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Buc-ee’s starts construction on Rockingham center

It won’t be too long before drivers on Interstate 81 in will see a sign bearing a friendly, hat-wearing beaver.

Texas-based chain Buc-ee’s started construction on its first travel center in Virginia with a ceremonial Tuesday. Gov. Glenn Youngkin was there, as well as founder and 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 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 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.

Martin Agency has new CEO

Danny Robinson is taking over from Kristen Cavallo as of The , parent of Cos. announced Tuesday.

Robinson has been chief creative officer of the -based since 2020. Cavallo has headed Martin for the past six years, and IPG named her global CEO of MullenLowe Group 14 months ago. Under their leadership, Martin was named industry publication Adweek’s Agency of the Year in 2020 and 2021, as well as Ad Age’s Agency of the Year in 2023. Ad Age named its 2022 Chief Creative Officer of the Year. Cavallo will remain in her position as MullenLowe Group global CEO and will continue to be based in Richmond.

“Our leaders don’t operate on an island. And that includes our CEO,” Robinson said in a statement. “Martin has an executive committee that works as a team on every major decision facing the organization and I have been an integral part of the team for the last five years. … Kristen, the entire executive team and all our people and partners have set this agency up for what will be its best chapter yet.”

Robinson, the first Black executive to lead Martin, has overseen ad campaigns for notable clients like UPS, Old Navy and Geico, and recently oversaw smokeless fire pit maker Solo Stove’s campaign with celebrity rapper Snoop Dogg. In 2023, Martin won several new clients, including Papa Johns, Skrewball Whiskey and Miracle-Gro, according to a news release.

Robinson joined Martin in 2004 and has held several roles, including group creative director and chief client officer, a new role Cavallo created for him in May 2019. Prior to joining Martin, Robinson co-founded ad agency Vigilante, which was behind Oprah Winfrey’s famous 2004 car giveaway.

“Moving from CCO to CEO is uncommon, but it shouldn’t be,” Cavallo said in a statement. “Our industry has become increasingly focused on consolidation and efficiencies, and we need to return the conversation to creativity. … Danny has held roles across the agency in preparation for just this moment.”

Robinson sits on the board of Creative Ladder, a nonprofit founded by movie star Ryan Reynolds, and is a former board chair of local nonprofit Feed More. He is a graduate of Hampton University (then Hampton Institute) and Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University).

Jerry Hoak, executive creative director at Martin, will succeed Robinson as chief creative officer, Martin announced Thursday. Robinson will act as CEO/CCO during the transition. Hoak joined Martin in 2016 and led pitch teams that won DoorDash, Anheuser-Busch InBev, CarMax, Google and Papa Johns.

Editor’s note: Story updated Feb. 1.

Sentara Halifax hospital construction to start in fall

Sentara Health will begin construction in the fall on a modern acute care hospital to replace the aging in , with plans to open the facility in summer 2026, the -based regional system announced Monday as it also released the first renderings of the replacement hospital.

The new facility will be about 100,000 square feet, or about one-third the size of the existing hospital. , which expects to release more design and development details this spring, is building a new hospital instead of renovating the existing 70-plus-year-old building. It will be constructed where the Fuller Roberts Clinic is now, which incudes the green space behind the current hospital.

Halifax Regional Hospital’s patient volume has decreased in recent years due to a shrinking and aging local population, according to Sentara. Like many other hospitals serving rural areas, the facility has also faced physician recruitment and retention challenges. 

“The current hospital is over 70 years old with some very antiquated systems,” said Brian Zwoyer, the hospital’s president. “The plan right now will be to take that building down to allow us space for potential expansion in the future as well as access for our patients and visitors.”

He emphasized that in the current facility, there is a lot of unused space that can’t be used for patient care, so what Sentara is doing is transitioning and moving to a “much more effective space that still supports what we are currently doing … in a much more efficient and nimble facility.”

A rendering of the new Sentara Halifax Regional Medical Center in South Boston. Rendering courtesy

The new hospital will have inpatient medical, surgical, intensive care and observation beds, along with a cardiac catheterization suite, emergency department, operating rooms, a procedural room, helipad, imaging services, a laboratory, pathology, a pharmacy, rehabilitation space, respiratory therapy and other supporting departments, according to Sentara. However, it will not offer childbirth services due to a significant decrease in area births in recent years.

Services offered by the new hospital and local clinics will include anesthesiology, behavioral health, cardiology, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, critical care, dentistry, emergency medicine, endocrinology, family medicine, gastroenterology, general surgery, gynecology, hematology/oncology, home health, hospice, infectious disease, infusion services, internal medicine, laboratory, nephrology, occupational medicine, orthopedics, pathology, pediatrics, pharmacy, pulmonology, radiology, rehabilitation, respiratory therapy and sleep study.

The new hospital will have 40 to 45 beds, with eight to 10 in the intensive care unit, Zwoyer said. The current 300,000-square-foot hospital is licensed for 192 beds. The new hospital will provide the same services the current one is providing, he said, but in a building with a smaller footprint and fewer infrastructure challenges. Zwoyer added that Sentara wants to increase and retain services at the new facility, while decreasing the number of patient transfers. There are no plans to eliminate any staff positions.

“Anytime you say, ‘Well, I’m building something smaller or we’re changing things,’ — and it’s hard, change comes hard — it can be … anxiety producing. So what we want to make sure [of] is that we are here for the community in the future. We want to build a facility that … has good access, that has great services. We have great outpatient services, and that, we’re going to be here for the next 50 years. Because that’s what the community needs.”

RTX subsidiary lands $154M Army contract

Raytheon, a subsidiary of -based , received a $154 million contract to deliver independent viewer systems to the , the Fortune 500 aerospace and announced Wednesday.

Under the contract, , which, like its parent company, is also based in , will deliver Commander’s Independent Viewer (CIV) systems for the ‘s Bradley Fighting Vehicles. CIV is an electro-optical/infrared sight system that uses forward-looking infrared cameras and sensors to provide the infantry vehicle with 360-degree battlefield oversight and targeting capabilities.

“The CIV is a package of multiple systems all working together to increase the survivability and battlefield performance of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle,” Bryan Rosselli, president of Raytheon’s Advanced Products and Solutions business group, said in a statement. “These capabilities — early threat detection, 360-degree battlefield view and all-weather performance — increase a vehicle commander’s ability to locate, identify and defeat stationary and moving targets in any condition.”

Raytheon will produce the units in McKinney, Texas. The first delivery is expected June 2026.

Earlier this month, Raytheon announced it had received a $344.6 million U.S. Air Force contract modification to produce StormBreaker smart weapons.

RTX has more than 185,000 employees globally and had $68.9 billion in sales in 2023. The company rebranded from Raytheon Technologies to RTX in June 2023 and has three business units: Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and Raytheon.

Home sales slowed in 2023 and in final month of year

Home sales in Virginia dropped 20% last year, compared with 2022, and were the lowest the market had seen since 2014, according to new released Tuesday by .

Across Virginia, 98,464 homes sold in 2023, which is 24,780 fewer than the number of sales in 2022.

Nine out of every 10 counties and cities in the state had fewer sales last year than the year before, reflecting a widespread cooldown. And though there were fewer sales, Virginia’s median home price climbed nearly every month of the year.

The median sales price for all of 2023 was $390,000, an increase of $25,000, or about 4%, from 2022’s median sales price. Sale prices rose 11 out of 12 months in 2023, and price growth accelerated in the second half of the year, according to the report. The median sales price has climbed every year since 2019, when it was $295,685.

In December 2023, there were 6,929 in Virginia, and the median sales price was $382,725, a jump of 6.6%, or about $24,000, over December 2022. Most December 2023 sales were between $200,000 and $400,000 — about 42.6% — and a quarter of sales were between $400,000 and $600,000. Another 10.4% were sold for more than $800,000, and about 11.4% sold for less than $200,000.

Pending sales dropped in the final month of the year, down 2.1% from December 2022. There were also 3% fewer listings than in December 2022. But there were about 1% more active listings on the market, the first year-over-year increase in active listings in Virginia’s market in nine months.

5 SWVA projects recommended for $9.5M in federal grants

Five Southwest Virginia projects have been recommended to receive a cumulative $9.35 million in federal Economic Revitalization () grants, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith announced Thursday.

The projects are on sites where coal was mined before 1977. Funding for the federal AMLER Program comes through the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement, which has final approval over recommended projects. The Virginia Department of Energy administers AMLER funding for projects in the state.

“Repurposing land to create jobs and grow communities is a wonderful benefit of the AMLER program,” Youngkin said in a statement, “and we are excited to see these developments create opportunities in our Southwest communities.”

The five projects are:

The Ridge project is located on a 4,000-acre industrial site in Wise County known as the Bullitt site. The project will convert a 400-acre previously mined property into a 1-gigawatt, multitenant data center campus. It’s part of a planned clean energy development that could attract up to $8.25 billion in capital investments, resulting from a land development agreement between Energy DELTA Lab, Dallas-based Fortune 100 energy company Energy Transfer and Wise County. The AMLER funding would support site and infrastructure development for Data Center Ridge.

Funding for the Haysi High School site redevelopment project would support infrastructure development and land preparation for retail development. The Southern Gap Office Park project includes building a two-story commercial office building in the regional office park. The Norton project is constructing a spec building in the Project Intersection industrial park, where Atlanta-based high-speed internet service provider EarthLink is building a 28,000-square-foot customer support center. The Russell County bridge will add infrastructure supporting the Project Reclaim industrial park, which previously received close to $5 million in AMLER funding.

Virginia began receiving federal grant dollars for the AMLER program in 2017 and has recommended more than 40 projects since then. The state is one of six that receives AMLER grant funding.

“The AMLER Program, federal funding I championed, provides our communities in Southwest Virginia with opportunities to reuse old mine lands for new and exciting purposes. AMLER projects have contributed to job creation, economic growth and environmental renewal in the coalfields, improving the quality of life for residents in the surrounding areas,” Griffith, a Republican who represents Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, said in a statement.

 

Apartments in Orange sell for $1.9M

A 48-unit apartment community in the Town of has changed hands, according to One South Commercial.

Belleview LLC purchased a 40,111-square-foot property with 48 units for $1.9 million from Belleview LLP.

The apartments are located at 222-224 Bellevue Ave. in Orange. According to town property records, the property was built in 1911.

Ryan Rilee and Tom Rosman of One South Commercial represented the seller in the transaction.

Norfolk apartment complex sells for $38.5M

Enterprise Community Development, a nonprofit affordable provider, has purchased Woodmere Trace, a 300-unit community, from Raleigh, North Carolina-based Fulton Peak Capital.
Enterprise closed the $38.5 million sale on Dec. 20, 2023. Woodmere Trace is located at 6741 Tanners Creek Drive. The 300 garden-style , comprised of one- and two-bedroom units, were built in 1974 and renovated in 2014. The community has a swimming pool, laundry facilities, a fitness center, picnic pavilion, playground and dog park.
secured the sale and financing for the deal. Patrick McGlohn, Brian Gould and Miles Drinkwalter of Berkadia DC Metro and Hunter Wood of Berkadia secured $25.5 million in Fannie Mae financing on behalf of the buyer.

ManTech launches AI government contracting group

Herndon-based International has launched a analytics and artificial intelligence solutions practice aimed at government clients. It will be led by Brandy Durham, a ManTech vice president and former executive with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

The new division offers comprehensive consulting, AI engineering services and accelerators and works with government agencies to plan, design and execute real-world AI strategies, according to a news release from ManTech.

“At ManTech, we’ve assembled a diverse team of AI experts with deep understanding of client missions to create our foundation, ensuring we empower every client’s AI journey,” said Durham, who joined ManTech in October 2023. She previously served as senior practice manager for artificial intelligence-national security at AWS and also worked for Microsoft and IBM.

“The data analytics and AI solutions practice partners with members of the national security community to deliver mission-critical solutions,” Eric Brown, chief innovation officer at ManTech, said in a statement. “To build on this capability, the practice partners work closely with the digital transformation division, formerly Definitive Logic, which was acquired by ManTech in 2023.”

Founded in 1968 with a single Navy contract to develop war-gaming models for the submarine community, ManTech provides technology solutions for U.S. defense, intelligence and federal civilian agencies. It has a worldwide workforce of 9,400.

Babel Street acquires Ohio data insights firm

Reston-based analytics and threat intelligence tech company has acquired , a data products, insights and intelligence company based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

The — which has already closed — expands Babel Street’s data sourcing, enrichment and analysis capabilities, according to a news release from the two companies. Babel Street has 228 employees and Vertical Knowledge has 128 employees.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled to welcome Vertical Knowledge and its talented team and robust products to Babel Street,” Babel Street Michael Southworth said in a statement. “Together, we can offer our customers and partners unprecedented access to comprehensive, multilingual data assets enhanced by industry-leading natural language processing. This powerful combination of data and closes the Risk-Confidence Gap, empowering our customers to operate with greater efficiency, foresight and security.”

Babel Street acquired text analytics platform Rosette about a year ago.

“Joining forces with Babel Street supercharges our ability to equip customers with the intelligence needed to successfully tackle their most difficult problems,” Vertical Knowledge CEO Brian O’Keefe said in a statement. “Babel Street is the gold standard in identity resolution, risk identification and mitigation capabilities that perfectly complements Vertical Knowledge’s strengths in data collection and contextualization. We could not be more excited to fuse our talents and technologies to accelerate innovation in this space.”