In 2017, Sentara partnered with Velocity and transferred the operations of seven Sentara Urgent Care facilities to its joint venture with Velocity and a third party. Now Sentara, which declined to name the third party, is taking over all of Velocity. Sentara declined to share financial details.
Velocity has 17 urgent care locations in Virginia with nearly 200 employees and has plans to expand to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, early next year.
“This is an exciting opportunity for both Sentara and Velocity Urgent Care to expand and improve access to quality same-day services by offering a more holistic approach for the communities we serve,” Kurt T. Hofelich, Sentara vice president of ambulatory services, said in a statement.
Sentara has about 30,000 employees and 12 hospitals across Virginia and North Carolina. The organization’s health plans division has more than 1.2 million members in Virginia and Florida.
This week, Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney’s photography exhibit makes the second stop on its global magical mystery tour, with the show’s U.S. debut at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk. Museum officials say attendance is expected to be higher than any previous exhibit at the 90-year-old Chrysler, with inquiries coming from across the country.
“Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm,” an exhibition of about 250 photos and video footage taken by McCartney during the height of Beatlemania in late 1963 and early 1964, will open to the public at Chrysler on Thursday and run through April 7, 2024. The show’s world debut took place June through Oct. 1 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The exhibit’s three-month run in London drew more than 110,000 visitors, according to Sarah Brown, McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist. By comparison, 190,000 visitors toured the Chrysler during all of 2022.
Among the photos that will be on display are behind-the-scenes glimpses of McCartney and his bandmates — John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — during three months of travels in the United Kingdom, the United States and France, as the four young musicians saw their fandom expand from their native England to the U.S. in February 1964, when they performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for two weeks to shrieking fans, ushering in the British Invasion to 73 million TV viewers.
Within months, their fame was worldwide, and the Beatles toured globally through 1966, when they abandoned the road for the studio, recording increasingly ambitious and innovative albums that included “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road.” In 1970, the Beatles broke up and embarked on solo careers.
In November, McCartney’s pictures, which were in storage for nearly 60 years and had not previously been publicly displayed, landed in Norfolk, where they’ll remain through April 7. McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist, Sarah Brown, collaborated with Lloyd DeWitt, the Chrysler’s senior curator, on placement of the photos at the Norfolk museum, which opens the exhibit to the public Thursday. Members of the museum will have the chance Tuesday and Wednesday to catch a preview of the show, and members of the media toured the exhibit Monday.
From left, Chrysler Museum of Art Senior Curator Lloyd DeWitt, Macon and Joan Brock Director Erik Neil, and Sarah Brown, Paul McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist, at the Chrysler exhibit of “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm” opening Dec. 7, 2023.
McCartney’s photos — mainly in black and white until the band arrived in Miami in February 1964, when McCartney used color film to capture blue skies and the ocean — also show a snowy White House in Washington, D.C., teens chasing the Beatles’ car, portraits of police officers and a railroad worker, as well as fellow performers on their 1964 U.S. tour. A handful of McCartney’s photos chosen specifically for the U.S. exhibit show American artists that include Clarence “Frogman” Henry and Jackie DeShannon.
As for attendance expectations, “that is a million-dollar question,” said Erik Neil, Macon and Joan Brock director and president of the art museum. “We haven’t put on a show like this. But I expect that we will get tens of thousands. We’ve got interest from all over the country, like we never have [before], because of such widespread attention given to this material.” The museum ordered about 1,000 books depicting about 275 of McCartney’s photos.
The U.S. exhibit is timed to the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ Sullivan appearances, and the Chrysler will host a special event Feb. 9, 2024, for museum members. According to Brown, McCartney personally chose music to be played at the event, and he also has curated five films to be screened on Wednesdays beginning Jan. 24, 2024, at the Naro Extended Cinema in Norfolk. The musician also had close oversight of the exhibit, choosing which photos to display and contributing quotes that describe the experience of the Beatles’ breakout in the U.S. DeWitt noted that because the photos hadn’t been displayed before this year, the prints were brand new and, in some cases, large enough to see details of large crowds gathered to see the band.
In 2020, McCartney rediscovered about 1,000 photos he had taken with a 35-millimeter camera while preparing for an exhibit of his late wife Linda McCartney’s photos.
Fixing a hole
So, how did the Chrysler get the gig, you may be asking? It was partly luck, Neil said. “We had an unusual opening, [a show] we had slotted in here [that] we had to push back for completely extraneous reasons,” Neil explained to Virginia Business. Casting about for a possible replacement, the McCartney exhibit “came across our desk,” Neil said. “Things opened up, and we said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great. Let’s go get that.'”
McCartney’s representatives had reached out to the museum about a year ago, which is considered fairly late notice in the museum world, Neil noted, and the final contract was signed about six months ago. Usually special exhibits at larger museums are booked at least two years out, “or even further,” up to four years.
Even with the opening in its schedule, the Chrysler still needed to raise money to bring in the exhibit. Speaking in late November, Neil said he was still seeking donations and had not yet determined what the actual cost of the exhibit would be. “We will not know the exact cost of this exhibition until a lot of things are worked out … and [that] depends a little bit on what other venues there might be and what costs would be shared.”
McCartney, a committed vegetarian and environmental activist, placed some restrictions on the financial backing for the exhibit — including no sponsorships from fossil fuel companies, said Neil, who was able to get some past museum donors on board to help with costs, as well as assistance from the museum’s Horace W. Goldsmith Special Exhibitions Endowment. He declined to name individuals as he was still finalizing the sponsorships for the show, which will be free to all visitors. “That was one thing that I know was appealing to the McCartney team — that we are free,” Neil noted.
There’s no word whether Sir Paul will come to Norfolk during the exhibit’s stay. The 81-year-old musician is on tour in Brazil through Dec. 16, although he doesn’t have any dates for 2024 listed yet.
Neil, whose favorite Beatles song is “Blackbird,” says the museum has extended an invitation to McCartney. Hopefully Sir Paul can work it out.
Hotel revenues in Hampton Roads outpaced Virginia and the nation through October, according to a report from Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, citing data from STR, a division of CoStar Group that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.
Through October, hotel revenues were 22.8% higher in Hampton Roads, compared with the same period in 2019. But hotel revenues for the whole state lag behind that, just 12.6% higher compared with 2019.
Within Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach saw hotel revenues increase the most, 29% compared with 2019, followed by Norfolk/Portsmouth at 27.6% and Chesapeake/Suffolk 26.7%. The slowest growth for this area of the state was the Williamsburg market, which increased by 8.9% compared with the same period in 2019.
Hotel revenues for Northern Virginia was 2.7% lower this year, compared with the same period in 2019. It’s the only market that has not fully recovered from the pandemic, according to the report.
The number of rooms sold through October, compared with the same period in 2019, dropped by 10.6% in Northern Virginia, by 8.2% in Roanoke and by 5.3% in the Virginia portion of the Bristol/Kingsport market.
Within Hampton Roads, in the submarkets of Norfolk/Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake/Norfolk, the number of rooms sold increased by 7%, 3.9% and 2.4% respectively. In the Williamsburg and Newport News/Hampton submarkets, the number of rooms were down 3.9% and 2.6% respectively.
The number of rooms sold in Virginia was 1.7% lower, compared with the same period in 2019, but the average daily rate for hotel rooms sold through October was at $131, a 14.5% increase compared with 2019.
That’s due to the federal per diem reimbursement rate in Virginia increasing on Oct. 1, says Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association. The per diem, which increases every year, went up $9 this year, from $98 to $107, which Terry says is significant. From fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2023, it increased $2.
“That increase for us in Virginia is a huge impact because of the amount of per diem business we have,” he said.
Fiege will begin his new role on Jan. 2, 2024. Van Wilson has led Brightpoint as interim president since February 2023, after former President Ted Raspiller stepped down from the role to take a job with Virginia529.
Fiege is currently Brightpoint’s vice president of learning and student success at Brightpoint, the college’s chief academic officer, a position he has held since 2012. Before that, he was at Germanna Community College, where he was dean of professional and technical studies. He has also worked for Longwood University, his alma mater, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. Fiege also has a master’s in speech communication from Bloomsburg University and a doctorate in community college leadership from Old Dominion University.
“I’m excited about Bill’s appointment,” David Doré, chancellor of VCCS, said in a statement. “I am confident he will build on the college’s outstanding history of serving its communities and its diverse student populations and will lead Brightpoint into a new era as Virginia’s Community Colleges embark on a systemwide transformation to serve more learners in new ways. Our monthslong search yielded exceptional candidates and we are grateful to all of the talented educators who expressed interest in the Brightpoint presidency.”
Brightpoint attracted 74 candidates in its national search for a new president.
“The Brightpoint Community College Board is elated with the selection of Bill Fiege as the institution’s eighth president,” Kenneth Pritchett, chair of Brightpoint Community College’s Local Advisory Board, said in a statement. “I would like to thank our college board members for their time and energy throughout the rigorous selection process. We truly believe that Dr. Fiege will move our college forward. Under his leadership, Brightpoint will continue to be a place that changes lives, focuses on student success and supports the needs of its communities.”
Brightpoint serves Amelia, Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Prince George, Surry and Sussex counties as well as Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg. It has campuses in Chester and Midlothian.
“After serving Brightpoint as the chief academic officer for the last 11 ½ years, I am honored and humbled to have been selected from an outstanding pool of candidates to lead the college as its next president,” Fiege said in a statement. “Already embedded in the community, I fully comprehend the positive impact of Brightpoint and our workforce arm, the Community College Workforce Alliance, within our region. I appreciate the confidence bestowed upon me by Chancellor Doré and look forward to working with him and Brightpoint’s boards, faculty, staff, students and partners to continue the college’s positive momentum. We are and will continue to be trailblazers for the great communities we serve.”
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney declared his candidacy for governor Monday, setting up an early contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who announced her own run for the Democratic nomination last month. The general election will take place in November 2025.
If elected, he would be Virginia’s second Black governor, more than 30 years after the historic election of Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.
Stoney, who was elected to his first term as mayor in 2016 and re-elected in 2020, filed his paperwork last week for the Democratic gubernatorial race and had spoken about his plans to run earlier in November. In his announcement released Monday morning, Stoney tells his life story. Raised in York County by his father and grandmother in a “working poor family,” Stoney says he was the first member of his family to graduate from high school and then graduated from James Madison University, where he received a degree in public administration and political science.
He served as Virginia’s first Black secretary of the commonwealth under Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who prioritized restoring voting rights to Virginians convicted of felonies. Stoney said in his announcement that he helped restore the right to vote to nearly 200,000 people during his time in McAuliffe’s administration, which ended in 2018. Stoney resigned as secretary after launching his campaign to become Richmond‘s mayor in 2016, and became the city’s youngest elected mayor at age 35.
Stoney’s tenure as mayor has been mixed, as major economic development projects he supported failed — the $1.5 billion Navy Hill development, proposed to replace the now-shuttered Richmond Coliseum, was spiked by Richmond City Council in early 2020 after strong community opposition, and a $562 million casino referendum was defeated a second time by Richmond voters last month.
Despite the faltering of those projects, Stoney’s administration has moved forward with the Diamond District, a $2.44 billion project to replace the city’s baseball stadium, home to the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels team, as well as add two hotels, 3,000 residential units, 935,000 square feet of office space, and 195,000 square feet of retail and community space. The new stadium is expected to open in spring 2026, a year after a deadline set by Major League Baseball for all Minor League facilities to meet new standards.
Meanwhile, the city’s Economic Development Authority and the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority have selected four development teams that will compete to redesign the 9.4-acre downtown site that includes the Coliseum, although the city declared a concert venue will not be built there.
In 2020, Stoney received praise from some quarters for removing Richmond’s Confederate statues on Monument Avenue, following large racial justice protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis. That summer, Richmond was the site of daily protests, including one in which police tear-gassed a crowd of protesters at the former Robert E. Lee monument.
Stoney, who spoke against police brutality in the days following Floyd’s murder while also standing with Richmond’s police, faced local anger after the tear-gassing incident, which ultimately ended in a civil rights lawsuit against city police. In 2022, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
The mayor’s announcement for governor highlights the building of new city schools, creating a budget surplus and reducing the poverty rate by 22% during his tenure. In March, Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building reported that the overall poverty rate in the city was 19.8%, and according to the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey, about 21% of children in Richmond and 21.4% of Latinos were living below the poverty line in 2021, about half the number recorded in 2012.
In addition to serving as mayor and secretary of the commonwealth, Stoney was president of the Democratic Mayors Alliance and served as executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia. In 2022, he married Brandy Washington, a manager of Altria Group, and in Monday’s announcement, Stoney says they are expecting their first child, a girl, this spring.
Although Spanberger and Stoney are the only two gubernatorial candidates who have officially launched campaigns for 2025, on the Republican side, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares are likely candidates. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is barred from seeking consecutive terms under Virginia law. Spanberger has received significant endorsements since declaring, including from former Gov. Ralph Northam and former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, a member of the state’s more progressive Democratic wing.
The five-story, 150,000-square-foot building is part of the $210 million, 42-acre first phase of the county’s Springline at District 60 development, located on Midlothian Turnpike off Chippenham Parkway. Chesterfield Countycleared the way for development in March by starting demolition on the former Best Products building in what was the Spring Rock Green shopping center.
“The topping off of the building marks an important milestone for the project,” Timmons President and CEO Brian Bortell said in a statement. “Hourigan [Group] is making extremely good progress with construction, and we are excited that very soon our employees will be in a new office building located in District 60.”
Construction on the Timmons office building started in August and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024. The new headquarters is about a mile away from the company’s current office. The building will house about 400 Timmons employees and is fully leased. It will also house the administrative offices of the Chesterfield County Public Schools and the county’s Department of Economic Development.
“Having the Timmons Group‘s office building at the Springline development keeps their corporate headquarters in Chesterfield and allows them to grow their talented workforce,” Mark Miller, the Midlothian District representative for the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement. “People are telling us they want high-quality places to live, work and play in Chesterfield, and Springline will deliver on that vision.”
Chesterfield previously marked a milestone in the Springline project with the groundbreaking of The James at Springline, an $80 million apartment building with ground-floor retail space, in late September.
The first phase of Springline at District 60 also will have a 150,000-square-foot office building, a sports entertainment and tournament venue, a specialty grocery store and a parking garage. The center of the site will be an open space that can host concerts, markets, festivals or other similar events.
The Chesterfield Economic Development Authority bought the land from Bond Cos. in 2021 for $16 million, and the county supervisors approved the development plan in April 2022. At the time of rezoning in 2022, the initial development cost estimate for the overall project was $675 million, according to a project spokesperson.
Remaining phases are still in planning stages. As of March, the county expected to have 1,200 residential units total, split between apartments and townhouses, and plans to add another office building, an extended-stay hotel, entertainment venues and a police station.
Samia Byrd has been named to lead Arlington County‘s Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development beginning Jan. 3, 2024, the county announced Wednesday.
Byrd’s responsibilities will include leading the next generation of land use regulations, plans, development policies and practices, housing, and community and neighborhood planning programs. She succeeds Claude Williamson, who is retiring at the end of the year after a 26-year career with the county department, including serving as its director since 2017.
“Samia is an incredible leader with decades of experience in planning and housing,” County Manager Mark Schwartz said in a statement. “She will bring her depth of knowledge and insights around equity to ensure it is fully integrated into our housing and community development initiatives. Samia also has a keen understanding of the challenges we face in our office market and will work closely with ArlingtonEconomic Development, the county [Board of Supervisors] and the community on addressing the need for commercial market resiliency.”
Byrd has served as the county’s first chief race and equity officer since 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile. She joined the county in 2007 and has served as a principal planner and planning coordinator within CPHD and as a deputy county manager providing guidance toward Arlington’s goals and actions relevant to land use, planning and development.
“My passion for housing affordability, neighborhood revitalization, the social aspects of planning and the intersection of place, race and equity, as well as my long-term commitment and dedication to Arlington County government and the community, converge in this new role as director of Community Planning, Housing and Development,” Byrd said in a statement. “I have a unique opportunity to bring vision and leadership in all of these areas, building on the deep roots and strong foundation in place today. The strength of our planning over several decades has brought us to this point. With an opportunity now to directly focus on advancing equity in housing, land use and development that centers people in place, I look forward to guiding the future Arlington to becoming a high opportunity community where all people can advance and thrive.”
Byrd earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from Georgia Tech in city planning. Prior to joining the county, she worked for Quadel Consulting & Training, a firm specializing in affordable housing management, and served as director of state fiscal analysis and policy for the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (now the National Council of Nonprofits). She has also worked as a research associate with the Urban Land Institute and at Aspen Systems.
Byrd also has certificates in management and serves on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Chief Equity Officers Committee and the Urban Land Institute Washington’s board and is part of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity’s housing land development network.
Virginians wagered $571 million on sports in October, up 8.2% from a year ago, according to data released Friday by the Virginia Lottery.
About $565.5 million in sports betting revenue came from mobile operators, and the rest, roughly $5.7 million, came from casino retail activity. Virginia’s current casinos are the temporary Bristol Casino: The Future Home of Hard Rock, the permanent Rivers Casino Portsmouth and the temporary Caesars Virginia casino in Danville. Virginia casino gaming revenues in October totaled $49.6 million, according to the Virginia Lottery.
October’s sports betting revenues were a 9.8% increase from September’s handle, which totaled about $520 million. Virginia sports bettors won about $507 million in October and approximately $466 million in September.
The licensed operators included in October’s reporting were:
Betfair Interactive US (FanDuel) in partnership with the Washington Commanders,
Virginia places a 15% tax on sports betting activity based on each permit holder’s adjusted gross revenue. With nine operators reporting net positive adjusted gross revenue for October, the monthly taxes totaled $8.55 million, 97.5% of which will be deposited in the state’s general fund. The remainder, about $213,750, will go to the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund, which the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services administers.
Arlington-based defense giant RTX‘s Pratt & Whitney aerospace division in Connecticut will provide sustainment and other support services for propulsion systems on the F-35 fighter jet under a $701 million modification to a Navy contract.
Pratt & Whitney will provide program management, propulsion integration, engineering, management services, software sustainment, security management and spare parts for the program, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The contract also calls for continued work, including data updates, training and depot level maintenance and repair on F-35 propulsion systems at production sites and operational locations across the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as for foreign military customers. Work is expected to be completed in May 2024.
The F-35 is the military’s next generation fighter and includes three variations. The F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing variant for the Air Force; the F-35B is the Marine Corps’ short takeoff/vertical landing variant, and the F-35C is the Navy’s aircraft carrier variant. The single-engine stealth fighter will replace the Air Force’s A-10 and F-16, the Navy’s F/A-18 and the Marines’ AV-8B Harrier jets, as well as the service’s F/A-18s.
With Dr. Robert Trestman, Carilion’s mental health chair, Sprinkel will lead the mental health team, which has a new location at Tanglewood Center in Roanoke County. She has served as interim vice president since May 1.
For the past 17 years, Sprinkel has led the Home Health and Hospice department. She has held a variety of clinical and leadership positions as well. She also served on the Governor‘s Task Force on Long Term Care.
Sprinkel graduated from Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s School of Professional Nursing and earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Mary Baldwin University. She also has a master’s degree in nursing administration from the Jefferson College of Health Sciences.
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