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Construction input prices fall

Construction input prices fell slightly last month and are down nearly 1% year over year, according to an analysis by the Associated Builders and Contractors.

The analysis is based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data released last week.

Overall construction input prices dropped 0.6% in August and were down 0.9% compared to the same month in 2018.

In addition, nonresidential construction input prices fell 0.4% for the month and are down 0.4% compared to August 2018.

In seven subcategories seeing a decline in prices during the past year, the greatest drops were in energy-related categories like natural gas (-33.3%), unprocessed energy materials (-19.1%) and crude petroleum (-15.7%).

Three other subcategories registered year-over-year declines greater than 10%: softwood lumber (-11.7%), iron and steel (-10.7%) and steel mill products (-10.6%).

Roanoke institute receives $1 million gift

The William Jacob and Barbara Boyle Lemon family of Roanoke has donated $1 million to Roanoke's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, which is undergoing a major expansion.

The institute says the gift will help it to recruit and retain new researchers.

Begun in 2010 as a joint venture of Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic, the institute expects to open a new a 140,000-square-foot new building next fall. The building will house about 400 additional scientists and staff by 2027. Recruitment for new research teams began this summer.

The facility’s core research areas include immunology, cancer, cardiovascular science, and neuroscience.

William J. Lemon is a Roanoke lawyer and philanthropist. The gift was made on behalf of him, his late wife, Barbara, and their children, Sarah Ludwig, Tucker Lemon and Stephen Lemon.

The expansion project already has benefited from a $50 million gift from another Roanoke family, which was the largest gift ever received by Virginia Tech. That donation, announced in December, came from the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust and Heywood and Cynthia Fralin. 

Retail development planned for Chesapeake property

Virginia Beach-based Kotarides Holdings has acquired a former Toys “R” Us store site in Chesapeake with plans to create new retail space.

The real estate company bought the 3.6-acre property at 4120 Portsmouth Blvd. in Chesapeake’s Western Branch area for $1.85 million. The site is adjacent to Chesapeake Square Mall and an Office Max store, properties that Kotarides purchased last year. Kotarides plans to demolish the Toys “R” Us building, which measured 29,195 square feet, to create new retail and restaurant space for tenants that cannot be accommodated at Chesapeake Square. Kotarides has begun preliminary engineering on the newly acquired site but the size of the new spaces has not been determined.

David Machupa, Ed Kimple and Eric Stanley of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer negotiated the sale for Kotarides and are handling the redevelopment of the parcel and Chesapeake Square Mall.

The acquisition is a part of the Kotarides’ ongoing investment in new residential and commercial properties in Western Branch area. The company, for example, has begun work on two mixed-use projects on Portsmouth Boulevard.

Founded in 1963 by Alex and O. Pete Kotarides, the company’s divisions include Corinth Residential, Kotarides Developers, Kotarides Builders and KPM, a real estate management division. The company has projects in Hampton Roads and Richmond in Virginia and Raleigh, Winston-Salem and Charlotte in North Carolina.

DXC Technology names new CEO

Mike Salvino has been named president and CEO of Tysons-based DXC Technology, a Fortune 500 IT services company. The appointment was effective on Thursday.

Salvino succeeds Mike Lawrie, who has served as DXC’s chairman, president and CEO since the company’s formation in 2017.

Lawrie will retire as DXC’s board chair on Dec. 31.

The company said Lawrie and the DXC board began discussing a succession and his retirement about a year ago.

Salvino joined the DXC board in May. He most recently served as a managing director at Carrick Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on the technology sector.

Before he joined Carrick, Salvino was group chief executive of Accenture Operations for seven years. In that position, he was a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee.

DXC Technology was formed in April 2017 as a result of the merger of CSC (Computer Science Corp.) and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

The company, which has 138,000 employees worldwide, was ranked No. 122 on the latest Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies. It had 2018 revenue of $24.6 million.

Airbnb sites in Virginia see nearly 372,000 summer visitors

Nearly 372,000 people stayed at Airbnb sites in Virginia this summer.

San Francisco-based Airbnb Inc., an online lodging marketplace, said Virginia hosts earned a total of $60.3 million in supplemental income in accommodating 371,900 guest arrivals between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Those figures represent an increase from 2018's summer season when there were 280,900 guest arrivals in Virginia, with local hosts making a total of $42.9 million.

The top 10 Virginia destinations for Airbnb guests during this summer were: 

Virginia Beach: 47,300 guest arrivals ($9.4 million in host income)

Richmond: 27,500 ($3.8 million)

Charlottesville: 25,000 ($3.7 million)

Norfolk: 23,900 ($4 million)

Arlington: 18,000 ($4.7 million)

Williamsburg: 15,200 ($1.9 million)

Alexandria: 14,800 ($3.3 million)

Fairfax County: 12,100 ($3.5 million)

Lynchburg: 11,800 ($1.1 million)

Loudoun County: 9,600 ($1.8 million)

The top five origin cities for Airbnb guests in Virginia were: Washington, D.C.; Richmond; Virginia Beach; Philadelphia; and Arlington.

Aviation company to expand in Newport News

Eagle Aviation Technologies LLC plans to expand its Newport News operations, a move expected to double its Virginia workforce.

Founded in 2009, Newport News-based Eagle Aviation currently employs 75 workers. It plans to add an equal number of jobs after spending $207,500 on new equipment.

The company develops and manufactures of prototype systems and components for the aviation, space and marine industries.

Eagle Aviation says its business is growing because of the expansion and diversification of its clients.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership will assist the Eagle Aviation’s expansion through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP).

VJIP provides consultative services and funding to companies creating jobs or undergoing technological change.

Virginia General Fund revenues rise slightly

Virginia’s General Fund revenue increased slightly, by 0.3% in August, up from same month the previous year. 

Collection of payroll withholding taxes decreased 3.2% in August because it included one less deposit day than the year before.

That decline was offset by the collection of sales and use taxes, which grew 12.9% in August. Also, recordation taxes from real estate transactions increased by 15.2%.

In a statement, Virginia Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne said most of the gain in sales tax collections can be attributed to a 44% increase in use tax receipts as many internet companies registered as sales and use tax dealers.

The governor’s office said September collections will complete the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, providing a clearer assessment of revenue growth.

The first estimated payments from individuals, corporations and insurance companies are due in September.  

On a fiscal year-to-date basis, total revenue collections rose 7.3% in August, above the annual forecast of 1.2% growth.

State approves more than $780,000 for GO Virginia projects

Five grants totaling more than $780,000 have been awarded to Virginia economic development projects through the state’s Growth and Opportunity for Virginia (GO Virginia) program, which is designed to strengthen and diversify regional economies.

The money will fund projects in the Roanoke-New River Valley area (GO Virginia Region 2), Southern Virginia (Region 3), Eastern Shore (Region 5) and Southwest Virginia (Region 1).

The largest grant, $300,000, will be used by Virginia Tech’s Office of Career and Professional Development to create regional hubs connecting local employers, students, Tech faculty and economic development officials. One goal of the grant is to develop a talent pipeline for employers in high-priority industry clusters.

Also in the Roanoke-New River area, a $246,800 grant will be used to develop a Blockchain Ecosystem Catalyst program through Virginia Tech. The project’s goal would be to expand the number of workers skilled in the use of blockchain and related systems.

In Southern Virginia, Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. and Longwood University’s Small Business Development Center will use a $100,000 grant to develop a strategy for improving the region’s environment for entrepreneurs.

In the Eastern Shore, the Eastern Shore Foundation will use a $85,117 grant to encourage entrepreneurship by providing broadband connected co-working space, startup support services and space for small-scale production.

In Southwest Virginia, a $50,000 grant will be used by InvestSWVA in partnership with the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy and Virginia Economic Development Partnership to evaluate potential sites in the region for data centers.

PBS KIDS gets new leader

Linda Simensky has been promoted to a new role, head of PBS KIDS Content, at Arlington-based public television broadcaster PBS.

In her new position, she will lead the development of a multiplatform video content strategy for children’s programming.

Simensky joined PBS in 2003. She has worked with producers at the public television network on the development of a number of shows for children, including “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Wild Kratts,” “Dinosaur Train” and “Odd Squad.”

Before joining PBS, she was senior vice president of original animation for Cartoon Network.

Richmond to Washington rail project advances

A project aimed at improving rail service between Richmond and Washington, D.C., has reached a major milestone.

The Federal Railroad Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) announced Tuesday that a federal environmental impact statement study has been completed, making the DC2RVA Rail Project eligible to receive additional federal funding.

“Now that environmental clearance is complete, construction of additional rail capacity in the Northern Virginia region can begin,” DRPT Director Jennifer Mitchell said in a statement.
DRPT has worked with more than 90 agencies, local governments and community groups, while conducting 23 public meetings during the past 6 years in developing a plan to shorten rail travel times between Richmond and Washington.

The resulting DC2RVA Rail Project is a 123-mile piece of the Southeast High Speed Rail proposal, which eventually would stretch to Florida.

“DC2RVA is a critical element of our vision to move more people through the entire I-95 corridor by providing safe, reliable multi-modal travel opportunities for our citizens,” Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine said in a statement.

DC2RVA’s goal is to increase rail capacity to deliver additional and more reliable passenger and commuter rail parallel to the heavily congested I-95 corridor. When completed, the project is expected to bridge two growing megaregions in Northeast and Southeast Virginia. Another expected benefit of the project would be creating opportunities for freight rail growth at the Port of Virginia in Norfolk.

In 2014, DRPT was awarded a $44 million federal grant, funding nearly 80% of the environmental impact statement study costs for the project.

Additional funding from the commonwealth and Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX Corp. enabled DRPT to also complete preliminary engineering and 30% of the design of a railroad-owned-and-operated corridor from Chesterfield County to the Long Bridge over the Potomac River in Arlington County.