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Virginia Business// December 31, 2023//
State regulators approved a rate increase for Appalachian Power that will add about $16 to the monthly bill of an average residential customer. The State Corporation Commission’s authorization will not take effect until the last week of January, meaning that the higher cost of electricity will start to show up in February billing statements. Because of different billing cycles, the full impact on all customers will not be realized until they receive bills due in March. (The Roanoke Times)
Bedford town officials are evaluating potential solutions for a new intercity passenger rail stop to be served by Amtrak, a project estimated at $23.2 million. Mary Zirkle, the town’s economic development coordinator, presented a report to Bedford Town Council in November 2023 on efforts to establish a passenger rail stop in Bedford. The town meets a ridership threshold that would merit a new station and multiple sites have been evaluated, Zirkle said. A site along the north side of Macon Street and west of 4th Street was chosen as the preferred location, according to the presentation.
(The News & Advance)
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request Dec. 5, 2023, to pause work on three sections of the Mountain Valley Pipeline while a lawsuit by landowners is pending. In a brief order, Chief Justice John Roberts denied a petition for an emergency injunction made in late November 2023 by three couples who are challenging the pipeline’s use of eminent domain to take their land. Roberts, the designated justice to hear emergency appeals in a circuit that includes Virginia, did not explain his decision. Although that’s not unusual, the property owners’ attorney said they are disappointed there was not closer scrutiny of what may be the last legal attempt to slow work on the controversial natural gas pipeline. (The Roanoke Times)
The Roanoke City Council on Dec. 4, 2023, signed off on two actions related to e-commerce giant Amazon.com’s ongoing negotiations to buy a Deschutes Brewery-owned property in Roanoke. Since the first quarter of 2023, Amazon has been in talks with the brewery to buy a 49-acre piece of land in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology with an eye toward constructing and operating a 125,000-square-foot distribution center for preparing and shipping customer orders. Deschutes bought the land in 2018 for $3.2 million, but the pandemic and other factors halted its plan to build an East Coast facility there.
(Cardinal News)
PEOPLE
Carilion Clinic named Lisa Sprinkel permanent vice president of Carilion Mental Health on Dec. 1, 2023, adding to her duties as vice president of Carilion Clinic Home Health and Hospice department. With Dr. Robert Trestman, Carilion’s mental health chair, Sprinkel will lead the mental health team, which has a new location at Tanglewood Center in Roanoke County. She has served as interim vice president since May 1, 2023. For the past 17 years, Sprinkel has led the Home Health and Hospice department. She has held a variety of clinical and leadership positions and served on the Governor’s Task Force on Long Term Care. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Sharon P. Pitt will become Virginia Tech’s chief information officer and vice president for information technology on Feb. 1. She returns to her alma mater from Brown University, where she served as vice president for information technologies and chief information officer. In her new role, Pitt will oversee Tech’s Division of Information Technology, which has more than 300 employees in nine departments. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The June 2023 opening of Amazon.com’s $2.5 billion East Coast headquarters in Arlington County only had a short-lived impact on home prices, and it’s hard to pinpoint HQ2’s direct impact due to other factors affecting residential costs, according to a report released in November 2023 by Bright MLS Research. The pandemic was a complicating factor, upending where people worked while the government’s response fueled housing demand, the report adds. Amazon opened Merlin, its first tower, and one of the twin 22-story buildings that make up Metropolitan Park, HQ2’s first phase, in June 2023. About 8,000 employees work there. Amazon delayed construction of HQ2’s second phase in March 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Weeks after U.S. Sen. Mark Warner lambasted a decision to place the FBI headquarters in Maryland instead of Springfield as “corrupt,” the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. General Services Administration announced Nov. 30, 2023, that it would launch an investigation. The probe comes after Warner, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, almost all of Virginia’s congressional delegation and FBI Director Christopher Wray raised concerns about the GSA’s decision to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Springfield site has been promoted as a natural fit for the headquarters owing to its proximity to the FBI’s Quantico training facility and other intelligence sites. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
A subsidiary of McLean-based candy and pet food manufacturer Mars, the largest privately held company in Virginia, announced Nov. 16, 2023, that Bidco, a wholly owned Mars subsidiary, would acquire Britain’s largest chocolate maker, Hotel Chocolat, in a cash deal valued at about $662 million. Mars said it believes the acquisition will strengthen its presence in the United Kingdom. Known for its M&Ms and Snickers candy brands, Mars is the fourth-largest privately held company in the nation and has approximately 140,000 employees across 80 countries. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Tysons business intelligence software firm MicroStrategy paid $593.3 million cash for 16,130 bitcoins in November 2023, more than it’s spent on crypto in a single quarter since the first three months of 2021, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The purchases occurred between Nov. 1, 2023, and Nov. 29, 2023. MicroStrategy also spent $5.3 million for 155 bitcoins in October 2023, bringing its fourth-quarter bitcoin spend to date to $598.6 million. All this comes as MicroStrategy’s stock reached its highest price in at least a year in early November 2023: $535.21 per share. (Washington Business Journal)
Prince William County supervisors approved plans Dec. 13, 2023, for the massive Digital Gateway data center complex in a mostly rural area near Interstate 66 and a Civil War battlefield site. The project, which faced fierce opposition from some county residents, is expected to feature as many as 34 data centers on 2,100 acres at an investment of $40 billion. The 4-3 vote punctuated a 2 1/2-year battle over whether the county’s disappearing rural area should be protected from more development.
(The Washington Post)
PEOPLE
Samia Byrd will lead Arlington County’s Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development beginning Jan. 3. Byrd’s responsibilities will include leading the next generation of land use regulations, plans, development policies and practices, housing, and community and neighborhood planning programs. She succeeds Claude Williamson, who retired at the end of 2023. Byrd previously served as Arlington’s first chief race and equity officer since 2020 and joined the county in 2007, serving as a principal planner and planning coordinator within CPHD and as a deputy county manager. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The developers rehabilitating the former Afton Inn in Front Royal backed out at the last minute before providing an update on their plans to the Town Council on Nov. 13, 2023. Jim Burton and Alan Omar, partners in 2 East Main LLC, which owns the property at 2 E. Main St., had said they planned to complete the project in 2023, but work stopped earlier this year. Mayor Lori A. Cockrell told council that the developers were under the impression that the meeting would be closed to the public. The developers had previously said they expected the project to cost $2 million. The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority sold the Afton Inn property to 2 East Main LLC for $325,000 on Feb. 19, 2021. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Covia, an Ohio-based provider for energy and industrial markets, will cease operations Feb. 29 at a sand mine in Gore that has been active for over 80 years. The sand mine, located at 334 Sand Mine Road in western Frederick County, has had several owners but was acquired by Unimin in the 1970s. Unimin merged with Fairmount-Santrol in 2018 to form Covia. Thirty employees work at the sand mine in Gore. Products made from material mined there include BestSand, a sand used at golf courses, Glassil and UtilitySand. A Covia spokesperson cited rising operational costs for the aging mine’s closure. (The Winchester Star)
Getaway House’s conditional-use permit request to allow the company to operate a year-round
90 micro-cabin campground on 430 acres close to the border with Berkeley County, West Virginia, was approved by the Frederick County Board of Supervisors in early November 2023 by a 6-1 vote. The property, located at 427 McCubbin Road, is in a heavily wooded area with steep slopes and other natural features. Launched in 2015, Brooklyn, New York-based Getaway House has 15 campgrounds, according to the company’s website. It operates two Virginia sites in Stanardsville and Basye.
(The Winchester Star)
Falls Church-based Fortune 500 defense contractor Northrop Grumman will invest more than $200 million to establish an advanced electronics manufacturing and testing facility in Waynesboro, creating an estimated 300 jobs over the next five years, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Nov. 14, 2023. The 315,000-square-foot building will be on Shenandoah Village Drive, and Pennsylvania-based Equus Capital Partners will be the project’s developer. The company anticipates the building will open in 2025 and be ready for production in 2026. The facility’s jobs will include varied engineering and manufacturing roles. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
In December 2023, Sentara RMH Medical Center began partnering with Greenville, South Carolina-based Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG), a hospital-based obstetrics and gynecology practice, to bring a team of OB-GYNs on-site to the Harrisonburg hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program has seven OB-GYNs and five certified nurse midwives. OBHG has worked in hospitals throughout Virginia, including in Richmond, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Manassas.
(Daily News-Record)
Natural Bridge-based fabric shelter systems manufacturer XFactor Solutions Global has leased 34,000 square feet to expand in Rockbridge County, with plans to create 60 jobs, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced Nov. 9, 2023.The company, which acquired the assets of Creative Tent International in October 2023, will use the industrial space at 70 Douglas Way in Natural Bridge Station for light manufacturing and warehousing of large commercial-grade tents. The 60 jobs will include welders, sewers and general assembly workers. XFS Global, which serves military, government, commercial and industrial clients, has a 10-year lease on the industrial space. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Richmond-based Atlantic Union Bank on Dec. 7, 2023, for illegally enrolling thousands of customers in checking account overdraft programs. The enrollments took place between 2017 and 2020, according to the bank. The bureau found that the Atlantic Union Bankshares subsidiary misled consumers who enrolled in the overdraft service by phone and failed to provide proper disclosures. CFPB ordered Atlantic Union to refund at least $5 million in illegal overdraft fees and pay a $1.2 million penalty to the CFPB’s victim relief fund. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Richmond construction and development firm Hourigan is proposing a data center and advanced manufacturing light industrial complex on a 622-acre undeveloped tract in Henrico County, where it believes the project will attract more than $1 billion in private investments. The VAH Data Center Campus would be located at the southeastern intersection of interstates 295 and 64, along East Williamsburg Road at Technology Boulevard. A rezoning proposal is scheduled for Jan. 11, though a deferral to the Henrico Planning Commission’s February meeting is possible. Henrico’s board of supervisors also would need to approve the proposal. (Henrico Citizen)
Richmond-based Fortune 1000 specialty chemicals company NewMarket announced Dec. 4, 2023, that it has agreed to acquire Utah-based AMPAC Intermediate Holdings, which makes the additives that give solid rocket fuel an extra boost, for about $700 million. AMPAC’s additives have been used in space launch and military rockets for more than 60 years, and the company also makes Halotron BrX, a fire extinguishing agent. AMPAC has one operating facility and about 150 full-time employees. NewMarket expected to complete the purchase in the first quarter of 2024. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, both Democrats, have declared their candidacies for the 2025 race for governor. Spanberger, who’s in her third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, announced her run on Nov. 13, 2023. She is a former CIA officer and postal inspector who broke Republicans’ grip on Virginia’s 7th Congressional District in 2018. Stoney, who was first elected as Richmond’s youngest mayor at age 35 in 2016 and was reelected in 2020, declared his candidacy Dec. 4, 2023. He served as Virginia’s first Black secretary of the commonwealth under Gov. Terry McAuliffe. On the GOP side, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares are likely candidates. Virginia law prohibits Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin from seeking a consecutive second term. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
PEOPLE
William “Bill” Fiege will be the eighth president of Brightpoint Community College, the Virginia Community College System announced Dec. 4, 2023. Fiege, who had served as Brightpoint’s vice president of learning and student success since 2012, was set to begin his new role on Jan. 2. Fiege was previously dean of professional and technical studies at Germanna Community College and also worked for Longwood University, his alma mater. He succeeds interim president Van Wilson, who had held the position since February 2023, after former President Ted Raspiller stepped down to take a job with Virginia529. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Effective Jan. 15, Jane Kamensky will be the new president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the nonprofit that owns and operates Jefferson’s Charlottesville plantation, Monticello. Kamensky comes from Harvard University, where since 2015 she had served as the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History and the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is the author or co-author of seven books spanning four centuries of American history. (News release)
Averett University announced Dec. 5, 2023, that it plans to freeze tuition for the upcoming academic year. In a statement, the university said that “financial competitiveness” has been a longstanding area of focus under President Tiffany Franks. Averett raised its tuition rate 2% for the 2022-23 school year. (Danville Register & Bee)
Authorities in the Dan River region will start enforcing the ban on skill games following an October 2023 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court. The issue was in legal limbo after Hermie Sadler, a former race car driver and owner of a convenience store, filed a lawsuit that challenged the Virginia General Assembly’s ban on the games that became popular before the pandemic. In Pittsylvania County, the ban started Nov. 20, 2023, and Danville started enforcing the ban on Dec. 16. Civil and criminal offenses are possible for anyone found violating the ban, as well as a civil penalty of $25,000 per game.
(Danville Register & Bee)
When First Citizens Bank closes its Boydton branch in February, the town will be without a financial institution for the first time in more than 150 years. In a November 2023 letter, First Citizens notified its customers and the Town of Boydton that it would be closing its Bank Street branch as of Feb. 26. After Touchstone Bank pulled out of Boydton in December 2020, the only in-town banking option for businesses and residents was First Citizens. According to American Banker, the number of U.S. bank branches fell from nearly 100,000 in 2009 to fewer than 80,000 locations in 2023. (SoVa Now)
JRS Realty Partners added 39 apartments to the Martinsville-Henry County area with the addition of the School Drive Apartments, which opened in November 2023. Located at 40 School Drive in Collinsville, the former John Redd Smith Elementary School was built in the early 1950s. As of late November, 32 of the 39 apartments were leased. The apartment project is part of JRS’ Historic Collective area development initiative to add 500 units to the local housing market in renovated properties. (Martinsville Bulletin)
Tyson Foods in Pittsylvania County will continue to hire until it reaches full capacity in mid-2024, the company announced during a Nov. 29, 2023, grand opening ceremony for the $300 million food processing plant attended by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “At this point, I have about 215 employees of the expected 400,” plant manager Nancy Frank said. Positions pay between $17 and $25.50 per hour, according to Tyson communications specialist MaKenzie Williams. (Cardinal News)
VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital in South Hill is no longer providing in-home community health and hospice services as of Dec. 31, 2023. Patients were notified of the decision by mail and in person. Affected services include skilled nursing, physical, speech and occupational therapy, personal care assistance, and social work delivered in home settings. In a statement, VCU Health CMH described the discontinuation of services as “difficult [but] based on changing business needs.” Kristy Fowler, marketing and communications specialist for VCU Health CMH, said the hospital will continue to provide the services on “an inpatient and outpatient basis.” (SoVa Now)
PEOPLE
Kenbridge-based holding company Benchmark Bankshares and its bank, Benchmark Community Bank, will have a new leader for the new year. Jay A. Stafford retired Dec. 31, 2023, as president and CEO of Benchmark Bankshares and CEO of the bank, as well as from the company’s boards of directors. E. Neil Burke, previously the bank’s executive vice president and chief financial officer and assistant secretary and treasurer of the holding company, succeeded Stafford on Jan. 1. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other officials broke ground in New Kent County in mid-November 2023 to mark the start of the Interstate 64 widening from James City County to the Richmond area. Youngkin launched the $756 million I-64 Gap Widening Project, hailed as a measure to increase capacity and mobility, alleviate congestion, improve safety and improve connectivity along the I-64 corridor. The project will improve a 29-mile section of I-64 between Richmond and the Williamsburg area where the highway narrows. The project will be the first of three segments that will widen I-64 from four to six lanes from New Kent to James City County. (The Virginia Gazette)
A Virginia Beach defense contractor agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle claims after federal investigators say the company misled the Department of Defense into purchasing foreign-made load-out bags. London Bridge Trading, a manufacturer of tactical military gear and other products, entered into the agreement Nov. 20, 2023, with the federal government and whistleblower Ann Keating. The civil settlement revolves around allegations the company violated the Buy American Act, which requires government agencies to prefer American-made goods in purchases, and the Berry Amendment, which requires the DOD to purchase food, textiles and clothing made entirely in the U.S. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Plans for the redevelopment of the former Military Circle Mall have been “shelved” as Norfolk is turning back the clock on its approach to the site, according to statements made by Norfolk Economic Development Authority Director Sean Washington during a November 2023 City Council retreat. The city previously reviewed three proposals for the site and was in talks with a development team including music superstar Pharrell Williams for a $1.1 billion redevelopment project called Wellness Circle. Washington said site redevelopment plans would continue to include an emphasis on health and the city is considering another request for proposals. The city is contacting the groups that submitted the original three proposals the city previously reviewed, including Gold Key | PHR and The Franklin Johnston Group. (The Virginian-Pilot)
The Newport News Economic Development Authority transferred ownership of the 122,000-square-foot Applied Research Center on Jefferson Avenue to Jefferson Lab and the U.S. Department of Energy. City leaders gathered at the center Dec. 5, 2023, to commemorate the next chapter of the center, which is set to become the new gateway to Jefferson Lab and will support its campus expansion with a dedicated visitor center and science education center. Under Jefferson Lab’s management, the center will also offer expanded and modernized office space, allowing physics staff and visiting scientists a greater opportunity to foster scientific collaboration and discovery. (Daily Press)
PEOPLE
Norfolk announced in late November 2023 that Sean Washington became the city’s permanent director of economic development after serving in an interim capacity for nearly 15 months. Washington joined the department in 2017 as a business development manager and became secretary-treasurer of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority in October 2017. He served as assistant director from November 2020 through August 2022. Washington became interim director after the former director, Jared Chalk, took a job with the Hampton Roads Alliance.
(VirginiaBusiness.com)
Trader Interactive CEO Lori Stacy retired Dec. 14, 2023, and Chief Operating Officer David McMinn succeeded her in leading the Virginia Beach-based online marketplace for boats, recreational vehicles, motorcycles and other niche vehicles. Stacy, who has served as CEO since 2017, will take on the new position of chair of Trader Interactive’s board after her retirement, the company announced Nov. 20, 2023. She joined the company as a sales manager in Florida in 1997. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Association of Public & Land-grant Universities awarded the University of Virginia’s College at Wise the Innovation & Economic Prosperity Program designation, the college announced Nov. 30, 2023. The IPE certification process recognizes higher education institutions that have demonstrated a “substantial, sustainable and campuswide commitment to regional economic and community development,” demonstrated through categories like talent and workforce development, entrepreneurship, tech-based economic development and public service. U.Va. Wise started its internal assessment process as part of the application process in 2019, but the assessment was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The college is the third Virginia school to receive the designation, joining Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech. (The Coalfield Progress)
In October 2023, the Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock surpassed $215 million in total adjusted gaming revenue since its December 2022 opening. For the month of October 2023, the casino reported almost $12.7 million in adjusted gaming revenue, according to a Nov. 15, 2023, report from the Virginia Lottery. On the one-year anniversary of the casino’s groundbreaking ceremony, vertical construction of the 300-room, six-story luxury hotel was underway, and work continued on the single-story space that will hold the casino gaming floor, spa and restaurant and bar options. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Norton-based Family Crisis Support Services was set to hold an opening celebration for a new resource center in Norton on Dec. 13, 2023. The $4.2 million, 4,000-square-foot facility will serve Wise, Dickenson, Lee, Scott, Russell and Buchanan counties, serving individuals and families experiencing health care access problems, opioid and stimulant use, incarceration, domestic and sexual violence, housing instability, unemployment and extreme poverty. The new center will help meet demand for FCSS services, which increased 30% from 2021 to 2022. In 2022, the organization served 3,562 families and individuals. (The Coalfield Progress)
Mountain Lynx Transit will continue to offer free rides to passengers in Abingdon, Galax, Marion and Wytheville and the counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe thanks to funding through the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s Transit Ridership Incentive Program. On Dec. 4, 2023, the Commonwealth Transportation Board announced its approval of 15 projects receiving a total of $4.4 million through TRIP. Mountain Lynx will receive $56,000 for fiscal year 2024, with a local match of $14,000. TRIP zero-fare projects span four years with a total cost of $280,000, and the transit companies are expected to cover the full cost of zero-fare rides in the fourth year. (Cardinal News)
The Town of Pound is the first participant since the pilot in a new revitalization program run by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Appalachian Voices and the West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Centers. Under the program, which is modeled off West Virginia University’s BAD (Brownfield, Abandoned, Dilapidated) Buildings Program, Pound and the program partners will inventory commercial, industrial and residential properties and identify dilapidated and abandoned buildings to create a redevelopment plan. Representatives from DEQ, WVBAC and Appalachian Voices were set to hold an inventory and redevelopment planning workday with volunteer residents on Dec. 15, 2023. (Bristol Herald Courier)
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Republican Del. Todd Gilbert, the outgoing speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates who represents Shenandoah County, named Del. Israel O’Quinn, whose district includes Washington County, as deputy Republican minority leader on Dec. 6, 2023. O’Quinn, who was first elected to the state legislature in 2011, was previously deputy majority leader for the 2022-23 General Assembly, but Democrats hold the majority in the 2024 session. O’Quinn is a member of the Commerce and Energy, Privileges and Elections, and Rules committees. (Cardinal News)
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