The top five most-read daily news stories on VirginiaBusiness.com from Dec. 15, 2023, to Jan. 15 were led by the announcement that Fortune 500 IT company DXC Technology replaced its top executive.
Interim DXC CEO Raul Fernandez. photo courtesy DXC Technology
Petty, Livingston, Dawson & Richards in Lynchburg and Southern Virginia Legal (SoVa Legal) in Danville merged to become PLDR Law, beginning Jan. 1. (Dec. 27, 2023)
Chesterfield County-based Virginia Credit Union and Roanoke-based Member One Federal Credit Union announced plans to merge and create the state’s third largest credit union. (Jan. 11)
The HeadWaters Resort & Casino’s developer has submitted new plans to the City of Norfolk, aiming to start construction in spring 2024. (Dec. 19, 2023)
HeadWaters Resort & Casino, which is planned for Norfolk, has to meet a deadline of November 2025 to open. Rendering courtesy HeadWaters Resort & Casino;
Despite boasting a world-class port, a highly skilled workforce and easily accessible transportation infrastructures, Hampton Roads perennially comes away empty-handed in attracting large-scale industrial developments.
Chalk it up to the region’s lack of shovel-ready sites, a situation that state and local economic development and political leaders are fervently working to change. Last year, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Business Ready Sites Program awarded $90 million in matching grants to 21 sites statewide with at least 100 contiguous, developable acres (or at least 50 acres in western Virginia). Three Hampton Roads sites made the list: Chesapeake’s Coastal Virginia Commerce Park, Fairwinds Landing in Norfolk and Hazelwood Farms in James City County.
VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi acknowledges that the state has only recently begun to significantly invest in site development, in contrast with other Southeastern states that have sunk billions into producing shovel-ready sites. In its 2022-24 budget, the state allocated $159 million to the Ready Sites Program, up from $5.5 million in 2021 — itself a bump up from about $1 million previously allocated annually by the state. In 2023, the General Assembly added an additional $200 million to the biennial state budget for the program, and in the 2024-26 budget, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed $150 million in fiscal 2025 and $50 million in 2026.
With so little funding allocated for industrial site development in previous years, Virginia lost out on more than 55,000 direct jobs, 110,000-plus estimated indirect jobs and more than $124 billion in capital investment since 2016, El Koubi says. There are fewer than 10 sites larger than 250 acres ready for development across the state — and Virginia has won only one industrial megaproject in recent years: the $1 billion Lego Group toy factory, currently under construction in Chesterfield County.
Several Hampton Roads localities have teamed up to form the Eastern Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority, pooling resources into regional site development projects. It’s overseen by the Hampton Roads Alliance, led by President and CEO Doug Smith. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Despite more site preparation funding under Youngkin’s administration, Hampton Roads still has challenges, with fewer available land tracts for development compared with other regions. But, with some tweaks, El Koubi believes, the region can become a competitor in the industrial sweepstakes.
“There are multiple exciting site development opportunities in Hampton Roads. It’s a place where you find virtually every strength a location needs,” he says. “But because Hampton Roads has a very diverse economy with a long history and a lot of development already, most sites that are easy to be developed have already been developed, so we want to make sure we’ve very strategic about where we invest. It’s important that the region work together to invest and strategize to maximize opportunities in a way that everybody wins.”
Pooling resources
Building a successful industrial strategy is where the Eastern Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority (EVRIFA) comes into play. As the only entity of its type in the eastern part of the state and one of 11 in Virginia, the authority is a mechanism for multiple localities to pool regional resources into site development opportunities that benefit all of Hampton Roads.
Currently, the counties of Gloucester, James City, York and Isle of Wight and the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, Franklin and Chesapeake are members of EVRIFA, with Virginia Beach City Council voting in November 2023 to join the group in January.
Member localities invest in project sites, sharing costs and tax revenues. Municipalities with populations of less than 50,000 pay $2,000 per year for EVRIFA membership, while those with more than 50,000 residents join for $4,000 annually. Each locality has two primary and two alternate members represented on the authority’s board.
“Some communities are land-rich and cash-poor,” notes Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance. The region’s economic development arm, the alliance has managed EVRIFA since fall 2022. “Some have revenues but don’t have developable land. They can now team up.”
Localities are not obligated to fund site projects, with members deciding to join or pass on each proposed venture, Smith adds. “Each project is a distinct opportunity, and participation in revenues is based on the share of investment each community puts in.”
City and county officials on the Peninsula proposed establishing the authority back in 2018, with the idea that Southern Virginia localities could join later. “We’ve had conversations to get all of them in the authority,” Smith says. “We’re hopeful that all of them will by June 2024.”
Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg and York and Isle of Wight counties are backing EVRIFA’s first project, Kings Creek Commerce Center in York County. The authority acquired the 432-acre parcel in 2022 from the state for $1.35 million, ultimately leasing it to Dominion Energy for a solar energy farm and is marketing the remaining 109 acres for light industrial development. “We’re showing the site to prospects and expect to see some results in the next year,” says Hampton Roads Alliance Chief Operating Officer Steve Harrison. “It’s been very well-received.”
Along with shovel-ready properties, developers want a skilled workforce, good transportation infrastructure, adequate energy supply and access to the port. “Ultimately, decisions are made on how quickly they can get a facility up and running,” Harrison adds. “That’s a driving factor. If they can’t get a site up and running quickly, they will go to a community where they can.”
Typically, sites in the region can become shovel-ready in six to 12 months. From there, the facility would open within 18 to 24 months of the contract being signed. Those time spans are significantly shorter than they were a decade ago, yet another consequence of the pandemic. “COVID impacted supply chains,” notes Smith. “You see a lot of reshoring, and folks need to move quickly to get businesses open and products moving.”
New and emerging industries such as battery storage, chip manufacturing and electric vehicle projects have bypassed Hampton Roads and Virginia for more competitive areas. “Without preparing sites and developing EVRIFA into a robust organization, we’re not going to be able to land those projects — period,” Smith says. “Everything is a cost of getting into the game.”
Hampton Roads leaders are eager for the region to become a player in the industrial site sweepstakes. Smith says whenever a large economic development project is announced in another state, he can expect a telephone call from a local political or business leader asking why Hampton Roads didn’t get the project. And “the answer,” he says, “is always that we didn’t have 1,500 or 500 acres prepared to meet their development criteria.”
Smith anticipates fewer of those calls in the future as the region and the state invest more funding into developing large sites. “Now, they’ll be calling wanting to come to the ribbon cutting.”
Moving forward
A ribbon cutting could soon take place at Hampton Roads’ lone industrial megasite, the Coastal Virginia Commerce Park in Chesapeake. Situated near the North Carolina border, the park has been touted as a good fit for computer and electrical products manufacturing, semiconductor microchip manufacturing or general advanced manufacturing. The City of Chesapeake and VEDP have received multiple applications, and Deputy City Manager Brian Solis anticipates a contract could be signed by mid-2024, although he declined to give further details. Industries interested in the park include companies involved in advanced manufacturing, sustainable energy and emerging sectors such as energy storage and battery manufacturing. Tracts will be a minimum of 250 acres.
“We’re preparing the site to get it to shovel-ready with all utilities in place,” Solis says. “It has substantial large tracts ready to be built on. The entire site was farmed with a sophisticated drainage infrastructure. It’s ready to go from a development standpoint.”
The city received a $750,000 grant in 2023 from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program for surveying and environmental assessment work on the 1,420-acre site, which was rezoned from farmland to industrial in 2022. The Chesapeake Economic Development Authority entered a contract in 2022 to purchase the land for $37 million from Virginia Beach farmer Frank T. Williams and has an option to buy 2,600 adjacent acres for $54 million. The sale will be finalized once site studies are completed.
According to Solis, market analyses of comparable megasites along the East Coast give the Coastal Virginia Commerce Park high marks for its proximity to the Port of Virginia and the region’s skilled workforce, as well as the convergence of four interstates in Chesapeake, allowing for multiple shipping and transportation options. “Chesapeake is unique in Hampton Roads because it is in the central part of the region from a transportation standpoint and is a direct 15-minute drive to the port.”
Although Chesapeake has struggled with the tension between preserving rural, agricultural land and developing industrial centers, Solis says, the megasite has been relatively well-received as a future employment center. “We’re very conscious of industry’s proximity to residential areas and put it in the furthest proximity to our population as possible,” he says. “It’s a positive difference-maker in that you always look for opportunities to provide more employment opportunities to our Hampton Roads residents.”
Industrial tenants also alleviate the tax burden on residents, Solis adds. “We want to have a healthy balance of nonresidential and residential tax base. For every tax dollar the business pays, that helps contribute to the quality of life for our residents.”
Neighboring Suffolk, the state’s largest city in land area, is promoting 6 million square feet of industrial development on more than 500 acres at the Port 460 Logistics Center. Maryland developer Matan is working with Rockefeller Group to construct the 10-building warehouse project which is zoned for heavy industrial, logistics, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and warehouse uses. The initial phase encompassing five buildings with about 2.4 million square feet is expected to be under construction in the summer of 2024.
“Things are going full steam ahead,” says Suffolk Economic Development Director Nic Langford. “With any development, we’re open to all possibilities as long as it makes sense for our investments. This will be a very big addition and nice new industrial development for the city.”
Langford says Port 460 would be a good fit for a large manufacturer such as Mercedes-Benz or Volvo. “We would love to get big manufacturers here,” he adds. “We chase those projects all the time. It seems they don’t land in Hampton Roads.”
Along with available land, Langford believes a lack of housing curbs large manufacturers’ interest in the region. “To attract large manufacturers, you need all range of housing. Suffolk is one of the few municipalities that’s building new housing.”
The city is revisiting its 2045 comprehensive development plan as it determines how to meet demand for all types of growth. “Suffolk has quite a bit of land,” Langford notes. “We’re next on the agenda in Hampton Roads for development, but we have to strike a balance between the pressures of the private market and smart growth. We have an obligation to our taxpayers to ensure we don’t expand too rapidly.”
Suffolk has not joined EVRIFA, but Langford says city officials have been talking to authority leaders to determine future participation. “There’s some value in municipal and economic development authorities purchasing land. When they do that, the ultimate decision-maker is the city or the economic development authority, and they can be more picky about who comes in and what happens.”
Smith says the authority is “in conversations” with the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth and other localities, and he is hopeful all Hampton Roads municipalities will become members in 2024.
Benefits of cooperation
Joining the regional authority positions Virginia Beach to be a leader in regionalism, long cited by Hampton Roads business leaders as a necessity for economic advancement, says Chuck Rigney, the city’s interim director of economic development. “EVRIFA allows the region to make a better case to land large, significant projects and moves the needle to position Hampton Roads as a leading metro area.”
Virginia Beach’s lack of large tracts suitable for industrial development strengthens its rationale for joining EVRIFA, Rigney adds. “Virginia Beach has matured to the point of looking at strategic redevelopment and realignment of existing assets to be sure they are for the highest and best use. By supporting this partnership, we hope to grow the wealth of Hampton Roads.”
However, lack of suitable acreage will continue to prevent the region from securing large-scale industrial investments, says commercial real estate broker Lang Williams, an executive vice president with Colliers International Virginia. “So much of our land has been developed for other uses or is wetlands and not suitable for development.”
However, Williams notes that companies are investing in Hampton Roads, just not on as grand a scale compared to areas like Savannah, Georgia. He points to logistics service provider Katoen Natie’s November 2023 announcement that it will invest $59.9 million to expand its Norfolk facility with a 450,000-square-foot warehouse and rail yard, adding an expected 76 jobs. “We have a diverse set of smaller projects in the tens of millions of dollars as opposed to billions of dollars, but they are a strong indication of companies tracking to the region.”
Hampton Roads also can expect to benefit from Lego’s impending Chesterfield County facility, which is expected to open for production in 2025, adding 1,760 jobs over a decade. “Suppliers will look down here for warehousing in other space,” Williams says. “Lego was a huge win for Virginia.”
It’s a win that VEDP’s El Koubi believes can be replicated. “Virginia is steadily closing the gap with other states in site development,” he says. “We’ll see the impact accelerate over the next couple of years and see Virginia have one of the top site development programs in the nation.”
Hampton Roads at a glance
Virginia’s second most populous region, Hampton Roads is comprised of 17 localities, including the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Williamsburg, Franklin and Poquoson, and the counties of Gloucester, James City, Isle of Wight, Mathews, Southampton and York.
Chrysler Museum of Art Photo courtesy Chrysler Museum of Art
Bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads is home to the Port of Virginia and the largest naval complex in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, as well as Naval Air Station Oceana. Colleges and universities in the region include William &
Mary, Hampton University, Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Virginia Wesleyan University and Regent University.
Population
1.79 million (2020)
Top employers
Huntington Ingalls Industries (Newport News)
Smithfield Foods (Isle of Wight)
Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center (Portsmouth)
Science Applications International Corp. (Suffolk)
Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (Norfolk)
Major attractions
Hampton Roads offers an abundance of natural, historic and cultural attractions, including the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestowne, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, Chrysler Museum of Art, Busch Gardens, Ocean Breeze Waterpark, the Virginia Air & Space Center and Nauticus.
A sampling of hotels
The Cavalier Resort (including Embassy Suites by Hilton, The Historic Cavalier Hotel and Marriott Resort Virginia Beach Oceanfront)
547 guest rooms,
70,875 square feet
of event space
Hilton Norfolk The Main
300 guest rooms,
71,500 square feet
of event space
Embassy Suites by Hilton Hampton Convention Center
295 guest rooms,
161,974 square feet
of event space (including
connected convention center)
1. Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey (L) received the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Elizabeth and David Scull Metropolitan Public Service Award on Dec. 13, 2023, presented by D.C. Council member Robert C. White Jr. and COG Executive Director Clark Mercer (R). Photo courtesy COG.2. Dr. Joseph Moskal, Carilion Clinic’s chair of orthopaedic surgery and a senior vice president, spoke at the Jan. 10 opening of four additional operating rooms at Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital. Photo courtesy Carilion Clinic.3. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin addressed attendees of the 2024 Financial Forecast event co-hosted in Richmond on Jan. 11 by the Virginia Bankers Association and Virginia Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Caroline Martin Bookbinder, courtesy VBA.4. L to R: Hampton Roads Workforce Council President and CEO Shawn Avery, Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones, Gold Key|PHR CEO Bruce Thompson, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Jo-Kell owner and CEO Suzy Kelly, then-state Sen. Tommy Norment and Hampton Roads Chamber President and CEO Bryan K. Stephens attended the Nov. 29, 2023, Bravo! A Celebration of Leadership event, where Avery, Jones, Thompson, Kelly and Norment received regional leadership awards. Photo courtesy HR Chamber.5. L to R: Ashley Chittum, a business relationship specialist with Farm Credit of the Virginias; Sharon Ratzsch with Verona Community Food Pantry; VCFP President Cecil Wright; VCFP Executive Director Ike Moore; Valerie Moore, a FCV loan officer; and Susanne Mahmoodian, FCV business service specialist, hold a check representing FCV’s $830 donation to the food pantry on Dec. 11, 2023. Photo courtesy FCV.
Working as a mortgage lender in Roanoke for the past 18 years, Jason Bialek experienced everything from the financial crash of 2008 to the historic spike in home sales during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following that bonanza in 2020, though, Bialek and others in the residentialreal estate industry will probably look back at this period as one of the most challenging times in their careers. Mortgage rates zoomed 5 percentage points over the past three years, and that’s combined with historic low housing inventory in Virginia, which has hurt real estate agents, lenders and current and prospective homeowners.
Bialek survived two significant rounds of layoffs in August 2023 at his company, Guaranteed Rate, the sixth-largest nonbank mortgage lender in the nation. Although he kept his job as a branch manager and vice president of mortgage lending, which he’s held since 2017, thousands of other employees were terminated. (The company declined to disclose an exact figure.)
The layoffs came after an influx of hiring at Guaranteed Rate during 2020 and 2021, right as the housing market peaked with the most home sales since 2006. In response, the company “probably” overstaffed, John Palmiotto, who resigned as the company’s chief of retail production, told the Chicago Tribune last summer. Palmiotto estimated the company’s layoffs were in the thousands nationally.
In Virginia, the lending industry lost about 12% of its loan officers in 2023, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and anecdotally, real estate professionals say they’re seeing many colleagues leave the industry following the Federal Reserve’s multiple interest rate hikes to address inflation, which significantly impacted mortgage rates. The central bank is expected to cut rates several times in 2024, from 5.25% to 5.5% to a possible low of 3.75% to 4%.
That will help borrowers, but rates are just part of the picture. Real estate agents and homebuilders are also preparing for major shifts in their industries’ landscapes, as the number of Realtors is already shrinking in Virginia, a reversal of the field’s growth in 2020 and 2021.
‘Eat what you kill’
A December 2023 report from Virginia Realtors observed a 9.5% year-over-year decrease in home sales across the state in November 2023 — the smallest year-over-year decline in statewide sales activity in about two years. “Some markets could finally be approaching the bottom of what has been a slow 2023,” the report stated, noting that active house listings also appeared to have reached a bottom.
Virginia Realtors President Tom Campbell said he expected to see some improvement in the tightness of the market. At 7.79% in October 2023, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was the highest it’s been since 2000, after hitting its lowest point ever — 2.65% — in January 2021.
With fewer people putting their homes on the market during this period of high rates and expensive house prices, real estate agents are leaving the industry after swarming to it starting in 2020.
From 2019 to 2021, 2,626 new Realtors in Virginia registered with Realtor associations, marking a nearly 6% increase across three years, according to the National Association of Realtors. During the past two years, however, more than 1,600 Realtors have left the association, bringing down the total number of registered Virginia Realtors from a peak of 36,445 in 2021 to 34,822 in October 2023.
“I think most Realtor associations across the state are budgeting for a modest loss in membership,” says Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors.
One of the primary reasons, she says, are the “golden handcuffs” keeping homeowners from selling because they purchased their house with a much lower mortgage rate than the current one. More than 60% of homeowners with a mortgage have a rate that’s lower than 4%, and 82% have a rate under 5%, according to Redfin data.
Increased rates heavily impact buying power, with every percentage point increase adding about $35,000 to the cost of a house, says Ryan McLaughlin, CEO of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. For those trying to sell homes and mortgages, that’s a major disincentive for their customers.
“It pushes so many people out of the market when the rates are 7.5% versus 5.5%,” Bialek says. “I mean, you’re talking millions of people that are pushed out of qualifying when the rates change like that.”
At the end of 2023, the national 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.45%, a slight decline from last autumn, but still high for many buyers — especially prospective first-time homeowners.
Home sales in Virginia had fallen 12% year-over-year as of October 2023. While lenders are facing a 75% decline in mortgage activity compared with 2021, according to Fannie Mae, Realtors rely on sales commissions for their income, so dropping home sales could reflect a significant drop in revenue.
Lafayette says about a quarter of those who left the Realtor profession at the end of 2022 had fewer than five years of experience, according to data her association has collected.
“I think our larger firms are designed to weather these storms,” she says, adding that she wouldn’t be surprised to see those firms shrink their footprints in response to the downturn. “It tends to be an ‘eat what you kill’ profession, so you’ve got to have some cash reserves.”
Although it hasn’t manifested yet as a major factor in Virginia, a $1.8 billion federal jury verdict in October 2023 against the National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages — holding that they artificially inflated commissions to real estate agents — could alter the national residential real estate landscape, some experts have noted. In addition to the damages awarded, which could rise as high as $5 billion, home sellers would no longer need to pay their buyers’ real estate agents. Although the NAR plans to appeal the verdict, there are similar lawsuits currently wending through other courts, and investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods estimated in a November 2023 New York Times report that commissions could decline as much as 30% annually.
For Brad Thomas, a Realtor at Vinton-based Mountain View Real Estate who’s been in the business since 2008, the changing headwinds of the market have meant leaning more on commercial sales and his house-flipping business to make up for the downturn in residential sales.
“It definitely is hurting certain people in the short term, but that’s the natural progression of the real estate market,” says Thomas. “Everything goes in cycles.”
To Thomas, these cycles are necessary to keep a healthy market, which he believes was not the case in 2020 and 2021 when consumers were buying houses well over asking prices and sometimes without an inspection.
Now, a house that was getting 10 or 11 offers two years ago is getting just one or two, he says. Yet despite less competition, home prices are still rising.
Inventory battle
Richmond-area builders are facing a tight inventory of buildable lots, says Danna Markland, CEO of the Home Building Association of Richmond. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
In addition to rate hikes affecting the national residential real estate market, Virginians particularly have been impacted by low housing stock, which is adding pressure to housing affordability and the amount of supply real estate professionals have to work with.
Nationwide, unsold inventory was at a 3.6-month supply in October, reflecting the estimated number of months it would take for the current homes on the market to sell. Virginia had a 2.2-month supply during the same period.
A six-month supply is associated with moderate home price increases, and anything below that is expected to push prices up rapidly, according to the NAR. In Richmond and Northern Virginia, two of the state’s tightest markets, inventory supply is as low as 1.5 months and 1.05 months respectively, according to reports from those regions’ Realtors associations.
NAR said in December 2023 that the Washington, D.C., region, including Arlington County and Alexandria, ranked No. 10 in its list of markets with the most pent-up housing demand.
And in Richmond, “we’ve had an inventory shortage for a very long time. You’ve got real estate professionals who have less pie on the table to share,” says Lafayette. “It’s created a very challenging environment to work in and a challenging environment for some people to make the income that they would have made just two years ago.”
Low inventory is one of the reasons home prices are still ticking up in Virginia despite decreasing demand, and professionals like Bialek and Lafayette say they’re not optimistic about prices going down.
“A lot of people think they should wait for home prices to come down [before buying],” Bialek says. “That’s not going to happen.”
The effort to replenish housing inventory is under threat as builders have “blown through” their supply of buildable land since 2020, when they were addressing the spike in demand during the early pandemic, says Danna Markland, CEO of the Home Building Association of Richmond.
Lot inventories in Virginia have declined from a 36-month supply in 2012 to a 12-month supply in 2022, according to the Virginia Housing Commission.
“If we don’t address our land inventory, all these builders will not have the land product to be able to deliver a home to the market,” Markland says. “We could see a very different Richmond-region builder dynamic in the next five years.”
Although there’s been a “flurry” of new homebuilding, that spike will likely not be sustained and is really just making up for lost time, Markland says. The rate of housing stock growth in Virginia has been under 2% since the 1960s, according to the VHC, and was less than 1% from 2010 to 2020.
Limited buildable land for new home construction is also compounded with increased in-migration to areas like Richmond, Markland says. In total, the Richmond region added 27,640 people between April 2020 and July 2022, with close to 13,000 new residents moving from Northern Virginia to Richmond in 2021 alone.
At certain points over the past three years, Richmond-area builders reported up to 50% of their sales went to buyers from outside the metropolitan area, Markland says, as white-collar employees working from home had more geographic flexibility.
“There should be a heavy emphasis on increasing housing supply,” says McLaughlin, adding this can be facilitated by easing zoning regulations for developers.
2024 outlook
Virginia Realtors Chief Economist Ryan Price wrote in the organization’s November 2023 report that active listings were down by 0.7% from the previous year, although new listings rose by 0.3%. The median home price statewide was $385,000, up 5.5% from November 2022 — but in Northern Virginia, the median price was $656,500 in November 2023, up 5.72% from the same month in 2022.
Price wrote that the small decline in active inventory — the lowest decrease in the past eight months — as well as increases in listed homes in Central Virginia and parts of Hampton Roads indicate that the inventory levels “could be stabilizing.”
But Markland isn’t as optimistic about the Richmond region. She says land supply constraints could impact the price of new home construction, since buying and prepping land makes up a significant portion of construction costs.
“Even though we see fading strength in sales performance, there’s no way for those average prices to come down when markets are at a premium,” Markland says. “Construction of the home only makes up about 60% to 70% of the cost of the property. That land factor can swing significantly in the price.”
While rate hikes and sales decreases have eased, real estate professionals in Virginia continue to face evolving challenges. In part because of the limited land supply in areas like Richmond, the state’s inventory problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.
“The industry is waving this distress signal. We have a crisis on our hands, and we’ve got to address it,” says Markland. “But it can’t just be industry coming to the table, because lots are approved by local government.”
The Retail Alliance and the Phoebus Partnership, a nonprofit organization bolstering area small businesses, won the $100,000 grant in October 2023 from the Department of Housing and Community Development to launch a pilot program designed to help businesses in the 86-acre Hampton community grow.
Phoebus is already part of a Main Street program helping small businesses succeed, so it made a good candidate for the pilot program, says Jenny Crittenden, president and CEO of The Retail Alliance. The goal is to create a scalable model that can be replicated in multiple communities across the state, serving as a resource for small businesses.
The grant will pay for consultants with expertise in merchandising, e-commerce and preservation of historic building facades to conduct deep dives into the five selected businesses’ physical stores, online presences and financial health.
At the end of January, organizers were scheduled to host an information session for interested retailers, and five winning businesses were expected to be selected in March.
Through October, owners of the five businesses will meet with The Retail Alliance and consultants and receive data and insights on their customers. At the end of the process, they will receive grants of $3,000 to $5,000 to make suggested changes.
The DHCD grant is part of the Virginia Business District Resurgence Grant program, which leverages federal American Rescue Plan funds allocated to address post-COVID recovery needs. In addition to assisting the five businesses, the grant will fund three regional business improvement workshops to be held in Hampton through the fall.
Crittenden, who has 16 years of experience working with independent downtown businesses, notes that local shop owners have differing ranges of experience and knowledge, and the grant program will take that into account as it helps them improve their processes.
“Each retailer brings a set of skills to the table, but then there are things that they could learn to do better,” she says. “And as customers, we see small businesses from the outside and enjoy the experience, but we don’t understand everything behind the scenes.”
Virginia Business Associate Editor Robyn Sidersky contributed to this story.
Alexandria venture capital firm Columbia Capital has indicated in regulatory filings that it has raised $977 million to keep investing in companies in the communications and technology fields. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 15, 2023, show the investment firm has reached its fundraising goal for two separate funds. The firm raised $654.7 million across a main fund and parallel fund for what it’s dubbed Columbia Capital Equity Partners VIII. Separate documents filed concurrently show that it pulled in $322.3 million for Columbia Capital Opportunities Fund I, also across a main fund and parallel fund. (Washington Business Journal)
Roanoke-based banking data analytics startup KlariVis closed an $11 million Series B funding round, the fintech firm announced Jan. 12. KlariVis provides data analytics solutions for community banks and credit unions. La Jolla, California-based technology-focused equity firm Blueprint Equity led the funding round. The $11 million will be used for advancing KlariVis’ engineering, product development, customer success, and sales and marketing. KlariVis has doubled its revenue and customer count year-over-year and has 100 clients, according to a news release. CEO Kim Snyder, former chief financial officer of Valley Bank, founded KlariVis in 2019, launching the company in early 2020. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
PaintJet, a robotics and material sciences startup, is moving from the Nashville, Tennessee, metro area to Virginia. On Dec. 20, 2023, it announced a $10 million Series A, led by Outsiders Fund and featuring Pathbreaker Ventures, MetaProp, Builders VC, 53 Stations and VSC Ventures. The round follows a
$3.5 million seed led by Dynamo Ventures and brings PaintJet’s to-date funding up to $14.75 million. The move to Virginia is “to support our entry in the marine business and increasing engineering headcount to scale our technology stack for wider distribution,” according to CEO and cofounder Nick Hegeman. (TechCrunch)
Arlington County-based software company PerformYard, founded a decade ago to make the employment performance management process easier for companies and managers alike, has scored its first major outside investment. On Jan. 8, Updata Partners announced it made a $95 million equity investment in PerformYard. Carter Griffin, a general partner with the D.C. growth equity firm, will join PerformYard’s board. PerformYard’s clients include Paytronix, Berkshire Grey and Mitsubishi Chemical America. (DC Inno)
Norfolk-based ReAlta Life Sciences has received Food and Drug Administration clearance for a Phase 2 trial of the company’s dual-targeting anti-inflammatory peptide in patients with Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (AECOPD). ReAlta is a biotech firm focused on treating life-threatening acute inflammatory and rare diseases through its proprietary therapeutic platform. ReAlta was originally formed in 2018 to develop and commercialize promising research work conducted under a joint venture between Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, Eriko Life Science Ventures and Eastern Virginia Medical School. (News release)
PEOPLE
Erica Cole, founder and CEO of Richmond-based adaptive apparel manufacturer No Limbits, was named to Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30
list in its December 2023/January 2024 issue. Cole, who appears in the list’s retail and e-commerce category, started her company, which specializes in clothing products for people with prosthetics and similar special needs, after losing a leg in a car accident. Her clothing is sold by Walmart, QVC and Moosejaw. No Limbits has raised $1.8 million and is planning a Series A funding round in 2024. (Forbes; VirginiaBusiness.com)
This February, during Black History Month, Virginia Business is pleased to honor 17 distinguished leaders from across the commonwealth in our second annual Virginia Black Business LeadersAwards. This year’s cohort of honorees represent industries ranging from advertising, architecture, defense contracting, finance and health care to higher education and nonprofits.
Our editors chose this year’s winners from a pool of 60 nominated executives submitted by our readers and last year’s honorees. Nominees were scored on factors including overall career achievement, community impact and mentorship. Additionally, we have named Salamander Resorts CEO Sheila Johnson to our Virginia Black Business Leaders Hall of Fame, celebrating the first Black woman billionaire’s long, successful career and leadership in media, sports and hospitality. Check out her interview here.
With each of these 10 men and seven women, you’ll read about how they achieved success and what they’re doing to pass their wisdom on to younger generations. One common thread among our winning leaders is that they care a great deal about people — whether it’s employees, customers, family, students or mentees — and often put them ahead of the bottom line.
Acknowledging the history of their forebears, including family members who struggled amid the Jim Crow South and parents who immigrated to the United States, this group of executives is looking forward while remembering where they came from.
Abdullah set his sights on a career in education because of his mother, who was a psychologist and adjunct professor, and an aunt who was a teacher. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever to help people become the best version of themselves,” he says.
Since arriving at VSU in 2016, that could be Abdullah’s job description. He admits that given social media and technology, students today are different than in his day. The solution, he says, is to work harder to keep their attention.
A graduate of Howard University and Northwestern University, Abdullah is part of President Joe Biden’s HBCU advisory board and chairs the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities board. He says that having a good support system is key — including the “best wife in the world,” Ahkinyala Cobb-Abdullah, a dean at Virginia Union University.
Ashton
KENDRICK ASHTON
CO-FOUNDER AND CO-CEO, THE ST. JAMES GROUP, RESTON
Ashton is the first to tell you he loves to work, taking energy and satisfaction from what he does. “What appeals to me is the opportunity The St. James creates for people of all ages to increase their abilities and perform better, while creating a community that ranges from 3-year-olds to 90-year-olds.”
He and his friend and business partner, Craig Dixon, opened St. James’ namesake sports, wellness and entertainment complex in Springfield in 2018.
After earning a law degree and MBA at the University of Chicago, he was a founding member and managing director of Perella Weinberg Partners, a financial services firm. Ashton is also a board member of Canadian cannabinoid company The Cronos Group and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Bibbs
JIM BIBBS
CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER, LIFENET HEALTH, VIRGINIA BEACH
Bibbs has had a storied career in human resources, with more than 20 years of leadership experience at the Port of Virginia and North Carolina-based health care company Quintiles, now part of IQVIA. In 2020, he joined LifeNet, the 40-year-old not-for-profit organization that helps match patients with organ, tissue and cell transplants.
“I’m at a great point in my career, to work for an organization that does such great things for humanity,” Bibbs says. “The people we serve are going from one difficult moment to a better one, whether it’s receiving regenerative tissue or an organ transplant. It’s a very good feeling to be a part of something that’s bigger than me.”
Bibbs previously served as chair for the Urban League of Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Chamber.
Burton
DEBORAH BURTON
VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY BASED PROGRAMS, UMFS, NEWPORT NEWS
A former social worker who joined United Methodist Family Services of Virginia in 1995, Burton now oversees UMFS’ community-based programs serving children in foster care and families across the state.
A Norfolk State University alum, Burton knew she wanted to be in a helping field. She first did residential care, then moved to the state Department of Social Services, where she worked with children in foster care. At UMFS, she continues that work. “It’s an honor to be out in the community and be an advocate for those without voices.”
Burton, who loves being a mother, has come to two conclusions, the first being that her gifts and talents aren’t for her but to influence those coming up behind her. She’s also a strong advocate of self-care, taking time off to rest and recharge.
Dixon
CRAIG DIXON
CO-FOUNDER AND CO-CEO, THE ST. JAMES GROUP, RESTON
In the 2010s, Dixon and his business partner and friend, Kendrick Ashton (see entry, Page 22), identified an access problem for adults and children in the Washington, D.C., area who wanted to be active — facilities for different sports and activities were scattered all over the region. In 2018, they opened The St. James, a 450,000-square-foot sports, wellness and entertainment complex, in Springfield, later adding smaller, more streamlined versions in Reston and Bethesda, Maryland.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Dixon grew up in a family focused on entrepreneurship and education. Dixon earned bachelor’s and law degrees from William & Mary, where he and Ashton met as roommates. He’s also a member of Vivid Seats’ board of directors and was senior counsel for Smithfield Foods.
Dixon says he’s learned the importance of relationships in business and to keep going regardless of challenges.
Foster
MOSES FOSTER JR.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, WEST CARY GROUP, RICHMOND
In 2007, Foster founded West Cary Group, a marketing, communications and advertising agency, fulfilling a lifelong dream to run and grow a company. Under Foster’s direction, the firm serves big-name clients like New York Life, Richmond International Airport and Foster’s former employer, Capital One.
Foster also serves on the MCV Foundation’s board and is director emeritus for NextUp RVA, a nonprofit that recruits business leaders to mentor underserved Richmond Public Schools students. West Cary Group has won numerous awards for its creative work and has been recognized as a top workplace.
“One of my proudest moments was when an employee shared with me that she was buying her first house. This dream I had of running a company had matured to the point it allowed someone to buy a home,” Foster says.
Gandy has handled money her entire career, starting with her first job as a part-time bank teller as an undergrad at the University of North Carolina. Today, she’s an executive at Chevy Chase Trust, a top-ranked investment firm with over $35 billion in assets under management.
Gandy is also chairman of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the first Black woman to lead the organization’s board in its 100-year history.
“My parents came up in an era where career options for African Americans were limited, and my father, a teacher, said, ‘You now have opportunities not open to me.’ That’s one of the reasons banking appealed to me,” Gandy says. “I often hear, ‘There aren’t enough of us in the wealth management field.’ People think that you have to come from a wealthy family or have connections to be successful, and that’s not the case.”
Grinnage
KYM GRINNAGE
REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, GRAY TELEVISION; GENERAL MANAGER, WWBT NBC12, RICHMOND
Grinnage has been a news junkie since childhood, tuning into the nightly news with his grandmother. Today, as general manager of Richmond’s longtime NBC affiliate, he’s leading the people who report the news every day — although it was a sacrifice at first.
“I took a pay cut to come from New York and start all over in Richmond as a junior account executive, but getting hired at NBC12 33 years ago was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he says.
Also, Grinnage adds, “It’s been good for the community to see a Black man leading a major TV station. Not only is it aspirational for a lot of people, but people feel their voice can be heard and projected back into the community.”
Grinnage is chair-elect of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters and was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 2020.
Hines
LINDA HINES
VIRGINIA MEDICAID MARKET PRESIDENT, HUMANA, MIDLOTHIAN
Hines saw firsthand growing up in rural Virginia the challenges her community had accessing health care, and she made it her life’s purpose to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations in the commonwealth.
“People had to drive 50, 60 miles to get care. No one was there to help them navigate the health care system or show them how to lead a healthy life,” recalls Hines.
Having earned two nursing degrees and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Hines received VCU’s top nursing achievement award in 2022 in recognition of her 25-year career in managed care leadership. In October 2023, she joined Humana as the Virginia Medicaid regional president, after serving in a similar role for Sentara Health.
Hines is also a board member for the nonprofit Rx Partnership and the VCU School of Business Foundation.
Hussein
MOHAMED HUSSEIN
CEO, PGLS, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Growing up in Northern Virginia with parents who spoke Somali and Arabic, Hussein was exposed to multiple languages from birth. Six years studying Arabic in Saudi Arabia helped him further polish his linguistic skills. So, in 2013, when he was 24, Hussein started Piedmont Global Language Solutions (PGLS), offering translation, interpretation and language training services. By 2021, the company’s revenue grew to $30 million, and it now has 120 full-time employees and more than 10,000 contract workers.
PGLS wasn’t even Hussein’s first entrepreneurial endeavor, a fact he attributes to his love of building and taking chances. “Building is easy; scaling is harder,” he says. “Taking something from a handful of employees to a several hundred-person operation is the challenge.”
In addition to running PGLS, Hussein works with organizations to connect with youths and other entrepreneurs.
Isom
PAMELA ISOM
CEO AND FOUNDER, ISADVICE & CONSULTING, DUMFRIES
When President Joe Biden issued an executive order last October aimed at ensuring America’s leadership in harnessing the potential — and mitigating the risks — of artificial intelligence, Isom’s company was already there, guiding the safer use of ethical AI.
Founded in January 2023, IsAdvice & Consulting is the result of Isom’s decades in the private and public sector, including serving as executive director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office. “I saw opportunities to blend AI and cybersecurity to solve some challenges, especially around equity, opportunity and sustainability,” she says. “I’m passionate about equity.”
Among her influences, Isom cites Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and her mother, who taught her to embrace fear and move forward. Support and encouragement for her vision of entrepreneurship came from her husband and grown daughter.
Myers
J.D. MYERS II
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/EAST REGION MANAGER, COX COMMUNICATIONS, CHESAPEAKE
A military brat and Army veteran, Myers says that the communications industry is the hottest business to be in as the federal government extends broadband to last miles, so no one is left technologically behind. After joining Cox in 2006, he’s now in charge of the telecommunications and cable provider’s East Coast operations.
Myers traces his personal communication style to MLK and JFK, citing their “phenomenal ability to energize, galvanize and share a vision,” but when it comes to how he looks at the world, it’s his parents he thanks. He believes that the best leaders are also teachers.
“It’s not enough to have a seat at the table, you also have to know how to ‘eat’ — to bring value, to ensure your voice is heard and come prepared to make an impression to maintain your seat.”
Noel
TYRONE NOEL
HAMPTON ROADS MARKET PRESIDENT, BANK OF AMERICA; GREATER VIRGINIA MARKET EXECUTIVE, MERRILL LYNCH WEALTH MANAGEMENT, WILLIAMSBURG
In September 2023, Noel took over the Hampton Roads territory for Bank of America, combining the role with his work as Merrill Lynch’s market executive. He has been involved with financial services for more than 20 years.
“My first job in finance helped a lot of people get their first homes, then my pursuit as a financial adviser let me help them stay in their homes,” says Noel. “Leading a team of 106 advisers across the area, I love knowing that we are helping put their kids through college or pass their wealth to their children.”
Noel demonstrates a strong commitment to service both in and outside the workplace, serving as a mentor through the Merrill Women’s Exchange and Black professionals’ group, while engaging in nonprofit work throughout the state, including the Boys & Girls Clubs and various food banks.
Pinnock
BURT PINNOCK
PRINCIPAL AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, BASKERVILL, RICHMOND
Pinnock quips that he’s had an interesting career arc: first as an intern at Baskervill, then starting his own architecture firm, and finally returning as board chair at Baskervill, which was founded in 1897.
Pinnock is keenly aware that his firm wasn’t always on the right side of history, having built the former monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. “Selecting me as chairman of its board says a lot about who we are as a company and who we want to be, compared to where we started,” he says.
The Virginia Tech grad is also practice leader of the company’s civic and cultural division. Pinnock continues his commitment to the Storefront for Community Design, a Richmond nonprofit he founded to engage the next generation of designers.
Pollock-Berry
DEBBIE POLLOCK-BERRY
CHIEF PEOPLE AND CULTURE OFFICER, PLEZi NUTRITION, ASHBURN
Although she’s held her position for less than a year, Pollock-Berry is all-in with PLEZi Nutrition, and not just because former first lady Michelle Obama is a co-founder and strategic partner of the startup. It was the company’s mission focused on the health and well-being of children that attracted her.
Pollock-Berry credits her leadership style to her former boss at AOL, Dave Harmon, but insists it’s her co-workers and employees who most influence her now. Rather than treat people as she’d want to be treated — her mother’s advice — she prefers to take the time to get to know people to find out how they want to be treated “because everyone is different.”
Her own advice to employees is to work hard and play hard. “My goal is to be profitable and to create a culture where everyone wants to work because they believe in the mission.”
Purvis
SHAWN PURVIS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, QINETIQ US, McLEAN
A 27-year defense contracting industry veteran, Purvis has held leadership roles at Northrop Grumman, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Lockheed Martin. Now, she leads the U.S. operations of British aerospace company QinetiQ, a job she started in 2022.
Heading up what she considers a disruptor company, Purvis likes to create an organizational mindset that encourages employees “to see beauty in chaos,” and she values diversity and inclusivity over hierarchy.
“I love challenging the status quo, to learn from existing innovations and improve on them to solve hard problems for our customers,” says Purvis, who earned a master’s degree in information systems from George Mason University.
In 2022, she was honored with the distinguished alumni award by GMU’s College of Engineering and Computing. She is a former member of GMU’s board of visitors.
Swann
ALEXIS SWANN
PRESIDENT – PENINSULA AND WILLIAMSBURG, TOWNEBANK, NEWPORT NEWS
After a long and successful career at Wells Fargo, and years of being wooed, Swann joined TowneBank as president for the bank’s Williamsburg and Peninsula regional operations in 2019.
At TowneBank, Swann wears her “numbers and people hats” to help her team develop and grow, engage with the community for their banking needs and use her business acumen to grow the bank’s market share. “Ultimately, we help people to achieve their dreams by aligning their finances.”
Outside of work, the William & Mary MBA graduate volunteers with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula and Habitat for Humanity. She also advocates for financial literacy in various community settings.
An accomplished violinist and philanthropist, she started out as a music teacher, a job she held while she supported the growth of Black Entertainment Television, the network she co-founded and launched with her former husband, Robert “Bob” Johnson, in 1980 that turned her into a media mogul. Johnson became the first Black woman billionaire after BET was sold to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion.
After being fired from BET by her husband, whom she has publicly alleged was unfaithful and emotionally abusive, her marriage of three decades ended. Johnson retreated to Middleburg, a town about an hour outside Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County’s horse and wine country. That’s where she founded her flagship Salamander Middleburg Resort & Spa, the first in what she’s built into a portfolio of seven luxury properties stretching from Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Charleston, South Carolina, to Anguilla, Jamaica and Aspen, Colorado.
Johnson describes her journeys as a “walk through fire,” which is also the title of her memoir, “Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph,” published in September 2023 by Simon & Schuster.
Her father, a neurosurgeon, abandoned her family when she was a teen, and she took a job sweeping floors at a department store outside of Chicago to help support her mother, who had a breakdown over the split. Johnson also spent much of her marriage feeling abandoned by her husband, the public face of BET. In 1991, when BET was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and executives were to travel for the event, Bob Johnson told his wife not to come.
Those trials helped prepare Johnson for what might have been her biggest fight; establishing her resort in a conservative, largely white town where one business, a gun shop, still flew a Confederate flag. Johnson bought the shop, turning it into high end café and market. It took years for Johnson to convince the town to approve plans for her resort. Since its opening in 2013, the 168-room Salamander Middleburg Resort & Spa has raised the bar for the town. That year, Johnson also helped launch the Middleburg Film Festival, drawing stars like Brendan Fraser and Kenneth Branagh. The resort is also home to the annual Family Reunion, a multiday food and wine festival that highlights the work of Black professionals in hospitality.
Johnson also is the first Black woman to hold stakes in three professional sports franchises: the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. And she co-founded the venture capital consortium WE Capital to support women-led enterprises that advance transformational social change.
Salamander takes its name from Johnson’s farm outside town, which had once been owned by the late Bruce Sundlun, a former Rhode Island governor who was given the nickname “Salamander” by the French after his plane was shot down over Nazi territory during World War II and he made his way to France. According to legend, Johnson writes, the salamander is the only animal that can walk through fire and survive.
For Johnson, the moniker suits her just as well.
Virginia Business: You don’t hold back in your memoir. How did you approach writing it, and what has the response been?
Sheila Johnson: First of all, the response has been overwhelming. … I’ve been getting so much mail thanking me for being very transparent, very raw. … This has been something that I’ve been thinking about for about five years. So many people said, “It’s time for you to tell your story.” I’ve been through a lot with all three chapters in my life, from childhood to building a media company and then just trying to get the resort open here in Virginia. …Now that I’ve written it, and it’s out there, I feel like there’s just been a huge load taken off my shoulders. I’ve been able to really share my story to so many men and women to inspire and to give them courage, to really open up and reexamine themselves in their lives and see where they can find happiness.
VB:The Washington Post and other media outlets have written about you for years, but you’ve said this is a way for you to tell your version of your story. What’s the challenge in getting that out there?
SJ: It was just a case where I’ve been reading all of this and what I’ve been through where I literally had been erased, especially out of the second chapter of my life where I helped build a company. It was probably the most painful period of my life. … It was just a case where people needed to know what I was going through. They knew what was happening, but I wanted to share with so many people what I personally was going through and how I had to deal with so much of it. Because it was already published, it was out there in the open. I suffered a lot. … I was afraid to open the newspaper because there was going to be another story about infidelities and betrayal and just all sorts of things. It was really humiliating, and it was just a case where there were so many people and even former employees [who] said, “You’ve got to tell your side of the story.” They said, “We’ll be there with you when you do it.” … I realized, as I’m writing the book, I was going through a lot of post-traumatic stress in doing this. I think more than anything, I wanted people to understand that during the process and what I suffered through that second period of my life, I had to go through a lot of therapy. I’m not afraid to talk about it.
BET co-founder Johnson became the first Black woman billionaire in 2000; she also is the first Black woman to hold an ownership stake in three professional sports teams. Photos by Shannon Ayres
VB:You sold your beloved Landolfi violin, which your parents paid $15,000 for when you were a child, to help keep BET running in the early days. Did your mother forgive you for that? Have you replaced that violin?
SJ: I did replace it. It’s not the same violin because I couldn’t find the same one because they’re rare violins. I had to sell it because I really believed in the vision and the mission of starting this media company. What people don’t realize when you’re starting companies, there are a lot of sacrifices that have to be made. That’s what I had to tell and convince my mother. She wasn’t really sold on the ex-husband anyway, so this just made it worse, but it was a case where I had to pay the bills.
VB: You built a very successful music teaching career before and after BET was started. What lessons did you take from that to BET?
SJ: People reminded me that, from the very beginning, I had a sense of an entrepreneur. During the BET days, when I had to continue to work and teach, you just have to do what you have to do. There were a lot of lessons learned as I was doing that. … I had to keep a roof over our heads and pay the bills, but I also was able to understand how to build a business.
That even started way before BET because as a schoolteacher, I was not making enough money for us to exist. After two-and-a-half, three years at Sidwell Friends [private school in Washington, D.C.], I had built up enough students where I could start teaching privately. I started out going house to house teaching violin and cello. Once I was able to accumulate enough money, then I was able to buy our first house over in Southwest [D.C.], but I also had to take an acting job in order to get this money. … I was building a company then, building a business in order to keep a roof over our heads.
VB: How did your past prepare you to take on the fight in Middleburg to get your resort approved by the town? And what did you learn from that?
SJ: First of all, I was very naive in doing this. If I realized how hard it was going to be, I probably would have never done it, but I’m glad I persevered and moved forward. … One thing that I learned from all of this — even with starting BET, we didn’t know anything about the cable business, nothing. It was a case where we hired people that were already in television that knew what they were doing. The problem with BET was the lack of leadership.
There were several things that were done wrong that I learned from. When I went to this third act of building this resort, first of all, I did a feasibility study to make sure that I was putting this resort in the right place and at the right time. I needed to also do a study to make sure who was going to be my guest, because remember back then, Loudoun County wasn’t even built up. What you’re seeing now is a total transformation.
I didn’t know anything about the hotel business. I do now. I had to make sure that I found the best in the business. … [Salamander President] Prem Devadas had been through a similar situation that I was getting ready to go through, and I needed his help. He helped me build an incredible executive team, who are … still with us to this day. The executive team has grown to about 38 people now. We have over 3,000 employees. It was just a case of bringing in the right person. Hey, this is where you become vulnerable and humble. I didn’t know anything about it, but I wanted to hire people that were smarter than me and that really understood my vision and didn’t come in with their own agenda.
VB:You write about Salamander as a place of comfort and warmth and inclusivity. How do you describe your leadership style?
SJ:I’m a leader that knows how to communicate, and I communicate with my executives my vision. … I try to lead by example. I make sure that I give them enough bandwidth to do their job. … We all want to excel to build the best company possible, and we’re all on the same wavelength. I make sure that I’m always there for them. I have an open-door policy. They come in and talk with me. We speak every day. I have so much respect for my executive team.
VB:Did you anticipate having a portfolio of resorts when you started this?
SJ: I can be very honest with you, when I brought Prem Devadas on, and we started building a team, I only could focus on what I was doing here in Middleburg. That was my only place that I could think and build that up. … I had also bought Innisbrook [golf resort in Palm Harbor, Florida]. … We had accolades from that. That put two [properties] in our portfolio. Then from there, people were starting to watch. I’ve always wanted to build the company and make it larger.
You can’t attract good people if they can’t see growth. That’s … really important with my employees. They weren’t going to be happy with one or two resorts. At that point, because we were able to prove ourselves that we are a fabulous hotel company, that we could continue to grow, and we did. … With all of these hotels now in our portfolio, we want to continue to grow. We would like to get up to 10. … I want to make sure I don’t lose the quality and the thumbprint of what we’re trying to build. I want every guest, every hotel that Salamander has its name on, either ownership or management, that they know it’s us.
VB: What is your experience like when you are traveling?
SJ:I try to learn from all the other brands. I take away what’s the best and what I don’t like. … You try to stay in the best hotels that are going to be your competitor. You learn from [it]. … I can find a spot on the rug where other people, they don’t pay attention to it. I walk my hotels, and I then report back to them what’s lacking, what the general managers have not paid attention to. Some-times it drives me nuts, it may drive them nuts, but that’s the way it’s got to be. We have got to keep striving for excellence.
VB:Salamander recently rebranded. Why?
SJ:It’s now Salamander Collection … because we have so many hotels … you want to keep it fresh. You don’t want to have the same old, same old.
VB:You’re a part owner in three sports teams, and you’re quite involved with the Washington Mystics. Why is that important to you?
SJ: I try to go as many games as I possibly can. No one really pays much attention to women’s sports. I’m in an ownership [partnership] with a lot of men. There’s only one other woman in there, and that’s Michelle Freeman [CEO and owner of real estate firm Carl M. Freeman Cos.]. She comes to the games, too, to support the women. … I just think that women have to support women. There’s no question about it. If I didn’t support the WNBA team, my team, no one would pay attention to it. I’m constantly having to fight for sponsorship, fight for whatever they need, and I’ve got to keep an eye on it. That’s just what I do. Even my license plate says WNBA.
VB:How do you view your role as a Black woman and business leader?
SJ: I think the barriers aren’t breaking down. … It’s just important that I continue to push the buttons there to get people to start thinking about it because if I’m not doing it, and no one else is doing it, we’re going to fade in the background. That was the whole idea of even starting BET because that was the birth of all cable. If we hadn’t stepped forward, there would not have been a Black cable channel.
Richmond-based Dominion Energy has earned the final two federal approvals needed to move forward with the construction and operation of its $9.8 billion, 176-turbine offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management granted final approval of the construction plan for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its permit to allow for permitted impacts to U.S. waters.
Construction on the turbines and three offshore substations in a nearly 113,000-acre area is expected to begin in May.
Once fully constructed in late 2026, the Fortune 500 electric utility’s wind turbines will produce 2.6 gigawatts of energy, which would power about 660,000 homes.
“Virginia is leading the way for offshore wind as we near the start of offshore construction for Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind,” Bob Blue, Dominion Energy’s chair, president and CEO, said in a statement. “These regulatory approvals keep CVOW on time and on budget as we focus on our mission of providing customers with reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy.”
The project will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm and aligns with a state mandate that Dominion Energy go carbon-free by 2045.
Dominion submitted the construction and operations plan in December 2020 and then updated it in June 2021, October 2021, December 2021, May 2022, February 2023, July 2023 and September 2023, according to BOEM. In her letter informing Dominion of approval, Karen Baker, chief of the bureau’s Office of Renewable Energy Programs, writes that Dominion must submit annual reports certifying compliance with conditions of approval annually, beginning Jan. 31, 2025.
Some onshore construction began in November 2023 following BOEM’s favorable record of decision in October 2023. At that time, Dominion earned approvals from the National Environmental Policy Act review process and the Department of the Interior for its construction and operations plan.
Construction will ramp up with the final approvals, and initial offshore construction activities related to the export cable and monopile foundation installation is expected to begin in the second quarter.
In mid-October 2023, the first eight monopiles, the foundation posts for the massive wind turbines, arrived at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, and since then, another eight have been delivered and a third batch is en route. The monopiles, which are each about 272 feet long — about the length of a football field — and 31 feet in diameter, will be driven into the seabed. Each turbine, when fully assembled, will be 836 feet high.
Dominion is already operating two wind turbines off the Virginia Beach coast as part of a pilot project. The company said that more than 750 Virginia-based workers, about 530 of whom are in Hampton Roads, are working on the project or with businesses supporting it. Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be created to operate and maintain the turbines.
“In an important step forward, we are thrilled to see the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project receive two major approvals that will place the nation’s largest offshore wind farm right off the coast of Virginia,” U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott said in a joint statement. “The progress on this project to date speaks volumes about the level of cooperation between the Biden administration, the commonwealth of Virginia and Dominion Energy and their commitment to the future of green energy in the commonwealth. We look forward to continuing to work together to see this project through to the finish line.”
It won’t be too long before drivers on Interstate 81 in Rockingham County will see a sign bearing a friendly, hat-wearing beaver.
Texas-based travel center chain Buc-ee’s started construction on its first travel center in Virginia with a ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday. Gov. Glenn Youngkin was there, as well as Buc-ee’s founder and CEO Arch “Beaver” Aplin III. Local officials attended as well.
Located at the intersection of I-81 and Friedens Church Road, the center will be 74,000 square feet and have 120 fueling positions. Buc-ee’s expects construction to take about 17 months, according to a spokesperson.
The company plans to hire more than 200 people for the center.
“One of the prettiest roads we could ever hope for, I-81 is full of folks seeking fun and all that Virginia has to offer,” Buc-ee’s Director of Real Estate Stan Beard said in a statement. “We are the perfect pitstop for their road-trips and for the amazing people of Rockingham County.”
Buc-ee’s purchased 21.3 acres for the Rockingham center for $6.6 million in September 2023. The county revealed plans for the location in July 2023 by posting on its Facebook page that the company had applied for a special-use permit for review and approval of a sign plan.
A month earlier, Buc-ee’s paid $6.5 million for 27.68 acres in New Kent County, at Exit 211 off Interstate 64. The county’s economic development department posted to its Facebook page in March 2023 that the chain filed for a conditional use permit for signage. Buc-ee’s is planning to have four total Virginia locations, according a June 2023 news release from S.L. Nusbaum Realty.
Founded in 1982, Buc-ee’s has 34 stores in Texas and 13 centers in other states.
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