Erin Burcham says she has “a growth mindset,” making her a perfect fit to lead Verge, an umbrella organization for the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council and the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP). Burcham’s job is to pursue initiatives that can expand the tech and life sciences sector of the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley.
In February, the Virginia Tech grad helped score a coup for the region, when the City of Roanoke secured a $15.7 million state grant to build a 40,000-square-foot biotech lab and incubator. In collaboration with Carilion Clinic, the Virginia Tech Corporate Center, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Western Community College, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and the city, Verge will oversee an innovation studio associated with the lab as well as programming for the early-stage companies that will use the space.
Burcham wrote her master’s thesis about bringing organizations together — an education she’s using now for this project. That required keeping “a lot of balls in the air,” Burcham acknowledges, but she didn’t do it alone. “I see myself as a team player for this region,” she says.
In addition to her job, Burcham was recently appointed to the Roanoke College Community Advisory Group and for eight years ran the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s Experience networking conference for young professionals.
Since 2013, Melanie McGrath has worked for Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. and its subsidiary, Newport News Shipbuilding, and she’s seen some massive federal contract awards come in — especially since 2019, when she was promoted to director of its submarine division.
In February, HII broke ground on a facility to support nuclear submarine construction in Newport News. This project is jointly funded by the Navy and HII, and is part of $1.9 billion in capital investments at NNS between 2016 and 2025. McGrath oversees the Virginia Class Submarine Scheduling and Planning for NNS.
Overseeing projects of this size is an undertaking since these submarines are some of the “most important and most expensive assets,” according to the U.S. government. But McGrath has had impressive career advancement as a woman in a male-dominated industry, having served as a manufacturing technology manager and submarine scheduling manager before assuming her current director position. She has also been “instrumental in hiring, training and development of the leadership team” at NNS, according to her nominator, and encourages women to pursue careers in engineering.
“Just as my mentors invested in my development, so too do I feel the responsibility to cultivate the next generation of leaders, both at Newport News Shipbuilding and the community,” McGrath says. “It’s an honor to share my passion for supporting women in manufacturing and construction, especially knowing the important work we do in service of the nation.”
A Clemson University graduate, McGrath also is an alumna of the Hampton Roads Chamber’s Lead757 regional leadership program.
Politicians like to suggest every new election is the most important of our lifetimes, but Virginia’s off-off-year state legislative elections in 2023 might actually live up to the billing for once.
In November, voters will elect representatives to all 140 seats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, in the first campaign season since the state redrew districts through an unprecedented process outside lawmaker control. To compound matters, a startling number of legislators are retiring or competing against fellow incumbents in new “double-bunked” districts created by the December 2021 redistricting.
These factors contribute to a generational election that will determine Virginia’s legislative future for years to come.
“This upheaval has literally never happened in the history of Virginia,” says Greg Habeeb, a former state delegate and president of Gentry Locke Consulting, a Richmond lobbying, marketing and strategic communications firm. “We’ve never seen this raw number of retirements and departures coupled with the seniority of those people leaving.”
As an example, Habeeb points to the Senate Finance Committee — “the epicenter of the epicenter” of both power and the retirement wave. Committee chair Janet Howell of Reston is retiring after 31 years, along with fellow Democratic committee members John Edwards and Richard Saslaw, as well as Republicans Steve Newman, Tommy Norment and Jill Vogel.
Meanwhile, fellow Democratic committee members Sens. George Barker, Creigh Deeds, Louise Lucas and Dave Marsden all faced primaries. That left Democratic Sens. Adam Ebbin and Mamie Locke and Republican Sen. Frank Ruff as the only incumbent Senate Finance committee members guaranteed to run in November, although Deeds, Lucas and Marsden won their June 20 primaries.
Known for their moderate stances, Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw (left) and Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment Jr. are both retiring this year. Photo by Alexa Welch Edlund/Richmond Times-Dispatch via Associated Press
Many factors are converging into a perfect storm for remaking the legislature in 2023. For starters, Habeeb says, “it’s harder to do this job for a long time and have a family and private-sector job. Two, an inordinate number of senators had served for decades and naturally got to a point where they need to retire. Coupled with redistricting, that created this avalanche.”
A bipartisan commission created to redraw legislative districts ultimately deadlocked last year, leaving the process to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which appointed two special masters to carry out the task. Since lawmakers were no longer drawing lines out of self-interest, many ended up in new districts or sharing a district with one or two other incumbents.
“I think having those incumbent-versus-incumbent races was something that pushed the retirement rate up,” says J. Miles Coleman, associate editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
One example is Democratic Sen. John Edwards of Roanoke, who was drawn into a district with Republican Sen. David Suetterlein that voted 55% Republican in the 2021 gubernatorial election. Edwards opted to retire.
Other lawmakers faced primary challengers on June 20 — sometimes from fellow incumbents. One of the most dramatic examples played out in Hampton Roads, where longtime Democratic Sens. Louise Lucas and Lionel Spruill vied to represent Senate District 18.
Lucas, the Senate’s president pro tempore, beat Spruill with 54% of the vote in the Democratic primary, and incumbent Senate Democrats George Barker, Joe Morrissey and Chap Petersen all lost their primaries. Republican Senate incumbent Amanda Chase lost her primary to former state senator Glen Sturtevant. A strident Trump supporter who continues to argue baselessly that the 2020 election was “stolen,” Chase has disputed her own election results, claiming that early votes were made on computers that don’t comply with state law.
Retirements account for nearly a fifth of the House’s turnover and more than a quarter of the Senate’s. A Virginia Chamber of Commerce analysis suggests Virginia will see at least 11 new senators and 32 new delegates enter office in January 2024, although some may be familiar faces, with several delegates running for Senate, including Democrats Danica Roem in Prince William County and Schuyler VanValkenburg in Henrico County and Republican Christopher Head in Botetourt County.
It’s not just the sheer numbers of departing members that will affect the General Assembly, but also the depth of experience being lost.
“At a minimum, it’s 581 years of experience guaranteed not returning,” says Chris Saxman, a former state delegate and executive director of Virginia FREE, a nonpartisan business-focused political organization. Coupled with incumbent losses in primaries, Saxman adds, “We’re probably going to crest 600 years not returning. We’re in a generational shift.”
Turnover starts at top
In the state Senate, both parties’ leaders are stepping down after decades in office.
At the end of 2023, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Saslaw will have served 48 years in the Assembly, just short of the record 52 years set by the late Del. Lacey Putney. Republican Senate Minority Leader Norment has served for 30 years.
Together, the two relatively moderate leaders held the center of political power in the Senate for decades, playing leading roles in big, complex legislation affecting business, such as utility regulation, taxes and transportation funding. They cultivated a working relationship that largely kept the Senate a moderating force even as state politics grew more partisan and divisive.
“It’s almost hard to imagine the Senate without Dick Saslaw and Tommy Norment,” says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “They are big personalities and leaders that know how to get things done. They can be partisan but also bipartisan, whatever the situation calls for. They are the old model of Virginia legislators, more interested in getting things done than scoring points for their party. I wish more junior legislators would model themselves after the two of them.”
The list of retirements goes beyond Senate leadership to include Democrats and Republicans from across Virginia. New candidates are already stepping up to fill the void. Numerous delegates announced Senate campaigns, while newcomers emerged to run for both House and Senate seats.
No matter what, the chamber will look dramatically different after November.
“It’ll likely be younger, more diverse in both parties,” Saxman says. “New perspective, new generation, more partisan and more focused on winning their districts through the nomination phase than in the past.”
The impending legislative turnover is creating a fraught moment for businesses and trade associations that routinely invest in the campaigns of officials most likely to be on committees affecting their respective industries.
Habeeb says it’s still unclear whether the shift will increase or diminish the power of lobbyists and the businesses they represent. “Anyone who thinks they know what’s going to happen is lying to themselves and to their clients,” he says.
Quick change
Virginia remains a largely divided state, with intensely Democratic and Republican regions. Most of its districts are so partisan that nominees of the favored parties are all but guaranteed election. That leaves just a handful of tossup districts where the parties will fight to win control of the legislature.
“As big an impact as these elections are going to have on the commonwealth and on the agenda of [Gov.] Glenn Youngkin in the second half of his term, it will come down to a relative handful of seats,” Coleman says. “District 31 in the Senate, which is basically western Loudoun County. District 17 in Southside. Democrats are in a situation where I think they’re favored in basically 20 seats in the Senate. They need to get one more. What’s that one more going to be?”
The parties’ respective calculation of Virginia’s most competitive districts will shape the fall campaign. Another likely force will be Youngkin, whose 2021 coattails helped the GOP retake the House majority and win the lieutenant governor and attorney general contests.
For Youngkin, the 2023 election also has provided a handy excuse to sidestep questions about his 2024 presidential ambitions. Asked at a California conference whether he’d campaign for president, Youngkin responded, “No, I’m going to be working in Virginia this year.” Some outlets took that as an indication he’d not join the Republican field of presidential candidates, while others noted the grammar seemed to apply only to this year, not next. The governor has continued to blur the issue, appearing in an ad that some observers saw as foreshadowing a national campaign.
Youngkin has endorsed 50 General Assembly incumbents, 16 nonincumbent Republican nominees and 10 candidates in contested primaries. The latter inspired blowback from a candidate who wasn’t endorsed and who complained about it on a conservative talk radio show. Former NASCAR driver and Southside GOP state Senate candidate Hermie Sadler also expressed frustration with Youngkin. The governor’s political action committee allegedly tried to change the nomination method in Sadler’s district from a primary to a convention, which likely would have favored Sadler’s Youngkin-endorsed opponent.
November’s winners will be rewarded with the opportunity to set the General Assembly’s tone for the next decade or more. To some extent, that tone also will be shaped by this year’s wave of retirements.
“For 20 or 30 years, it didn’t matter who was in charge of Senate — it was a stable body,” Habeeb says. “Those days are gone. Historically, the Senate has prevented massive changes in any given cycle. Now, there’s a scenario where historical change can happen overnight.”
Since joining Chantilly-based Koniag Government Services (KGS) four years ago, Aisha McGill has been instrumental in standing up several units at the Alaska native-owned government contractor, including its IT department and marketing and communications organization, as well as a unit focused on compliance. But what McGill takes greatest pride in is that she also built the teams that implemented this infrastructure for the company — emphasizing that it hasn’t just been a one-woman show.
In her role as chief business officer, McGill has prioritized mentorship, leadership development and diversity in hiring. To this end, she ensures that new hires holding leadership positions mirror the corporate culture already existent at Koniag and that those qualities, including work ethic, get “modeled” for direct reports. Also aligned with her desire to develop future leaders, she established the KGS Internship Program.
A James Madison University alum, she gives back to her school by being a contributor to the Women for Madison scholarship program, which provides funding for women attending JMU. As a woman in STEM, she also serves as a mentor for Girls Who Code and contributes to and participates in events for Dress for Success, a nonprofit that provides professional attire as well as networking and career development opportunities for women.
The 23-acre mall is owned by Wells Fargo & Co., which holds the mall following a loan default by MacArthur Center’s previous owner, Connecticut-based Starwood Property Trust.
MacArthur Center was listed for sale in January by JLL, though no price was listed at the time. The mall includes 914,751 square feet of leasable area. Current anchors are Dillard’s Inc., with 253,616 square feet, and Regal Cinemas, with 80,210 square feet. Another 160,000-square-foot anchor spot is vacant. The property also has a 4,000-space, multistory parking garage.
In recent years, the mall has lost major tenants such as Nordstrom, in April 2019, the Apple Store, in 2021, and restaurants Texas de Brazil and California Pizza Kitchen.
The city will now own everything at MacArthur Center except for the Dillard’s building, which is owned by the retailer.
Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander says that buying the mall would enable the city to “play an active and strategic role” in the property’s future. In the short term, the city plans to continue operating MacArthur Center as a mall and planned to hold discussions with mall tenants in what Alexander said in early June was to be a “seamless” transition. The city did not initially release any long-term plans for the mall.
The mall’s most recent assessment was nearly $25 million — $20.7 million in land value and $4.2 million in improvement value. That’s down significantly from its
July 2022 assessment, when it was valued at $51.8 million, including $24.8 million for the land, city records show.
According to the purchase agreement, the city was to pay $11.05 million for the mall, with the rest of the city allocation going to cover consulting, legal and other fees. The deal was expected to close by August.
The mall is now more than half vacant, according to JLL. Starwood Property Trust bought the mall in 2014 for $265.5 million from Michigan-based Taubman Centers Inc., as part of the $1.4 billion purchase of seven shopping malls. However, Starwood defaulted on a $750 million loan in 2019, and MacArthur Center is now owned by Wells Fargo and managed by Syracuse, New York-based Spinoso Real Estate Group.
In 2021, Jennifer DeBruhl’s husband, Mark, passed away after a 3-month battle with cancer. Before this tragedy, DeBruhl was preparing to retire from her public service career and transition into the private sector.
However, life had other plans for DeBruhl’s career path, too. The state’s transportation secretary asked her to become interim director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), leveraging her over 30 years of experience in advancing Virginia’s multimodal transportation system. Though she initially intended it to be a temporary role, DeBruhl quickly realized she could thrive professionally while also raising her 13-year-old son. The governor appointed DeBruhl as DRPT’s permanent director in June 2022.
DeBruhl credits her success to hard work, guidance from women mentors and her ability to develop a strong voice and thick skin in a male-dominated industry. A breaker of glass ceilings, she was the first woman to hold leadership positions in three of her past roles. During her time at DRPT, she has launched programs that expanded bus and rail services throughout the state and increased economic opportunities.
DeBruhl hopes her legacy will be her commitment to mentorship and creating opportunities for women.
“I think women bring a unique and broad perspective to transportation decision-making,” she says. “I’m a firm believer that none of this is about me — I just want DRPT to be known as the best-in-class transportation agency that will last long after I am gone.”
Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander has a vision for his city that includes increasing revenue without creating additional taxes for residents.
His focuses in achieving that goal include tourism, hospitality and entertainment — familiar parts of neighboring Virginia Beach’s economy. However, unlike Virginia Beach, he points out, Norfolk doesn’t have a reliable seasonal tourism base. It also doesn’t have the same kind of beachfront tourism infrastructure as Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront district.
Another challenge to Norfolk’s revenue, Alexander notes, is the fact that while the city is 97% developed, about a third of that property is occupied by entities that are exempt from real estate taxes, such as universities and the military.
So, the city’s strategy has been focused on redevelopment and economic development to fill the gap.
In the past few years, the city has seen some major projects announced, including the Pamunkey Indian Tribe’s planned $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino on the Elizabeth River near Harbor Park, as well as the city’s proposal to redevelop the former Military Circle Mall into an arena-anchored mixed-use development. But both of those developments have stalled due to changing economic conditions and other factors.
Other projects are on track, though, including expansions of the Nauticus maritime museum and the Chrysler Museum of Art, upgrades to Norfolk International Airport and Carnival Cruise Line’s increase in stops in the city, with a goal of year-round service out of Norfolk.
Additionally, Norfolk City Council voted in June to allocate $18 million to purchase the struggling MacArthur Center mall, which sits atop a 23-acre chunk of city-owned property that is prime for redevelopment.
Alexander wants to see the city attract more meetings, conventions and concerts, all generating taxes paid by non-city residents. But that’s no easy feat. It takes not only a thought-out vision but cooperation from many stakeholders — public and private — and time.
Nauticus plans to finish its $21.5 million renovations in time for Carnival Cruise Lines to begin year-round service to Norfolk in 2025, says the museum’s executive director, Stephen Kirkland. Photo by Mark Rhodes
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where [the city needs] to be investing heavily,” Alexander says. “Investing in hospitality, entertainment, travel and leisure allows [Norfolk] to generate the money to invest in schools and public safety as long as possible and keep the city beautiful.”
Work in progress
Once touted as one of the city’s biggest projects in recent memory, the redevelopment of Military Circle Mall has seen little progress over the past several months.
Norfolk’s Economic Development Authority purchased the failed mall and an adjacent hotel for $13.4 million in 2020. Demolition is underway, having started in April, with the main mall building set to be razed in late summer. It’s not clear what will wind up being developed on the cleared land, although there are hints.
The EDA solicited redevelopment proposals for the mall property in 2020, ultimately narrowing the pool to three finalists that were invited in early 2021 to submit plans for large mixed-use developments centered around multiuse entertainment arenas.
Then, without formally making or announcing a decision, the EDA opened talks in July 2022 with one of the finalists: a high-powered joint venture led by music superstar Pharrell Williams, Virginia Beach-based Venture Realty Group and California arena management company Oak View Group. (The same trio is developing the $350 million Atlantic Park project at Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront.) Their proposed Wellness Circle project calls for a 15,000-seat arena, 1 million square feet of office space, a 200-room hotel and 1,100 housing units.
Last November, when discussing the status of the project during his Mighty Dream Forum event in Norfolk, a slightly exasperated-sounding Williams said of the Wellness Circle proposal that the “ball’s in their court,” referring to city officials. Little has been shared publicly about the project since then.
Sean Washington, Norfolk’s interim economic development director, says the EDA is still negotiating with the Wellness Circle team, but some issues have come to the surface.
Alexander says some unanswered questions remain about Wellness Circle’s plans, including who will pay for parking garages and infrastructure upgrades, as well as potential environmental impacts of the project. The mayor notes too that Norfolk-based Sentara Health owns about 15 acres of the land around Military Circle and two buildings there — 6015 Poplar Hall Drive and 824 N. Military Highway, the former JCPenney building — so that must also be incorporated into plans.
Another challenge is the prospective arena, and whether it is needed or wanted in Norfolk — and how much the city would have to pay in associated costs for it.
“The public participation required for that asset is potentially more than the city would prefer to absorb,” says Washington, who became interim director in August 2022. Parking and infrastructure improvements would be part of the package if an arena is built, and “figuring out the actual end game” for the arena’s use — such as whether it would accommodate sports events, music acts, etc. — have slowed the process, he adds.
However, many city officials acknowledge that the 52-year-old Norfolk Scope arena is getting long in the tooth and isn’t big enough to accommodate larger modern music acts that bypass Norfolk for Washington, D.C., Charlotte, North Carolina, and other cities.
Norfolk’s slate of pending development projects was the result of “very, very strategic” efforts, says Sean Washington, the city’s interim economic development director. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Alexander says an alternative to building a new arena would be renovating the Scope so it can host “world-class concerts, collegiate basketball tournaments” and other high-profile events. Tearing down the Scope, he adds, is not being considered, even if Wellness Circle builds a new arena.
The mayor wants to make sure whatever replaces Military Circle is “the highest and best use of the land,” especially since the property is the physically highest ground in Norfolk — a big deal in a city threatened by flooding and sea-level rise.
He expects to have more answers about Military Circle’s future by the end of this year.
“We’re looking for development that will have some density there, because as we move from low-lying areas … we want to put everything on Military Circle,” including residential, commercial and industrial users, Alexander says.
Change in casino plans?
Meanwhile, plans for the HeadWaters Resort & Casino — a partnership between the King William-based Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough — have changed significantly.
When voters approved the project in a November 2020 referendum, its developers were pitching a $500-plus million resort casino with a 300-room hotel, restaurants, an entertainment venue, a rooftop pool, thousands of slot machines and as many as 150 table games. Later, HeadWaters’s developers announced plans to open a 45,000-square-foot, single-story temporary casino with hundreds of slot machines in the Harbor Park parking lot as soon as March 2023, while the permanent casino was under construction.
The temporary casino didn’t materialize, however, and the casino project seemed to be in limbo until mid-June, when developers submitted plans to the city for a development certificate for the permanent casino —announcing simultaneously that they were scrapping plans for the temporary casino.
“We have changed our approach and gone with a first-class experience from the get-go,” says Jay Smith, spokesperson for HeadWaters Resort & Casino.
According to the plan filed with the city, the permanent resort casino will be built in two phases. The first will focus on the casino, including a 45,000-square-foot gaming floor, restaurant and parking garage. While the plan doesn’t include details on the project’s second phase beyond renderings, Smith says phase two will include a hotel, outdoor pool, additional restaurants, an entertainment venue and other amenities.
HeadWaters’ developers plan to get the casino built and operational before moving on to the second phase, Smith says.
As submitted to the city, Alexander says, the casino plans fell short of what he was expecting. “Although it may be constructed in phases, I was not expecting them to turn [the plan] in phases,” Alexander says. The mayor adds that he was concerned by the lack of concrete details in the plan, as well as a lack of communication from developers on the casino’s application status with the Virginia Lottery, which must approve its operating license.
“We continue to ask them for the same information over and over again,” Alexander says. “I want all the details to accompany the pretty pictures. Submit the supporting documentation.”
However, in a March letter sent by the city to the casino developers, the city requested only conceptual details for the future phases of development, while it required details such as architectural renderings, building elevations and a site layout for the first phase, all of which were provided.
While the casino project moves forward, another city property — MacArthur Center — could also provide dividends.
The struggling downtown mall, built in 1999, is more than half empty and went up for sale in January. In a similar move to the city’s purchase of Military Circle mall, Norfolk City Council voted in early June to buy MacArthur Center for $18 million. (See related story.)
“We recognize the center is an important component of our downtown,” Alexander says. “The purchase will enable the city to take an active role — an active and strategic role.”
There has not been public discussion about what comes next, other than MacArthur Center continuing to operate as a mall as the city planned to reach out
to the mall’s tenants.
The mall has nearly 1 million square feet of leasable area and a multistory parking garage with about 4,000 spots.
Strategic investments
Norfolk International Airport is another asset in the city that’s setting itself up for growth and change. More than 4 million passengers traveled through the airport last year, marking the busiest period in its 84-year history, and Norfolk Airport Authority CEO Mark Perryman knows accommodating more aircraft and processing more passengers is taxing its operations. A $30 million project is underway to rehab the airport’s main runway, renovations have been made to parking garages, and the terminals and concourses also will be modernized. Seven new gates will be added beginning next summer, along with a modern jet bridge, a central Transportation Security Administration Authority checkpoint and consolidated ticketing and baggage screening areas. Additionally, moving sidewalks are being reinstalled across a pedestrian bridge this summer, largely funded by $5.4 million from the Federal Aviation Administration. The original people mover was removed in 2017 instead of being repaired.
Perhaps the biggest change at the airport will be preparing for an on-site hotel, which will ease a citywide shortage of hotel rooms. In May, the airport put out a request for proposals, with a June 30 deadline, for the design, construction and operation of a hotel with around 150 rooms.
Another major announcement at the end of 2022 was the increase of Carnival Cruise Line’s 26 sailings from Norfolk, up from 11 seasonal sailings in October and May. That number will increase further in 2025, and ultimately the cruise line expects to offer year-round weekly departures from Norfolk, bringing an estimated 200,000 unique passengers into the city in 2023 and about 300,000 by 2025.
By that time, the Nauticus maritime museum will have completed its $21.5 million refresh, with five new museum galleries, including exhibits on sea life and Elizabeth River fish species set to be open in late June. In October 2024, the museum will open galleries focused on the Navy, the Port of Virginia and a STEM-focused sailing exhibition.
Nauticus Executive Director Stephen Kirkland, who also oversees the cruise program, says the museum’s board knew they needed to make a major investment in their “core product,” adding that the expansion has been in the works since 2018, although the pandemic delayed completion.
Also downtown, the Chrysler Museum is getting some shine, as it expands its Perry Glass Studio by 18,000 square feet, a two-phase process expected to cost $55 million and conclude in fall 2024. The expansion will triple the size of the Perry Glass Studio and double its educational and programmatic offerings.
Having all these improvements and new facilities arriving at the same time is helping to solidify plans for decades ahead for Norfolk’s arts and cultural scene — as well as the city’s economy, says Washington.
“Some people may think that all this investment is happening by coincidence at the same time,” he says, “but I would argue that it’s very, very strategic.”
Norfolk at a glance
Harbor Park Photo courtesy Virginia Tourism Corp.
Located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk’s vast waterfront acreage has earned it the nickname of “the Mermaid City.” Home to Naval Station Norfolk — the world’s largest naval base — the city has capitalized on its strategic location as a hub for both defense and international shipping. However, Norfolk has grown beyond its maritime roots, developing a vibrant food and entertainment scene. The third most populous city in Virginia (behind Virginia Beach and Chesapeake), Norfolk is also a higher education powerhouse, home to Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Tidewater Community College, ECPI University and Tidewater Tech.
Population 242,742
Top employers
U.S. Department of Defense (10,000-plus employees)
Sentara Health (7,500 to 9,999 employees)
Norfolk Public Schools (7,500 to 9,999 employees)
Norfolk city government (2,500 to 4,999 employees)
Old Dominion University (2,500 to 4,999 employees)
Major attractions
Tourist attractions in the Mermaid City include Nauticus maritime museum and the Battleship Wisconsin. Norfolk Botanical Garden, undergoing a $30 million renovation, the largest in its 85-year history, has 60 different gardens and offers a popular holiday lights display. The Chrysler Museum of Art, the Barry Art Museum at ODU and the Glass Light Hotel & Gallery collectively have the largest collection of glass to be viewed for free in the world.
Top convention hotels
Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel 466 rooms, 42,210 square feet
of meeting space
Norfolk Waterside Marriott 407 rooms, 68,879 square feet
of meeting space
Hilton Norfolk The Main 300 rooms, 60,000 square feet
of meeting space
Professional sports
Norfolk Tides Minor League Baseball
(Baltimore Orioles affiliate)
A 40-year veteran with Bank of America, Carolyn Rainey became president of all the bank’s banking and investment operations in the Charlottesville area last year after serving as the bank’s Charlottesville market executive since 2018.
Under Rainey’s leadership, Bank of America’s market share in Charlottesville has grown, and she has helped numerous clients become homeowners, even when they previously deemed it impossible. Rainey also mentors women at work and as a volunteer through the Cherie Blair Foundation, an international organization empowering women in business.
“Future women leaders need to be able to connect with people in senior leadership positions who can offer valuable career insight,” Rainey says. “Learning from those above you and having advocates can make all the difference in a woman’s career trajectory.”
As a leader, Rainey prioritizes giving back to the community.
She secured funding from the bank to provide a $400,000 grant to Piedmont Virginia Community College to support construction of the Woodrow W. Bolick Advanced Technology and Student Success Center, as well as the expansion of an anti-poverty initiative focused on workforce development. It’s the largest corporate donation the college has received for its Pathways fundraising campaign.
Rainey also chairs the board for The Paramount Theater, a local nonprofit performing arts and events venue, and serves as board vice chair of the Jefferson School Foundation. She also serves on the Charlottesville Salvation Army’s advisory board and on the PVCC Educational Foundation’s board.
The tone of the 2023 General Assembly can be encapsulated in its approach to electricity rates. With dozens of lawmakers poised to retire, the General Assembly passed a major energy law, giving the State Corporation Commission added leeway over adjusting customer rates for utilities Dominion Energy Inc. and Appalachian Power.
Yet, at the same time, lawmakers couldn’t agree on filling two vacancies on the State Corporation Commission’s three-member board — the very regulatory body to which they’d just granted additional power.
That was the 2023 General Assembly in a nutshell: The body passed numerous consequential laws taking effect this month, but its partisan split left a significant amount of unfinished business that highlights the importance of November’s legislative elections. The General Assembly’s unresolved issues this session include commercial marijuana sales, tax reform, and funding levels for public education.
By mid-June, lawmakers had yet to reach a deal on amendments to the budget for the new fiscal year beginning July 1. As a result, funding levels remained uncertain for new and existing state programs, not to mention leaving counties and cities with budgetary holes.
“They did pass the ‘skinny budget,’ so there is a stopgap measure, which provides some dependability,” Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, said in May. “But think about what’s unresolved: funding for business-ready sites, expansion of lab schools, improvements to housing and affordability, what kind of deposits [are] going to be made in the unemployment trust fund. We look to the budget process to complete these important programs and invest in them.”
Lawmakers did make significant progress this year on legislation affecting education and workforce development, DuVal says. Foremost was a bill to consolidate Virginia’s $485 million patchwork of workforce development efforts — spread across six Cabinet secretaries, 12 state agencies and 35 programs — under the banner of the newly created Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
He also commended lawmakers on taking steps to address child care and early childhood learning, although more concrete action was left for later.
Lawmakers also endorsed funding to develop industrial sites for megaprojects, although funding was part of the uncertain budget process. The Southeastern U.S. has become a hotspot for electric vehicle and battery factories, with plants announced for Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee — but not Virginia.
“We’re hoping to have hundreds of millions of new money for site readiness,” DuVal says. “We believe this will be a huge step forward in making Virginia competitive.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s spokeswoman, Macaulay Porter, cited progress toward site development as one of the 2023 session’s accomplishments, in a statement sent to Virginia Business. She also named utility regulation reform, restrictions on farmland landownership by foreign governments, and investments in agricultural technology. Yet there’s still unfinished business.
“While there was much accomplished,” Porter said in May, “the governor has been clear that Senate Democrats need to come to the table to provide a budget that provides $1 billion in tax relief for Virginians and delivers over $2.6 billion for our shared goals of job growth, public safety, education excellence, conservation of the Chesapeake Bay, and behavioral health services.”
The uncompleted budget created much uncertainty for funding priorities ranging from teacher salaries to an inland port for Southwest Virginia. It was also unclear as of early June whether lawmakers would back Youngkin’s proposal to invest $10 million to create the Virginia Power Innovation Fund, including $5 million to develop a small modular nuclear reactor in Southwest Virginia.
The legislature appeared unlikely to approve Youngkin’s proposed corporate tax cuts, although Democrats seemed willing to make smaller adjustments for individual taxpayers.
“The lowering of personal income tax rates and the lowering of corporate tax rates would have sent a strong signal to Virginians, personally and businesswise, that Virginia is going to remain competitive. Some of our drop in business rankings is due to tax reform in other states,” DuVal says, referring to the state’s drop from No. 1 to No. 3 in CNBC’s 2022 America’s Top States for Business.
Then there’s the question of marijuana, previously legalized in Virginia for medical and recreational use. While medical regulations and a distribution system have been finalized for years, the shift from a Democratic majority to a divided General Assembly has frozen the creation of a recreational market. Meanwhile, officials note, an untaxed, unregulated black market continues to thrive.
“The question is no longer whether or not [cannabis] should be legal for adults in the commonwealth. That was asked and answered in 2021,” says J.M. Pedini, director of Virginia NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “What the General Assembly and Gov. Youngkin must now decide is for how long they will continue to choose ceding control of Virginia’s marijuana market to illicit operators.”
In the meantime, lawmakers passed legislation to crack down on otherwise legal hemp products that contained THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that causes intoxication. Gentry Locke Consulting, a Richmond lobbying, marketing and strategic communications firm led by former state Del. Greg Habeeb, represented several of the state industry’s larger players, who “hated every version of the hemp bill they saw,” Habeeb says, “including the final version.”
The original bill passed by the General Assembly would have eliminated the entire industry, he says. Youngkin’s amendments, which replaced the legislature’s 2-milligram cap on THC with a less restrictive CBD-THC ratio, will instead kill “60% or 70%” of the industry, Habeeb quips.
Nonetheless, the legislature still made some major decisions this year.
Lawmakers killed bills to allow a casino referendum vote in Petersburg and to ensure paid sick days for both private and state employees. And they approved a measure to fold Eastern Virginia Medical School into Old Dominion University, although funding for startup costs — possibly up to $10 million — was left up in the air as of mid-June due to the lack of a budget deal.
Elaine Beeman recalls often being the only woman in the room when she started her career with Accenture in the 2000s. But she’s now an exemplar for leadership, with a title to match.
“It’s very rewarding for me to be in a position now where I can help enrich the experience of the next generation,” she says.
As chief leadership officer and civilian portfolio lead for Accenture since 2015, Beeman works with an array of federal clients, including the Agriculture, Commerce, Education and Treasury departments, Amtrak, the General Services Administration and the Postal Service. Over the past eight years, she has seen revenue projections for the civilian practice more than double to $1.2 billion in 2023.
Beeman also has mentored and promoted several women as managing directors and serves as executive sponsor for the Washington, D.C., Women’s Employee Resource Group. She is passionate about guiding high school students — especially those in underserved communities — to promising careers, having co-founded the Washington, D.C., chapter of Genesys Works, a nonprofit focused on that goal.
“A lot of people, especially women, choose not to take risks or opt out of opportunities because they’re worried about letting other parts of their life fall behind,” she says. “But success doesn’t have to be either/or. Everyone needs to give themselves the grace and space to pursue their goals without feeling guilty if they aren’t perfect at everything.”
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