Southern Virginia’s ready to capitalize on manufacturing

Matt Rowe, director of economic development for Pittsylvania County, expects many manufacturing jobs to reshore in coming years.

“There is going to be a continued trend of high-end manufacturing coming back to the U.S.,” he says. Southern Virginia, Rowe adds, will likely be the part of the state that benefits most from this development.

“For years, the ‘Golden Crescent’ drove everything,” he says, referring to the section of Virginia that runs from Northern Virginia to Richmond and down to Hampton Roads. “I do think you’re seeing a little bit of a shift here now. Southern Virginia is going to be a bigger player.”

It’s a wild reversal of fortunes for a region forced to rebuild its economy, which had previously relied on tobacco, textiles and furniture manufacturing. Jobs tied to those industries largely disappeared by the 2000s due to globalization and other factors. But in recent years, Southern Virginia changed course by working to prep sites for advanced manufacturing, with help from increased state funding.

“This region has done a really good job of everybody understanding, ‘OK, we’re going to plant the seeds, and we more than likely are not going to see or realize the full effect of our efforts in our political cycle,’” Rowe says. “We’re doing it for somebody else to get the credit. But it’s also the understanding that it’s the best thing for the community and the region.”

In addition to having land ready for construction, Brian Brown, executive director of the Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County, points to other assets that make the region attractive to companies. One is location.

Southern Virginia is within a day’s drive of two-thirds of the nation’s population and offers easy access to U.S. 58 and interstates 40 and 85. “So, the ability to go north, south, east and west,” Brown says.

For Halifax County, he notes, another asset is the large surrounding labor pool.

“It stretches all the way down as far as Raleigh [North Carolina],” Brown says. “North as far as Lynchburg. East as far as Mecklenburg and west as far as beyond Danville, closer to Martinsville. There’s a fairly large labor shed that we have here.”

Hitachi Energy appears to have noticed the benefits of operating in Southern Virginia. In September 2025, the Swiss company announced a $457 million expansion in Halifax County with the promise of 825 jobs, in addition to its existing plant in South Boston built in 1968.

But that certainly wasn’t the region’s only success. Southern Virginia also enjoyed robust tourism spending, along with new manufacturers and companies moving into the region.

Year in review

In September 2025, Danville and Pittsylvania County celebrated their designation as the fastest-growing tourist destination in Virginia, charting a 23.5% jump in visitors from 2023 to 2024, a result of Caesars Virginia, the $800 million casino that opened its doors in December 2024, replacing its temporary venue in Danville. Caesars anticipated about 2 million visitors in its first year.

In 2025, the casino employed 1,300 people, says Corrie T. Bobe, director of economic development and tourism in Danville. The Virginia Lottery reported in January that Caesars Virginia brought in $393.8 million in adjusted gaming revenue in 2025, the most of Virginia’s three permanent casinos.

Although the casino has been a major focus, destination marketing and the city’s partnership with Caesars have helped connect casino visitors with local restaurants and retail, Bobe says.

Early in 2025, developers announced plans to build a four-story, 120-room Hyatt Studio in Danville. It’s the first branded hotel to move into Danville’s River District, adding a $30 million investment on the north bank of the river. Construction is expected to be completed this summer. Additionally, The Laurel Hotel, a boutique hotel located near Caesars Virginia, opened in February.

The region also suffered some layoffs and closures, including Georgia-Pacific’s mill closure in Emporia announced last May, with 554 employees losing their jobs. Goodyear’s tire manufacturing facility in Danville also cut 850 jobs last year, a restructuring announced in February 2025. Mecklenburg’s Butler Human Services and Nipro PharmaPackaging facilities also announced their closures last year.

New companies on board

In summer 2025, U.K.-based WB Alloys announced plans to invest $6.6 million to create a Danville facility to produce wire alloy for the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense, creating 30 jobs. That investment grew to a $12.5 million investment and 36 jobs by the end of the year, according to Bobe.

The company has set up shop temporarily on Danville’s Institute for Advanced Learning and Research campus, where WB has begun hiring leadership and scouting a permanent site for their facility, Bobe says.

In Pittsylvania, MerryGoRound, an apparel and collectibles fulfillment center based in North Carolina, announced plans in August 2025 to move into the 400,000-square-foot former American Armored Foundation Tank Museum property, a $10 million investment creating an estimated 203 jobs.

The company converted the building to feature TV studios, a warehouse and office space where employees acquire, store, advertise and ship hard-to-find items like “Star Wars” merchandise.

“Think of QVC, but it’s all online,” Rowe says.

About a month after announcing the project, employees began working in the facility, according to Rowe. In January, he estimated that MerryGoRound already had 150 workers in Pittsylvania.

Rowe also expects the county to be busy with construction in coming months.

In 2024, Tennessee-based Microporous announced plans to invest $1.35 billion to build a battery separator manufacturing facility at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County. When first announced, company officials expected the manufacturing facility at Berry Hill to be fully operational by 2026, but Rowe now expects the company to begin construction in the first quarter of the year.

He attributes the delay to a change in building designs, noting, “It’s a very complex facility.”

Last spring, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner expressed concern about Microporous’ $100 million Department of Energy grant awarded under former President Biden and whether it could be clawed back by the Trump administration. However, Rowe says that the grant funding was available to the company as of January.

“Microporous can now begin getting reimbursements from the federal government as they are making their investments,” he says.

In Henry County, tin manufacturer Nathan Trotter, a family-owned business based in Pennsylvania, broke ground in September 2025 on what it calls a first-of-its-kind metal production and processing facility for the county. The company plans to construct a 115,000-square-foot plant and hire 118 employees.

“They plan to be operational by the end of 2026,” says Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville/Henry County Economic Development Corp. “It’ll be pretty fast-moving once it gets going.”

Developing a relationship with Nathan Trotter executives has been a secret to that project’s success, according to Heath. “They told us that the support we provide industry is different than anything they’ve encountered other places.”