A former Chesapeake restaurant building was sold for $1.45 million, real estate agency Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced Wednesday.
The 5,022-square-foot building sits on more than two acres of land at 401 Cedar Commons in Chesapeake located in close proximity to the Chesapeake Golf Club.
Matthews, North Carolina-based SXCW Properties II LLC purchased the building from Rui Lan Ni. SXCW Properties II LLC plans to redevelop the property, although neither a timeline or plans have been released.
Eric Stanley of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Hampton Roads office handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the seller.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond purchased the former Eastlawn Shopping Center in Richmond’s East End for $1.025 million and will convert it into a center for the clubs’ programming, the organization announced Monday.
The youth nonprofit purchased the facility from the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority in 2019 using funds from the organization’s $25 million New Statistics fundraising campaign. The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority purchased the Eastlawn Shopping Center in 2017 for $1 million, according to city records.
The sales price was not disclosed.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond serves more than 1,200 youth in historically marginalized communities in the Richmond metro area. The clubs provide programming after school, on weekends and during the summer, including academic assistance, social-emotional learning and physical activity.
The 16,000-square-foot facility at 1812 Creighton Road is expected to open in spring 2021 and an adjacent space will provide a space for career training, counseling, mental health services and college prep.
“This space represents the tangible culmination of our vision for how we can best serve the needs of our community’s underserved teen population,” Todd McFarlane, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond, said in a statement. “The facility will help guide teens into adulthood, putting them on a trajectory toward healthier, more connected and thriving futures.”
Penrose has been with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer since 2000. He currently serves as vice president of commercial sales and leasing at the firm’s Newport News office.
Penrose has a bachelor’s degree in business, managing and marketing from Christopher Newport University in Newport News.
The lowest U.S. unemployment rate in 50 years isn’t slowing down the companies honored as this year’s Best Places to Work in Virginia. The winners find plenty of applicants are attracted to their good pay and supportive cultures.
For example, Burns & McDonnell, a global architecture, engineering and construction company with four offices in Virginia, hired nearly 1,000 people last year, growing its companywide workforce to more than 7,000 employees.
Job seekers “are coming to us. We are able to select the best,” says Jeffrey Ganthner, a Chesapeake-based regional vice president with Burns & McDonnell, a global architecture, engineering and construction company. Photo by Mark Rhodes
The firm’s Virginia offices are doing their part to keep Burns & McDonnell growing, says Jeffrey Ganthner, vice president and general manager of Mid-Atlantic region offices for Burns & McDonnell. Its Roanoke office opened in 2015 with only six employees; it expects to expand to a staff of 100 there by next year.
Although Virginia’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.6% in October, Burns & McDonnell hasn’t struggled to find the right workers because of the company’s reputation as an outstanding employer, Ganthner says. For example, fire protection engineers, who design smoke suppression and sprinkler systems, are scarce and can be hard to locate, but “in the last 18 months we have hired six in Arlington pretty quickly.”
Last year, the company, which is based in Kansas City, Missouri, received 70,000 applications from people ranging from new college graduates to seasoned professionals. “They are coming to us. We are able to select the best, ” says Ganthner, who is based in Chesapeake.
Another 2020 Best Places to Work winner, Fortune 500 financial services firm Edward Jones, also isn’t encountering difficulties with recruitment. “At Jones, we grow intentionally and organically. The downward trend in unemployment hasn’t created a difference for us,” says regional leader Brian Callery, who is based in McLean.
Engineering, architecture and planning firm DJG Inc. has only 23 employees, but “we’re always looking to grow, looking for other avenues to further provide services to our clients,” says John Ozmore, co-owner and architectural group manager.
Some of these companies were selected as this year’s Best Places to Work in Virginia. Since 2011, Virginia Business and Pennsylvania-based Best Companies Group have collaborated to identify the commonwealth’s best workplaces.
One hundred companies were chosen for the Best Places to Work list in three categories: small, midsize and large businesses. (See selection process.)
Close-knit culture
What is it about these companies that makes them award-winning — and attractive to job applicants?
“The best way to support people is to invest in them,” Ganthner says. “We are 100% employee-owned, have flexibility and a wonderful wellness plan and highly support continuing education.”
End-of-year bonuses are part of the equation. “The best way to reward people is to give them the money right back,” he says. “We also have a wonderful paid time-off plan, flexibility and we highly support continuing education.”
Job seekers also appreciate that Burns & McDonnellis a very flat organization, Ganthner adds. “People a year or two out of school are leading projects.”
At Edward Jones, “people who work for the company and who are the source of success participate in the rewards. They share in the profits,” according to Callery.“And an associate has the ability to become a partner in the firm and an owner of the firm.”
The company’s benefits aren’t just financial. The culture of the firm is unique, Callery says, and that itself is a benefit. “One of our core values is working in partnership. Everyone helps one another. It’s really a philosophy everyone lives by. People are invested in one another’s success. It really brings the best out in people.”
DJG Inc., located in Williamsburg, has a profit-sharing system. The small company fosters a close-knit culture with activities ranging from an annual retreat to an office chili cookoff. People even join together to pick up litter along a nearby stretch of highway.
Reaching out
When best companies recruit, they often use the usual tactics: employee referrals, postings on job boards and listings on the company website. But they go above and beyond to reach out to the top candidates.
Engineering, architecture and planning firm DJG Inc. reaches out to universities and professional organizations to find talent, says co-owner John Ozmore. Photo by Mark Rhodes
DJG Inc. works closely with area universities to find fresh talent, according to Ozmore. “We’ve sent staff members to Virginia Tech and Old Dominion, where they have good architectural and engineering programs. We go to the architectural school at Hampton University.”
Many DJG staff members belong to professional organizations, where they can meet prospective candidates in their specific fields, he says. “That helps out a lot. Everybody gets different ideas to entice people to come.”
When Burns & McDonnell chose to open in Chesapeake, Arlington, Richmond and Roanoke, “we looked at launching offices for our clients and the incredible talent pool. We tap into the talent in each community and better serve clients around the world from these locations,” Ganthner says.
Paying dividends
In Chase City, Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative has been scrambling to hire workers. “We’ve hired more [employees] in the last 18 to 24 months than we have in 10 years,” says Leilani Todd, vice president of human resources.
Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative has been on a hiring spree to refresh its workforce as baby boomers retire, says Leilani Todd (center), vice president of human resources. Photo by Mark Rhodes
But that’s because the award-winning company is so good at retention. “We have extremely low turnover,” she says. “We knew this was coming. We foresaw that trend as employees became eligible to retire” after decades on the job. Accordingly, more than a dozen years ago, the company began preparing to replenish its ranks.
The co-op started working with partners in the industry, in schools and in state agencies to make people aware of its career offerings.
“We’ve been in schools for many years. We work with not just students but with parents,” she says. “Energy is not going away. If folks want to contribute to the environment, to their community, this is a great career path.”
But the company has had to push back against the mentality that a four-year college education is the best path for every student, Todd says.
“They don’t have to have a college education, but they have to enjoy working outside. They need to be mechanically inclined for a number of the jobs. They need to understand teamwork and critical thought processes,” she says. About 75% of the co-op’s 100 employees are technicians working in the field.
The company turns to Southside Virginia Community College’s line worker program to find students who have gained some of the skills the co-op needs.
Job applicants undergo a rigorous interviewing process that assesses not only their skills but their cultural fit with the company. “We want the applicant to know us as well as we get to know the applicant. We put time in up front because when both of us make the decision, it’s pretty much a lifetime decision. Taking the time up front pays dividends on the back end.”
Once onboard, employees find that communication and flexibility are vital parts of the company’s culture, according to Todd. “We look at all the ways we can disseminate the same information in different ways. Face-to-face contacts are vital. You have to make the time to sit down and be present.”
Employees especially appreciate the work-life balance. The co-op offers floating holidays and personal time off in addition to vacation and sick leave. “The extra days provide time to be involved with their families and communities,” Todd says.
In addition, “we require a lot of folks to be on call. We’re pretty flexible when they need time off. We encourage folks to volunteer in the community and to be involved with their kids. If we’re going to encourage that, we can’t demand that they work an 8-to-5 schedule.”
And that’s because “the flip side is, there’s going to be times when we take them away from their families. There are going to be emergencies,” such as hurricanes and snowstorms.
And when that happens, “you will find our CEO and all our senior staff out in the field working with everyone else. They’re taking meals to them, into the field, so they can get the lights back on,” she says. When it comes to hiring and keeping good workers, “it’s those little things that they appreciate most.”
This article has been updated from the version that appeared in the February 2020 issue of Virginia Business.
Former Philip Morris USA President and CEO Cliff Fleet took over as the ninth president and CEO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation on Jan. 1.
Virginia Business reported in September 2019 that Fleet’s predecessor, Mitchell Reiss, was stepping down after five years at the helm of the historic tourism foundation. Colonial Williamsburg holds assets worth more than $1 billion, including the 18th-century living history attraction as well as museums, lodging and other businesses.
A William & Mary alum who holds a bachelor’s degree in history and religion and graduate degrees in history, business administration and law, Fleet is also president of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Board of Directors.
Anybody up for pickleball? Barrett Worthington and Megan Charity hope so.
Business partners based in Charlottesville, Worthington and Charity are among Virginia’s opportunity zone pioneers. They hope to build an $8 million entertainment complex called Rally, containing a restaurant, beer garden and courts for pickleball — a mix of badminton, tennis and pingpong — in Richmond’s Manchester neighborhood.
Worthington, a University of Virginia Darden School of Business graduate, and Charity, an internationally ranked pickleball player and coach, are seeking $3.7 million in investment capital for Rally. In their quest, the partners are working with Opportunity Virginia, the state-funded online marketplace started by Virginia Community Capital and its subsidiary, LOCUS Impact Investing.
Opportunity Virginia’s mission is twofold: connecting entrepreneurs with investors via the recently launched opportunityva.org website, and educating small business and property owners about available tax benefits and how to market their ideas to investors.
Created as part of the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, opportunity zones were designed to promote economic development in lower-income areas by giving investors the chance to defer and reduce capital gains taxes. Investors put their money into Qualified Opportunity Funds, investment vehicles for development projects in one of 8,700 census tracts designated by the U.S. Treasury as opportunity zones in 2018.Virginia has 212 such opportunity zones spanning the commonwealth, from rural tracts in Southern and Southwest Virginia to urban neighborhoods in Hampton Roads, Richmond and Arlington.
Over the past year and a half since the zones were approved, most of the legislation’s beneficiaries have been high-net-worth investors backing properties in communities that already have plenty of developer interest. Several bombshell stories have come out in recent months in the national press about billion-dollar luxury projects in fancy neighborhoods that were shoehorned into opportunity zones. Among the beneficiaries are former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former “junk bond king” Michael Milken.
But this isn’t the whole story, promoters of opportunity zones in Virginia say. Eligible localities had a lot of input into which geographic areas were designated as opportunity zones. Several organizations are helping people in these localities market available properties with training workshops and small grants.
The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development and the Appalachian Regional Commission are working with rural counties in particular to produce marketing prospectuses.
Kristen Dahlman with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development hopes to encourage investors to develop projects in economically challenged areas designated as opportunity zones. Photo by Shandell Taylor
“Real estate developers go after low-hanging fruit,” acknowledges Kristen Dahlman, a VHCD senior policy analyst who was involved in the nomination process for Virginia’s opportunity zones (frequently referred to as “OZ” for shorthand). She has continued working with Opportunity Virginia to conduct OZ workshops around the state.
As information spreads about opportunity zones, Dahlman and others hope to encourage developers and investors to take a chance on properties in less-proven markets such as Southwest Virginia coal country, Martinsville, Danville, Petersburg or Norfolk’s St. Paul’s neighborhood.
If I only had a crane
When opportunityva.org was launched last October, Opportunity Virginia Executive Director Adam Northup said he knew of about 150 OZ-located projects in the state, but as of early January, only 25 Virginia plans were listed online, seeking investors. Northup notes that participation in the site is voluntary, and developments that have secured funding have no reason to be posted there.
Although OZ investment has started slowly, Dahlman is hopeful. The benefits encourage long-term investment, she says; if the investor remains committed to a project for more than five years, they pay 10% less in taxes on income from the project. After 10 years, the investor does not have to pay any taxes on capital gains produced.
Many potential investors were waiting for the IRS to release its final regulations, which came out in late December, and others want to see how the early investments do, Dahlman says.
“I would say that the activity is only going to increase. This is a brand-new federal program.”
For Worthington and Charity, who are investing in their first business property, cost was a paramount concern. They first considered buying land in Scott’s Addition, one of Richmond’s hottest neighborhoods, where millennial-friendly craft breweries, apartments and sports entertainment venues offering golf, shuffleboard and bowling pop up almost weekly.
Quickly they realized “economically it didn’t make sense,” Worthington says. “Our concept is fairly large-scale.” Scott’s Addition simply didn’t have enough affordable land for the proposed 40,000-square-foot, two-story complex and its accompanying outdoor seating.
In Richmond’s less-developed Manchester area, which also attracts a millennial population with money to spend on leisure activities, the partners found property within a designated opportunity zone.
They connected with Opportunity Virginia and became one of the first 25 properties listed on its website, which provides details about the project and its need for $3.7 million in investment funds. Worthington says they’re close to reaching their target, and she and Charity hope to break ground this spring, with completion anticipated in 2021.
Worthington and Charity would have chosen Manchester even without its opportunity zone designation, they say, but the exposure on Opportunity Virginia’s site and the potential tax benefits have helped them find and attract investors.
Experienced developers are “more in tune with it than anyone else,” Worthington says of opportunity zone benefits. “It’s still a bit ‘Wild, Wild West’ where people are learning how it all works.”
A horse of a different color
Opportunity zones are an underutilized tool, says Harrisonburg developer Dain Hammond, who is using the incentives to build a mixed-use project. Photo by Norm Shafer
Dain Hammond, who owns the Hammond Asset Management development company and co-owns Hammond Insurance Services, has benefited from historic tax credits to develop multiple projects in Harrisonburg, Staunton and Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood.
In other words, he’s no novice.
But Hammond didn’t know how he could benefit from opportunity zones until a friend suggested looking into it.
Last year, he was about to walk away from a potential mixed-use office and residential project near Harrisonburg’s Court Square after learning that tax credits wouldn’t cover the $465,000 building cost and estimated $1.25 million in renovations. Hammond also owed taxes on $500,000 in capital gains.
“I couldn’t get the numbers to work,” he recalls. The day before he planned to cancel the contract, however, a friend mentioned that he could defer the capital gains taxes by 15% for seven years by investing in a Qualified Opportunity Fund.
Hammond likens the opportunity zone policy to the IRS’s 1031 exchange, which saves property sellers from paying heavy taxes on the income they make from a sale as long as they invest in another property within 180 days.
As a result of repositioning the Court Square area project as an opportunity zone development, he was able to move forward. He expects to renovate the building into offices on the first floor with a loft-style apartment on the second floor, featuring wrought-iron detailing and a 1930s-era storefront look.
“I think [opportunity zones are] underutilized,” Hammond says. “I’m the second project in the central [Shenandoah] Valley area. It’s a smaller crowd that can benefit from it.”
But now that Hammond is aware of the benefits, he’s shared the information with a local Rotary Club and a Realtors’ group, and he’s searching for properties in other opportunity zones.
Return to OZ legislation
The major challenge in judging the impact of opportunity zones is the total lack of reporting requirements.
Julian Hayter, an associate professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond who has studied civil rights and urban history, says opportunity zones’ benefits for disadvantaged communities depend heavily on implementation and local awareness, particularly among small business owners.
“A lot of Washington’s good intentions fail locally because of people,” Hayter says, pointing to earlier policies such as public housing, block grants and welfare. “There are a lot of contextual factors, and if people aren’t aware of those factors and forces, it can be like throwing gasoline on the fire.”
Right now, he says, there’s not enough data to judge the impact of opportunity zones. “It’s hard to say. I wish I could be more definitive, but I can’t.”
This could change, however, with a bill introduced in December by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, the author of the original federal opportunity zone legislation. Scott’s proposed legislation would beef up OZ reporting rules, requiring the U.S. Treasury to publicly track metrics such as the total number of Qualified Opportunity Funds, distribution of opportunity zone investments and the number of jobs created or sustained by opportunity zone investments.
As of late December, most of Scott’s co-sponsors were other Republicans, but U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, also backs stronger reporting requirements.
“I believe there should be mechanisms in place to ensure transparency and prevent the risk of any fraud or abuse in the program that could steer money away from creating new jobs and expanding economic opportunity in the communities that need it the most,” Warner said in a statement.
Bobby Werhane, an assistant vice president of commercial and multifamily mortgage banking company Bellwether Enterprise who is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has worked extensively with major clients interested in investing in opportunity zone projects nationally, and he says that reporting requirements would not likely cool investment.
Major fund managers already voluntarily subscribe to reporting measures as an industry standard, anticipating federal requirements, although they don’t necessarily track the same details that states would be interested in, like job creation, Werhane says.
He predicts that by the end of 2026 the federal government will assess the opportunity zone program, judging how much good it has done in underinvested communities, along with other metrics. If the outcome is favorable, Werhane says, the government could allow more land tracts to be designated opportunity zones, based on 2020 U.S. Census data.
Northup and Dahlman agree that more reporting requirements would be welcome in the meantime.
“The stated purpose of the OZ program is to build wealth and prosperity for residents in the opportunity zones,” Northup says, “but how will we know if this tax/social policy is meeting that goal if there is no measurement?”
Alita Robinson, a second-year University of Virginia student from Delaware, delivers a personal message when she calls potential donors seeking support for financial aid programs.
“I always tell people the only reason I’m at U.Va. and have these opportunities … is because I got a scholarship,” says Robinson, who plans to study educational policies and their impact on minority youth.
Robinson is one of nearly 2,040 undergraduates at U.Va. this academic year who are classified as first-generation college students, meaning neither parent graduated from a four-year college or university.
They’re a group that is the focus of heightened attention and support, and not just because the university’s president, James E. Ryan, shares their background.
From farm kid to billionaire
U.Va. alum David Walentas donated $100 million to the university in 2019. Photo courtesy BerlinRosen
In October 2019, U.Va. announced a $100 million donation — primarily to support first-generation students — from New York billionaire real estate developer David Walentas, a 1961 graduate who found his way to Mr. Jefferson’s university from a farm in upstate New York with the help of a scholarship.
“Attending U.Va. was a transformational experience for me and helped lay the foundation for the rest of my life,” says Walentas, who made the gift with his wife, Jane. “College opened a lot of doors I didn’t know existed and exposed me to tremendous educators and ambitious students — a monumental step from working on a farm as a kid.”
Walentas, also a 1964 graduate of U.Va.’s Darden School of Business, founded the real estate development company Two Trees Management in 1968. Two Trees is credited with transforming the Brooklyn neighborhood known as DUMBO — short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass — into a popular destination.
Of his gift, $75 million will be used for scholarships and fellowships for first-generation students, and $25 million will finance fellowships and professorships through the Jefferson Scholars Foundation and Darden.
The university announced its $5 billion “Honor the Future” campaign, which also recognized the university’s 2019 bicentennial, in June 2018.
“After 200 years of serving this community and this country, it’s important to ask what comes next for the University of Virginia,” Ryan said at the time. “The answer is that there is no limit to the good that this institution can do for others. This campaign plays a critical role in allowing us to pursue these ambitions together, and I am eager to support this effort.”
The university already has raised $2.8 billion toward its goal.
Included in the capital campaign’s total is the largest private gift in U.Va.’s history — a $120 million donation made in January 2019 from husband-and-wife alumni Jaffray and Merrill Woodriff to establish the U.Va. School of Data Science. The university’s 12th school won approval from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia in September and will build on the degree programs previously offered by U.Va.’s Data Science Institute.
Described as a “school without walls” that will conduct interdisciplinary research, it eventually will be housed in a 70,000-square-foot facility planned for the intersection of Emmet Street and Ivy Road.
A ‘bright opportunity’
Walentas hopes his gift “becomes the bright opportunity for other first-generation students to receive a quality education and life-changing experience.
“I know what it’s like to be held back by financial constraints, so I took advantage of every opportunity that came my way,” he says.
His comment echoes Robinson’s assessment of how a scholarship already has broadened her world.
“I don’t think people always realize what an education means to a first-generation student,” she says. “When I say my education means everything for me, it’s not just for me — it’s for my parents as well.”
When Robinson was growing up, her household wasn’t the strongest financially, she says. “Everything always came down to the dollar.”
The idea of going out of state seemed out of reach, and that wasn’t really on her radar anyway. “I never had a true dream school per se, especially as a first-gen [student]. It’s not like my mom went to so-and-so school,” Robinson explains. She expected she would go to college in Delaware and live at home to cut expenses.
But after she learned about U.Va. through a teacher who was a graduate, she was able to access scholarships and financial aid that cover the majority of her out-of-state tuition. She works part time at Starbucks and has taken out loans to cover her living expenses. Last year, she worked two jobs, including one with the student fundraising program Cavalier Connect.
The university has increased its efforts to enroll more first-generation students, who number more than 500 in this year’s entering class, a 19% rise from the previous year.
21st-century life prep
U.Va. also has bolstered programs to help first-generation students navigate life on the Grounds, and that has helped build a community “so you don’t feel like you’re alone,” Robinson says.
First-generation students “add a hustle and grind and an appreciation for education,” she says. But “you are surrounded by a lot of legacy children [who] knew U.Va. was in their blood, where, for me, I didn’t really know U.Va. existed.”
Robinson had the chance to engage with students from different backgrounds during her first year, when she opted into a new curriculum being piloted by the College of Arts & Sciences.
In October, the Arts & Sciences faculty voted to fully adopt the New College Curriculum for students to fulfill general education requirements.
The redesigned curriculum introduces first-year students to fundamental modes of inquiry through engagement courses with a format that Robinson says gave her “different points of view related to real-world topics.” The way the courses were structured resulted in “a lot more dialogue with the person next to me,” she says.
The curriculum also focuses on what the college terms “vital literacies,” stressing writing skills, proficiency in a second language and “quantitative and computational fluency essential to navigating an ever more data-driven world.”
Ian Baucom, dean of Arts & Sciences, says the university’s New College Curriculum better prepares first-year students for 21st-century lives. Photo by Dan Addison, courtesy University of Virginia
Arts & Sciences Dean Ian Baucom says the revision represents the first major change in the school’s curriculum in more than 40 years.
“At a time when a liberal arts education is under heavy scrutiny, we are staking a claim on the power of what it can do for our students, especially as they enter an increasingly complex and interconnected world,” Baucom adds.
Through the engagement courses, he says, “students learn fundamental habits of mind to better prepare them for 21st-century lives — from wrestling with ethical questions, to fully appreciating the arts and aesthetics, to understanding empirical truths as scientists do, to engaging differences constructively in a world of people with different views, histories and backgrounds.”
At its September meeting, SCHEV also approved a master’s program in media, culture and technology that Baucom says reflects employer demand and student interest.
“Beyond the Facebooks and Googles of the world, there are agencies, consulting firms and other organizations looking for talent in media research and policy,” he says. “In a similar way, we think Amazon’s HQ2 will have an impact on the market for this in Northern Virginia.”
Living wage commitment
Despite all this progress, the fall semester saw the university gather some negative press after a Kaiser Health News analysis detailed how the U.Va. Health System’s aggressive pursuit of unpaid medical bills was forcing families into bankruptcy. The report led Ryan and Gov. Ralph Northam, both of whom said they were unaware of the practices, to promise reforms.
The university also stepped up to aid low-income employees as Ryan announced an agreement with major contractors to increase the minimum wage for most university contractors to at least $15 an hour. The agreement meant a raise for about 800 full-time contracted employees and followed the announcement in March of the “living wage” commitment for the university’s full-time, benefits-eligible workers in both the academic and medical divisions.
The increases were effective Jan. 1. About 1,400 university workers were covered by the March decision at an added annual cost of about $3.5 million to U.Va.
According to the university, the lowest salary its workers were making was $12.75 per hour, compared with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
At her part-time job at the Starbucks in Newcomb Hall, Robinson says she works with people who will benefit from that decision.
“I think I value that job so much because I can converse with people from the Charlottesville community,” she says.
She’s had the opportunity to share some of what she’s learned as a first-generation student with a co-worker worried about how she will afford college for her daughter.
“A lot of those same struggles my parents were going through,” Robinson says.
When employees join Dynamis Inc., they gain a new family.
“We’re very supportive of each other,” Dynamis Recruiter Macaya Yao says. “I find that I’m really able to go to anyone in the company and ask for help and they’re willing to jump in and help out with whatever it is.”
This familial vibe, an open-door atmosphere and educational benefits are what makes the Fairfax-based government contractor different, say its employees — who call themselves“Dynamites.”
The company’s founders, CEO John Milam and John Braun, president and chairman of the board, frequent the Fairfax headquarters and offer employees an open-door policy to voice their concerns, questions and ideas, Yao says.
“I feel like you don’t see that in a lot of companies,” Yao says. “You can go up to anyone in upper management and be able to have a conversation and get their input on anything.”
Due to the nature of Dynamis’ work providing management system and incident response software for clients such as the U.S. departments of Defense and Homeland Security, some employees work offsite. Dynamis’ cultural emphasis on continuing education, however, bridges the gap between headquarters employees and offsite employees in Arlington and Washington, D.C.
Each month, Dynamis hosts its “School of Athens,” an after-hours training for all employees covering topics such as leadership, emergency preparedness, investments, understanding a 401(k) plan and even how to book a vacation and get a good deal, says Human Resources Manager Monica Ani-Adjei. These sessions also serve as time for headquarters employees to socialize with offsite workers whom they don’t see as frequently, Administrative Coordinator Jaime Henry says.
Aside from these monthly educational sessions, Dynamis offers an annual stipend of $3,000 to Dynamites to pursue graduate degrees or other trainings and certifications.
An interest in continued education is something Dynamis seeks when hiring new employees, Yao says.
“Dynamites are supposed to be warriors — thinking warriors,” Yao says. “People of action. People with highly developed skills and experience.”
The educational stipend is just one of the benefits offered to employees that makes Dynamis different. The company absorbs 70% of the cost ofemployee benefits, Ani-Adjei says. Employees are 100% covered for medical, health, dental, long-term and short-term disability insurance, and are also offered up to a 4% contribution match on their 401(k) funds.
Employees receive floating holidays and parental leave, have the option for a flexible spending account to help pay for certain out-of-pocket health care costs and can be reimbursed for commuter costs and even Dynamis-branded apparel.
Managers are also allotted “employee morale funds” — money set aside to encourage managers to spend time with their direct reports for rapport-building activities such as going out to breakfast or happy hours or treating their workers with gift cards. This helps to keep all employees connected, Ani-Adjei says.
The company’s initiatives foster a “work well, play well” mentality, Yao says. As opposed to the colloquial “work hard, play hard” mentality held by many companies, Dynamis focuses more on how employees work together.
Although employees come from varied backgrounds, including intelligence, science, politics, writing, policy and administration, they come together for initiatives such as a recent six-week fitness challenge.
“It makes you feel like you’re a part of something big,” Henry says. “The concept is we’re all Dynamites. You’ll always remember your experience beinga Dynamite.”
In the Virginia Maritime Association’s 100th year, Ashley McLeod has a wish for inland businesses to recognize the impact of the Port of Virginia on the entire state.
“One in 10 jobs in Virginia is related to maritime supply chains,” says McLeod, the association’s vice president for communications and marketing. “We want to be there for anyone who counts on water for importing and exporting products and listen to what’s going on in their region regarding the supply chain.”
The Norfolk-based association, which promotes port commerce, began as the Norfolk Maritime Exchange, then became the Hampton Roads Maritime Association and adopted its current name in 2006 to recognize its statewide network, which extends to Front Royal’s Virginia Inland Port.
Today, the VMA represents more than 500 companies employing more than 70,000 Virginians. This month, the organization celebrates the 1920 signing of its charter with a ceremony marking the anniversary in Richmond.
“We do business all over the state,” McLeod says, noting that transportation, economic development, technology and the emerging wind energy industry affect companies throughout Virginia. “We want to make sure we’re reaching everyone in the industry and can share their concerns.”
The VMA has established four chapters outside Hampton Roads since 2016: the Richmond-based Central Chapter and others in the Shenandoah Valley, Southern Virginia and Southwest Virginia. A Northern Virginia Chapter is slated to launch early this year.
“Coming to a region and hearing what’s happening really makes a difference for how we advocate for the maritime supply industry as a whole and make sure every voice is heard,” McLeod notes. “It’s relationship building to build a good business environment for the commonwealth as a whole.”
Among other goals, the VMA has lobbied for state and federal support to widen Hampton Roads shipping channels and funding to improve highway infrastructure. Future goals include diversifying imported and exported cargo, increasing broadband connectivity and getting construction sites shovel-ready for companies moving to Virginia.
Martinsville-based Hooker Furniture Corp., which annually imports more than 6,000 40-foot-equivalent containers of furniture through the port’s marine terminals in Norfolk and Portsmouth, joined the VMA in 2011. “It has given us a better understanding of the whole operation process within the Port of Virginia,” says Kimberly Clark, Hooker Furniture’s logistics manager, who also chairs the Southern Chapter. “We are able to stay abreast of legislative issues and legal aspects that may affect our company.”
The VMA’s statewide growth enhances its legislative impact, Clark adds. “The more our chapters grow, the more formidable our influence becomes when collaborating on capital funding for infrastructures like highways.”
The camaraderie that makes Accounting Principals different is evident on an employee’s first day as they’re greeted by a desk decorated with bright, colorful signs trumpeting personalized welcoming messages.
This “cherry-on-top” culture is what makes Accounting Principals a great place to work, says Jennifer Dodge, managing director of the Jacksonville, Florida-based professional recruitment and staffing firm’s Glen Allen branch in Henrico County.
Accounting Principals takes cultural onboarding — welcoming employees into the corporate family and acquainting them with the firm’s personality — as seriously as its structured training.
“Everyone just kind of blends well,” Dodge says. “It’s not like little different groups of people. The tenured people always take the brand-new people under their wings and mentor them and just welcome them into the family right away.”
Accounting Principals has 75 offices nationwide. Along with its Ajilon and Parker+Lynch divisions, the company provides executive search, professional consulting and temporary staffing services. Its roughly 3,600 employees come from varied backgrounds, including human resources, sales, accounting and legal.
Long tenures tend to be atypical in the professional staffing industry, but Accounting Principals breaks the mold, with some employees serving the company for more than 20 years, Dodge says. To retain employees and keep them engaged, Accounting Principals’ managers make a point of getting to know them as people, not just workers.
To promote work/life balance, Accounting Principals offers flexible work hours and telecommuting to employees who require such options. Tenure and productivity are weighed into the decision-makingto determine a win-win plan, Dodge says.
“We’re a company of standards, not rules,” Dodge says. “There are certain standards and certain metrics that define what getting the job done is. That’s constant and consistent no matter what scenario.”
In addition to accommodating life needs, Accounting Principals offers a 401(k) matching contribution and 18 paid days off during a worker’s first year of employment. Individuals are also given one paid day per year to volunteer for their cause of choice, and employees also spend a day outside of the office for group community service.
Each year, approximately 60 employees are chosen to participate in the company’s Win4Youth ambassador initiative, which encourages employees to participate in fitness activities to raise money for children’s charities. This year, employee Win4Youth ambassadors were professionally trained to participate in a triathlon in Canary Island Lanzarote, to raise money for Plan International, a worldwide organization that works to advance children’s rights.
In addition to Accounting Principals’ benefits and community service initiatives, its Glen Allen office houses a wellness room for employees to exercise on a NordicTrack Treadmill as well as a free onsite gym. Employees also enjoy walking around the on-campus lake.
The wellness room is the result of an employee suggestion.
“We have a lot of open communication on our team — we’re very collaborative,” Dodge says. “Everybody kind of pitches in. It’s definitely collaborative where we solicit ideas from the team all the time about what could make this a better place to work.” This collaborative nature extends past office walls and into the community.
The firm celebrates an esprit de corps built on working and volunteering within a fun corporate culture.
“The camaraderie — we’re constantly evolving,” Dodge says. “The things we did last year may have worked for us last year. But maybe the market changed or the industry changed and we need to tweak things a little bit. Sometimes your job changes in a way that isn’t what everyone would like.”
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“Dynamites are supposed to be warriors — thinking warriors,” Yao says. “
“We’re a company of standards, not rules,” Dodge says. “There are certain standards and certain metrics that define what getting the job done is. That’s constant and consistent no matter what scenario.”