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Virginia 500 Spotlight: H. Garrett Hart III

WHAT I WAS LIKE IN HIGH SCHOOL: Typical, brain-dead teenage boy

HOW I CHOSE MY CAREER: The recession of 1980

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADUATES: Do what you love and find a problem to solve.

PLUSES AND MINUSES OF WORKING FROM HOME: As a person [who] gets energy from working with others, I only see minuses.

DO YOU LEAVE WORK AT WORK AT 5 P.M.? No

HOW I FEEL ABOUT AI AT WORK: It is the next business revolution.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE I’VE FACED: To turn vision into reality

IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET: Abraham Lincoln

INTERESTING PLACE I’VE TRAVELED: Hiroshima, Japan

TEN YEARS FROM NOW, I WILL BE: Happily retired and traveling

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY: Lived more in the moment

DOGS OR CATS: Dogs

DID YOU KNOW? Hart has six grandchildren — four boys and two girls.

Central Va. Year-in-Review: Region scores in manufacturing, data centers

Central Virginia continued making headway in manufacturing and offices in 2024, as well as seeing increased interest from the data center sector.

Growth is still taking place in Northern Virginia, home of ‘s famous “Data Center Alley,” where 70% of the world’s internet traffic courses, but as companies seek less expensive land for data center campuses, many are checking out Central Virginia.

In October 2024, Powhatan County approved a $2.7 billion campus on 119 acres bordering Chesterfield County, and in December 2024, Connecticut-based AVAIO Digital Partners signed an agreement to purchase 452 acres in Appomattox County for a $3 billion data center.

“The uptick in data center projects has ballooned in our pipeline from where it was at this point last year,” says Jennifer Wakefield, president and CEO of Greater Richmond Partnership.

Incoming data centers, as well as the entry of the $57 million Condair plant in Chesterfield, where the Swiss manufacturer will produce cooling equipment, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, will be a big part of the region’s economic development future. But Wakefield notes that manufacturing continued to be the “bread and butter” of the region’s announcements this year, as well as finance, insurance and entertainment.

Richmond

In September 2024, the Richmond Flying Squirrels and Richmond-based used car retailer CarMax announced the new Richmond ballpark and entertainment venue will be named CarMax Park.

Considered a cornerstone of the planned Diamond District development in Richmond, the ballpark will have a capacity of 10,000 attendees (including 8,000 seats), and the rest of the project will include 935,000 square feet of office space, 195,000 square feet of retail and community space, and two hotels with a total of 330 rooms, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. The entire project is estimated to cost $2.44 billion, according to the City of Richmond.

“The Diamond District has been something that folks have been working on for a long time, and we’re seeing it come to fruition,” says Katie McConnell, senior deputy director of Richmond Economic Development. “It’ll be a really good catalytic project.”

Richmonders can see “cranes and dirt moving” on the initial phases of the ballpark, McConnell says. The official groundbreaking on CarMax Park was in September 2024.

Also on the horizon is the Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, a $30 million open-air concert venue that’s set to open in June looking over the James River. Construction and development on CoStar Group’s $460 million campus expansion next door to the amphitheater also continued, McConnell says. The 750,000-square-foot campus will include the city’s tallest building at 425 feet and is expected to be complete in 2026.

Henrico County

Henrico County had its biggest year in history in 2024 from a capital investment standpoint, says Anthony Romanello, executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority, with investments totaling $7.6 billion and more than 1,300 jobs created.

“We hit on several sectors: manufacturing, retail, office headquarters, technology,” Romanello says. “That just speaks to the diversity and the strength of our economy.”

The largest projects announced in Henrico in 2024 were related to data centers, with Iron Mountain purchasing 66 acres for more than $8 million within the White Oak Technology Park in the eastern end of the county. QTS Data Centers also acquired 397 acres there for $118.8 million in June 2024, giving it a total plot of 622 acres, acquired for a cumulative $137 million.

Also, LL Flooring sold its 995,792-square-foot distribution center on 97.55 acres in White Oak Technology Park for $104.75 million to QTS in September 2024, as part of the former Lumber Liquidators chain’s bankruptcy proceedings. The land is adjacent to two other plots QTS owns.

Henrico also saw major investments for other industry projects, including a $10 million investment from Tucker Door & Trim, a Georgia-based distributor and manufacturer of doors, windows and specialty millwork for the construction industry. This project is expected to create 50 jobs.

KSB USA/North America, a supplier of pumps and industrial valves and a subsidiary of Germany’s KSB Group, also announced it would invest $25 million to expand its Henrico facility, creating 32 jobs.

Other highlights from the county’s year in economic development include the completion of DPR Construction’s new 15,000-square-foot office building and the relocation of health care logistics company Owens & Minor to Innsbrook from Hanover County.

“We want to keep our economy really strong in all sectors,” Romanello says. “So, as we look at what the next five years is going to look like, you’re still going to see industrial and advanced manufacturing, and we do have some additional data center projects in the pipeline.”

Chesterfield County

The theme of 2024 in Chesterfield County was executing on large projects that have been in the pipeline for years, says Matt McLaren, deputy director of Chesterfield Economic Development. This included seeing the $1 billion Lego Group manufacturing plant moving forward and Plenty Unlimited’s opening of its $300 million project, the largest indoor vertical farm in the country, in September 2024.

Lego, meanwhile, has started construction of its 340-acre campus, with the first building expected to take shape this year. Plans were to start production in 2025, but that timeline was pushed back to 2027.

Late last year came another big announcement, when Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts-based fusion energy company, said it plans to build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant in Chesterfield, a nearly $3 billion investment. Spun out of MIT, CFS says it will build at the James River Industrial Center, a site owned by Dominion Energy, and be in operation in the early 2030s.

Business expansion was also a boon for the county in 2024, adding to Chesterfield’s overall $2.8 billion in new investments and nearly 1,200 jobs created. In September 2024, commercial and industrial contractor Atlantic Constructors Inc. announced it would double its headquarters in Chesterfield, a $25 million project. Engineering and manufacturing company Super Radiator Coils also announced a $22 million expansion in Chesterfield.

“They’re some of our oldest and longest businesses. They’ve been here 30 years plus,” says Garrett Hart, director of Chesterfield Economic Development. “For them to continue, again and again, [to invest] is a really good sign that they’re being successful in Chesterfield.”

Meanwhile, work on the 42-acre Springline at District 60 mixed-use development continued throughout 2024, with apartments and the civil engineering firm Timmons Group’s headquarters opening soon.

Rounding out Chesterfield’s year were Condair’s $57 million manufacturing facility, and the announcement in July 2024 that Danish electrolyzer manufacturer Topsoe planned to build a $400 million plant and create 150 jobs.

“We’re continuing to see companies that we would have never really thought about as potential economic development goals for us, or prospects for us, really come into our market,” McLaren says.

Hanover County

Hanover County also worked toward future data center projects in 2024. The county worked closely with land developers to approve land rezoning, including 1,200 acres north of the town of Ashland that will be solely dedicated to data center use, says Brandon Turner, director of Hanover County Economic Development. The county anticipates that during the next 20 years, there could be about $10 billion to $15 billion in investment in data centers in Hanover, creating at least 700 jobs, he says.

“Site work is starting as far as design and engineering, so it’s going to be a few years before we have anything going on up there from a building standpoint,” Turner says. “But the foundation has been laid for it.”

Another big win for Hanover in 2024 was the announcement that nursing home The Virginia Home would sell its Byrd Park facility in Richmond and move to a $120 million facility in Hanover, creating 250 jobs.

Hanover also saw a record year for tourism in 2024, thanks to a boost in sports tournaments and other attractions, Turner says.

Southern Va. Year-in-Review: Major projects landed in region

For Danville and Pittsylvania County, 2024 was a monumental year.

In November 2024, battery-component manufacturer Microporous broke ground on a $1.3 billion plant at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill, where it expects to create 2,015 jobs. The following month in Danville, Caesars Virginia hosted the grand opening of its $750 million casino.

“All indicators point to continued growth and momentum,” says Corrie T. Bobe, Danville’s director of economic development and tourism.

It’s a long way from Danville’s past as a textile manufacturing town, an identity that collapsed by the early 2000s as Dan River Mills entered bankruptcy and closed. Partnering with Caesars Entertainment to bring a casino to the city has proven to be a winning hand for Danville. It received more than $34 million in gaming tax revenue and supplemental payments from when Caesars opened a temporary casino in Danville in May 2023 through December 2024, according to City Manager Ken Larking.

The casino had 1,200 employees on opening day, according to Barron Fuller, regional president for Caesars Entertainment. It’s projected to attract more than 2 million visitors annually.

“This project represents a transformative … investment, converting an 80-acre blighted and historic former textile site — previously generating no revenue — into a world-class entertainment venue,” says Bobe.

Nestled next to the “Three Sisters” smokestacks, remnants of the shuttered Dan River Mills textile facility, Caesars Virginia may be the most obvious symbol of the evolution of Southern Virginia’s economy.

Far from putting all their economic development eggs into the casino basket, area officials have poured time and money over the last two decades into creating sites with supporting infrastructure to attract advanced manufacturing companies such as Microporous. More than $200 million has been invested in development at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill alone, making it one of the largest megasites on the East Coast.

The casino and Microporous project were enough good news to offset some bad news in February, when Goodyear announced it would be laying off 850 workers at its tire plant in Danville. Larkin said the city would work with state and regional partners to assist displaced employees.

Leaders in Southern Virginia are also hard at work to make sure they can support the area’s growing workforce. Danville began holding housing summits for the entire region in 2022.

“Since then, we’ve brought in 1,112 multifamily housing units and 912 single family [homes] and townhouses,” says Linda Green, executive director for the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance and vice president of economic development at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. “And that doesn’t normally happen in a rural area. In addition to that, we’ve currently got 23 projects ready to go.”

Late in 2024, residents began moving into Dan River Falls, the $85 million multiuse project in the city’s White Mill, a striking former warehouse on the banks of the river. A public-private project between the city’s industrial development authority and The Alexandria Co., Dan River Falls includes 150 apartments and 147,000 square feet of office and retail space. An adjacent $14 million riverfront park is slated to open in the spring.
“These developments will fully revitalize our riverfront, further enhancing the region’s appeal and quality of life,” Bobe says.

Danville and Pittsylvania

Announced in August 2024, RBW Sports & Classics, the United Kingdom’s only manufacturer of hand-built electric sports cars, is investing $8 million to establish a manufacturing plant in the Cane Creek Centre, an industrial park owned by Danville and Pittsylvania. It is expected to create 144 jobs.

The facility, the company’s first U.S. location, will produce its first left-hand drive electric classic sports cars — Roadster and GT models —for the U.S. market.

RBW Sports & Classics will open its facility at the Cane Creek Centre in the second quarter of 2025, according to Matt Rowe, economic development director for Pittsylvania County.

Cambridge Pavers announced in December 2024 its plans to invest $47.35 million to establish a 150,000-square-foot facility at Ringgold East Industrial Park, just outside of Danville in Pittsylvania. The New Jersey-based company manufactures pavers, slabs and wall systems used for patios, landscaping and pool decks. The Ringgold East operation is expected to create 55 technical, manufacturing and customer service jobs with an average pay of $58,151 annually.

Speyside Bourbon Cooperage is investing $16.85 million to build a stave mill in Brosville Industrial Park in Pittsylvania. The mill will produce staves, or strips of wood, from white oak, which are used to make bourbon barrels. It is expected to create 40 jobs and source 40% of the timber needed from Virginia forest owners.

A division of Scotland’s Speyside Cooperage, the bourbon barrel maker has three other Virginia facilities, and the Pittsylvania mill will supply wood for the company’s presence in Smyth County.

EPL America, a specialty packaging manufacturer, is investing $34.7 million in new printing lines, a tubing line, and molds for producing closures and caps to boost capacity at its Airside Industrial Park facility in Danville, creating an estimated 24 jobs. This will allow the company to grow into the beauty and cosmetic markets and serve customers interested in replacing existing plastic products with laminate tubes.
“Market demand for its products in the [United States] remains robust, and the company has successfully tapped into Southern Virginia’s skilled labor force to support its continued growth and meet this increasing demand,” says Bobe.

The rest of the region

Danville and Pittsylvania are not the only Southern Virginia localities focused on drawing new business. In April 2024, Henry County supervisors awarded a $24 million contract to Chatham’s Haymes Brothers Construction to prepare a 172-acre pad site in Commonwealth Crossing, an industrial park in Ridgeway.

In January, Press Glass announced it would be closing its Stoneville, North Carolina, fabrication operations and moving them to Ridgeway in Henry County. That’s expected to increase Press Glass’ Virginia employee count to about 500. In 2023, the company announced a $155.2 million addition to its Ridgeway facility, and construction started last year.

Also, Hitachi Energy is investing $26 million to expand its South Boston facility, which manufactures transformers. This will pay for new equipment, upgrades and other production line improvements, which will expand capacity for producing distribution transformers.

Work started on the expansion in September 2024. It’s expected to be completed and new production underway by the end of 2026, says Kurt Steinert, Hitachi’s head of external communications in North America.

The facility currently has 585 employees, and the expansion is expected to create about 100 jobs. Hiring has begun, Steinert says.

In Mecklenburg County, Shalag US is investing $16.6 million to open a manufacturing and production facility in the former Global Safety Textiles building.

Shalag purchased the 154,000-square-foot building and associated property in August 2024 for $5.75 million.

The Oxford, North Carolina-based company manufactures a wide range of nonwoven fabric for use in products including diapers, feminine hygiene, air filtration and cleaning wipes. Its Mecklenburg facility is expected to create 52 jobs and allow the company to increase overall production capacity in the U.S. by 25%, according to a news release.

“They have started working on upfitting the building to their needs,” says Angie D. Kellett, director of the Mecklenburg County Office of Economic Development.

A sampling of Virginia’s major road projects

HAMPTON ROADS

Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project
The state’s largest highway construction project is making steady progress, albeit now on an adjusted schedule. The $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion will widen the four-lane segments of the 9.9-mile Interstate 64 corridor between Norfolk and Hampton to six lanes on land and eight under the water with twin two-lane tunnels. The Virginia Department of Transportation contracted with Hampton Roads Connector Partners, a joint venture led by Dragados USA, for the project. The contract originally ended in November 2025, but in March 2024, VDOT and its partners announced an amendment to the comprehensive agreement, including moving the substantial completion deadline to February 2027 and the final completion to August 2027.

In April 2024, a $70 million custom-built tunnel boring machine dubbed Mary reached North Island, completing the first bored tunnel after 51 weeks. On Oct. 17, 2024, it began boring back toward South Island and Norfolk to create the second tunnel, which it’s expected to emerge from in late summer or early fall. Crews have begun interior construction on the first tunnel.

In May 2024, the first new bridge at the HRBT in more than 50 years opened — the eastbound north trestle between Hampton and North Island. Work on the westbound north trestle and the south trestle continues, with traffic expected on the former in the second half of 2025 and on the latter in the second quarter of the year.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Improve 95
To address congestion on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, the more than $1 billion Improve 95 plan includes projects on sections of the interstate between Exit 126 and Exit 148, several of which have been completed. At Exit 126 in Spotsylvania County, the widening of the off-ramp from I-95 southbound and Route 1 southbound and safety improvements on Route 711 are expected to be completed in August.

SHENANDOAH VALLEY/ SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

Interstate 81 improvements
The $3 billion I-81 Corridor Improvement Program, expected to be completed in 2035, includes more than 60 projects along 325 miles from Winchester to Bristol. Projects are in varying stages and include truck climbing lanes, highway widening and auxiliary lanes.

One larger project getting underway is a 7-mile widening of I-81 in Roanoke and Botetourt counties that will add a third northbound and southbound lane between Exits 143 and 150. In mid-July 2024, the Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded Roanoke-based Branch Civil a $362 million design-build contract for the project, which also includes replacing eight bridges and installing more than 8,500 feet of sound barrier along northbound lanes.

Coalfields Expressway
The proposed 115-mile Coalfields Expressway — U.S. Route 460/121 — is slated to run through Southwest Virginia (for about 50 miles) and southern West Virginia, boosting commerce and tourism. Construction is underway on a 4.81-mile, four-lane segment of Route 460/121 in Buchanan County.

The first phase is expected to cost $199 million and be completed late this year. The approximately $207 million second phase’s completion is expected in 2027.

DXC Technology promotes HR executive

Fortune 500 global IT company announced Thursday that it has promoted to chief people officer.

In the role, Ragone will lead the -based company’s global hiring strategy. She was most recently vice president of business HR at DXC, which she joined in 2017 as vice president of human capital consulting, digital labor growth and optimization. Ragone previously worked for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and started her career at EDS.

She will report directly to DXC President and CEO Raul Fernandez.

“Since 2020, I’ve had opportunity to work with Jennifer as a board member and now as CEO of DXC,” Fernandez said in a statement. “She has a deep understanding of our business and a proven track record in HR leadership that makes her the ideal choice to advance our people-first strategy. Her expertise in leveraging AI and data analytics for talent development aligns perfectly with our vision for the future of work ensuring we continue to attract, develop and empower top talent globally.”

As of last year, the company had about 133,000 employees worldwide and almost 6,000 private and public sector customers.

Federal watchdog reverses course, drops Capital One lawsuit

The reversed course Thursday and dropped a against -headquartered and its parent company, , which alleged the companies cheated millions of consumers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments.

The U.S. government’s watchdog charged with protecting consumers from financial institutions filed a dismissal with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be brought back to court if accepted by the judge in the .

“We welcome the CFPB’s decision to dismiss this action, which we strongly disputed,” a spokesperson for Capital One said in a statement Thursday.

The CFPB, launched in response to the 2008 financial crisis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thursday’s filing reflects the overnight changes in the federal government under President Donald Trump, who promised to slash federal spending and cut thousands of federal jobs, as well as shuttering some departments and agencies. The CFPB was one of the agencies forced to close in the first weeks of the second Trump presidency, leaving the lawsuit against Capital One and other recent enforcement measures in limbo.

Sending a message

Erin Witte, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a Washington, D.C., association of nonprofit consumer organizations, said it’s unusual for the CFPB to drop a case filed during a previous administration.

“It’s a really unprecedented move from the Trump administration,” she said.

Dropping the lawsuit, according to Witte, sends a message to leaders at banks, student loan providers and mortgage lenders that there will be no consequences for violating the law.

“I think it’s clear that the bureau is taking steps that are harming the consumers that they should be protecting,” she said. “The entire reason that we have a CFPB is because conduct like this was not being monitored, it wasn’t being addressed, and now the CFPB is turning its back on these people instead of protecting them.”

The lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 14 during the final days of the , alleged that Capital One misled consumers about “high interest” accounts, claiming Capital One Financial illegally deceived consumers and that Capital One N.A. — a national bank and wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One Financial — violated the Truth in Savings Act by falsely representing the 360 Savings accounts as providing a variable interest rate that was “one of the nation’s” “top,” “best” and “highest” and that customers would earn much more interest than with the average savings account.

Almost immediately after Trump took office Jan. 20, CFPB’s director, Rohit Chopra, was fired. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025, took over as the agency’s acting director. Over the weekend of Feb. 8, news broke that Vought had shuttered the agency’s headquarters and employees were told to cease work.

The National Treasury Employees Union filed two federal lawsuits Feb. 9 against Vought, alleging that “the administration has unlawfully trampled the power of Congress to create a federal agency that it deemed necessary to protecting American consumers” and that the CFPB violated the Privacy Act by disclosing employee records to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency.

In a Feb. 24 response to one of those lawsuits, federal attorneys noted that Trump on Feb. 11 nominated Jonathan McKernan, a board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to be the agency’s director. That, the filing states, is “inconsistent” with the view that the administration plans to dismantle the agency.

In an opening statement for Thursday’s nomination hearing before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, McKernan noted the CFPB suffers “from a crisis of legitimacy.”

“This must be corrected if the CFPB is to reliably do what it’s supposed to do — look out for the American consumer,” he stated. “To that noble end, the CFPB needs to be made accountable to our elected officials and its past excesses need to come to an aend.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, implied Thursday that McKernan’s role might not be highly valued by the Trump administration. “It kind of feels like you’ve been lined up to be the No. 1 horse at the glue factory,” she said at the nomination hearing.

In June 2024, Chopra told the U.S. House Financial Services Committee that the agency had returned $20.7 billion to consumers through law enforcement activity since its 2011 creation.