Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer names new Va. Beach leader

Geoff Poston is taking over leadership of the office of | Thalhimer, according to a Wednesday announcement by the Glen Allen-headquartered real estate firm.

As managing broker, Poston replaces , who has led Thalhimer’s overall operation since 2014. Rouzie, an at the firm, will remain on the company’s board and executive leadership team, while also serving as managing broker of the company’s Newport News office.

A man with a beard wearing a dark suit and purple tie.
Chris Rouzie is an executive vice president at . Photo courtesy Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer

Rouzie, who graduated from the University of with a degree in business management administration, specializes in retail site selection and leasing for Hampton Roads’ retailers and developers.

“Chris Rouzie took Thalhimer to new heights in Hampton Roads,” Lee Warfield, president and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, said in a statement. “He will continue to lead the way as a top producer and valued member of our senior leadership team.”

Poston joined Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer in 2010 and leads the company’s Hampton Roads Industrial Group. During his tenure, Poston transitioned the industrial team to serve more institutional clients as well as clients occupying port-related properties.

Poston, who has a bachelor’s in history from Old Dominion University, is a 2020 graduate of LEAD Hampton Roads and president of the Virginia chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.

“Geoff is a proven producer who has made a substantial impact on the Hampton Roads real estate market,” Rouzie said in a statement.

Founded in 1913, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer has offices across the state and has nearly 100 broker professionals and more than 450 associates. In 2023, Thalhimer completed over 1,800 transactions with a transactional volume of more than $1.7 billion.

New York investment firm purchases Short Pump Station for $54.96M

Nuveen Real Estate, a New York investment management firm, purchased Station in western from , an alternative investment managing firm also based in New York, for $54.96 million on Dec. 30, 2024, according to a Tuesday announcement by Wafra and Henrico County records.

Grocery retailer Trader Joe’s is the anchor tenant of the 91,369-square-foot shopping center at 11301 W. Broad St. in Glen Allen, which also includes Ulta and stores. Short Pump Station attracts 2.3 million visits a year, according to Wafra.

“Short Pump Station aligns perfectly with our grocery-anchored neighborhood retail strategy, in the growing and dynamic Short Pump submarket.” Ryan Boan, U.S. head of retail transactions at , said in a statement.

Wafra purchased Short Pump Station in 2021 from a joint venture between BayNorth Capital, a Boston-based real estate private equity firm, and AmCap, a Connecticut real estate firm that invests in grocery-anchored retail properties, for $46.7 million. The property was built in 2008.

“The Short Pump investment resulted in an excellent outcome for our investors,” David Hamm, head of real estate at Wafra, stated in a news release.

John Owendoff of and Catharine Spangler of advised Wafra on the .

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer will continue leasing and managing Short Pump Station. 

Boston private equity firm to acquire Sauer Brands

Duke’s Mayo and its parent company, ‘s , will change hands in a deal between Boston-based private equity firm and North Carolina’s , which purchased Sauer a little over five years ago.

Terms of the pending , which was announced Monday, were not disclosed. Sauer, a family-owned company for more than 130 years until its 2019 purchase by Falfurrias, owns , Mateo’s Gourmet Salsa, Kernel Season’s and Sauer brand spices. In a 2024 report by Reuters, Sauer Brands’ value, including debt, was estimated at more than $1 billion.

“Sauer Brands has established itself as a standout player in the highly attractive condiments and seasonings categories. Despite its long history, we believe that the company is still in the early innings of growth,” Tricia Glynn, a managing partner at Advent International, said in a statement. “It’s easy to see why consumers have long been drawn to Duke’s differentiated taste profile and we are excited to share this well-loved brand with a growing consumer base. We believe that Advent’s extensive experience investing in growth consumer brands at scale will enable us to partner with Sauer Brands on an ambitious growth strategy, and we’re thrilled to welcome the company to our portfolio.”

Sauer still manufactures spices in its Richmond facility and has other plants in South Carolina, Kansas and California.

Advent, founded in 1984, oversees more than $88.8 billion in assets under management and has made more than 420 investments in 43 countries. In the sector, Advent has invested in Sovos Brands, Grupo CRM, IRCA and DFM Foods.

Duke’s mayonnaise, a mainstay in the South, raised its profile during its time under Falfurrias’ management, particularly by sponsoring the annual Duke’s Mayo Bowl football game in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the winning coach gets mayonnaise instead of Gatorade dumped on his head. According to this week’s announcement, Duke’s is the fastest growing scaled brand of mayonnaise in the country.

Morgan Stanley is serving as lead financial adviser for the deal and McGuireWoods is serving as legal adviser to Sauer Brands. William Blair & Co. is serving as co-financial advisor to Sauer Brands. Centerview Partners is serving as financial adviser, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges is serving as legal adviser to Advent. McGuireWoods is also serving as legal adviser to Falfurrias.

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to be a part of the
April Issue of Virginia Business

Here’s what Richmond Fed chief forecasts for 2025 economy

The for 2025 is sunny, with a high chance of business optimism, according to President and CEO Tom Barkin, who spoke Thursday during the virtual 2025 Financial Forecast held by the Virginia Bankers Association and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

“I went back this morning and looked at the speech I gave to this group in January 2022,” he said, “and of course, at the time, we talked about high inflation, we talked about supply chain challenges. I managed to skip over all the things I got wrong, but one thing I got right was that I said, ‘Don’t forget that after the last pandemic, 1918, we had the Roaring ’20s.’”

is a 2024 member of the Fed’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee. The committee membership will change to its 2025 composition at its first regularly scheduled meeting of the year, which will begin Jan. 28.

In its December meeting, the FOMC voted to cut the Fed’s benchmark borrowing rate to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%. Despite that cut, the FOMC reduced its predicted rate cuts in 2025 from the four predicted in September to two in its December meeting.

“You’ve got a strong but choosier consumer, coupled with a better-valued, more productive workforce — that’s landed the in a good place,” Barkin said Thursday. “As a consequence, the FOMC has recalibrated the federal funds rate down 100 basis points to 4.3%.”

However, “inflation is not yet back at target,” he added, “so we still have more work to do, but we don’t think we need to be nearly as restrictive as we once were to finish the job.”

The U.S. economy is strong according to the data, Barkin said, with most estimates putting the country’s 2024 GDP growth in the 2.7% range. The U.S. had a 4.2% unemployment rate in November 2024, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The annual headline inflation rate as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — a U.S. Commerce Department measure of consumer spending on goods and services among households — was 2.4% in November 2024. The Fed’s target inflation rate is 2%, as measured by the annual change in the PCE index.

The economy’s strength, Barkin said, is largely due to four factors: consumer strength; labor market resilience; increased price sensitivity; and surging productivity.

Because employers remember the post-pandemic labor shortage, they’re slow to reduce staff, Barkin said, and the layoff rate remains near historic lows.

“The environment we’ve got in the labor market is a low hiring environment, but it’s also a low firing environment, and a low-hiring, low-firing labor market is still a healthy one,” he said.

Consumers are helping slow inflation as they become more price conscious, Barkin said. As consumers push back on high prices, price-setters are realizing they’re less able to continue raising prices.

Increased productivity seems to explain why inflation is coming down although the economy has strong growth, as well as why the U.S. economy is growing despite slowing job gains, Barkin said.

“Everyone wants to quickly jump to AI [as the explanation], and perhaps that will be the case in time, but I believe the more likely story is the recent experience we’ve just been through,” as firms became more automated and efficient during the labor shortage.

Also, slowed turnover means workers are more experienced in their roles, and therefore able to get more done, Barkin noted.

Economic uncertainty has dropped some, Barkin said, and financial, deal and equity markets seem to be benefiting. Businesses are feeling optimistic.

“There’s a sense of relief to be past the election and to have clarity on the direction of travel, particularly for sectors confident they will benefit from anticipated changes,” he said, but uncertainty lingers around what policies the incoming presidential administration will implement and how.

For example, President-elect Donald Trump has said his administration will impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. But specifics aren’t known, Barkin pointed out, like what tariff rates will actually be imposed, on what countries, on which products, for how long or their effects.

In the FOMC’s December 2024 meeting, Fed staff predicted that inflation would remain about the same in 2025 because of Trump’s proposed tariffs, meeting minutes released Wednesday show.

On Wednesday, CNN reported that Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency that would allow him to construct a new tariff program using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act.

Looking to this year, “with business optimism jumping so much and labor supply unlikely to continue to grow so robustly, it feels like the current labor market[‘s] low-hiring, low-firing equilibrium is more likely to break toward more hiring than toward more firing, though of course, that’s going to differ by sector,” Barkin said.

Despite the uncertainty around new economic policy, Barkin said, “With what we know today, I expect more upside than downside in terms of growth, and I think that’s why you see so much business optimism.”

Barkin sees more risk from inflation than from policy. If wage and product costs are pressured, price-setters might pass those costs along to consumers.

All in all, Barkin said, “I do expect the story for the coming year to be more about supply and demand — and perhaps geopolitics — than monetary policy.”

The financial forecast event was originally scheduled as an in-person event at the Greater Convention Center, but organizers pivoted to a virtual event due to Richmond’s ongoing water crisis.

Former Bush White House staffer named Akima VP

Rachael Duffy, a former assistant press secretary in President ‘s administration, has joined -based as of , and .

An Alaska Native corporation that handles federal contracts for the for-profit NANA Regional business owned by Indigenous Iñupiat shareholders, Akima has more than 10,000 employees across the world.

Duffy, who has a degree in government and political science from the University of Texas at Austin, previously worked as a vice president in marketing and communications at Reston-based Fortune 1000 government contractor . There, she led strategies supporting national security and innovation portfolios. Before that, she was corporate public affairs lead at what was then .

Early in her career, Duffy was an assistant press secretary for the Bush White House. In 2006, she became a special assistant to the president with duties including planning and executing hundreds of presidential events like international summits and campaign rallies, according to her LinkedIn page. She also served as spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Drawing on her proven expertise in developing impactful strategies that support growth, Rachael will be instrumental in enhancing our marketing, communications and government relations efforts,” Akima President and CEO Bill Monet said in a statement. “She will work across the company to elevate our visibility while ensuring we are strategically positioned to support our current and future clients in achieving their missions.”

In July, Akima announced that its subsidiary Five Rivers Analytics had been awarded an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $480 million over 10 years.

Richmond starts water testing, but city remains under boil water advisory

On Thursday, Richmond said that water levels have risen across the city to the point that authorities have started testing samples for contamination and most buildings in the city have at least some running water, four days after the city’s water treatment plant failed following a winter storm.

A Jan. 6 power outage caused extensive flooding, which took filters and pumps in the city’s water plant offline. By that afternoon, some Richmond neighborhoods started seeing lower water pressure, and soon, either tiny trickles or no water at all coming from their spigots. That prompted shutdowns of businesses reliant on water, as well as closure of schools in the city for the rest of the week. The Virginia postponed the start of its session from Wednesday, Jan. 8, to Monday, Jan. 13, an unprecedented action in the legislature’s history in modern memory.

Henrico and Hanover counties were also impacted, with reduced water pressure in the eastern parts of those counties, and a countywide boil water advisory in Henrico was declared Jan. 8.

Although Avula, who was sworn in just over a week ago on Jan. 1, acknowledged the good news of returned water service, it remains unsafe to consume tap water before boiling it, he emphasized during a noon press conference. Thursday morning, as water pressure increased in all nine water service zones, a city lab received multiple samples of water from across the city to test for bacteria with guidance from the Virginia Department of , Avula said.

Sixteen hours after the first round of testing, the city will test more water samples. If water samples are contaminant-free during two consecutive rounds of testing, the mayor said, the boil water advisory can be lifted. He estimated that could happen Friday or early Saturday.

“I’m feeling very optimistic about this, but we need to work through our protocols from the [Virginia Department of Health],” said Avula, a pediatrician who previously led the Richmond and Henrico County health districts and was the state’s COVID vaccine coordinator.

Later, answering questions from reporters, Avula said it is safe for to take showers, just not to drink water without boiling it first.

Meanwhile, the city continues distributing bottled water at 11 distribution points, although a tractor trailer filled with water Thursday morning got stuck on the way to a drop-off, causing a delay, Richmond Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Traci Deshazor said Thursday.

Avula noted Thursday that is forecast Friday night and Saturday morning for the metro area, and city employees are testing battery backups and generators for the water pump facility, and increasing staffing at the plant. Dominion also will be monitoring the plant’s power status during the snow event, and regional governments are putting electricians, mechanics and other technicians on standby if needed. IT contractors also will be “on-site and monitoring with us,” the mayor added.

On Wednesday, city restaurants and other businesses were waiting for water service to return, and figuring out what adjustments they needed to make under the boil water advisory. The Virginia Department of Health released guidelines for food service businesses to operate safely.

in the affected area had temporarily diverted emergency patients during the beginning of the water outage, but as of Thursday, most were accepting ER patients but not elective patients.

According to a spokesperson, St. Mary’s Hospital in western Richmond had to temporarily divert patients after a water main break on Monument Avenue near the hospital Thursday morning, but “they were able to come off diversion quickly once water service was restored,” Bon Secours PR and communications manager Jenna Green said.

Elective cases are postponed at St. Mary’s, Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center and Richmond Community Hospital, according to a Thursday morning update by the health system. The medical office buildings at Memorial and Richmond Community are closed, and St. Mary’s medical office buildings are experiencing low water pressure, which may affect some patients.

VCU Health is following emergency operations protocols, according to the system’s most recent update Wednesday night. VCU Medical Center in downtown Richmond was still diverting emergency patients as of Thursday afternoon because of the water situation. VCU’s ambulatory care clinics in the city were mostly closed, although the health system has other facilities across the region that are operating as normal. Elective testing and surgical procedures were canceled at the downtown VCU Medical Center, Stony Point and Hanover facilities, as well as many infusion care sites.

said Thursday that most of its Central Virginia facilities are open and accepting new patients. Hanover Emergency Center, where EMS was on diversion earlier in the day, was open to ER patients Thursday evening, a spokesman said.

Chippenham and Retreat Doctors’ hospitals are “open and fully operational. However, they are experiencing some water and water pressure issues and appreciate your patience as they navigate them.” Johnston-Willis, Henrico Doctors’ hospitals at Forest Avenue and Parham Road, and the Swift Creek ER are all operating as normal and were not affected by the water outage.

In a Q&A session with reporters Thursday afternoon, Avula said he reached out to the three hospital systems Wednesday night, and the consensus was “it’s difficult, but they’re managing. They’ve been able to pull in water tankers to fuel their operations,” he said.

During the water , Gov. Glenn Youngkin summoned the state’s National Guard to help distribute water to city residents, and the American Red Cross and several corporations donated bottled water. According to a gubernatorial spokesman, the state Department of Emergency Management and the Virginia Department of Health have coordinated with the city to provide water and technical support.

The mayor said Thursday that he would welcome legislative engagement and support, noting that the state made significant investments last year in the city’s stormwater overflow system. “I think this particular crisis brings it to the forefront,” Avula said. “Speaker Scott has reached out a couple of times, and I’ve talked to the governor throughout this. So, I think there’s a real sense of understanding and urgency, and hopefully that will yield some good investments in our infrastructure moving forward.”

Despite the mobilization of resources, many residents were left scrambling this week to purchase their own water at grocery stores and convenience stores around the region. Some Richmonders voiced frustration on social media that the power outage at the plant took place the morning of Jan. 6, but official warnings about the water situation didn’t come until later that afternoon, after many people citywide had already lost water pressure.

The governor said he would request an after-action report to look into the water system failure and said legislators should work to ensure the problems that happened in Richmond are fixed going forward. Avula said he plans for the city to investigate what caused the water outage, as well as how his office handled communications to the public and neighboring county governments.

Avula said the city has already reached out to an outside firm to see if it will help with “this after-action process. We’ll talk to a couple of others as well, and as I learn more, we’ll absolutely keep you informed.”

Retired Naval Station Norfolk commander is new Suffolk econ dev chief

Retired Navy Capt. Janet H. Days, who retired last year as commanding officer of , the world’s largest naval station, will be taking on a new tour of duty in February as director of ‘s department, the announced Wednesday.

She’ll start her new job Feb. 7, according to the announcement.

Days retired from the Navy in August 2024, a year and a half after taking the world’s largest naval station’s command. A graduate of Old Dominion University and former of a guided missile destroyer, Days was the first Black commanding officer of the naval station, where she led 89,000 active-duty personnel and more than 50,000 civilian employees. She was in the Navy for 37 years.

On her LinkedIn page, Days wrote, “I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity and look forward to embracing the challenges ahead while working to make a meaningful impact on our community. Thank you for your support and encouragement — it means so much!”

Days has earned several military and other honors, including two Legion of Merit medals and the Defense Meritorious Service medal, as well as awards from the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Library of Virginia, and the Women in Transportation’s Woman of the Year award. She also earned an MBA from the Monterey Navy Postgraduate School and graduated from the Joint Command and Staff College.

As head of Suffolk Economic Development, her portfolio will include the economic development authority, the city’s tourism division and the Suffolk Airport.

Navy Capt. Matt Schlarmann succeeded Days as commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk in August 2024. With a distinguished career as a flight officer, he previously was executive officer at the station starting in February 2023.

Richmond water crisis shuts down many restaurants, businesses

Jan. 9 update: Richmond starts water testing, but city remains under boil water advisory

“Dry January” became all too literal in Richmond, where most residents and businesses were struggling with a that started Monday afternoon and was still leaving much of a city with a population of more than 225,000 people without running water as of mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Schools were closed, many businesses were shut down, and the postponed the start of its session from Wednesday, Jan. 8, to Monday, Jan. 13. State government offices, which had closed Monday after a winter storm that ranged from the Midwest to the East Coast, remained closed Tuesday and Wednesday due to the city water outage.

While city workers are making improvements and getting the water system back up, a boil water advisory is still in effect and will be until Friday at the earliest, said the city’s new mayor, Dr. Danny Avula, who was faced with the less than a week after taking office.

The city’s plant failure followed a brief power outage Monday morning, Jan. 6, during the snowstorm; the outage then caused flood damage that led to filters and pumps going offline. Local authorities expressed hope Monday afternoon that the problem would be resolved that evening, but after an electronic panel failed Tuesday, officials were less optimistic.

The outage impacted most city residents and some in eastern Henrico and Hanover counties, which reported loss of water pressure this week. On Wednesday, Manager John Vithoulkas announced the whole county would be placed under a boil water advisory, effective immediately, after limiting an earlier advisory to the eastern part of the county.

At a Wednesday morning press conference, Avula said more pumps and filters are working or about to come online, and water is building in the reservoir, but he acknowledged that water will come back to some areas of the city before others. The National Guard, the American Red Cross and some private companies have come in to help people access bottled water in the meantime.

During an update delivered Wednesday afternoon, Avula said the reservoir’s levels have fluctuated during the day as more people get water flowing from their spigots. He said that conservation is key so water pressure becomes consistent, and only then can authorities start testing water before lifting the boil water advisory.

“Use it as sparingly as you can,” Avula said. “This is the issue that’s keeping businesses closed. This is the issue that’s keeping schools closed.”

The new mayor advised people to not use their dishwashers or take long showers for now, in the interest of conserving water, and said that the city is checking battery backups and other tools to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen during a snowstorm forecast for this weekend that could drop an additional one to three inches of snow on the region.

“This has lasted longer than anybody possibly imagined,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Wednesday afternoon of the Richmond water crisis during a news conference. Amazon and Walmart were among the corporations that donated water at the governor’s request, he said. The region’s local governments also helped make sure that fire departments had tankers of water for emergency use.

The governor also said he would be requesting an after-action report to look into the water system failure and said legislators should work to ensure the problems that happened in Richmond are fixed going forward.

Youngkin noted that he had already called a state of emergency for the winter storm, which allowed him to quickly mobilize water resources for citizens and institutions like hospitals. According to a gubernatorial spokesman, the state Department of Emergency Management and the have coordinated with the city to provide water and technical support.

Corporate partners have assisted with IT fixes at the water pump station, the governor said.

“The has been working around the clock,” Youngkin said. “I know people are angry, they’re frustrated, and they’re tired. Everybody who’s been trying to restore full water service … understands this.”

Boiling point for new mayor

Avula was sworn in as mayor Jan. 1, and his formal swearing-in ceremony and associated events were set to take place in the city this weekend. However, planners called off the celebrations, which are expected to be rescheduled once Richmond emerges from the crisis.

Already, Richmonders were on social media and Reddit forums discussing what many viewed as a lack of communication from the city, which released an official announcement of the boil water advisory at about 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6, hours after some residents had already started losing water pressure. Avula, a pediatrician who was previously head of the Richmond and Henrico County districts and became a familiar face to Virginians as the state’s COVID vaccine coordinator before being elected to his first public office, said the city would review what happened, including the communication plan.

Henrico’s Vithoulkas thanked Avula and city employees Wednesday, noting that the mayor was brand new to his job. “Collectively we came together, and I believe we have solved this issue for our residents and our region,” Vithoulkas said. 

While residents coped by buying bottled water in local stores or going to sites where the city is handing out water containers, many Richmond restaurants and other businesses were forced to close down or limit service, and even the General Assembly was forced to delay its session, which was supposed to start Wednesday.

That’s never happened in modern history, said G. Paul Nardo, clerk of the House of Delegates. “I’ve been here 30 years, and I cannot recall any time prior when we ‘skipped a few days’ like we are tomorrow and Friday. That said, we’ve never done it because we’ve never had or experienced the water supply issue that we are all grappling with right now.”

The Virginia Bankers Association-Virginia Chamber of Commerce 2025 Financial Forecast event scheduled for Thursday in Richmond, featuring a speech by Richmond Fed President , was changed to a virtual event due to the water outage, organizers announced Wednesday.

“We weren’t exactly sure when this would be fully resolved, so that made it more difficult … to consider postponing the event,” said Bruce Whitehurst, president and CEO of the bankers association. “Thanks to the pandemic, we have a pretty good amount of experience using that word of 2020, ‘pivot.’ … We’ve got the know-how, and this made it a decision we could make today with certainty, as opposed to a decision we could not make today with certainty.”

Meanwhile, many city restaurants and other businesses were waiting to see when the water would come back on.

Cobra Burger owner Adam Musselman is waiting for the water to come back so he can reopen his Richmond restaurant. “We have zero water,” he said Jan. 8, 2025. Photo courtesy Adam Musselman

“We have zero water,” said Adam Musselman, owner of Cobra Burger, on North 27th Street in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood. “There’s dust coming out of the pipes at the restaurant.”

Cobra is closed for the foreseeable future, or at least until the restaurant has running water, he said. “Most of our stuff is to-go,” Musselman said, noting that his menu is made up mainly of burgers and fries, and he typically serves food with paper plates and disposable utensils.

“I reached out to the health department to get some advice on how to proceed,” he said. “We can easily meet the [boil water advisory] requirements,” but until employees can wash their hands and flush toilets, they’ll be closed.

Cindy McKelvy, a senior environmental health manager for the Richmond and Henrico health districts, said Wednesday that food inspectors in the city and the county have been reaching out to food service facilities to check in and answer questions about how restaurants can operate without water or under the boil water advisory once service resumes.

“Some of them have closed, and some of them are using alternative options to keep their businesses open,” she said. If a business doesn’t have running water, “it’ll go to carry-out only,” instead of dine-in. Also, no beverage machines or autofill coffee pots in operation, until restaurants can flush out any machine connected to the water system.

“We do want folks to know that the restaurants that are operating are doing it safely,” McKelvy said. The Virginia Department of Health released emergency guidelines for food service businesses in the area under the boil water advisory.

Jonathan Niemiec, owner of the British Embassy restaurant on East Main Street near the Capitol, said Wednesday that his restaurant “actually never lost water,” and that it was running with normal pressure — to his great surprise. “It blows my mind,” Niemiec said. “For us, it’s been like normal operations. The only thing we’re changing is boiling all the water and washing hands with that water.”

He also is not serving soda from a beverage machine, the ice machine’s turned off, and he’s “slightly reduced” the restaurant’s menu. Niemiec says he feels bad for other restaurants, as he knows well the tight financial margins in the business. “You’ve still got to pay all your bills.”

And that’s what Musselman was concerned about. “I think a lot of people assume that because we’re relatively popular, that we’re raking it in, and that’s not true,” he said. Four-year-old Cobra Burger has “razor-thin margins,” and his employees are also worried about missing multiple shifts and not getting paid.

He laid the blame at the city’s doorstep: “The city is at fault. A boil advisory is one thing, but no water is another.”

Restaurants weren’t the only businesses encountering problems. Family and Cosmetic Dentistry, a practice in the medical building next to Retreat Doctors’ Hospital, was closed for business Wednesday.

“We can’t operate without any water,” said Dr. Audra Jones, one of the dentistry practice’s owners. “Right now we’re taking phone calls and rescheduling patients. It’s been an experience. The last time we went through something like this was with Hurricane Isabel” in 2003.

She expects her office might be closed the rest of the week, although it can reopen once the building has water, even under the boiled water advisory. They can use distilled water for treatment and procedures, but they’ll still need to “flush the lines” of dental equipment, Jones said.

Downtown on Broad Street, the Quirk Hotel was still open, but some customers canceled reservations due to the water outage, said Drew Rainer, Quirk’s office supervisor. The hotel stopped service at its lobby bar and restaurant to conserve water supplies for hotel guests, but none had water for showers or flushing toilets as of midday Wednesday, Rainer said.

Fortunately, she noted, “usually we’re not super-busy” this time of year. “This is the quote-unquote down season.”

Virginia Business Associate Editors Beth JoJack and Katherine Schulte contributed to this report.

Proposed $8.8B+ Pittsylvania data center campus hits roadblock

So many County residents turned out to voice their — predominantly opposed — opinions regarding a proposed $8.8 billion-plus data center campus and plant that a county planning commission meeting ran about five hours Tuesday, ending around 11:40 p.m.

As the meeting neared its end, Steven Gould, the attorney representing Balico, the development company behind the project, implored the commission’s members to hold off a month before making a decision on whether to recommend that the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors approve or deny the developer’s rezoning request. “There is no harm in receiving more information,” Gould said. “There is no harm in additional consideration.”

Instead, Colette Henderson, vice chair of the planning commission, made a motion to recommend denying the project, a move supported unanimously by the commission members. “The reason is because I feel there has been a lack of transparency,” she said.

Balico, a development firm with seven employees, pulled an initial rezoning application for the data center campus and on 2,233 acres in Pittsylvania’s Chalk Level area in November after facing vocal opposition from residents at public meetings as well as a statement by a county supervisor that the project didn’t have enough local political support to get the rezoning passed.

The initial application for the project would have included up to 84 data center buildings and a 3,500-megawatt in a rural area. That development would have created 700 jobs, according to Balico founder and CEO Irfan Ali.

The scaled-back project reviewed Tuesday would be built on less than 750 acres in the same area and  would include 12 spec data center buildings, each two stories tall and 396,000 square feet.

As with the initial application, the project would include building a 3,500-megawatt natural gas power plant, which would be owned and operated by Balico. About 40% of the acreage would be open space.

Gould, president and CEO of PLDR Law, which has offices in Danville and Lynchburg, said the Chalk Level site is the best suited parcel in Pittsylvania for the project because it allows for tapping into  for gas. While the has available gas, he said, “it is not nearly what is available at this site.”

The cost of building the data center campus would ultimately be $8.85 billion, according to Gould. The cost to create the mobile turbines, which would serve the site prior to permanent turbines being constructed, would be $360 million. Balico also would pay to build a new fire station that would serve the site and eventually be turned over to the county.

The proposed power station would create 150 jobs with an average salary of $90,000, while the data centers would create about 240 jobs with an average salary of $105,000, according to the Balico presentation.

Gould acknowledged Balico would ultimately “still like to pursue a project” of the size in the application submitted last year, but noted that would require the company to return to Pittsylvania County for additional rezoning.

Data centers require for cooling servers. Ali said in November that he hoped to tap into a source of nonpotable water in , and that he’s talking with officials in Hurt about building a pipeline to carry water about 19 miles from Staunton River to the data center campus.

The pipeline, Ali said, would be able to deliver up to 18 million gallons of water a day. The data center campus would only require 2 million gallons a day, he noted, so the remaining water could be used by homes in that area that rely on individual wells.

Opponents of the project expressed concerns about noise, traffic and the project destroying the area’s rural character.

Chatham Mayor Alisa B. Davis, the first member of the public to speak about the project at Tuesday’s meeting, noted that in November the town council approved a resolution stating opposition to the project. She also said no one from Balico had spoken with Chatham’s staff or council about using its water.

Lisa Shorter, a veterinarian and founder of Chatham Animal Clinic,  asked the commission members to keep the county’s agricultural areas zoned agricultural. “We have already had enough land destroyed by solar and continue to do so,” she said.

Shorter went on to quote “Gone With the Wind,” stating “Land is the only thing in this world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.”

On Feb. 18, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors will consider the commission’s recommendation and deliver the final say on whether the project can be built in the county.