double the number from the previous year, according to a recent report from the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce. There were 1,892 job openings in Danville and Pittsylvania County from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, according to Chamber President Laurie Moran. That’s 96 percent more than the 969 jobs available in fiscal year 2014-15, according to the Danville-Pittsylvania County Business Services Report. (Danville Register & Bee) 

The  Danville Science Cente r, a division of the Scienc e Museum of Virginia, recently completed the master plan for the facility’s future, which was to be presented to Danville City Council in January. The plan includes making improvements to the center, bringing in new permanent exhibits and creating a separate space for young learners over the next five years. Museum officials are not sure of the total cost of the enhancements or when they would take place. (Danville Register & Bee)

Canada-based Novatech Group is investing $3 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in Henry County. The project is expected to create 50 jobs. Novatech, which is based in Quebec, makes door glass, steel doors, patio doors, retractable screens and insulated glass. The company will lease a 100,000-square-foot facility to produce and distribute a variety of patio doors. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

ROANOKE/NEW RIVER VALLEY
In 2016 Blacksburg received roughly half as many site plans as in 2015 and the lowest number since at least 2012, according to records obtained in December. Site plans — basically layouts of proposed developments — are considered by local planning officials to be one of the early signals of future or potential economic activity. Blacksburg received 16 site plans in 2016. In contrast, the town had received 31 in both 2015 and 2014, 27 in 2013 and 22 in 2012. (The Roanoke Times)

Two Virginia civil engineering and survey firms,  Hurt & Proffitt (H&P)  and Anderson & Associates Inc., merged Jan. 1. Both firms are employee owned. Anderson & Associates  has joined Hurt & Proffitt’s operation and is doing business as H&P. The office remains in Montgomery County. Founded in 1968, Anderson & Associates is a professional design services firm specializing in civil engineering, surveying and GIS. H&P was founded in 1973. It has offices in Lynchburg, Roanoke and Wytheville. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Nearly 17 months after Norfolk Southern Corp. listed its regional headquarters building in downtown Roanoke for sale, the 11-story office property has sold to a group of local investors who plan to lease it to multiple tenants. Both Norfolk Southern and 110 Franklin LLC confirmed in December that the sale had closed for an undisclosed price. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

  Virginia Tech   and  Faceboo k have signe d  an agreement that will remove barriers and make it easier to work together on future research projects. It’s one of 17 such arrangements, called sponsored academic research agreements, that Facebook executive Regina Dugan announced late last year. Other participating institutions include Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. (The Roanoke Times)

In December, Volvo Trucks North America announced it would eliminate 500 jobs at its Pulaski County plant, effective Feb. 13, so it could adjust production to market demand. The company has since canceled the layoffs. “We’ve continued to monitor the ongoing reduction in new truck inventory across the industry in the weeks since the original announcement, and we’re encouraged by the trend,” Volvo Trucks North America spokesman John Mies said in a statement. The December announcement came after a year of layoffs that had already cut about 800 jobs at Volvo’s only truck-making plant in the United States.  (The Roanoke Times)

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
Sears, the final remaining anchor store in Bristol Mall and one of its original tenants, will close in March. In January, Sears Holdings announced plans to close 26 Sears locations in 17 states — including the Bristol store — and 78 Kmart stores in 26 states. In December, the struggling retailer had announced plans to shutter 16 other Sears locations and 30 Kmart stores. All are expected to close by the end of the first quarter. The Sears store at Bristol Mall occupies nearly 94,000 square feet. Once the store closes, it will leave the Bristol Mall at about 10 percent capacity with just six remaining businesses, Belmeade Formal Wear, GameStop, Bath & Body Works, Bounce Bristol, Misty Mountain Designs and KSS, a school supplies store. (Bristol Herald Courier)

Students at Washington County-based Emory & Henry College hoping to become lawyers will have a faster path to completion of their degrees as a result of an agreement with Ohio Northern University (ONU). The 3 + 3 Legal Education Admissions Program (LEAP) will allow students to complete their undergraduate education and their law degree training in six years instead of the normally required seven years of study. Under the agreement, students with the appropriate test scores and grade point average will be guaranteed admission to ONU’s Pettit College of Law. (News release)

   Freddy’s Frozen Custard      and Steakburgers   and  Buffalo Wild Wings  o  pened at The Falls in Bristol in December. The two restaurants occupy opposite ends of a multitenant structure across from Lowe’s and Cabela’s. This is the first Freddy’s in Southwest Virginia. The restaurant also has two other Virginia locations, in Fairfax and Fredericksburg. (Bristol Herald Courier)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA
McLean-based  Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. ’s $250 million acquisition of Laurel, Md.-based digital services and federal cloud firm Aquilent will be delayed by three months, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Originally slated to close Dec. 31, the deal will instead close on March 31— the last day of Booz Allen’s fiscal year. In that time, Booz Allen and Aquilent will “continue to work on certain contract transition related matters,” the filing stated. (Washington Business Journal)

Westminster, Colo.-based cybersecurity firm Coalfire Systems Inc. has acquired Vienna-based  Veris Group  to become a major cybersecurity and threat assessment consultancy to federal agencies, businesses and cloud-computing service providers looking to do business with the federal government. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The combined company has 550 employees, generates about $100 million in annual revenue and aims to maintain a 30 percent annual growth rate, the companies said. (Denver Business Journal)

Nearly 10 months after announcing plans to spin off its real estate and timeshare businesses, McLean-based  Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.  split into three in January. The transaction created two new public companies: a real estate investment trust called Park Hotels & Resorts and the timeshare business Hilton Grand Vacations.  Former RLJ Lodging Trust CEO Thomas Baltimore is heading up Park Hotels & Resorts, and CEO Mark Wang will continue his leadership of Hilton Grand Vacations. (Washington Business Journal)

Sterling-based  Neusta r announced plans to be acquired by a private equity firm for $2.9 billion. The information services company said it has agreed to be bought by a private investment group led by San Francisco-based Golden Gate Capital.  The deal, which has been approved by the company’s board of directors, is expected to close by the third quarter. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

CENTRAL VIRGINIA
Six months after merging with  Door to Door Organics , Charlottesville-based online grocer Relay Foods announced in January that it will begin operating  under the Door to Door brand. Like Relay Foods, Door to Door delivers groceries to its customers’ front doors. The company serves customers in 16 states. (The Daily Progress)

A German manufacturing company, iMPREG Group, has leased about 5,000 square feet of space near Richmond International Airport for its first U.S. location. It initially employed about six people involved in distribution operations. Plans for a second phase, however, would enable iMPREG  to manufacture its product, fiberglass reinforced liner systems used in trenchless pipe projects. That $5.4 million investment would increase the company’s workforce at the site to 60 employees.  (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Media General Inc., a Richmond-based company that once owned newspapers and television stations across the country, is gone as a corporate entity. It was acquired in January by Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. in a stock and cash deal valued at $4.6 billion. The combined company, Nexstar Media Group, operates 171 television stations. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Prestige Brands, an over-the-counter health-care company, has announced the purchase of longtime Lynchburg company C.B. Fleet for $825 million in cash. C.B. Fleet, also known as Fleet Laboratories, makes a variety of personal health-care products in the areas of feminine care, gastrointestinal health and pediatric care. It employs about 325 people, with the majority working in Lynchburg. The merger is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017. (The News & Advance)