For the Record – September 2015

EASTERN VIRGINIA
The Hampton Roads area logged record exports last year, a nearly 41 percent increase year-over-year, according to a recent U.S. Commerce Department report. The region exported goods worth $3.6 billion in 2014, up $1 billion from the previous year, an all-time high, according to the International Trade Administration’s “2014 Metropolitan Area Export Overview.”  (The Virginian-Pilot)

Newport News Shipbuilding told employees that layoffs will begin this fall and extend into 2016, likely affecting more than 1,500 employees, about 7 percent of its workforce. Matt Mulherin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding, said the actions were being driven by the shipyard’s completion of work on three carriers over the next 18 months. The layoffs will be part of other steps the shipyard plans to cut costs. (The Virginian-Pilot)

Regulus Global LLC will expand its Virginia Beach headquarters. The company plans to purchase a 3-acre site across the street from its current location at 1528 Taylor Farms Road in the Taylor Farms Commerce Park. It will build a 30,000-square-foot facility, boosting its current footprint of 7,500 square feet of leased space. The company will make a capital investment of $3.45 million and plans to add 25 employees in the next year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare announced in July it is partnering with a Fredericksburg-based medical center that serves 66,000 patients. The Pratt Medical Center has seven locations in Fredericksburg, Stafford, King George and Dahlgren. About 40 health providers will join Sentara Medical Group under the name of Sentara Pratt Medical Group.  (The Virginian-Pilot)

Norfolk and Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. held a groundbreaking ceremony for Waterside Live! in August.  The project is expected to provide 800 new jobs, $93 million in direct revenue over 30 years and $850,000 in parking revenue. Waterside Live! is set to open in spring 2017. It will be a key structure in Town Point Park, an urban waterfront park, located on the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk.  (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Fort Eustis dodged a major blow in July when the Army announced it would cut fewer than 100 people from the Newport News post during the next two years in an overall effort to trim the Army’s ranks by 40,000. Other installations in the state were hit deeper. Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County will lose about 250 soldiers, and another 127 soldiers are being cut at Fort Lee in Prince George County. (Daily Press)

Marathon Consulting LLC announced an expansion that will nearly double its size.  The company, founded in 2006 and currently located at 505 S. Independence Blvd. in Virginia Beach, will move to the Virginia Beach Town Center. The company plans to add 34 full-time employees to the existing staff of 59. Marathon also will invest more than $200,000 in business property with the expansion. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Six entrepreneurs in Staunton are among 14 who were awarded grants to open or expand their businesses through the Virginia Community Business Launch initiative. The local grant recipients were: Anna Schoenduby, Latitudes Fair Trade Store; Wavley Groves, EccoHollow Art and Sound; Patty Brower, 3 Snugbugs Studios; Tom DuMontier,  106.3FM WQSV Community Radio; Michelle Gallaugher, Staunton Olive Oil Co; and Darren Smith, Traipse. (News release)

 Front Royal  broke ground in June on a $53.3 million project aimed at improving its wastewater treatment plant. Tighter environmental regulations forced the town to upgrade the facility. The project has an expected completion date of October or November 2017. Parts of the upgrade will be put into use as they are completed. (NVDaily.com)

Virginia’s oldest operating bowling alley changed ownership July 1. Shannon Freeze and Jane Rosser, co-founders of ShanJann LLC, purchased  Shenandoah Bowling Lan es in Mount Jackson. Shenandoah Bowling Lanes opened in 1948 as a duckpin alley. While the new owners don’t intend to alter the alley’s look, they do plan to upgra de the food menu and make more time for open bowl scheduling. (NVDaily.com)

Strasburg town officials are considering participating in a business development program through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Through the community development organization People Inc., Strasburg applied for the department’s Virginia Community Business Launch program. Community Business Launch is a seven-month, grant-based program through the department that is centered on giving entrepreneurs a chance to open a business. (NVDaily.com)

The Warren County Board of Supervisors approved the sharing of meals and lodging tax revenue from the Route 340/522 corridor with the town of Front Royal. Tax collection in the corridor has been a source of friction between the two governments since 2007, when the two shopping centers opened just north of Interstate 66. (The Warren Sentinel)

Washington & Lee University was named to Forbes’ 2015 list of America’s Top Colleges. The Lexington-based school was No. 29 on the list and one of four Virginia-based schools that made it to the Top 100. Washington & Lee also made it on two other Forbes lists: Top 25 Southern Schools and Top 25 Liberal Arts Schools, where it ranked No. 2 and No. 11, respectively. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
The Community Foundation of the Dan River Region has awarded $850,000 to The Arc of Southside to move the group’s employment services from Blairs to more accessible locations. The Arc of Southside serves people with developmental disabilities.  (GoDanRiver.com)

Commonwealth Home Health Inc. in July marked its 30th anniversary of operation in Halifax County and surrounding areas. Commonwealth Home Health is a skilled agency that provides care in a patient’s home. The company got its start in 1985 when A.L. Burkholder decided to open a home health care business after retiring as administrator at Halifax Community Hospital (now known as Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital).  (The Gazette-Virginian)

David Hobson, owner and president of Docusystems in Danville, started a new business called 3-D Printing Solutions. The new business will sell two styles of printers. The 3-D printing industry is growing rapidly. Hobson said the industry is valued at $2 billion now but is expected to reach $14 billion within the next 10 years.  (Danville Register & Bee)

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Danville is planning $3.5 million in renovations that will give the main building a new mezzanine and more room for equipment, according to a building permit issued by the city July 24. Charles Fulcher, the city’s inspections supervisor, said the plan does not call for adding square footage, but includes renovations to existing space. (Danville Register & Bee)

Chatham-based Virginia Uranium Inc. filed a lawsuit in federal court in Danville in August asking that a 33-year-old state law imposing uranium mining moratorium be nullified. The company wants to mine a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit in the Coles Hill area near Chatham in Pittsylvania County. Virginia Uranium, which owns about 3,500 acres atop the deposit, said that the uranium ore would have a market value of about $6 billion if it could be mined and sold to U.S. nuclear plants. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The West Piedmont Workforce Investment Board is getting more than $1 million in extra federal funding to help people out of work for three months or longer receive training they need to earn educational credentials and find jobs. The Job Driven National Emergency Grant (NEG) also will help workers to be placed in subsidized employment arrangements with local businesses, said WIB Executive Director Lisa Fultz. The NEG lasts for 18 months. (Martinsville Bulletin)

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
Bristol-based Alpha Natural Resources Inc., one the nation’s largest coal companies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection, blaming low coal prices, competition from natural gas and increasing government regulations. Alpha is the fourth major coal company in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy in the past 15 months. The list includes Richmond-based James River Coal. Alpha operates more than 50 mines and more than 20 coal preparation facilities in Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Blue Ridge Marathon and its associated races in Roanoke continue to grow their economic footprint, according to a post-race survey from the Roanoke Regional Partnership and the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission. This year, 1,677 runners participated in the Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon, half marathon or the Anthem Star 10K. The races, which were held in April, generated an economic impact of $556,000, up 6.7 percent over 2014. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Jefferson College of Health Sciences has been awarded a $1 million grant to develop a nursing degree program tailored for veterans. The three-year grant comes from the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention Program, run by the Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professions, which prepares veterans as they transition from the military into the practice of civilian nursing. (The Roanoke Times)

TORC Robotics expects its groundbreaking work on self-driving vehicles to get even smoother from now on. The Blacksburg company, previously located at Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, has begun working out of a new 20,000-square-foot facility at 405 Partnership Drive. While TORC’s work is geared toward the passenger car and defense industries, the firm also has done work in mining and agriculture. (The Roanoke Times)

For the first time, some Virginia Tech fans will be able to buy a beer while watching a football game at Lane Stadium this season. Tech plans to introduce beer and wine sales in the west side club seats at Lane Stadium this season, multiple sources said, following an emerging nationwide trend in college athletics as athletic departments look to generate more revenue to cover the rising cost of doing business, including cost of attendance. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA
McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. plans to pay about $9 billion to buy the health-care lending business of General Electric Capital Corp. Capital One is acquiring about $8.5 billion in health care-related loans — paying a 6 percent premium on the par value of the GE unit’s receivables as of June 30. The deal also includes GE Capital’s health-care financial services business, which provides financing to companies such as hospitals and medical-device makers. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Waltham, Mass.-based CounterTack acquired ManTech Cyber Solutions International (MCSI), a commercial software division of Fairfax-based ManTech International Corp. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. ManTech will become an equity investor in CounterTack as well as a global distribution partner. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

EY (formerly Ernst & Young LLP) will expand its operations in Fairfax County, creating 462 jobs over three years. The company plans to invest about $12 million as it relocates its offices to The Corporate Office Centre at Tysons II in Tysons Corner. The company’s office is currently located at 8484 Westpark Drive. Gov. Terry McAuliffe approved a $1.3 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist with the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Alexandria-based Fishbowl, a restaurant industry marketing analytics company, has acquired Czar Metrics. Financial details on the deal were not disclosed. New York-based Czar Metrics uses proprietary models and historical data to guide customers in decisions for menu and price engineering, promotions performance, site selection, loyalty program economics and sales forecasting. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Inovvo, a wireless network analytics company, completed its acquisition of comScore’s wireless solutions division. The deal includes comScore’s Subscriber Analytix platform. Both Inovvo and comScore are based in Reston. Financial details about the transaction were not disclosed. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Sterling-based technology company Neustar said in July it bought Bombora Technologies Pty Ltd., an Australian domain registration company, for $118.5 million. Bombora provides registration services for a number of top-level domains [TLD], including .au, .melbourne and .sydney. Neustar said the acquisition expands Neustar’s registry services, which operates the .biz, .us, and .co domains, among others. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg signed an agreement with George Washington University that is expected to guarantee UMW honors program students early acceptance to the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C.  (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Vienna-based cloud services provider Cetrom Information Technology Inc. reinvested $1 million in the company for planned growth. The money mostly will be used for hardware upgrades. Cetrom plans to use the capital to set up and implement storage area networks and servers. The move to the new networks and servers will be completed over the next quarter. Client’s existing service will not be disrupted. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

CENTRAL VIRGINIA
Henrico County-based insurance giant Genworth Financial Inc. plans to sell its lifestyle protection insurance business to French insurer Axa S.A. for $520 million. Genworth said it is in “exclusive negotiations” with Axa and expects to accept the offer after required regulatory approval in France. The sale is expected to close by the end of this year. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Richmond-based Hardywood Park Craft Brewery plans to expand and open a brewery in Goochland County. The company plans to invest $28 million and create 56 jobs during the next five years in the new venture. State government officials offered more than $1 million in incentives for the project. Goochland County has committed up to $1 million in matching funds during a period of up to 10 years. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Liberty University School of Law plans to offer online master’s degrees this fall, according to an announcement from the school. The plan is for juris master degrees in American legal studies and international legal studies, as well as a master of laws degree in international legal studies. The typical qualifying degree for lawyers in the United States is the juris doctorate, which Liberty offers on-campus.
(The News & Advance)

John Adams, former longtime CEO of The Martin Agency in Richmond, plans to bow out as chairman and migrate to emeritus status in January. He is handing over the reins of an ad industry powerhouse that is celebrating its 50th anniversary and pondering a vision of further global expansion. The agency hasn’t named a successor. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

New York-based McGraw Hill Financial signed an agreement to acquire Charlottesville-based SNL Financial for $2.2 billion. SNL provides data, news and analysis on financial institutions and other business sectors. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.  (VirginiaBusiness.com)

VCU Medical Center in Richmond is the best hospital in the state, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2015-16 hospital rankings. The annual report also ranked Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Hampton Roads as No. 2 and Inova Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia as third. The news magazine ranks hospitals based on their performance in 16 medical specialties. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Henrico County-based Snagajob announced in July the opening of its Arlington County office. The new location is the firm’s first outside of the Richmond area. Snagajob, a website that connects workers with hourly jobs and vice versa, says the office was opened to tap into the D.C. metro-area talent pool and grow brand awareness about hourly paid work from Richmond to Baltimore. (VirginiaBusiness.com)