Virginia’s largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, hopes to grow its 26,000-person workforce by 3,000 this year to tackle its backlog of projects.
NNS, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is building modular components for 12 Columbia-class subs and then handing them off to partner General Dynamics’ Connecticut-based Electric Boat, and the two companies have a similar construction-sharing agreement to build Virginia-class subs. Meanwhile, NNS continues overhauling Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and building a Ford-class aircraft carrier expected to be delivered in September 2029.
According to an April report from the Navy, the completion of subs and carriers are now delayed between one to three years. With these setbacks, the Navy has postponed some purchases, which weighs on NNS and other shipbuilders.
In the meantime, though, NNS is focusing on recruiting skilled workers to complete existing Navy contract work worth billions. Xavier Beale, the shipyard’s vice president of human resources, says NNS is focusing its recruitment efforts within a 100-mile radius of Hampton Roads, as far west as Danville, and within the next two years, the company plans to extend its outreach into other states.
It’s more than just a “Help Wanted” sign, Beale says.
To make it easy to apply, the shipyard holds “Walk-in Wednesdays.” Each week, those interested in skilled-trade positions can apply at the Newport News Shipbuilding employment office at 5200 W. Mercury Blvd. in Hampton without an appointment, Beale says. For professional positions ranging from human resources to engineering, the shipyard has 200 college internships and recruits recent graduates from William & Mary and Christopher Newport, Hampton, Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities.
To attract experienced professionals, shipyard recruiters attend industry conferences year-round.
The Hampton Roads Regional Workforce Council plays a significant role with the Regional Maritime Training System, a collaborative initiative focused on filling approximately 11,000 skilled maritime job openings across Hampton Roads, council President and CEO Shawn Avery says.
NNS salaries are competitive, Beale says, although amounts are not made public, and full-time employees receive medical benefits and access to job training, an on-site health center and financial literacy programs. He also points to proximity to the beach and other amenities, as well as an affordable cost of living compared with other Virginia regions, although home prices statewide have risen in recent years.
“We want our employees to have a healthy mind, body and wallet,” he says.
Virginia Business’ July issue cover art represents a significant amount of time and thoughtful planning — especially in considering what image we want to convey to you, the reader.
From our viewpoint, the Women in Leadership cover should express strength and confidence — attributes that this year’s 38 award winners demonstrate daily as executives. A still photograph, of course, must achieve this without words, so we have to consider facial expressions, body language and wardrobe.
Work should be different, though, because in our jobs we should be judged solely on our merits. Unfortunately, life doesn’t usually work this way, and many women are judged on their looks, even when we’re unconscious of such bias.
Most women can probably point to a time when “pretty privilege” either penalized or benefited them, but let’s focus on women in high positions at work. They’re expected to look powerful and serious, as well as approachable and attractive in a traditional sense. But not too attractive, because that’s distracting. This cliche even applies to women in the C-suite and those who aspire to it, and it costs time and money.
If you picture an average CEO, chances are you’re thinking of a white man of a certain age. He may have gray or thinning hair and a few wrinkles. He’s not young, and no one expects him to look particularly young.
But women — including CEOs and presidents — often feel pressure to pay for expensive hair treatments, skin care regimens and other beauty treatments to diminish signs of aging. What’s more, they aren’t aiming to look like J.Lo at age 54; that’s just to achieve normal “maintenance.”
Although conventionally attractive men and women outearn their peers by about 20%, according to a 2016 study by sociologists Jaclyn S. Wong and Andrew M. Penner, women considered attractive spend more money on grooming products than attractive men do, the study found.
On average, U.S. women spend $877 per year on their looks — including hair products, skin care, makeup and manicures — compared with men’s average spending of $592 a year, according to an Advanced Dermatology study in 2023.
Anecdotally, we all know women who spend a lot more than $877 on beauty, adding Botox injections and anti-aging facial creams to their regimens. Black women, according to multiple studies, spend much more on hair treatments than most white women do.
I am not going to denigrate any woman who has treatments that make her feel good. But it is a problem when a woman is spending money on beauty because she’s worried about her job.
Plus, older age isn’t the only difficulty women encounter in the workplace. A 2023 survey of 913 women leaders conducted by Harvard Business Review found that many experienced ageism throughout their careers. Dubbed the “never-right” age bias, women under 40 are often deemed underqualified for executive roles, and older women sometimes get tagged with perceptions of being out of date or overly strident. Middle-aged women get skipped over for promotions because hiring authorities assume they have too many family responsibilities to contribute fully at work.
Looks play into these stereotypes, too. If a woman looks younger than she is, she may be treated like an inexperienced girl, and what about a woman who wants to grow out her gray hair and forgo expensive coloring treatments every eight weeks? There’s a reason many women ages 50 and older talk about feeling invisible as they age, and that certainly extends to the workplace.
Nearly everyone says they want to be judged on their abilities versus what they look like. So, let’s get a move on.
When Alondra Rodriguez considered which school to attend for pre-med, she found herself puzzled by Old Dominion University — and why it didn’t have an affiliated medical school.
“U.Va. has their own med school,” she thought. “Why don’t they just do that?”
Rodriguez, who already had a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Liberty University, ultimately decided to become a Monarch anyway. Norfolk is within driving distance to her parents in Northern Virginia — but not so close she has to visit every weekend.
Happily, when the 26-year-old started classes at ODU in fall 2022 to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology with a major in biomedical sciences/pre-health, she learned plans were in the works to integrate Norfolk-based Eastern Virginia Medical School into ODU.
Now, following her 2025 graduation, Rodriguez plans to apply to EVMS at ODU, along with several other medical schools, after taking a gap year. “I’m definitely excited,” she says. Even if she ends up learning how to be a doctor somewhere else, Rodriguez adds, she’s already benefited from the two schools joining forces.
EVMS and ODU were slated to formally merge July 1 — the deadline Gov. Glenn Youngkin set in 2022 for the merger to be completed.
As one of only a few stand-alone medical schools in the country, EVMS already had close ties with Old Dominion prior to the merger; its students and residents frequently showed up for meetings at ODU’s Pre-Health Club for undergraduates interested in health care careers. At one of those gatherings, Rodriguez mentioned she planned to apply to six medical schools.
“They’re like, ‘Oh no, honey, you have to apply to more than just that,’” Rodriguez says. “I was shocked. They told me it’s very hard to get into med school as it is. When you narrow down your options, it’s harder to get into one.”
Now, Rodriguez thinks she’ll apply to at least 15 medical schools.
While undergraduates will surely benefit from new opportunities to collaborate with EVMS medical students and residents, they’re not the only ones who will reap rewards from the integration of EVMS into ODU, proponents say.
A 2022 report commissioned by ODU from Missouri-based consulting firm Tripp Umbach predicted that combining EVMS and ODU would create “a full-scale urban powerhouse university with a closely aligned health care system that will drive the Virginia economy through the mid-century and transform the delivery system in the Hampton Roads region.”
By 2030, the report estimates, the total economic impact of integrating EVMS and ODU, along with a stronger partnership with long-time EVMS supporter Sentara Health, will reach $730 million for the state and approximately $600 million for the Hampton Roads region. That would come from “commercialization of research through startup companies and existing companies attracted to the region” by growth in merged academic programs and research, the report’s authors wrote.
In 2021, ODU earned R1 research classification, a designation held by only 146 universities nationwide and the top research ranking awarded by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Even so, Tripp Umbach analysts found, the Norfolk university earns five times less research revenue when compared with similar universities that have integrated medical schools.
Tripp Umbach also predicted the integration would boost the health care workforce in Hampton Roads “by expanding numbers of highly qualified graduates in the health professions who have regional connections and interests.”
A 2017 study on mergers in higher education points out that by joining forces and leveraging economies of scale, schools are sometimes able to reduce administrative and infrastructure costs.
Brian Weinblatt, founder and principal of Florida-based Higher Ed Consolidation Solutions, a consulting firm focused on higher education mergers, says any stand-alone school, whether a school of medicine or law, faces mounting financial pressures and can miss out on opportunities for synergy by failing to join forces with a larger university. “It’s harder than ever for these institutions to stand on their own,” Weinblatt says.
When independent medical schools merge with universities, undergrads have more opportunities to participate in graduate-level research, and faculty members enjoy greater research options and other professional development possibilities, Weinblatt notes. Of EVMS, he says, “If it was already a shining star, it [now has] the potential to be shining much more brightly, not just in their region, but nationally.”
A new structure
ODU President Brian O. Hemphill unveiled the name of the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences program at a June 7 event celebrating the EVMS-ODU merger. Photo by Mark Rhodes
The merger is more complicated than simply absorbing the medical school under the ODU banner, says Brian Hemphill, the university’s president.
ODU has created a health sciences center, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, that will serve as the overarching structure for all health sciences programming, including the medical school.
The name recognizes a $20 million gift from Virginia Beach philanthropist Joan Brock, who earned a master’s degree in humanities from ODU and is the widow of Macon Brock, a co-founder of Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree.
The health sciences center will serve as an umbrella organization overseeing the Ellmer College of Health Sciences, the Ellmer School of Nursing, the EVMS Medical Group, the EVMS School of Health Professions, the EVMS School of Medicine, and the Joint School of Public Health.
Through this reorganization, ODU will grow its roster of 2,541 employees and 22,541 students.
“We’re bringing on 2,000 new employees [and] 1,400-plus new students,” Hemphill says. “And so, when you look at the size and the scale and the scope, on day one, we become a $1.7 billion operation.”
The change means that EVMS, which was founded in 1973, will cease to exist as a legal entity July 1, according to Dr. Alfred Abuhamad, the former president, provost and dean of EVMS, who is now ODU’s executive vice president for health sciences. But most students, faculty and staff members won’t see major differences, he says.
“We will continue to operate as we do today, [but] within ODU,” Abuhamad says. “So, for the majority of staff, students and faculty, nothing will change, really. They will come to [the Norfolk] campus of EVMS, and for the majority — if not all — of the students, staff and faculty of ODU, they will continue to go to their campus.
“We’ve worked hard enough over the last three years to ensure that the culture of both institutions is represented and respected in the process, and ensured that as we come together, we’re building something special for the community,” he says.
There will be no immediate change in the number of medical students enrolled at EVMS due to the merger, according to ODU spokesperson Jonah Grinkewitz. EVMS had 1,278 students enrolled in fall 2023, according to data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
Tuition also won’t change for medical school students under the merger, according to Grinkewitz. However, the merger will bring some new opportunities for assistance. In June, ODU announced the Brock Opportunity Scholarship, which will support medical school students. Also in June, ODU announced a $20 million gift from Priority Auto Group CEO Dennis Ellmer, a member of ODU’s board of visitors, and his wife, Jan. Those funds will support the creation of scholarships for students pursuing health sciences degrees at ODU or at the EVMS School of Health Professions.
To prepare for the merger, ODU and EVMS set up 10 staff and faculty committees to iron out details on everything from branding to financial aid to human resources, according to Abuhamad.
A new board of directors has been created to oversee Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at ODU. Both Hemphill and Abuhamad will be nonvoting members. Additionally, there will be seven members appointed by members of the EVMS Foundation, four members appointed by the rector of ODU’s board of visitors and four members appointed by Virginia lawmakers, according to Grinkewitz.
Speaking in May, Hemphill felt confident that ODU would receive approval for the integration from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The association was expected to grant that approval in mid-June, after this issue’s press deadline.
Dr. Alfred Abuhamad (left), ODU’s executive vice president for health sciences, and ODU President Brian O. Hemphill field media questions at a June 7 event providing new details on the EVMS-ODU merger. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Many players in merger
The Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin also had to give their blessing to the ODU/EVMS union.
State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, carried bills during the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session ratifying the merger, and in last year’s budget negotiations, lawmakers allocated $14 million to cover merger-related startup costs.
In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed off on the 2024-26 state budget, which included about $136.7 million for EVMS for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with $65 million earmarked for operations at the health sciences center.
“The merger is poised to strengthen positive health outcomes in the region and help address the critical nurse and doctor shortages,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.
ODU could “not be more pleased,” with the support of Virginia’s lawmakers, Hemphill says.
Another organization that’s been supportive of EVMS over the years is Sentara, the Norfolk-based health care system with 11 hospitals in Virginia and one in North Carolina.
In 2022, Aubrey Layne, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Sentara, said that the health system gave EVMS about $60 million each year for education and training, and Sentara wanted to see the medical school receive “state funding parity with other Virginia schools.”
Sentara administrators are happy that goal has come to fruition. “We feel like we have a partner in this, in terms of [ensuring] the long-term sustainability of EVMS,” Layne says.
But even with state support for the health sciences center and EVMS at ODU, Sentara has not closed its pocketbook to health sciences students in Norfolk. Sentara has agreed to contribute $350 million in dedicated funding to support the ODU-EVMS integration over the next decade, ODU announced in June.
“Sentara is committed to health care education and training and looks forward to what this merger will bring,” Sentara President and CEO Dennis Matheis said in a statement.
A long road
Things haven’t always been this rosy between ODU, EVMS and Sentara.
In November 2020, EVMS’ board held a vote of “no confidence” in a study commissioned by Reinvent Hampton Roads, an economic development organization, to identify opportunities “to strengthen the Hampton Roads health care ecosystem in partnership with EVMS, Sentara, ODU, the Commonwealth of Virginia and other key stakeholders.”
In 2020 and 2021, the medical school reportedly paid Vienna-based public relations firm Tigercomm $497,000 for crisis communications and community support work in what Tigercomm President Mike Casey has said was a bid to avoid a potential EVMS-ODU-Sentara merger “being pushed by Sentara.”
After that rocky start, however, new leadership at ODU and EVMS paved a path toward a merger.
Three different individuals served as EVMS board rector during summer 2021 with little explanation. Dr. Richard Homan, who had served as president, provost and dean of EVMS for nearly a decade, announced he was retiring in August 2021. (Homan declined an interview request.)
Hemphill took over as ODU’s president in summer 2021, coming from Radford University, where, as that university’s president, he guided the creation of Radford University Carilion through a merger with the Jefferson College of Health Sciences.
In August 2021, the leaders of Norfolk State University, ODU and EVMS signed a memorandum of understanding creating the ONE School of Public Health. Now, the school, which is awaiting accreditation, is known as the Joint School of Public Health and will offer a master and doctoral program in public health as well as continuing education opportunities.
And in December 2021, Sentara joined ODU and EVMS in signing an agreement to explore how “closer alignment or affiliation” could improve health care in Hampton Roads and educational research.
By June 2022, Hemphill put his cards on the table, stating in a letter to ODU’s faculty and staff that the university had a goal “to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate ODU and EVMS in 2023.”
And now, after many meetings involving state lawmakers, community stakeholders and employees of the two schools, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University is ready to go live.
Hemphill says he doesn’t expect the integration will suddenly make ODU known primarily for its health care curriculum, because the university has a reputation for many things — including its maritime and cybersecurity programs and its distance-learning offerings.
But he does believe the merger will produce significant health sciences research, with EVMS having conducted hundreds of clinical trials and other research, in addition to ODU’s research capabilities that led to its R1 classification.
By merging the expertise of the best minds at the two schools, Hemphill says, Virginia Health Sciences at ODU will be able to compete successfully for larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations.
“This does add another significant piece to who we are.”
At a glance
Founded Old Dominion University was founded in 1930 as a two-year college to train teachers and engineers as an extension of William & Mary and Virginia Tech. It gained independence in 1962 as Old Dominion College and began offering master’s degrees in 1964 and doctoral degrees in 1971. It was renamed Old Dominion University in 1969.
Campus ODU has seven academic colleges and three schools. Its 337-acre Norfolk campus is bordered on two sides by the Elizabeth and Lafayette rivers. The school also operates regional higher education centers in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Hampton. ODU is designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an R1 Research Institution.
Enrollment1
Undergraduate: 17,736 Graduate: 4,805 In-state: 19,559 International: 758 Students of color: 11,448
Employees
890 full-time instructional faculty
3,557 total employees
Tuition and fees2
In-state undergraduate tuition and fees: $12,750
Out-of-state undergraduate tuition and fees: $33,780
Room and board: $13,7383
Average financial aid awarded to full-time freshmen seeking assistance: $15,6904
1 Fall 2023 enrollment statistics
2 2024-25 rates
3 Varies: number based on silver meal plan and a shared dorm room
FIRST JOB: Installing gas lines into houses in New Jersey
TRAIT I ADMIRE: Empathy
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Not to complain. I was complaining recently to a friend about having to go to a speech by some “expert” on AI, only to learn later that my friend was the speaker. True story!
SOMETHING I’D NEVER DO AGAIN: Skydive
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE:Getting closer to my dad since my mom passed away. It is amazing the things he has seen. I am a better listener today and really enjoy his stories.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Arsenal
ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Virginia’s one-term governor policy. Regardless of what party you support, I think it can result in an inefficient government.
DID YOU KNOW? In 2021, TNS was acquired by a Koch Industries subsidiary, and in August 2022, TNS acquired Agnity Global. Then, in April 2023, TNS bought BornTec’s managed hosting and colocation business.
Despite lofty promises from Democrats and Republicans, divided government in Richmond meant few wins or losses for either party during the 2024 General Assembly session — and few sweeping changes for Virginia in the year ahead.
“The only thing that the legislature really did is the one thing they have to do: Pass a budget,” says Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington who has tracked the state legislature for decades. “This is a session that would qualify as one of the more forgettable ones.”
After the Democratic-controlled General Assembly released a two-year budget proposal in March packed with party priorities but lacking most of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s tax reform proposals, the prospects for a compromise ahead of the June 30 close of the state’s fiscal year seemed dim. In 2023, Republicans and Democrats took more than six months to agree to amendments to the last biennial budget. Since then, the partisan split has only deepened, with Democrats narrowly retaking control of the House of Delegates in the November 2023 elections.
Despite that, the General Assembly on May 13 approved a budget deal with nearly unanimous support. Only seven Republicans voted against the spending plan.
Karen Hult, a professor of political science at Virginia Tech, says a major contributor to the compromise was greater than expected revenues: While earlier budget proposals had been based on a forecast that revenues would contract in fiscal year 2024, collections through April grew 5%, giving the state an estimated $1.1 billion extra. The May deal relied on $525 million of that excess, as well as savings tied to Youngkin’s vetoes of Democratic legislation.
“The increase in revenues by the time of the special session clearly did grease the wheels a lot,” Hult says.
That deal kept intact Democrats’ spending plans, particularly on K-12 and higher education.
“The increased investment in K-12 spending, that was a big priority for us in the beginning, and one I think we mostly achieved,” says Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, a member of the Senate Finance Committee. However, he continues, “We really need to make bigger progress in the future, because now I think we’re mainly just treading water.”
State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, gestures during the General Assembly’s May 13 budget special session. Photo by Steve Helber/Associated Press
In return, Democrats agreed to strip out two provisions that were particularly objectionable to Youngkin. One would have expanded the state’s sales tax to digital goods and services — a loophole the governor had pledged to correct in his own budget proposal, a broader package that also included sales tax increases and income tax cuts. The other would have required Virginia to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate carbon market that Youngkin has accused of imposing a “hidden tax” on utility customers. As of press time for this story, a pending lawsuit over the governor’s withdrawal of Virginia from the market had a hearing scheduled for late June in Floyd County Circuit Court.
“I know these actions are not popular with my colleagues in some of our caucus, and many feel that we are essentially kicking the can down the road,” Democratic
Sen. Louise Lucas said May 13. But, she added, the compromises “were necessary to get a budget before you today.”
On the chamber floor, Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, described the conversations leading up to the deal as “tense.”
And “some of them might have been a little more than tense,” he added during the special session. “But at the end of the day, we came up with a product that continues to move Virginia forward, focuses on our kids’ education, focuses on our public safety professionals and also focuses on those individuals who cannot support themselves.”
Despite the budget agreement, Farnsworth says, gridlock was evident on many of the key issues the General Assembly faced, from the legalization of recreational marijuana sales and restrictions on abortion to minimum wage increases and tax reforms. And the final deal, he says, “could have been worked out in February.
“The Democrats, it seems, would rather wait for a Democratic governor than try to make compromises with a Republican right now. And the Republican governor isn’t willing to make the big compromises that would have been necessary for a more successful legislative session,” he says.
The polarization was also reflected in the 201 bills Youngkin vetoed — shattering in one year the four-year veto record held during previous Virginia governors’ terms.
No issue colored the 2024 legislative session more than the question of whether the General Assembly would back an ambitious proposal by Youngkin to build a $2 billion arena in Alexandria for the Washington Wizards and Capitals teams.
The massive project, which would also have included a performing arts venue, practice facilities and commercial and residential properties, was a signature priority for Youngkin, a former top executive of the Carlyle Group who has emphasized the need to make Virginia more attractive for economic development.
In December 2023, the plan got the backing of the state’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission, a group of lawmakers from the legislature’s money committees. But it quickly ran into hurdles in the larger General Assembly, which had to sign off on the creation of a state authority to oversee the arena’s development.
Lucas, a high-profile and powerful Youngkin opponent who chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, repeatedly blocked efforts to create the authority.
Democrats’ March budget plan also omitted the proposal, leading Youngkin to accuse the Senate of refusing “to give the single largest economic development deal in Virginia’s history any serious, meaningful consideration, breaking their own long-standing tradition in the process and avoiding the broad bipartisan support in both houses.”
In March, the Wizards’ and Capitals’ owner, Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis, reached a deal with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser for the NHL and NBA teams to stay put in the District, killing the Alexandria proposal.
Lucas touted her win on X, tweeting, “We avoided the Monumental Disaster!”
Hult says the proposed Alexandria arena’s defeat “set the context for not a great deal of trust and some clear, loud disagreement and seeming disagreement on both sides to work together.”
No to minimum wage, weed
Youngkin in turn dealt two major blows to Democrats, vetoing bills that would have increased the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 and established a legal retail market for marijuana sales in Virginia.
The minimum wage increases would have completed a program Democrats began in 2020 to raise the state wage floor from the federal $7.25 per hour. Laws passed that year raised the minimum wage incrementally to $12 by 2023 but left it up to future legislatures to complete two further hikes to $15.
Although Democrats argued inflation had made the additional increases critical to ensure low-wage workers could afford Virginia’s rising cost of living, Youngkin rejected that argument, saying in his veto statement that the “wage mandate imperils market freedom and economic competitiveness.
“Successful states recognize that the government does not need to set labor prices; instead, they prioritize creating an economic environment conducive to wage growth,” he wrote.
Democrats were “expecting” the veto, Surovell says, “but hoping [Youngkin] might come around.”
Youngkin also struck down legislation to establish a retail market for marijuana in Virginia. While Democrats legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2021 and medical cannabis sales were legalized in 2019, disagreements over equity considerations stymied them from establishing a frame-work for legalizing commercial sales before Republicans retook control of the governor’s office and the House the following year.
This year’s bill would have set up a statewide system to license, regulate and tax recreational sales beginning in May 2025. Marijuana is currently sold illegally throughout Virginia through a black market that experts say is worth billions.
Youngkin nixed the marijuana retail market proposal in a lengthy veto statement that said legalizing sales “endangers Virginians’ health and safety” and “does not eliminate the illegal black-market sale of cannabis, nor guarantee product safety.
“Attempting to rectify the error of decriminalizing marijuana by establishing a safe and regulated marketplace is an unachievable goal,” he wrote.
But Greg Habeeb, a former Republican state delegate who now lobbies for the Virginia Cannabis Association, says, “The status quo, which is just illegal sales, is unacceptable. It is undisputed that we have a multibillion-dollar industry in Virginia. It is undisputed that those products are untested. Everyone agrees to the underlying facts.”
While nearly all Republicans voted against the bill, Habeeb says that in private, many expressed support for the view that the state should be regulating and taxing sales.
“I think a lot of Republicans think the right political position is to oppose regulating these sales,” he says. “I think they are wrong now. I think society and the party have moved in the other direction.”
Asked about the administration’s plans for handling problems related to the marijuana black market, Youngkin spokesperson Christian Martinez says that state and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies “continue to work together to address the distribution of illegal drugs in Virginia.”
To date, he notes, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has issued 13,911 violations, resulting in $8.8 million in preliminary civil penalty assessments to 266 businesses.
Skill games and casinos
Also not in the cards for Virginians this year: legalization of skill games, the slots-like machines that proliferated in convenience stores across the state until the Supreme Court of Virginia reinstated a ban passed by the General Assembly in 2021.
Next to the arena deal, few issues racked up as much debate during the session as skill games, with lobbyists aggressively pushing for legislation to legalize and regulate the industry. While proponents argue the machines offer critical revenue to small business owners and the state, critics say proposals offered insufficient safeguards for young people and gambling addicts, omitted key oversight provisions and sidestepped requirements imposed on other gambling sectors.
The issue reached a stalemate after the Senate rejected extensive amendments Youngkin made to an earlier bill, leading the governor to veto the original proposal. However, lawmakers and Youngkin have both indicated they are willing to return to Richmond to continue debating the proposal.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly agreed to legislation that would block further referendums on casinos in Richmond and allow a referendum in Petersburg. The selection of a preferred operator for a casino in Petersburg has since sparked a political fight over whether Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, inappropriately meddled in the process, according to media reports. In an April 30 report by the Virginia Mercury, Petersburg city councilors said Aird pressured the city manager into signing a letter saying that the city would award the project to Bally’s, although later in April, Petersburg City Council unanimously chose The Cordish Cos. as its partner. Aird disputed the accusation.
Legacy admissions on the outs
One of the few major policy shifts to receive unanimous backing during the 2024 session was a prohibition on legacy admissions at Virginia’s public universities.
Seen as a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 overturning of affirmative action in college admissions, the legislation sailed through the General Assembly and garnered an early signature from Youngkin, who has said that “admission to Virginia’s universities and colleges should be based on merit.”
“It just seemed as though legacy admissions had run its course,” says Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, who chairs the House Education Committee. “I think it makes a lot of sense for where we’re at.”
House and Senate leaders said they would call special sessions later in June to address an outcry over the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents college tuition program, which was set to be cut back as part of the bipartisan budget enacted in May. On the table were at least two plans. Both would protect funding for students enrolled this year, and Lucas’ proposal would include two funding studies by the end of the year.
In late June, the House unanimously passed a bill repealing all changes to the tuition waiver, earning praise from Youngkin, but Lucas stonewalled a vote on a similar bill in the Senate a week earlier. On July 1, the Senate Finance committee is set to meet to discuss the repeal, after a couple dozen military veterans, spouses and children addressed state senators at a work group session Friday, often pleading to maintain the waiver.
Other legislation with major implications for Virginia students will require every school division in the state to offer high school students free access to a core set of dual enrollment courses for which the student earns both high school and college credit. Colleges statewide will accept credit for those courses, and a work group will begin examining how the program can be extended to career and technical education.
Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, a former county school board member who carried the proposal in the House, says the bill aims to correct “a highly inequitable system across the state where, depending on where you live, you have different access” to dual enrollment.
State procurement
Starting in July, the state will give preferred status in procurement decisions to goods produced in Virginia, following successful legislation carried by Republican Sen. Bill DeSteph and Democratic Del. Michael Feggans, who both represent Virginia Beach. Language allows Virginia manufacturers the chance to match lower prices offered by suppliers in other states under certain circumstances.
The bill “prioritizes Virginia manufacturing goods first and the U.S. second for state procurement,” DeSteph said in February. “This puts us in line similar to our surrounding states.”
Less successful was legislation from Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, that would have set a statewide goal to set aside 42% of all discretionary spending by executive branch agencies and higher education institutions for small, woman- and minority-owned businesses. The state would have been required to increase its use of such businesses by 3% annually until the 42% target was met.
Youngkin amended the proposal to add a reenactment clause, which will require the General Assembly to pass the legislation again in 2025, and create a work group to further study the idea. Youngkin spokesperson Martinez said the governor believes “significant procurement reforms should be studied.”
“It was hard for me to agree to it, but if I allowed it to go back to [Youngkin], he would probably veto it,” says Ward. “So, I decided it was better for us to give him a little more time and trust him at his word.”
Ward notes that the issue has been repeatedly studied, pointing to reports from 2004, 2010 and 2020 on disparities in Virginia procurement and noting the 42% goal was set by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a 2014 executive order and reinforced by a similar order from former Gov. Ralph Northam.
“The majority of our workforce, our businesses are small, women-owned or minority businesses,” Ward says. “So, if we could make sure they were included in the state procurement process, it would benefit everyone.”
Data centers and more
Further studies will also be conducted on blockchain technology, digital asset mining, and cryptocurrency in Virginia, following the passage of bills from Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Fairfax.
“This is a space that we are currently not in,” Salim said in February. “The study would essentially help guide us through the process in which we deal with this in the future, including any tax revenue that might come from this.”
Lawmakers stripped out several provisions from one of the study bills that would have limited some local oversight of digital asset mining and dealt with taxation and liability concerns. That proposal also received pushback from Northern Virginia groups that said it would open the door to further data center expansion in the region.
Despite more than a dozen bills on the issue, the session saw little movement on data centers, the proliferation of which in Loudoun and Prince William counties has drawn increasing criticism from citizens over noise and water and electricity use. Lawmakers largely deferred those proposals to 2025 to wait for the conclusion of a study on the issue this fall by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
The 2024 session saw the end of one long-running stalemate: who should serve on the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The two-year fight between Democrats and Republicans over commissioner appointments had left two of the body’s three seats vacant, forcing the independent agency that oversees banking, utilities and business to temporarily recall former judges to issue major decisions.
In January, both chambers approved the appointments of Sam Towell, an attorney for Smithfield Foods, and Kelsey Bagot, an attorney for NextEra Energy. They joined Judge Jehmal Hudson, the panel’s chair, on the bench in the spring.
After three decades recruiting businesses to Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hampton, Charles E. “Chuck” Rigney is tackling a new challenge: leading Virginia Beach’s economic development.
Rigney was named the Resort City’s permanent economic development director in February. It was one year after he joined the department as a business development administrator and eight months after he became interim director following the departure of the department’s former head, Taylor Adams, for a job in Nevada.
“The opportunity to work with the largest city in Virginia was greatly appealing,” Rigney says. “The future is extremely bright because of all the assets we have here.”
Virginia Beach is awash in major developments. Amazon.com is investing $350 million in the city on a robotics fulfillment center set to open in 2025 and a delivery station slated to start operations for this year’s holiday season. Last year, Zim Integrated Shipping Services said it would invest $30 million to relocate and expand its U.S. headquarters from Norfolk to Virginia Beach, while in November 2023 cloud-based document management company Doma Technologies announced a $4 million expansion that will add more than 300 employees. Also on the horizon: Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, additional digital transatlantic subsea cable landings, new Oceanfront hotels and the long-awaited Atlantic Park surf park development from the city’s most famous native son, the music star and fashion icon Pharrell Williams.
It’s a full agenda, but one that Rigney, a 1979 Old Dominion University graduate who worked in banking and commercial real estate before entering economic development, relishes, especially as the city’s name and reputation grow. “The beach is pretty well known,” he says. “When I [travel] and get in a cab and say I’m from Virginia Beach, they know where I’m talking about. My job is to get it even better known.”
Rigney’s experience and demeanor make him the ideal choice to direct Virginia Beach’s economic development operations, says Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance, the region’s economic development partnership. “He is a good listener, good team builder and understands the importance of getting input from the largest of stakeholders. Nowhere is that more important than Virginia Beach — the largest city in the region.”
Surf park’s up
While other cities where Rigney has worked are more urban and have had more experience with revitalization, Virginia Beach is just now beginning to look at redevelopment strategies. Open parcels of land are becoming fewer and fewer, Rigney notes: “We have to look at strategic growth areas where things can be done differently and transition older properties into new developments.”
That includes aging Oceanfront hotels. Developers are lining up to invest millions of dollars into redevelopment initiatives and asking the city to chip in for necessities like water and sewer and infrastructure improvements. Rigney wants to capitalize on that interest. He notes that 14 million visitors spent a record $2 billion-plus in Virginia Beach last year. “That’s a reflection of successful initiatives of the past,” he says, “but as properties age, more hotels are coming in, and more hotel rooms are needed.”
One prominent proposal comes from former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell and Divaris Real Estate Chairman and CEO Gerald Divaris, who are proposing to build a 450-room hotel and parking garage on property the city owns on 17th Street. The city bought the parcel, which includes a public park and a Dairy Queen, for $12.8 million in 2022. McDonnell and Divaris’ plan would keep the park intact.
“That’s one of many proposals,” Rigney says, adding that talks to revamp the site are still in the early stages. “Any deal would have to go through numerous community meetings and refinement. It’s great to have serious guys like Gerald Divaris and Bob McDonnell interested, as well as other folks in our backyard. We’ll work with everybody to see how to take the city to the next level.”
Meanwhile, construction continues on the first phase of Atlantic Park, a $325 million mixed-use project being developed by Williams and Venture Realty Group. First announced more than six years ago, the surf park and music venue is set to open in spring 2025. Anchored by a nearly 3-acre surf lagoon, the project includes a 3,500-seat entertainment venue, retail space, offices and 309 residences on the former Dome music venue site between 18th and 20th streets. The second phase, still in development, will include additional apartments, parking, office and retail space and a boardwalk connecting the site to the Virginia Beach Boardwalk and 17th Street Park. “Atlantic Park is huge for us,” Rigney says. “It has spurred interest in the surrounding area and led to new growth.”
Williams, who last year became men’s creative director for luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton, has been an avid promoter of his hometown, and is in the process of filming a big-budget musical film this summer in Virginia, based on his childhood growing up in Virginia Beach’s Atlantis Apartments. His Something in the Water music festival debuted at the Oceanfront in 2019 and returned in 2023, generating $50 million to $60 million in economic impact for the city over both years.
“He’s done an amazing thing for his hometown,” Rigney says, adding that Something in the Water and Atlantic Park have attracted many developers to Virginia Beach, giving his department the chance to show off the city. “If developers come to see us one time, we always make a short list of anything they need.”
Rigney is also excited about another park, this one at Rudee Loop on the resort area’s southernmost end. The roughly 8-acre site has been used for parking and as a staging area for large Oceanfront events, but last fall the City Council voted to transfer $4 million from the city’s tourism fund to create a public recreation area. “That will be a real showcase and ultimately will be a real selling point for the beach,” Rigney says. “It was exciting once the concept got in front of council to think about reserving an area for tourists and residents alike to enjoy an open space. You don’t need to always put buildings on things to make a thriving economic attractor.”
Conventional development
Redevelopment is also on the drawing board for the area around the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Earlier this year, the city approved a $75,000 study examining the impacts of a mixed-use sports and convention district around the convention center. It will also examine potential uses for the Parks Avenue home of the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, which plans to move to a new site on Virginia Wesleyan University’s Virginia Beach campus in 2025.
Over the years, Virginia Beach City Council has prioritized the development of a convention center hotel, asserting that such a facility would position Virginia Beach to better compete for regional and national events. Maryland-based Capstone Development has proposed building a 300-room convention hotel adjacent to the convention center. Capstone’s project also would include more than 900 apartments and approximately 160,000 square feet of retail, creating an estimated 800 jobs.
Rigney is confident that a hotel eventually will be built on the site. “All of us understand that having a convention center hotel is long overdue and gives our convention center that much more of a draw,” he says. “One way or another we’re going to get a hotel.”
However, he adds, large-scale projects must complement current developments. “It all has to fit. We don’t want anything that will pull away from Atlantic Park and the ViBe [Creative] District.”
Looking to the city’s Central Business District, Rigney is eyeing the expansion of Virginia Beach Town Center. The 20-year-old mixed-use development, which includes corporate office towers, restaurants, shops and hotels, has thrived through economic downturns and the COVID pandemic. Offices there are completely leased, and, Rigney says, Town Center is ripe for growth. “If we don’t double the size of Town Center in the next 20 years, we probably will not have done as much as I would like to.”
While tourism, defense and maritime/logistics form the pillars of Virginia Beach’s economy, Rigney is eager to add more legs in the form of offshore wind and subsea internet cables.
The city is working to attract manufacturers to Virginia Beach to support installation and maintenance of the 176 massive wind turbines Dominion Energy is installing for its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. “Almost everybody in wind energy knows Virginia Beach,” Rigney says. “We want to be able to hear them out and determine if our location is a fit for them.”
Next April, about 2,300 leading industry experts will descend upon Virginia Beach for the International Partnering Forum, the largest offshore wind energy conference in the Americas. Hosting the conference is a coup for Virginia Beach, Rigney says. “That puts us in league with cities like New Orleans, where IPF has been held.”
Meanwhile, the city’s status as one of the few East Coast landing spots for subsea internet transmission cables is starting to reap dividends. Globalinx opened a data center and cable landing station in 2019 and 2020 in the city’s Corporate Landing Business Park. The data center provides colocation space for high-speed subsea telecommunication cables MAREA, BRUSA and DUNANT, which connect Virginia with points in Europe and South America. In May, FiberLight, a fiber infrastructure provider, announced plans to establish high-speed ethernet service from the Globalinx data center.
A joint project from Venture Realty Group and Pharrell Williams, the $325 million Atlantic Park surf park and music venue is slated to open in spring 2025. Rendering courtesy Hanbury
“Quite a few businesses are seriously considering Virginia Beach largely because of our location along the Middle Atlantic coast,” Rigney says. “We work closely with prospects in the data center business to see what their needs are and where we can put them. If we can get high-speed volume data companies to get a few milliseconds faster to market by being closer to the cables coming into Virginia Beach, it’s a big opportunity for us.”
Economic development efforts, however, are careful to align with the U.S. Navy’s footprint in Virginia Beach, especially Naval Air Station Oceana, the East Coast base for the Navy’s strike fighter jet squadrons.
“Because we want to ensure Oceana is here forever, we partner with the Navy to ensure there is no encroachment to make flight operations difficult,” Rigney says, noting that over the years, the city has purchased properties around the base, zoning them for compatible uses such as data centers and subsea cables. “That helps to monetize restrictive areas.”
Rigney also supports regional development efforts throughout Hampton Roads. As Virginia Beach’s interim economic development director, he convinced City Council to join the Eastern Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority (EVRIFA), a mechanism for pooling resources across multiple localities into site development opportunities that benefit the entire region. It wasn’t
a hard sell, he says.
“The city leadership recognizes we can partner with other cities in ways we have never done before,” Rigney says. “If there’s an opportunity to invest in a project that attracts a car manufacturer to Chesapeake, for instance, and we get a return from it, that’s a direct economic benefit on our investment.”
A longtime advocate for regional cooperation, Rigney is pleased to see increased collaboration among Hampton Roads municipalities. “We have a bunch of folks at the beach and in other communities who truly like each other. That cooperation will help raise the profile of the region.”
And he intends to be part of those cooperative efforts for quite a while. Discussing his plans to beef up the city’s economic development team with new business development managers, Rigney says he has no plans to retire any time soon.
“When I leave one of these years, I want to have a multitude of talent on board to take my place,” he says, “but I have no desire to quit. I love what I do and am passionate about doing it well.”
Virginia Beach at a glance
Virginia Beach Town Center
Virginia’s most populous city and the 43rd largest in the United States, Virginia Beach encompasses 310 square miles, with 38 miles of beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. A major East Coast tourism destination, Virginia Beach features a vibrant resort area on its Oceanfront. Along with tourism, major industries include defense, bio and life sciences, advanced manufacturing, maritime and logistics, IT and offshore wind energy. It’s also home to Naval Air Station Oceana, the East Coast base for the Navy’s strike fighter jet squadrons. Regent University and Virginia Wesleyan University are based in Virginia Beach, along with campuses for Tidewater Community College, Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University.
Population
460,000
Top employers
Naval Air Station Oceana-Dam Neck Annex (10,227)
Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story (5,020)
Sentara Health (4,900)
GEICO (3,600)
Stihl Inc. (3,300)
Major attractions
Virginia Beach’s 3-mile Boardwalk in the city’s Oceanfront area attracts tourists from around the world. Virginia Beach Town Center is a centrally located, major mixed-use development with hotels, restaurants, shopping and offices. Visitors also enjoy the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, which features live animal habitats and the six-story 3D National Geographic Theater. Other attractions include First Landing State Park, Cape Henry Lighthouse and the Military Aviation Museum.
Major convention hotels
The Founders Inn and Spa 40,000 square feet of meeting space,
240 rooms
The Cavalier Resort* 70,875 square feet of meeting space,
547 rooms
Holiday Inn Virginia Beach – Norfolk 22,000 square feet of meeting space,
317 rooms
Wyndham Virginia Beach/Oceanfront 16,247 square feet of meeting space,
244 rooms
The Westin Virginia Beach Town Center 11,266 square feet of event space,
236 rooms
Picture an hourglass: Flip the timer over, and the sand at the top funnels through a small opening to pool in the wider receptacle at its bottom.
Now imagine if that hole in the middle were wider; sand would flow more freely.
That’s how business leaders in Martinsville see the U.S. Route 220 corridor between Roanoke and the North Carolina border. The wider the gap — the more capacity 220 has — the more commerce can flow to destinations north and south.
The Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor, a group consisting of business leaders from Southern Virginia and the Roanoke and New River valleys, wants to grow commerce in the region and, specifically, would like to see improvements made to about seven miles of U.S Route 220 between U.S. Route 58 in Henry County and the North Carolina line.
Virginia lawmakers seem to be on board. In 2023, the General Assembly instructed the Virginia Department of Transportation to develop a plan to improve the section of road by relocating and regrading southbound lanes, designing safer intersections and extending turn lanes. Expected to be completed this fall, the study will cost about $200,000, money that will come from VDOT’s state planning and research fund, according to an agency spokesperson.
Del. Eric Phillips, R-Henry, and Jim Frith, chair and co-owner of Martinsville-based Frith Construction, both stress that the area has seen significant economic activity in recent years. This includes Poland-based glass fabricator Press Glass, which invested $155 million to expand at Henry County’s Commonwealth Crossing Industrial Park in 2023.
“When you make stuff, you’ve got to transport it,” Phillips says.
In 1991, members of Congress made plans to establish Interstate 73 as a high-priority corridor that would run from South Carolina to Michigan, but it wound up as a 93.5-mile route limited to North Carolina. Later plans explored extending I-73 to Interstate 81 in Roanoke, but those proposals “just died,” Frith says. “There was just no way it would ever be funded.”
In 2020, VDOT released a study looking at a possible bypass from U.S. Route 58 to the North Carolina line. Building a new interstate and that project would both require more funding than improving the existing corridor.
And proponents say an improved road is better than the status quo.
“We’re just happy that there’s some forward momentum beginning to happen,” Phillips says.
Associate Editor Beth JoJack contributed to this article.
Through the partnership, announced May 20 by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and named Virginia Invests, VIPC will commit $40 million to the seven funds using previously awarded funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. In December 2022, Youngkin’s office announced that Virginia had been approved for up to $230 million from the SSBCI program, with about $173 million of that going to VIPC.
“The lifeline of a high-growth entrepreneurial ecosystem is the ability to tap into capital,” Youngkin said, “and that’s exactly what Virginia Invests is all about. How do we accelerate growth? How do we amplify good ideas? How do we unleash opportunity by bringing together people who want to invest in all of this and people who need the money to make it go?”
The funding firms have committed an additional $60 million, and they will select the 100 high-growth startups to invest in during the next three to five years. By contract, firms not headquartered in Virginia will have to provide 1.5 times the funding they receive, while firms headquartered in the state will make a 1:1 match, Youngkin told reporters.
“One of, I think, the really important steps was to recognize that picking companies is not something that we should do,” he said. “We should invest in funds that are picking companies, and that also allows us to have the ability, if companies are doing well and more capital is being put to work well, then potentially, we could invest some more. But the resources and the expertise that are represented by these seven funds in particular deep sectors is unique.”
The seven fund managers focus on founders who are typically underserved. They are Washington, D.C.-based 100KM Ventures; New York-based AIN Ventures; Houston-based The Artemis Fund; Portland, Oregon-based The BFM Fund; Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Idea Fund Partners; Atlanta-based Valor Ventures; and Tysons-based Veteran Ventures Capital, which recently moved its headquarters from Tennessee to Virginia.
“This is the first round of [funding] commitments. There’ll be more,” Youngkin said.
The nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority, VIPC provides strategic commercialization and funding support to Virginia-based tech startups.
1.James W. Dyke Jr. with McGuireWoods Consulting received a lifetime achievement award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce May 16 in Richmond. L to R (front row): Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don L. Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth; former Gov. Douglas Wilder; Dyke. L to R (back row): Virginia Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, former U.S. Sen. George Allen. Photo by Kaveh Sardari, courtesy Virginia Chamber of Commerce.2. Hollins University held its annual reunion weekend May 31 through June 2. L to R: Mary Ann Harvey Johnson, class of 1967; Agnes Reid Jones Jenny, class of 1944; Mary Clare Abbott, class of 2025; and Hollins President Mary Dana Hinton prepare for the parade. Photo by Anna Logan Lawson, courtesy Hollins University.3. L to R: Henry Ware, executive sales director at Total Quality Logistics, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander and Hampton Roads Alliance President and CEO Douglas Smith celebrated at a June 4 ribbon-cutting for the freight brokerage’s new Norfolk office. Photo courtesy City of Norfolk.4. The 25th annual meeting of TowneBank shareholders at the Virginia Beach Convention Center May 22 included a celebration of Judge Richard S. Bray, who died May 4 and was lead director of TowneBank’s corporate board. Bray family members attended, L to R: Bryan Bejarano, Bobby Bray, Oscar Bejarano, Dawn Bray, Shannon Bejarano and Kaylee Bejarano.5. L to R: Jason Ferguson, Central Virginia Community College‘s associate vice president for professional and career studies; Christine Kennedy, Lynchburg Regional Alliance chief operating officer and executive vice president; and Jason Clark, CVCC’s coordinator of CTE initiatives, attended a May 9 business appreciation event hosted by the Bedford County Economic Development Authority at The Venue at 109.
Developers broke ground May 30 on The Helios, a $54 million, rent-restricted, solar-powered apartment building in Henrico County, according to an announcement by Bank of America, which is financing construction. A joint venture between Spy Rock Real Estate Group and Crescent Development, both based in Richmond, the apartments will replace an abandoned motel. The project, which is being built on 8.2 acres on Chamberlayne Road, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Three mid-rise buildings with elevators will house 186 units with one to three bedrooms. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Chesterfield County unveiled on June 7 its newly renovated softball and baseball complex at Harry G. Daniel Park, The Diamonds at Iron Bridge. Renovations for the park’s six fields totaled $4.1 million, and funding came from a surplus lodging tax revenue. The complex’s upgrades included resodded fields with better drainage; new fencing, backstops and dugouts; improved seating; increased shade; and repaved parking lots. The June 7 ceremony also kicked off the Starz Gold Summer Showcase, a weekend tournament with more than 60 softball teams from several states. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy announced June 3 it had closed on its$4.3 billion sale of subsidiaries Questar Gas and Wexpro to Canadian pipeline and energy company Enbridge. Salt Lake City-based natural gas utility Questar serves more than 1.2 million customers in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. Wexpro supplies natural gas under a cost-of-service agreement to Questar. The deal was first announced Sept. 5, 2023, and this sale was the second of three deals between Dominion and Enbridge announced then that has since been finalized. The first was Dominion’s $6.6 billion sale of East Ohio Gas to Enbridge. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Envigo parent company Inotiv was fined more than $35 million on June 3 in relation to the mistreatment of dogs at Envigo’s Cumberland County facility, from which 4,000 beagles were rescued in 2022. An Envigo subsidiary, Envigo RMS, pleaded guilty to conspiring to knowingly violate the Animal Welfare Act, and subsidiary Envigo Global Services pleaded guilty to knowingly violating the Clean Water Act. In addition to paying the largest fine recorded in an Animal Welfare Act case, Inotiv will be subject to increased animal care standards and to a compliance monitor, according to the U.S. Justice Department. (Axios)
The University ofVirginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia will pay $9 million in settlements related to the deadly 2022 shooting on U.Va.’s campus. On May 31, Albemarle County Circuit Judge Claude V. Worrell II approved $2 million settlements for each of the families of slain students D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler. Two U.Va. students who were injured in the shooting, Michael Hollins Jr. and Marlee Morgan, are receiving a cumulative $3 million from two other settlement agreements that did not need court approval. (The Washington Post)
A former manufacturing facility in West Point will come roaring back to life with a $2.5 million investment by West Point Veneer, a wholly owned subsidiary of ColdwaterVeneer, Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s office announced May 21. West Point Veneer expects to hire 92 people for the facility. Once open, the mill, located at 320 Dupont St., will produce wood veneer and ship it globally via the Port of Virginia. Coldwater Veneer CEO Dean Calhoun originally purchased the mill in 1997. Then, in 2017, Calhoun sold it, and the new owner closed it, according to Coldwater Veneer Chief Financial Officer Allen Frydenberg. He later repurchased it.(VirginiaBusiness.com)
EASTERN VIRGINIA
The $350 million Atlantic Park project backed by music icon Pharrell Williams in his hometown of Virginia Beach is progressing, with the 2.6-acre surf lagoon, entertainment venue and other pieces of the project expected to be delivered in spring 2025, Kathy Warren, Virginia Beach’s planning director, told city councilors May 28. A joint project between Williams and Venture Realty Group, Atlantic Park is supported by about $153 million in city funding and broke ground in March 2023. As of late May, the surf lagoon was about half done, the two parking garages were about 71% done, and the rest of the development was in various stages. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree announced in early June it was considering selling or spinning off its Family Dollar brand, which it acquired in 2015 for $8.5 billion. As of Feb. 3, Dollar Tree was operating more than 8,350 Family Dollar stores but has closed 550 retail locations of both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar as of the end of the first quarter of this year. The move comes shortly after the company’s announcement that it intends to acquire 99 Cents Only, a discount retailer in the western United States. In May, Dollar Tree purchased 170 leases of 99 Cents Only stores in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
On May 22, Dominion Energy kicked off construction of the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, plunging the first monopile into the sea floor for the 176 wind turbines that will be erected 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coastline.
Also, a federal judge in late May denied a preliminary injunction seeking to halt construction of the wind farm. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by several conservative anti-offshore wind groups, argued that the wind farm construction negatively impacts endangered North Atlantic right whales. (VirginiaBusiness.com; The Virginian-Pilot)
A 90-day task force convened by Virginia Beach City Council found that the Virginia Beach Oceanfront should be reserved for tourism events that would fill at least 1,000 hotel rooms, pushing smaller community events to other parks or venues in Virginia Beach during the resort season. That was one of several recommendations presented May 27 by the task force to guide policies for public spending on the growing number of events in the city. Other recommendations included standardizing the application process to qualify for city sponsorship of a festival, and holding festival producers accountable for spending of city funds. (WHRO)
PEOPLE
ChandlerChandler
John Chandler has been promoted to president and principal broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Property Management, the Norfolk-based real estate firm announced May 29. Chandler was previously the firm’s director of facilities and compliance and chief operating officer of its property management division, according to his LinkedIn profile. He succeeds his sister-in-law, Lisa Chandler, who announced her retirement in October 2023. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
DeVore
Dustin H. DeVore was named managing partner of Kaufman & Canoles‘ Williamsburg office, effective May 21, the law firm announced. DeVore joined Kaufman & Canoles in 2002 and chairs the firm’s lender representation practice group and its credit union team. DeVore takes over from Gregory R. Davis, with whom he’s worked for the past 22 years. Davis will continue at the firm, where he focuses on trust and estate matters. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
An Ashburn-based tech company, Arthur Grand Technologies, was fined by the Department of Justice in May after it advertised that it was seeking white candidates for an open job posting. The posting was published on Indeed.com in March 2023 and said that the company was only looking for “U.S. Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates],” according to a Justice Department news release. The company must pay penalties of $38,500, and the agreement requires Arthur Grand to train its personnel on the Immigration and Nationality Act. (WTOP; Associated Press)
Arlington County-based Boeing received orders for only four new planes in May and, for the second straight month, none for its best-selling 737 Max, as fallout continues from the blowout of a side panel on a Max during a January flight. The results released in June compared unfavorably with Europe’s Airbus, which reported net orders for 15 planes in May — 27 sales but 12 cancellations. Boeing delivered 24 jetliners in May, including 19 Max jets, and it still has a huge backlog of more than 5,600 orders. (Associated Press)
McLean-based Capital One Financial is no longer the exclusive issuer of Walmart consumer credit cards, as of late May. The two companies announced they ended their consumer card agreement, which began in 2019. The announcement followed problems first uncovered in late 2022 and early 2023 by Reuters. In April 2023, Walmart filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end the partnership, and the judge ruled in March that the retailer could end the partnership. Capital One retains ownership and servicing of the credit card portfolio. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Inova Health System raised $83 million over the past year, surpassing the “Schar Challenge” issued by donors Dwight and Martha Schar when they made a $75 million matching gift to Inova in May 2023. More than 10,000 people made donations following the Schars’ gift, bringing the Falls Church-based health system’s total raised over the past year to $158 million, Inova announced in June. Dwight Schar founded Reston-based homebuilder and mortgage banker NVR. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
For the second time this spring, two planes nearly collided at Reagan National Airport in Arlington County, prompting Virginia’s U.S. senators to again criticize plans to add more long-haul flights at the airport. In May, an American Airlines flight bound for Boston was told to abort its ongoing takeoff procedure as it was about to cross paths with a private plane that had already landed on an intersecting runway. In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner cited the near accident to again speak out against the recent decision to add more flights at DCA. Earlier in May, President Joe Biden signed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization package into law. (Washington Business Journal)
After close to two years of litigation, bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy, the Tysons-based business software company he co-founded, agreed in June to pay $40 million to resolve a tax fraud lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C.’s attorney general. It’s the largest income tax fraud recovery in the district’s history, according to a news release. The lawsuit alleged Saylor claimed to live in Virginia, a state with a lower income tax, and Florida, a state with no personal income tax, to avoid paying more than $25 million in taxes to the District of Columbia. Saylor and MicroStrategy deny violating D.C.’s tax laws and admitted no wrongdoing.(VirginiaBusiness.com)
SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Boxer Gifts, a British manufacturer of specialty, often wacky gifts, including the “poo timer” and “old-age emergency pants,” will invest $1.4 million to establish its first U.S. light manufacturing, distribution and wholesale operation in Harrisonburg, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced May 28. The project is expected to create 15 jobs. The specialty gift shop plans to retrofit a 10,000-square-foot warehouse on 0.74 acres at 955 Sawtooth Oak Circle that it purchased March 15 for $640,000, according to Boxer Gifts President Thomas O’Brien. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
On May 29, a federal judge sentenced Jennifer McDonald, former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, to a total of 168 months — 14 years — in prison for committing financial crimes against the EDA: 144 months for 29 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, and 24 months for one count of aggravated identity theft. A jury convicted McDonald on Nov. 1, 2023, of charges related to accusations that she used millions of dollars of EDA money without the authority’s board of directors’ permission for her own benefit. She was arrested on the charges in late August 2021. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
RideSmart, a Front Royal-based commuter service, began providing bus service on weekdays from Clarke County to Rosslyn and Washington, D.C., in May. The company held a ribbon cutting May 15 in the Waterloo Park & Ride lot on U.S. 50. RideSmart is using a $1.5 million grant over five years from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to cover costs to provide the bus service, which Todd Horsley, DRPT’s director of Northern Virginia transit programs, said is intended to be “seed money” for RideSmart to get the service up and running. A one-way trip costs $25, and a round trip is $39. (The Winchester Star)
Winchester-based weatherproof decking maker Trex is building a $450 million factory in Little Rock, Arkansas, that will greatly boost its manufacturing capacity. The company, which makes composite boards with sawdust and old plastic bags, is also rolling out new lines of premium decking, like one that mimics hardwoods and one that is cooler on the feet. The facility is being built on 300 acres with room to expand and probably won’t begin production until 2026. Although as of mid-May, renovation spending was expected to sputter and home improvement stores were reporting declining sales, Trex is betting Americans will add onto their homes instead of moving to new ones. (The Wall Street Journal)
Winchester-based health system Valley Health reported $77.8 million in fiscal 2023 revenue in a semi-annual meeting on May 14. The company had $7 million in operating earnings, and $77.8 million with investment earnings factored in. In 2022, Valley Health lost $71.8 million in revenue. Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz said the health system was still recovering from the pandemic, but staff retention rates were “back above pre-pandemic levels.” The system operates six hospitals — four in Virginia and two in West Virginia — along with urgent care clinics, physician practices, medical transport services and a retail pharmacy. (The Winchester Star)
The Warren County Board of Supervisors greenlit on June 4 a proposed hotel in the U.S. 340-522 commercial corridor. The board voted to approve a request for a conditional use permit for a hotel with a height of more than 40 feet and added a condition that no large or unnecessary illuminated signs face adjacent homeowners on the westbound side. Pennoni applied for the permit to build a four-story, 91-room Hyatt hotel on Hospitality Drive, proposing a 53-foot hotel with a 2-foot buffer. Green Pearl Hospitality owns the 3.8-acre property, which is adjacent to the DoubleTree by Hilton off Shadows and Hospitality drives. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
After almost 30 years, Henry County is looking to update its comprehensive plan. During their May 28 meeting, county supervisors began what is expected to be a two-year process by awarding a $212,139 contract to the Berkley Group, a Bridgewater-based administrative consultancy firm that will assist county officials with the planning process. This marks the first time the county has updated its comprehensive plan since 1995. (Cardinal News)
Billions of investment dollars could be coming to Pittsylvania County with the development of a data center that was unanimously recommended by the planning commission at its June 4 meeting. The project represents up to $5 billion in investment and at least $120 million in annual tax revenue, according to the Pittsylvania County Industrial Development Authority. The data center, which would be the first of its kind in Pittsylvania, would also create up to 500 jobs. The commission recommended the rezoning of 946 acres off U.S. 58 in Ringgold, in the southeastern part of the county just a few miles outside Danville, for the project. (Cardinal News)
Last year, Sentara Health unveiled plans to invest $70 million to replace the aging Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston with a new acute care hospital. In June, the health care system announced the investment will be closer to $107 million. The 100,000-square-foot hospital is scheduled to be completed in summer 2026. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
VF, a Denver-based global apparel and footwear company with brands including Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies, plans to close its distribution center in Martinsville in March 2025, the company confirmed May 22. During a conference call, Bracken Darrell, who joined VF as the company’s president and CEO last summer, called the strategy “tough medicine that we needed to return to growth.” VF’s plans include “fixing the Americas,” turning around the Vans brand, reducing costs and paying down debt. VF experienced a 13% decline in revenue for the fourth quarter, compared with the same period last year. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia International Raceway was awarded three tourism grants totaling $50,500, the raceway announced June 3. The raceway received awards of $22,500 from the Virginia Tourism Marketing Leverage Program, $18,000 from the Virginia Special Events & Festivals Program and $10,000 from a Visit SoSi regional tourism grant. Two of the grants will be used to further asset development and special event support, mostly around the track’s flagship events, the IMSA Michelin GT Challenge and the Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix. The third grant will help promote new corporate retreat and team-building capabilities to leverage the historic nearly 1,300-acre property and cross-promote the capabilities of several different local businesses that operate out of the onsite business park. (News release)
PEOPLE
Johnson
Jason Wells joined the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as executive vice president of manufacturing advancement on June 3, according to a release from the Danville-based economic development organization. Wells, who has nearly three decades of experience in high-performance manufacturing, replaces Todd Yeatts, who left in August. In his new role, Wells will oversee the operation and strategic direction of the Center for Manufacturing Advancement, which helps manufacturers introduce new and emerging technology into their operations and provides other services to industry leaders. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
A new collaborative initiative, Accelerate Southwest Virginia, will focus on infrastructure, economic development, health care, housing and lowering the cost of living in the region, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in Wise on May 23. Youngkin compared the initiative to Partnership for Petersburg, a multifaceted project he announced in August 2022. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission is partnering with the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority to create a $10 million loan fund for economic development, and an additional $18.5 million can be made available, he said. Few details about the initiative or how it will be funded were released. (Cardinal News)
The Tennessee Department of Health has given Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, A grades and an annual stamp of approval, which has occurred as Ballad hospitals consistently fall short of performance targets established by the state. The state’s scoring rubric largely ignores the hospitals’ performance, so only 5% of Ballad’s final score is based on actual quality of care. Ballad has suffered no penalty for failing to meet the state’s goals in about 50 areas, including surgery complications. Ballad Health was created six years ago after Tennessee and Virginia lawmakers waived federal anti-monopoly laws so two competing hospital companies could merge. (Virginia Mercury)
The Southwest Regional Recreation Authority, parent organization of the Spearhead Trails, will receive $5 million in state funding over the next two fiscal years. The funds were included in the two-year budget that Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed in mid-May, according to a news release from the authority. Using the funding, the organization plans to hire 11 additional staff members, increase trail mileage, purchase equipment and make repairs to its headquarters building. A 2019 study from the Institute for Service Research found that the Spearhead Trails annually generate $18.8 million in economic impact to Virginia. (The Coalfield Progress)
The Health Wagon is working to establish the Southwest Virginia region’s first free and charitable pharmacy. The St. Mary’s Faith Pharmacy will be adjacent to the Health Wagon clinic in Wise and will have a drive-thru window. In early June, the pharmacy began conducting a pre-application survey to learn which medications were most needed by patients in the region. Separately, in May, state lawmakers removed $800,000 earmarked for the Health Wagon from the biennial budget following controversy over sharp increases in Health Wagon executives’ salaries. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Wise-based civil engineering and land surveying firm Thompson & Litton acquired Tennessee-based Tysinger, Hampton & Partners, T&L announced May 20. TH&P joined Thompson & Litton’s employee-owned operation on May 15 and is doing business as Thompson & Litton. Its office will remain in Johnson City, Tennessee. T&L serves a five-state mid-Atlantic client base from offices in Wise, Radford, Tazewell and Chilhowie; Bristol, Johnson City and Mosheim, Tennessee; and Princeton, West Virginia. (Bristol Herald Courier)
PEOPLE
Fincher,
Louise “Lou” Fincher, senior vice president of Emory & Henry University, has been named interim president of the Washington County-based private college beginning Aug. 1, as President John W. Wells steps down and becomes the school’s first chancellor in late July.
Wells
The college is transitioning to being a university this fall. Fincher is also the inaugural dean of the E&H School of Health Sciences, a position she accepted in 2014, and became senior vice president in 2020. Fincher helped launch the health sciences school in Marion and has led the development of the Southwest Virginia Healthcare Excellence Academy Laboratory School (SWVA-HEALS). (VirginiaBusiness.com)
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