Senate Bill 982, introduced by Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, passed in a 24-16 vote in the Senate, along bipartisan lines, with some Democrats and Republicans in opposition and others voting yes. The bill previously moved through the Senate General Laws and Technology and Senate Finance committees.
A similar bill was introduced in 2024 by Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, but was killed in the Senate’s finance committee last year.
Under current state law, only five cities in Virginia are allowed to host one casino each: Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Petersburg and Portsmouth. Voters in each city have passed casino referendums on their ballots, and three casinos are now open in Bristol, Danville and Portsmouth, while Norfolk’s resort is under construction.
“Virginia residents are already sending billions of dollars per decade to Maryland in the Northern Virginia region by patronizing the MGM National Harbor Casino just over the Maryland state line,” Surovell said in a statement last week after the bill’s passage through the finance committee. “It is time to bring that money back to benefit our state and Fairfax County while building a world-class performing arts venue, a convention center, and creating thousands of union jobs so everyone who works in the county can live in the county. This bill will allow the voters of Fairfax County to decide whether or not the project should move forward.”
However, there is considerable local opposition to a casino, which is proposed to be built in Tysons. The grassroots No Fairfax County Casino Coalition, representing multiple homeowners associations and town councils, went to Richmond during the General Assembly session to lobby lawmakers to vote against the bill, and a group of former federal defense and intelligence officers known as National Security Leaders for Fairfax sent a letter expressing concerns to Fairfax County and state officials in January, The Washington Post reported.
“This Tysons casino legislation continues to be rammed down the throats of Fairfax County and Tysons-area residents, and we don’t want it,” Tysons Stakeholders Alliance President Paula Martino said in a statement Tuesday. “Not one elected official representing Tysons has asked for this casino. County officials did not ask for this casino. Not a single state legislator representing Tysons has asked for this casino.”
Voting yes Tuesday were Democratic senators Lashrecse Aird, Lamont Bagby, Jennifer Carroll Foy, Ghazala Hashmi, Mamie Locke, Louise Lucas, Marsden, Jeremy McPike, Stella Pekarsky, Russet Perry, Aaron Rouse, Surovell and Angelia Williams Graves.
The following Republicans voted yes: Christie New Craig, Bill DeSteph, J.D. “Danny” Diggs, Tara Durant, Timmy French, Emily Jordan, Todd Pillion, Bryce Reeves, William Stanley Jr., Richard Stuart and Glen Sturtevant Jr.
Democrats voting no were: Jennifer Boysko, Creigh Deeds, Adam Ebbin, Barbara Favola, Danica Roem, Saddam Azlan Salim, Kannan Srinivasan and Schuyler T. VanValkenburg.
Republicans voting no were: Luther Cifers III, Travis Hackworth, Christopher Head, Ryan McDougle, Tammy Brankley Mulchi, Mark Obenshain, Mark Peake and David Suetterlein.
Carroll Foy, Surovell, Marsden, Pekarsky, Salim, Boysko and Ebbin represent parts of Fairfax County.
Eggs aren’t the only thing getting more expensive. The estimated cost to build Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project has increased from $9.8 billion to $10.7 billion, a 9% jump.
Over the life of the project, the expected average impact to the monthly bill of a residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month is 43 cents, the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility stated in a project update distributed Monday afternoon.
The 2.6-gigawatt project, which is expected to provide enough energy to power 660,000 homes, is now 50% finished and remains on track for expected completion in 2026. It’s located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
Dominion attributed the cost estimate increase to a revised estimate of network upgrade costs assigned by PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for a region that runs from New Jersey to North Carolina, and from Illinois to Washington D.C., and on higher onshore electrical interconnection costs.
Dominion noted this is the only increase in the project’s budget since it was submitted to the Virginia State Corporation Commission in November 2021.
Also in Monday’s update, Dominion announced that CVOW’s first 16 transition pieces, which serve as the junction between the foundation and tower for each of the 176 wind turbines, have been installed.
The first of three 4,300-ton offshore substations was delivered to the Portsmouth Marine Terminal in Virginia Beach at the end of January.
Wind turbine tower and blade fabrication is underway and nacelle fabrication — making containers for turbine working parts — will begin later this quarter, according to Dominion.
Spanish-German wind engineering company Siemens Gamesa, the project’s wind turbine supplier, is manufacturing the same turbine model for CVOW that operates at the Moray West offshore wind project, which is located off the coast of Scotland.
Charybdis, the first U.S.-built wind turbine installation vessel, is now 96% completed and has launched sea trials in Texas.
At the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that temporarily ceases all federal wind leases under consideration and called for an “immediate review” of the policies before resuming. On Jan. 20, 2024, Dominion issued a statement that it is “confident CVOW will be completed on time, and that Virginia’s clean energy transition will continue with bipartisan support for many years to come.”
Dominion provides regulated electricity service to 3.6 million homes and businesses in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, as well as regulated natural gas service to 500,000 customers in South Carolina.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau managed to separately negotiate a monthlong pause on Monday with U.S. President Donald J. Trump on a trade war that was scheduled to begin on midnight Tuesday.
However, as of late Monday afternoon, the Trump administration was still prepared to impose a 10% tariff on China, though Trump was said to be planning to hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
On Saturday, Feb. 1, citing illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking, Trump announced he would be levying 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada, with a 10% tariff carve-out for Canadian oil, natural gas and other energy products. Initially, Canada pledged to retaliate with a 25% on American goods, aimed particularly at red states that supported Trump. Meanwhile, over the weekend, Mexico and China were said to be mulling their trade responses.
But in a post to X Monday, Sheinbaum posted that she and Trump had reached a deal to hold off the tariffs for 30 days, saying that the U.S. agreed to help crack down on “the trafficking of high-powered weapons” over its southern border, while “Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl.”
Later Monday on social media, Trudeau wrote that he too had reached a temporary deal with Trump, promising that Canada would implement its $1.3 billion border plan, including “enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”
However, if Mexico and Canada aren’t able to ultimately come to an agreement with the Trump administration after the 30-day postponement, the impact of a prolonged trade war with China and our closest neighbors could result in higher prices for consumers in Virginia and nationwide, a fact that Trump had acknowledged could result in “pain” for Americans.
“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” Trump posted to social media. “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
Meanwhile, in a Sunday BBC interview, Trump threatened to levy tariffs “pretty soon” against the European Union nations over their trade practices.
If the administration were to move forward on tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China, said Stuart Malawer, distinguished service professor emeritus of policy and government in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, Virginia’s farmers might be hit the hardest.
During the first Trump administration, the United States imposed tariffs on about $370 billion worth of Chinese products. Former President Joe Biden kept those in place, adding tariffs on $18 billion more in Chinese imports.
“Those tariffs remain in place, pretty much and were indeed expanded,” said Malawer, a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee on International Trade.
Virginia’s top five export markets for agriculture in 2023 were China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and Belgium, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Virginia’s agricultural exports to China in 2017 amounted to approximately $1.7 billion. The state exported $1.45 billion in agricultural exports to China in 2022.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday, Malawer pointed out, that Canadians should consider Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon or skip buying Florida orange juice. Both states have Republican U.S. senators, and Canada has aimed its tariffs primarily at the red states that supported Trump.
“We’re kind of fortunate to have Senators Warner and Kaine in office because … they don’t support [the] tariffs,” Malawer said.
The Port of Virginia could feel impacts from the tariffs, but it’s too early yet to know to what extent, according to Joe Harris, the Port of Virginia’s spokesperson.
“The Mexico issue has sorted itself out to a certain extent,” Harris said. “Trade with Canada is overland trade — it doesn’t have a lot of bearing on us at the port. And then [with] China, it remains to be seen.”
The American Association of Port Authorities, based in Washington, D.C., bluntly called tariffs taxes Monday.
“Though the port industry supports President Trump’s efforts to combat the flow of illicit drugs, tariffs will slow down our supply chains, tax American businesses and increase costs for hard-working citizens,” AAPA President and CEO Cary S. Davis stated in a news release. “Instead, we call on the administration and Congress to thoughtfully pursue alternatives to achieving these policy goals and exempt items critical to national security from tariffs, including port equipment.”
After Trump promised to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China in November 2024, many importers likely hustled to send goods to the United States prior to his inauguration, according to Ricardo Ungo, director of the Maritime, Ports and Logistics Management Institute at Old Dominion University.
“I expect that many of them, they already took action and advanced some of those shipments,” he said.
In Virginia, Hampton Roads-based health care system Sentara Health purchases about $1.6 billion in medical supplies from Mexico, China and Canada, according to Aubrey Layne Jr., Sentara’s executive vice president and chief administrative officer. Last week, Sentara leaders learned that tariffs might have a $40 million to $50 million impact on the health system, he said, adding that Sentara plans to conduct a more extensive analysis on the potential impact this week.
“We’re looking through what our options are in terms of either finding other vendors or somehow getting other supply,” Layne said. “I suspect there are a lot of companies around the commonwealth … [that are] doing the same thing this morning.”
As for the impact on fuel, Canada’s oil predominantly goes to the West Coast and the Midwest, “so Virginia is less exposed to the impacts of the 10% tariffs on crude oil coming from Canad,” said Bob McNab, chair of Old Dominion University’s Department of Economics and director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy.
The cost to buy a new house, however, could increase in Virginia if tariffs remain in place, according to Ryan Price, chief economist for Virginia Realtors.
More than 70% of the imports of softwood lumber and gypsum, which is used for drywall, come from Canada and Mexico, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
“We would see lumber prices increase,” Price said. “We would see drywall prices increase significantly, which would then likely be passed on to the consumers.”
Virginia consumers, said Virginia Tech economist David Bieri, will probably see spikes in inflation, as anticipated nationwide if tariffs go into effect and persist. And while Virginia’s economy is “more resilient than that of other states,” Bieri said, “this tariff experiment is so unprecedented and far-ranging that it is simply too early to say anything about its impact.”
In the short term, McNab cautioned Virginians to stay calm.
“Uncertainty is high, and my best recommendation is not to panic, not to make ill-advised moves in the short term that could harm your retirement or your business,” he said. “Much like every other sort of crisis that occurs, we have to get away from the immediacy of the now and take a deep breath and kind of engage in long-term planning, which is very difficult when the news is changing on an hour-to-hour basis.”
Virginia Business Associate Publisher and Editor Richard Foster contributed to this story.
A campaign staffer’s now-famous motto during President Donald Trump‘s 2016 bid for president nods to the mercurial nature of the real estate mogul and former reality television star — as well as a similar slogan from “The West Wing.” And Trump himself has repeatedly said he trusts his gut over his advisers.
It’s a quality that may be the secret to the president’s success. It does, however, make it tricky to predict what direction the new Trump administration may take on policy decisions. And that’s especially true when considering what impact Trump’s second presidency could have on the real estate industry.
“We really don’t know what he’s going to do,” says Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors and the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service.
“I get this question from our 6,500 agents all the time about what I think is going to happen,” says Patrick Bain, president and CEO of Fairfax-based The Long & Foster Cos., one of the nation’s largest real estate and mortgage firms. “I can think of all sorts of things, but until we see some sort of bona fides coming out of the administration, there’s a lot of guessing going on.”
High rates, low inventory
For real estate professionals, the million- dollar question is, what will happen with the federal funds rate under Trump 2.0?
Both fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages are impacted when the Federal Reserve adjusts the federal funds rate, which is the short-term interest rate banks charge each other for loans to meet reserve requirements.
In December 2024, as part of its ongoing strategy to manage inflation, the Fed cut that key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, to a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
Generally, that move would have been expected to result in a drop in mortgage rates, but instead, the 30-year mortgage average hit an eight-month high of 7.13% in January. In short, economists say that was likely due to messaging from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who said in December that the Fed would be cautious about making rate cuts in 2025 due to persistent inflation.
Experts say that despite rate cuts by the Fed, yields in the 10-year Treasury are high, and there are lingering concerns about inflation related to Trump’s threats of tariffs and geopolitical warfare.
This has added to an ongoing sluggish housing market, with sales and inventories still well below pre-pandemic levels, as homeowners who may have refinanced or purchased during the pandemic when 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dipped as low as 2.65% now are disincentivized to purchase homes with interest rates in the 6.8% to 7.1% range and sales prices climbing.
The Virginia market had 18,870 active listings at the end of November 2024, a 12% increase from November 2023, but still 34% down from 2019, when 28,615 homes were on the market.
On the campaign trail, Trump said he would bring down interest rates and opined that the president should have a say in setting the federal funds rate. The problem, of course, is that the Federal Reserve is designed to operate independently of the White House.
“The Federal Reserve has made clear that they intend to act independently, and I think they’ll continue to act independently,” says Lafayette.
Trump “can get Powell to resign,” Bain says. “I’m sure he can compel him to put a new Fed chair in, but the problem is … interest rates right now are largely driven by federal spending, and if he’s going to ramp up spending without pretty significant budget cuts, I don’t see the Fed having a lot of power to influence the [10-year Treasury yield], which is what drives mortgage rates.”
Mortgage rates decreased following the Great Recession and stayed historically low, dropping to 2.1% for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages during the pandemic. To ward off fast-climbing inflation, the Fed hiked rates 11 times between 2022 and 2023, and 30-year mortgage rates rocketed to 8% for the first time in 23 years.
The mortgage rates “put a shock on so many people,” says J. Van Rose Jr., CEO and executive chairman of Chesapeake-based Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty.
As of the first quarter of 2024, about 76% of people with mortgages had a rate below 5%, according to an analysis by Redfin, a Seattle real estate company. And there were about 1.3 million fewer U.S. home sales from spring 2022 through the end of 2023, according to a paper from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
That said, interest rates don’t have to sink to 2.5% to spur activity in the market, according to Martin Johnson, interim CEO of Virginia Realtors, the state industry association. “It just needs to be lower,” he says.
It would take a 5% mortgage rate, Rose hypothesizes, to unfreeze the market. But Terry Clower, professor of public policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, doesn’t think that’s likely any time soon.
“I just don’t see a scenario in this coming year where we see — no matter what policies are implemented — much of a change in mortgage rates,” he says. “It’s possible that they fluctuate down a little bit, but they’re not going to go to 5%.”
Regulations and tariffs
In a November editorial published in The Wall Street Journal, billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, promised that the incoming administration will eliminate thousands of federal regulations. Residential and commercial real estate professionals like the sound of that.
“I think that if you ask the development community, they would tell you that there are some federal regulations that affect development that really don’t necessarily affect health, safety, welfare,” Lafayette says.
More regulations, Johnson points out, “leads to a higher cost of the end product that gets passed along to buyers.”
Rose points to sites in Hampton Roads that are currently off-limits to builders because they were deemed protected wetlands. “Well, two years ago, they weren’t wetlands,” he says. “Today, they’re wetlands. And I guarantee you, probably in a year and a half or so from now, they won’t be wet again, and it’s not by the climate, it’s by regulations.”
In 2020, Trump claimed to have cut nearly eight regulations for each new one enacted.
During his first term, Rose says, “we had some pretty good runs at it, because we didn’t have the same amount of hoops to jump through.”
While real estate leaders interviewed for this story are universally bullish about the prospects of Trump cutting red tape to benefit the industry, many had concerns about the potential impacts of Trump’s stated plans to impose additional tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China.
Tariffs will drive up the cost of building materials, according to Brent Smith, the CoStar Group Endowed Chair in Real Estate Analytics at Virginia Commonwealth University. And “if materials get expensive, then it’s going to raise the cost of housing.”
R. Robert Benaicha, a partner at Richmond-based law firm Hirschler who represents national and local real estate developers, investors and lenders, is concerned that added tariffs “could create pretty massive inflationary pressures across the entire economy.” And that could lead to the Fed raising rates.
Michael Silver, chairman of Vestian, a Chicago-based corporate real estate services firm, takes a glass-half-full view, noting that additional tariffs could boost one segment of commercial real estate: warehouses. Tariffs, after all, could be reciprocated in a trade war and businesses that normally export products might have increased need for storing goods.
While tariffs could hurt the real estate industry, Trump may believe that that’s a price worth paying, points out David Bieri, associate professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech and a former adviser to the CEO of the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland. “Under the rubric of national self-sufficiency, you can justify tariffs extremely well,” he says.
Immigration crackdown
Trump also has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, a move many experts say could also harm the real estate business.
The construction industry already has a labor shortage problem. A model created by national trade association Associated Builders and Contractors found that construction companies would need to hire more than 450,000 new workers in 2025 “on top of normal hiring” just to meet industry demand.
Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors and the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
The Baker Institute, a Texas-based nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the U.S. construction labor force is about 25% foreign-born. Determining how many construction workers are undocumented is difficult since many of those workers operate in the shadows. The American Immigration Council reported in September 2024 that undocumented immigrants represented about 23% of all construction workers in Texas in 2022.
In general, hiring undocumented workers has kept construction labor costs down, says Robert M. Diamond, senior counsel in the real estate group at Reed Smith, a global law firm with offices in Tysons. “You could get sufficient laborers, and it was hard for them to press for higher wages,” Diamond says.
If Trump follows through on his deportation plans, construction companies may be forced to limit the number of jobs they take, according to Timothy Faulkner, president and CEO of The Breeden Co., a Virginia Beach-based real estate development and management company. “Some of these trades may not be able to work on as many jobs, so that would slow down the pipeline as well as drive up costs.”
Political candidates often say one thing on the campaign trail, Rose notes, and govern another way. He points to the people Trump has selected to be part of his administration.
“Most of these people are very wealthy businessmen and women,” he says. “I’ll guarantee you, a big part of their portfolios in life are in real estate. … I think they’re pretty smart people. They didn’t become billionaires for no reason.”
Those individuals, he reasons, are not going to act against their own self-interests.
Draining the swamp
Additionally, on Inauguration Day, Trump ordered federal agencies to return workers to the office five days a week “as soon as practicable.”
Matthew Cypher, director of the Steers Center for Global Real Estate at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, celebrates this policy. “Making sure we have vibrancy in our downtown is important, and I’m hopeful that that is part of what he’s endeavoring to do,” he says.
J. Van Rose Jr., CEO and executive chairman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty Photo courtesy Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty
Following the pandemic, office space has been the softest part of the commercial real estate industry, according to Eric Robison, executive vice president of the Capital Markets Group for Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, a Glen Allen commercial real estate firm.
The Washington, D.C., office market closed out 2024 with a 19.9% vacancy rate, down from a high of 22.4% earlier in the year. Much of that was driven by the region’s largest tenant, the federal government, which accounted for “nearly half” of the district’s decline of 500,000 square feet in office space in the second quarter of 2024, according to CBRE. That was largely due to stalls in the Biden administration’s return-to-office initiatives.
“Getting federal workers and their contractors back into the office will help the performance of a number of office buildings, specifically in the Northern Virginia area, but also in the Hampton Roads market, [which] is deeply dependent on government contractors in the military,” Robison says.
Nevertheless, Smith foresees a number of federal workers handing in their notice over this mandate, especially those who may have relocated during the pandemic when they were allowed to work remotely.
The Trump administration has also pledged to cut the federal workforce, and move some offices out of the D.C. region.
Layoffs for federal workers could free up some Northern Virginia housing supply, adding thousands of properties to active listings, according to Bain, but it probably won’t happen in 2025.
“I think there’ll be some early wins with streamlining or making the government more efficient,” Bain says. “I don’t know that that’s going to be immediately felt in the [District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia].
There are many additional ways the Trump administration could impact commercial and residential real estate markets, too.
Northern Virginia Association of Realtors CEO Ryan McLaughlin is eager to see what Trump does with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which imposed a $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes. Eliminating that cap or raising it “could be beneficial for Northern Virginia,” he notes.
Other possible Trump administration moves could be as far-reaching as looking to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or reeling in Justice Department oversight of the real estate industry.
Then there’s the psychological impact for many voters, who feel optimistic about the new president’s potential impact on the economy. After all, confidence is key for would-be home shoppers.
“If they feel like their retirement portfolios are in good shape and continuing to go up, and they feel like that nest egg is growing,” says Johnson, “and they feel like they have — or are even going to have — more discretionary income, then they’re more apt to want to get involved and want to buy or sell and buy up.”
Virginia Business Associate Publisher & Editor Richard Foster contributed to this report.
Gordon, regional director of Breeden’s multifamily property management division, joined the company in 1997.
Under Gordon’s leadership, the company successfully reached the break-even occupancy rate for several Class A assets, the announcement noted.
“Her leadership has not only driven our success but has also inspired countless team members,” Bonnie Moore, Breeden’s president of property management, said in a statement.
Ramon W. Breeden Jr. founded the real estate development company in 1961. The company includes commercial real estate, multifamily property management and general contracting divisions. Its portfolio includes more than 20,000 apartments and 2 million square feet of retail and office space that it has owned, managed and developed.
Buz Richardson and his team from Gerald L. Richardson, CPA, PC have joined BDO USA’s Tax practice in Richmond, VA. For over 30 years, Richardson has served high net worth individuals, fiduciaries and closely held businesses. Richardson’s wealth of experience and proven track record will be a valuable addition to BDO and for our clients.
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The Trump administration says it will impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China beginning Saturday, Feb. 1.
“The president will be implementing tomorrow 25% tariffs on Mexico, 25% tariffs on Canada and a 10% tariff on China for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Friday’s briefing.
She did not provide details on the tariffs, instead stating that information would be available for the public in 24 hours.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia’s Democratic senior senator, responded a little after 3 p.m. Friday in a video statement posted on X, saying that voters elected President Trump because he promised to lower the cost of living, and increasing tariffs will not accomplish that.
“That’s going to mean higher prices for American cars,” Warner said in a video. “It’s going to mean higher prices for avocados. It’s going to mean a host of higher prices that you will see literally as soon as next week if this cost increase gets pushed onto you.”
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia’s junior Democratic senator, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, introduced a bill Friday that would require Congress’ approval before the president could impose new or additional tariffs on U.S. allies and free trade agreement partners. Kaine said the tariffs are expected to raise costs of gas, cars, groceries and home goods.
“Virginians want costs to go down, not up. But President Trump’s plans to impose broad-based tariffs would raise the price of everyday goods and hurt our economy,” Kaine said in a statement. “It’s time for Congress to make it clear that no president should abuse existing tariff authorities designed to protect America’s national security from threats posed by our adversaries to slap tariffs on our allies and closest trading partners. I’m proud to introduce this legislation with Sen. Coons to take that step to protect Americans’ pocketbooks from sharp price hikes and safeguard our relationships with our allies.”
To speculate on the impact tariffs could have on the commonwealth and the country, Bob McNab, chair of Old Dominion University’s Department of Economics and director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, said Friday that he would need to know whether oil imports will be included in the policy.
“We’re sort of in a wait-and-see mode until we know exactly what goods from Canada, Mexico and China would be subject to a 25% tariff for Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff for China,” McNab said.
Broad-based tariffs, according to McNab, could lead to an increase in prices in Virginia and across the United States. “Given that inflation has been somewhat sticky over the last several months, this would likely lead to higher rates of inflation in the short term,” he said.
As for Virginia-specific consequences, McNab pointed out that China is one of the countries with the highest volume of imports at the Port of Virginia.
“Even a 10% tariff on a broad volume of goods from China would lead to higher costs for importers through the Port of Virginia, and potentially lower demand through the port over time,” he said.
UVA Health and VCU Health systems have suspended all gender-affirming treatments for patients under 19 years old, after receiving a written opinion Thursday from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.
He advised the two publicly funded university-affiliated health systems that the executive order prohibits treating a person under 19 with puberty blockers or hormones such as androgen blockers, estrogen, progesterone or testosterone “to align an individual’s physical appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex.”
Miyares also interpreted the order as prohibiting any surgical procedures that “attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions.”
Miyares concluded the memo, stating, “The chemical and surgical mutilation of children must stop immediately. Hospitals and institutions that continue to mutilate children place themselves at significant legal risk and face substantial financial exposure. Given these risks, my office will be closely monitoring this issue and the actions of the commonwealth’s agencies.”
Under state law, minor patients require parental consent to receive such treatments.
UVA Health issued a statement Friday: “In response to the recent federal executive order and related Commonwealth of Virginia Office of the Attorney General guidance, UVA Health has suspended all gender-affirming care for patients under 19 years of age. Like many health systems across the country, the University of Virginia and UVA Health are working to analyze and interpret the federal order and related state guidance, as well as monitoring other potential policy changes and impacts to ensure we are always delivering care in accordance with the law.”
VCU Health released the following statement: “VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU have suspended gender-affirming medication and gender-affirming surgical procedures for those under 19 years old in response to a White House executive order and clear guidance from the state provided to VCU.
“We are committed to ensuring that we’re always delivering care in accordance with the law. Appointments will be maintained to discuss specific care options for patients in compliance with the most recent guidance.”
Norfolk-based Sentara Health, which operates 12 hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina, confirmed in a statement: “Sentara does not have a gender reassignment program for minors.”
Roanoke-based Carilion Clinic, which serves nearly 1 million people in western Virginia, issued this statement Friday: “We are committed to ensuring that we’re always delivering care in accordance with the law. We are reviewing the latest federal directive to determine potential next steps. We will share more with our patients and their families as this evolves.”
Bon Secours and Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
The Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus lambasted the attorney general’s opinion, saying in a statement that “Miyares’ actions mirror Trump’s unconstitutional attacks on personal freedoms. Instead of standing up for Virginia families, Miyares and Governor Youngkin are taking orders from MAGA extremists — putting politics over parental rights.
“Let’s be clear: Virginia law already requires parental consent for gender-affirming care. Trump’s baseless executive order doesn’t protect families — it strips them of the right to make personal medical decisions for their children.”
Concern about youth
Side by Side, a Richmond-based nonprofit organization that provides workshops, services and housing for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in the Richmond area, called the two health systems’ decision to suspend services “not just disappointing; it is harmful,” in a statement Friday. “VCU Health and UVA Health have been critical partners and the primary providers of gender-affirming care for many of our families.
“While we understand the difficulty in making these decisions, we welcome and invite these providers to communicate their plan to transition the life-saving care for the families being impacted,” the statement said. “We also look forward to engaging with them both on the decision-making process that led to this reduction in care and what support for our LGBTQ+ community can look like in the future.”
Marquis D. Mapp, Side by Side’s executive director, said in an interview Friday that a hastily arranged conference call drew more than 200 people registered with the organization, including young people who had been receiving treatments and their parents.
“They’re scared, they’re worried,” he said. Side by Side on average sees 60 to 80 youth under the age 18 for its workshops and other activities each week, many of whom are receiving some sort of gender-affirming medical treatment. “Access to treatment is pretty difficult because of waitlists or levels of access,” Mapp noted, and UVA Health and VCU Health are the “two primary providers” for teens they see.
Most of the people Mapp and his colleagues have spoken with are concerned about access to care now that the two health systems have suspended treatment for minors, regardless of parental consent.
“We’re talking about people who were receiving treatment. [There was] not enough of a plan to connect people with resources,” including medical facilities that are still offering gender-affirming care, Mapp said. “It’s a scramble to identify where they can get treatment. It’s not illegal in Virginia. I think there are a lot of places that are able to but are afraid to come forward.”
Another issue, he noted, is concern that youth who can’t access treatments may experience suicidal ideation or harm themselves physically.
“To the best of our ability, we will keep our doors and arms open,” Mapp said.
Bassett Furniture reported revenue of $84.3 million in the fourth quarter, an 11% decrease from last year, on Wednesday. However, a positive operating income of $900,000 means the company has returned to profitability after five consecutive quarters in the red.
The Henry County home furniture manufacturer and retailer beat expectations by a long shot, with earnings per share of 38 cents, well above analysts’ expectations of 1 cent per share.
Gains in operating income included a $1 million charge related to the wind-down of Noa Home, as well as a $400,000 restructuring charge related to workforce reductions announced last quarter.
Gross margin improved again, this time hitting 56.6%, driven primarily by wholesale gains. Wholesale sales totaled $52.3 million, a 13.7% decline from last year, but a $5 million gain from last quarter. Retail sales fell 8.3% to $53.1 million, a $6 million gain from last quarter.
The company generated $6.4 million in operating cash flow. It ended the quarter with $59.9 million in cash and short-term investments with no outstanding debt.
“The steps we took in our restructuring plan helped right-size our business, and we returned to profitability in the fourth quarter,” Bassett CEO Rob Spilman said in a statement. “We delivered strong consolidated gross margins and 38 cents in diluted earnings per share. Our team remains focused on operating efficiency, leveraging our cost structure and running a leaner business.
“We’re driving newness and innovation into Bassett’s product lines, e-commerce and marketing to deliver price and value for customers,” he added. “We are well-positioned for the eventual housing industry turnaround and will focus on growth and productivity until it does.”
Bassett detailed a five-point cost-saving plan in the second quarter of last year. The points were: drive organic growth, consolidate U.S. wood manufacturing, optimize inventory and drop unproductive lines, reduce costs in both wholesale and retail, and close the e-commerce platform Noa Home.
Last quarter, the company laid off 40 workers. It laid off 150 workers last year in total.
Work on the $50 million-plus Riverdale mixed-use redevelopment planned for more than 126 acres on the sprawling former campus of American Viscose, a rayon plant that closed in the late 1950s, is moving right along.
Developer Ed Walker shared a lengthy written update on the project Jan. 24 that included a rendering of a 267-unit apartment building planned for Riverdale that could begin construction late this year. That project is led by developers Joe Thompson and Tommy Spellman, according to Walker.
Rendering of an apartment building planned for Roanoke‘s Riverdale development. Photo courtesy Ed Walker.
Other plans for Riverdale include a boutique hotel with a rooftop bar, a brewery, offices and recreation offerings.
Also in his missive, Walker noted Artspace, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that develops affordable housing for artists and creative spaces, won’t be building its first Virginia project at Riverdale after all.
During “the final stage of due diligence” on collaborating with Artspace in November and December, Walker wrote, “the Roanoke team decided to explore options other than Artspace to proceed to the next phase.”
Artspace did not respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Artspace executives requested local buy-in for the project to cover predevelopment costs: $150,000 by Nov. 1, 2024 and another $300,000 in January 2025. In October 2024, members of Roanoke’s Economic Development Authority unanimously voted to cover the $150,000 payment, using authority funds.
Duke Baldridge, a member of the city’s EDA, confirmed Friday that the funds had been returned.
“I think we explored this well-known national nonprofit developer, got real serious with them, and for whatever reason, it didn’t appear that it was going to get the return that we wanted,” Baldridge said. “Ed was very effective at getting our money returned to us.”
Walker hasn’t given up on having affordable housing for artists at Riverdale, however. “We will keep moving forward on this important community goal,” he wrote. “2025 will be a year of tremendous progress to advance affordable housing for creatives.”
The earliest construction would likely begin on such a project would be 2026, he noted.
As part of his update, Walker also noted that some tenants who had occupied Riverdale under its previous owners had to be evicted. However, he added that more than 60 legacy tenants, including Willis Welding and Noke Vans, plan to stay.
Riverdale Southeast, the entity that owns the property, has filed to evict more than a dozen tenants, including Osmo Enterprises and Pena Trucking, since purchasing the campus in 2023, according to Roanoke City General District Court records. In his update about Riverdale’s progress, Walker said that step was taken in cases where tenants failed to pay rent, didn’t have a lease or were violating laws or fire regulations. “Sometimes you just have to ask a judge to help resolve a problem,” Walker wrote.
In other Riverdale news, during its Jan. 21 meeting, Roanoke City Council approved the rezoning of the Riverdale property under the city’s new “Urban Center” designation, which aims to create more pedestrian-friendly development.
Walker, a real estate developer known for developing apartments in historic buildings, forged a 2023 agreement with the city in which the EDA loaned Walker $10 million for Riverdale. If the project’s developers invest at least $50 million in the project through 2040, the loan will be forgiven.
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