Southern Va. Year-in-Review: Hitting the jackpot

Southern Virginia is seeing years of preparation for economic development pay big dividends. Businesses ranging from a temporary casino to a biopharmaceutical company to a flat-glass manufacturer announced they were opening or planning expansions in the region in 2023.

Local economic development officials say the major draws they’ve worked hard to put in place include workforce training programs, shovel-ready sites and quality-of-life amenities that companies are seeking for their workers.

“As we have come out of the pandemic, talent attraction and the ability to access skilled labor has become increasingly important to industry, and our community has been ahead of the game,” says Danville Economic Development and Tourism Director Corrie Bobe.

Danville and neighboring Pittsylvania County can show prospects that they’ve established a skilled labor force pipeline by investing more than $93 million over the past 10 years in workforce training initiatives, she says. These involve partnerships with local public schools, Danville Community College and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

Danville also has invested a “substantial amount” in quality-of-life amenities, says Bobe. “We want to ensure that when CEOs visit our community, they understand that this is an area where they can attract talent and also retain that talent,” she says.

Companies are also seeking shovel-ready sites, says Mark Heath, Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp.’s president and CEO.

Press Glass, a Polish flat-glass fabricator for the commercial construction industry, found one at Henry’s Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in 2018 and opened there in 2020. It’s now planning a $155.2 million expansion of the facility, the single largest business investment in the county’s history. (See related story.)

In hopes of attracting more big manufacturers, Commonwealth Crossing is spending $32 million to finish grading a 93-acre pad site next to 57 acres that have already been graded in the industrial park.

“When it’s finished, we’ll have the only 150-acre pad site in Virginia, or one of the few with all utilities and rail in place,” Heath says. “These large sites are hard to come by, and one of the reasons is they’re costly to develop.”

Meanwhile, in November 2023, a Tennessee-based manufacturer of vehicle battery components, Microporous, confirmed to Virginia Business that it was eyeing the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County for a lithium-ion battery manufacturing project that could top $1 billion in investments and create 1,500 jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $100 million grant to support the project in November, but there have been no additional announcements about the project’s status since.

If the deal, which state economic officials dubbed “Project Stellar,” does happen, it could take away the sting the region felt after losing a proposed $3.5 billion Ford Motor electric vehicle battery factory that was considering Berry Hill in 2022. Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled Virginia out of the running for the deal over security concerns that a Chinese company would be involved in its operations. (Ford ultimately scaled back plans for the plant, which is being built in Michigan, amid heated union negotiations and pushback from Republican congressional members.)

Owned by the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facility Authority, Berry Hill is the largest industrial site certified by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and one of the largest megasites on the East Coast.

Danville/Pittsylvania County

In January, Caesars Virginia held a topping- off ceremony for its $650 million permanent resort casino, scheduled to become the state’s third permanent casino when it opens later this year. However, the joint venture between Caesars Entertainment and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has scaled back the number of hotel rooms at the 12-story resort from 500 to 320. The move was caused by rising costs on the project, according to city officials.

​The permanent casino is planned to have a 90,000-square-foot gaming floor with more than 1,300 slots, 85 live game tables, 24 electronic game tables, a poker room and sportsbook. The resort will feature a full- service spa, pool, bars, restaurants, a 2,500-seat theater and more than 50,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

In the meantime, Caesars Virginia’s 40,000-square-foot temporary casino generated about $145 million in revenue from its May 2023 opening through the end of 2023, according to the Virginia Lottery. So far, Caesars Virginia has hired 455 workers, with plans to hire hundreds more employees this year. It has also expanded offerings at the temporary casino, which now has 12 sportsbook betting kiosks; 808 slot machines; and 33 table games, including blackjack, roulette and baccarat.

In other local economic development news, Germany-based Zollner Elektronik is investing $14 million to expand its manufacturing operations in the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facility Authority-owned Cyber Park.

Its 60,000-square-foot plant in the 330-acre technology park in Danville had been owned by U.S.-based Electronic Instrumentation & Technology (EIT). Zollner Elektronik got it when it acquired EIT’s electronic manufacturing services division in 2022. The company employs 50 people there and expects to begin hiring another 50 in the second quarter.

Engineered BioPharmaceuticals announced in February 2023 that it planned to invest $6.1 million in an expansion in Danville that will create 34 jobs. Construction has started on an approximately 20,000-square-foot building and is expected to be completed midyear, says Bobe.

A group of investors launched the company in 2011 in the Dan River Business Development Center, the city’s business incubator. It uses technology that converts medications and vaccines into dry powder to make them shelf stable. As this technology became more refined, the company realized it could be applied to the food and beverage market as well, she says. It can take the bitterness out of stevia, for example.

“In order to accommodate these new nutraceutical and pharmaceutical product lines, they needed to expand to a larger footprint. They still hold their existing offices and have a space at the DRBDC and have plans to continue that if they develop new product lines and product types with this technology, but the new facility that’s under construction will be devoted to nutraceutical, the stevia product and pharmaceuticals,” Bobe says.

Brunswick County

Developer Project Whitehouse broke ground in May 2023 on Hotel Elle, the first hotel to be built in the county in decades. Located on U.S. Route 58 next to Brunswick Square Shopping Center, the 110-room boutique property is expected to cost $8 million, spur 167 temporary and permanent jobs, and open in spring 2025, according to Brunswick County’s Department of Economic Development.

Greensville County

Also in May 2023, automotive parts manufacturer Heyco Werk USA said it will invest $5.4 million to expand operations at its Greensville County Industrial Park facility over the next four years, adding 21 jobs to the plant’s 68 current employees. A subsidiary of Germany-based Heyco Group, the company supplies precision plastic molded parts for the automotive industry and various industrial markets. It’s expanding production to supply BMW plants in South Carolina, China and South Africa.

Halifax County

IperionX, a titanium development company, started work in December 2023 on the nation’s first 100% recycled titanium metal powder manufacturing facility in South Boston’s Southern Virginia Technology Park. In September 2022, IperionX announced it would invest $82 million over three years, with plans to create 108 jobs. It has started hiring and recruiting staff.

“We expect that to take eight months to complete the full buildout and commissioning of equipment,” says Kristy Johnson, executive director of the Halifax County Industrial Development Authority.

The IDA’s board approved a lease in November 2023 for a vacant 15,000-square-foot building in the technology park that had once housed a Virginia Employment Commission call center. IperionX plans to create an advanced manufacturing center there with office, research and development and advanced manufacturing space. It should be ready to occupy in the first quarter of this year, says Johnson.