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Rolling out the red carpet
With high-speed subsea internet cables landing on Virginia Beach‘s shores and massive wind turbines propelling off its coast, the state’s largest city is primed to welcome new businesses and industries generating high-end jobs. “Virginia Beach is going to be the epicenter of economic development on the East Coast,�[...]
Innovative development planned along Silver Line
Big plans are in place for a 103-acre plot on the Loudoun-Fairfax county line, property originally pitched by the two counties as a potential location for Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 East Coast headquarters. Rivana at Innovation Station, the first phase of the 4.4 million-square-foot Innovation Station mixed-use development proj[...]
June For The Record
Roanoke/ New River Valley In late April, Salem-based LewisGale Regional Health System broke ground for a new freestanding emergency room in Roanoke. Located on West Ruritan Road, the nearly 10,000-square-foot facility will be named LewisGale Medical Center Blue Hills ER and staffed with board-certified emergency room physicians and nurses. It is expected to open in […]
(Solar) powering the economy
A 700-acre solar farm on a former surface mine outside of Hurley will be more than it appears, according to Adam Edelen. “Buchanan County and the entire region of Southwestern Virginia intends to benefit from the digital economy rather than be a victim of it,” says Edelen, CEO of Edelen Renewables. Based in Lexington, Kentu[...]
The best of times?
The past year or so in America has often seemed a dark time, with headlines dominated by COVID-19, the tumult surrounding social justice issues and our deeply politically divided nation. Yet, it also has been a time of breathtaking generosity, as uber-wealthy philanthropists and well-heeled corporations have opened their wallets[...]
Space race
With NASA on the verge of returning astronauts to the moon and one day to Mars, Virginia’s federal contractors also are taking a giant leap into space, fulfilling millions of dollars in NASA-related contracts over the next decade and possibly beyond. In a 2020 economic impact study commissioned by NASA, Virginia was ranked[...]
Botetourt wind project hits resistance
Apex Clean Energy Inc. continues working toward a day when wind turbines standing atop Botetourt County’s North Mountain might generate enough energy to power up to 21,000 homes each year. Dubbed Rocky Forge Wind, the proposed wind farm north of Eagle Rock would be Virginia’s first onshore wind project in operation. [...]
Play ball!
Minor League Baseball is back for 2021, after the coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 season. And there’s no question that this summer will look much different than a typical baseball season. But the Richmond Flying Squirrels are optimistic. The team kicked off its season May 4. All fans who had vouchers or credits for [...]
Help wanted
Twenty years ago, John Zirkle was just starting out in the Virginia Beach hotel business as a houseman, stripping bed sheets and doing laundry. Fast-forward to today and he is general manager of the Doubletree by Hilton at Virginia Beach and president of the beach’s hotel association. Lately, though, Zirkle’s had to [...]
Breaking down barriers
Maia Chaka, a health and physical education teacher at Virginia Beach‘s Renaissance Academy, will be the National Football League’s first Black female referee, the league announced in March. A 2006 Norfolk State University alumna, Chaka has been officiating football since 2007, a journey that took her from high schoo[...]
Martinsville moves forward on reversion
Exactly when it happens remains up in the air, but the city of Martinsville is set on downsizing to town status. It’s been about a year and a half since Martinsville City Council set in motion the complicated process of dropping the locality’s status as one of Virginia’s 38 independent cities and morphing it in[...]
A dose of inspiration
Admissions officers call it “the Fauci effect.” Inspired by Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and the highly visible point person for the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response, prospective students have been flooding medical schools with applications. But Dr. Richard V. Homan, president and [...]
