Barry Tomlin, vice president of property management at The Breeden Co. in Virginia Beach, will leave the company Aug. 5, Breeden announced last week.
Bonnie Moore
Tomlin has been with Breeden since 2007.
“Over the last 10 years, we have created a considerable amount of value in the multifamily sector through the implementation of our trademarked luxury lifestyle brand, Enriched Lifestyle Communities, as well as pursuing more business opportunities in the third-party management side of the industry. We appreciate Barry’s contributions to the property management division. Under his stewardship, he has created a strong portfolio, where our communities are averaging 98% occupancy. Because of his work, our organization is positioned to take advantage of new opportunities. We all wish Barry the very best,” Founder and Chairman Ramon W. Breeden Jr. said in a statement.
With Tomlin’s departure, two other executives will take on new roles. Bonnie Moore will be president of property management, a change from her role as the division’s operations director. Additionally, Mark Denny has been promoted to vice president of property management, supporting the goals and initiatives of the division.
The property is located at 1815 Fortune Park Road in Albemarle and will be redeveloped. The building is on 1.35 acres of land off U.S. Route 29 near the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport.
John Pritzlaff, Jenny Stoner and Norman K. Moon Jr., of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the seller.
In early July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put a hold on its order banning Juul Labs Inc. from selling e-cigarettes on the U.S. market, saying it would conduct an additional review of the company’s marketing application. Juul is partly owned by Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc. The Fortune 500 tobacco products manufacturer bought a 35% stake in Juul for $12.8 billion in 2018 but has written down the value of its investment by more than $11 billion, to $1.7 billion. Juul’s dominance in the vaping market invited intense scrutiny from antismoking groups and regulators who feared its products would do more harm to young people than good to cigarette smokers trying to quit. (The New York Times; Reuters)
Chesterfield County‘s former Symbol mattress production plant is set to close in August, laying off 54 employees, owner Corsicana Mattress Co. announced in late June. Production will be absorbed into the company’s plants in Connecticut and North Carolina. The county’s economic development director, Garrett Hart, said he will work with the building owner to find another company to move in, as well as assist affected employees in getting rehired. Corsicana purchased its rival, Richmond-based Symbol, in April 2021, and it has been streamlining its holdings. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
EAB, a direct marketing and recruitment firm for higher education institutions, expects to add at least 200 jobs with a $6 million expansion in Henrico County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in late June. Formerly Royall & Co., EAB will relocate from two locations on East Parham Road and consolidate its Henrico operations into a 70,000-square-foot space at the SunTrust building on West Broad Street. EAB was founded by the late Bill Royall, who sold the business in 2014 for $850 million. It has 500 employees in Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Richmond city officials have made it clear they want to minimize financial commitments to replacing The Diamond. But with developers proposing to replace the stadium and build a new neighborhood around it for upward of $1 billion, the city could agree to siphon new tax revenue to pay for the construction. In July, the city started reviewing three offers for the replacement of the baseball stadium and new development that could give rise to housing, offices, retail stores, restaurants and hotels around it. City officials said they expected to choose one offer by late July and recommend it for approval by Richmond City Council. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Almost 9,900 of 21,314 eligible classified state employees received permission to work remotely at least one day a week under a new telework policy by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Only 9,866 asked for permission to telework, according to the administration. The governor had imposed strict limits on telework under new agreements that would require approval by his chief of staff for any employee to work remotely more than two days a week. (Agency heads could approve one day, and Cabinet secretaries could allow two.) More than 300 employees from five state agencies quit since the policy was announced, according to records received from WRIC 8News, with some citing lack of telework as the reason. (Richmond Times-Dispatch; WRIC 8News)
PEOPLE
Lori Collier Waran
Lori Collier Waran, former chief revenue officer and associate publisher for Virginia Business Publications LLC, was named the first female president of NASCAR-owned Richmond Raceway in June. She joined the organization July 11. Waran replaces Dennis Bickmeier, who left in April to head Henrico County’s new sports and entertainment authority. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
EASTERN VIRGINIA
Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Treeoverhauled much of its C-suite leadership, the company announced in late June. Dollar Tree Stores Inc., which also owns the Family Dollar chain, is seeking permanent replacements for its chief operating officer, chief strategy officer, chief financial officer, chief information officer and chief legal officer. Dollar Tree CFO Kevin Wampler will transition out of his role when a successor is named and will stay with Dollar Tree as an adviser until April 2023. Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary William Old, COO Thomas O’Boyle, Chief Strategy Officer David Jacobs and CIO Andy Paisley are
no longer with the company. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, the North American operating unit of the Italian coffee roaster Zanetti Beverage Group, will invest $29.1 million to consolidate and expand operations at its Suffolk roasting facility, a project expected to create 79 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in late June. Massimo Zanetti roasts, grinds and packages beans for retail brands including Chock full o’Nuts, Segafredo Zanetti and Kauai Coffee. At its Suffolk facility, the company produces proprietary and private label coffee, tea and drink mixes for retail and food service customers. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Norfolk has entered into negotiations with a development team that includes musician Pharrell Williams to revitalize Military Circle mall, city officials said in early July, though they stopped short of announcing the group as the winning bidder. Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer said the city is in “early negotiations” with the development team pitching Wellness Circle, a $1.1 billion proposal that includes plans for a 200-room hotel, more than 1,100 new housing units and a 16,000-seat arena. In addition to Williams, who grew up in Virginia Beach, the development team includes Virginia Beach-based Venture Realty Group and California arena management company Oak View Group. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Smithfield Foods will pay restaurants and caterers $42 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the giant meat producer of conspiring to inflate pork prices, which will likely only add to concerns about how the lack of competition in the industry affects meat prices, according to a settlement in early July. Previously, Smithfield settled with a different group of pork buyers for $83 million, and JBS agreed to pay the restaurants and caterers $12.75 million in the pork lawsuit. Earlier this year, JBS also said it would pay $52.5 million to settle a similar beef price-fixing lawsuit. (Associated Press)
Australian online auto sales forum
Carsales.com Ltd. plans to acquire the remaining 51% of Norfolk-based Trader Interactive from Eurozeo and Goldman Sachs Asset Management for $839.14 million, the companies announced in late June. Carsales.com bought 49% of Trader Interactive in August 2021 for $624 million and will now own the company in its entirety, funding the latest transaction through a combination of equity and debt. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
PEOPLE
William & Mary has named Todd Mooradian, who spent much of his career at the university, as dean of its Raymond A. Mason School of Business, beginning in August. The university announced the hire July 1. Mooradian served as dean of the University of Louisville’s College of Business since 2017 and prior to that worked 27 years as a business professor at William & Mary, including in the role of associate dean for faculty and academic affairs from 2014 to 2017. Mooradian starts his new role Aug. 15. He replaces Lawrence B. Pulley, who is retiring after 24 years as dean. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Legislation renewing calls for a new FBI headquarters has the General Services Administration once again studying a 58-acre complex of 16 nearly windowless gray warehouses and storage buildings in Springfield. The site, which could house up to 7,500 workers, was one of three finalists— two others are in Maryland— before a previous search was canceled in 2017. Lawmakers are urging for a site to be designated by September. (Washington Business Journal;
Virginia Mercury)
McLean-based tech company ID.me Inc. laid off 54 employees on June 7, months after the Internal Revenue Service said it would drop plans to require taxpayers to submit to facial recognition via ID.me’s software. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act was posted on the Virginia Employment Commission’s website. Founded in 2010, ID.me works with 10 federal agencies, 30 states and more than 500 retailers. The Washington Post reported in April that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform opened an investigation into the efficacy and security of ID.me’s software. (VirginiaBusiness.com; The Washington Post)
Arlington-based Leonardo DRS Inc., a subsidiary of Italian defense contractor Leonardo SpA, entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Israel-based Rada Electronic Industries Ltd., becoming a combined public company later this year, the companies announced June 21. Rada will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leonardo DRS, and the new company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Combined, the two entities reported $2.7 billion in 2021 revenues. The deal comes months after Leonardo announced plans to sell off its satellite business. The company was on the verge of going public before its parent company paused the move in March 2021, citing “adverse market conditions.” (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Tysons software company and bitcoin whale MicroStrategy Inc. loaded up on more of the cryptocurrency over the past two months as bitcoin’s price plummeted, reaching a low of $17,560 per bitcoin on June 18. Between May 3 and June 28, MicroStrategy — led by crypto evangelist CEO Michael Saylor — purchased 480 bitcoins. It spent $10 million on those transactions, with each bitcoin costing an average of $20,817, including fees and expenses. That’s a smaller buy by the company’s standards, a sign that MicroStrategy appears to be slowing its pace. Saylor has preached a “buy and hold” strategy since his company began acquiring the currency in 2020. (Washington Business Journal)
PEOPLE
Grant F. Reid, will step down in September as CEO of M&Ms candy maker Mars Inc. Poul Weihrauch, currently global president of Mars Petcare, the company’s pet food and veterinary health division, will become Mars’ new CEO, the company announced June 22. The news comes as the privately held global candy and pet food manufacturer is experiencing major growth; it filed plans in April to expand and update its downtown McLean headquarters. Weihrauch, who is based in Brussels, is relocating to McLean. Reid, who has served in the role since 2014, will fully retire by the end of the year. Under Reid’s tenure, Mars’ revenue grew more than 50% to nearly $45 billion. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Ardine Williams, vice president of
HQ2 workforce development for Amazon.com Inc., has retired again. Williams was one of Amazon’s most high-profile Virginia executives and was leading the e-tailer’s effort to hire 25,000 workers by 2030 for its multibillion-dollar East Coast headquarters in Arlington. Just five months into her retirement from Intel in 2014, Williams was lured back to work by Amazon Web Services. She was promoted to the HQ2 position in 2018. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
ROANOKE/NEW RIVER VALLEY
Amtrak added a second daily departure from Roanoke on its Northeast Regional route beginning July 11, adding daily 4:30 p.m. trains to Washington, D.C. Amtrak service returned to Roanoke in 2017. The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority supports Amtrak Northeast Regional service in Norfolk, Richmond, Newport News, Lynchburg and Roanoke. (Virginia Business)
The Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling limiting federal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants does not directly impact Appalachian Power Co., which for years has relied predominantly on coal but more recently is accelerating a transition to renewable energy. The utility’s parent company, American Electric Power, has retired or sold more than 13,700 megawatts of coal-fueled generation over the past decade, Hall said. In Virginia, the Clean Economy Act mandates that all 500,000-some customers of Appalachian receive all carbon-free electricity by 2050. (The Roanoke Times)
A new National Park Service report shows that 15.9 million park visitors spent an estimated $1.3 billion in local gateway regions while visiting the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2021, according to a release from the parkway released in early July. That spending supported 17,900 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to local economies of $1.7 billion. The
peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. The report shows
$20.5 billion of direct spending by more than 297 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 322,600 jobs nationally; 269,900 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $42.5 billion. (Cardinal News)
With a snip of scissors at a late June event, the Montgomery Museum of Art & History reopened for business. After being closed for two months, the museum has a completely new look and feel. Its operations have moved to downtown Christiansburg, now spanning 15,000 square feet inside a former bank building. The event included an interactive exhibit for kids to make their own art to put up in the museum, as well as a ‘design your own museum’ activity. The museum plans to switch up exhibits often to keep people coming back and to make its mark on the New River Valley. (WSLS 10 News)
Virginia Tech in late June announced that it will establish a new learning accelerator at the university’s Pamplin College of Business through a $1 million gift from an alumnus and his wife. Omar Asali, a 1992 Virginia Tech graduate and chairman and CEO of Ohio-based Ranpak Holdings Corp., made the gift with his wife, Rula, through their family foundation. The Asali Learning Accelerator will “provide a dedicated space for Pamplin undergraduates to receive and deliver academic coaching services that are tailored to support students’ individual academic goals,” according to a news release. It will be housed in the second building at Tech’s Global Business and Analytics Complex (GBAC), which is under construction and expected to be completed by 2025. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
PEOPLE
Roanoke County Economic Development Director Jill Loope announced in early July that her 23rd year of working for the county will be her last. Loope, who joined the county as public information officer in 2000, was promoted from acting to full-time director of the economic development officer in 2013. She plans to retire July 1,
2023. “It’s been an honor to serve the people of Roanoke County,” said Loope. “I have enjoyed working with our business partners and seeing the positive growth and development that’s occurred in our community and region over the past two decades.” (The Roanoke Times)
SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Three Shenandoah Valley projects will receive GO Virginia grants, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced July 1. Frederick and Shenandoah counties and Winchester will receive $530,000 for the Accelerating Advanced Manufacturing Workforce program, an advanced manufacturing training initiative from Laurel Ridge Community College and the National Coalition of Certification Centers. Page, Shenandoah and Warren counties will receive $306,000 for NextGen Nurses, a nursing training program from Shenandoah University, Valley Health System and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association. Nine counties and three cities also will receive $100,000 for Shenandoah Valley Small Business Resiliency Teams, an initiative to help small businesses with e-commerce, finance and operational systems. (The Winchester Star)
U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon granted a joint motion on June 27 to reschedule the criminal trial of former Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Jennifer R. McDonald from October 2022 to May 2023. McDonald faces fraud, money laundering and identity theft charges. On July 7, a jury found that a co-defendant, April D. Petty, must repay the authority $125,000 used in the sale of a property, implicating Petty as a beneficiary of actions by McDonald, who the authority claims embezzled more than $21 million over several years to conduct real estate schemes. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
James Madison University, Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University entered into a systemwide agreement for telehealth and remote mental health services with TimelyMD in late June. TimelyCare serves as a 24/7 virtual extension of campus counseling center resources, with a goal of improving student well-being, engagement and retention. The service will be available for students starting in the fall semester. Students can select
care options from licensed counselors and mental health providers on their phones or via other devices and receive 12 counseling visits at no cost. (Daily News-Record)
The state’s biennium budget, which went into effect July 1, allotted $93 million for multiuse trails, and some funding is allocated for the acquisition of the corridor for the proposed 48.5-mile Shenandoah Rail Trail between Broadway and Front Royal. Officials will begin negotiations with Norfolk Southern Corp. to acquire the corridor, after which construction will begin. The track is no longer used for freight service. Part of the federal funding will establish a State Office of Trails, and the state will also receive $14 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program. (Daily News-Record)
Tim Davey with Timmons Group and Lee Downey with Hunton Andrews Kurth’s public affairs group presented a new marketing plan for Staunton Crossing to the Staunton Economic Development Authority on June 23. The plan calls to market the site for advanced manufacturing, data centers, retail and office/flex space, with an aim to develop 1.8 million square feet, attract $264 million in capital investment and create 3,250 jobs. The marketing plan could cost the city more than $102,000 and would focus on showcasing the site readiness of Staunton Crossing, emphasizing its unique characteristics, showing its overall development timeline and workforce and training availability. (News Leader)
On July 5, Woodstock Town Council approved a special use permit request to construct a building at 752 S. Main St. with 48 apartments, ground-floor retail space, a rooftop common area and 134 parking spaces. The building will be on the site of Naked Bear RV Service and Repair. Including the rooftop area, the building will be 55 feet high. The developer had previously made changes to its plans based on public comments, including giving the project a more traditional exterior design and adding landscaping and patios. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
SOUTHERN VIRGINIA
The Danville Industrial Development Authority is seeking a $26.5 million loan for its portion of the White Mill project. The IDA voted 5-0 to make the move during a special called meeting in early July. The vote authorizes the IDA to seek the loan from American National Bank but does not commit either party to the transaction. The $26.5 million would finance the renovation and redevelopment of 110,675 square feet of retail and commercial space in the building and 84,773 square feet of parking space. (Danville Register & Bee)
A 10.6-megawatt Danville Utilities battery storage facility constructed by Arlington-based Delorean Power is expected to begin operating by September. Delorean, which develops similar systems across the mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Midwest, will own and operate the facility at 864 Monument St. under a 20-year agreement with Danville Utilities. City officials expect it to save the city $1.2 million in transmission and capacity costs in the first year. COVID-19 restrictions in China delayed shipping of the batteries for the facility, which was initially expected to be operational in May. (Danville Register & Bee)
After years of swirling debate, the Long Mill Dam is coming down in Danville. Danville City Council voted on July 5 to demolish the dam located on the Dan River between the White Mill building and the Danville Area Family YMCA. Removal of the dam would bring state and federal permitting advantages to the two projects, Danville City Manager Ken Larking told City Council during a recent work session. (Danville Register & Bee)
The Henry County Board ofZoning Appeals in late June approved a special use permit to allow for the construction of a 18.8 megawatt, 268-acre solar energy facility in Ridgeway. Eliana Ginis, senior analyst of project development for Shifting Sands Solar LLC, presented the matter to the board and only one person spoke in opposition to the proposal. In response to the complaint, the board conditioned its approval with a requirement that extra evergreens be planted to obstruct the view of the solar panels from the road. (Martinsville Bulletin)
The second time was the charm for the 7-Bridges solar project, an 80-megawatt facility that won preliminary approval from the Mecklenburg County Board of Supervisors in mid-July. Reversing an earlier decision, supervisors voted 7-1 to deem 7-Bridges in substantial accord with the county’s comprehensive plan. The project developer, Boston-based Longroad Energy, wants to build the solar energy facility on 499 acres of timbered land northeast of Chase City near Scotts Crossroads, Courthouse Road and the Meherrin River. Longroad Energy must now go back before the planning commission and board of supervisors to seek a special exception permit before construction can begin. (SoVaNow)
Concern about a recession is understandable, but predictions must be tempered by underlying economic strengths, said Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin during a July 1 speech at a regional chamber of commerce at South Boston’s Berry Hill Resort. Barkin, who leads one of 12 regional Fed boards in the U.S., Barkin suggested that despite the cooling effects of Fed interest rate hikes, the United States can avoid recession due to current economic signs that are “relatively healthy.” He met with local business, government and agriculture leaders in early July in Brunswick, Mecklenburg and Halifax counties. (SoVaNow)
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
On June 30, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced 18 projects, most of which are in Southwest Virginia, for a total of $8.6 million in funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Highlights include: $1 million in water and sewer improvements for the Pure Salmon Virginia LLC aquaculture facility in Tazewell County; $1 million to expand wastewater service capacity at the construction site of the Blue Star NBR LLC nitrile manufacturing facility at Wythe County’s Progress Park; and $582,469 to extend fiber broadband service in Carroll County from Galax to Pipers Gap. (Cardinal News)
Virginia’s first casino, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol, held the grand opening for its temporary casino space on July 8. The space in the former Belk store of the Bristol Mall has 30,000 square feet with 870 slots, 21 tables and a sportsbook. Hard Rock Bristol was the first casino to receive a Virginia Lottery Board license, issued on April 27. The temporary space is expected to create 600 jobs, while the permanent, 90,000-square-foot resort set to open in July 2024 should generate about 1,200 to 1,500 jobs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
On July 4, members of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Local 2850 went on strike, holding signs outside of General Dynamics Corp.’s Marion plants, which serve the Reston-based defense contractor’s Mission Systems subsidiary. Alan Keesee, the UAW chapter president, said it had been five years since a new contract was put in place and that members were concerned about the cost of living. The UAW and the company negotiated for four weeks until 11:59 p.m. July 1. The union membership rejected the tentative agreement. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Bristol, Virginia-based yarn manufacturer Universal Fibers is among several employers in the region participating in the launch of the Employer-Sponsored Child Care Benefit pilot program made possible by the United Way of Southwest Virginia and a GO Virginia grant. The United Way will match employer contributions to employees’ child care costs. The two-year pilot program could save eligible employees an estimated $5,200 in annual child care costs. Universal Fibers’ Bristol facility employs more than 500 people but lost about 5% of its workers during the pandemic due to workers’ child care needs. (Bristol Herald Courier)
On June 30, the Virginia Department of Transportation and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) presented information to the Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority about new federal funding. In its 2022 budget, the federal government allocated almost $2 million to the long-delayed Coalfields Expressway (CFX) project, a proposed 115-mile highway to improve transportation connectivity between Southwest Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Seven miles of the expressway overlap U.S. Route 460 and were previously the only funded
part of Virginia’s roughly 50-mile portion of the CFX. A transportation department engineer said the funding would be used for pre-engineering work and environmental impacts studies for the route from Grundy to the West Virginia state line. (news release)
The Virginia Department of Energy will receive $22.7 million in federal funding toward redeveloping abandoned mine lands across the commonwealth, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced July 6. The funding is aimed at redeveloping the sites so that they can attract new development and job opportunities to the region. Handled through Virginia’s Abandoned Mine Lands program, funded projects involve mitigating safety hazards and environmental issues on the sites that resulted from coal mining prior to the implementation of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
In Virginia Beach, most tourists flock to the Oceanfront. But just a couple blocks west, you’ll find an area that feels a little more artsy and a lot more local.
In the 15-block ViBe Creative District, situated between the Virginia Beach Convention Center and the Oceanfront, coffee shops and restaurants operate out of former industrial spaces, alongside fences and crosswalks decorated with colorful murals.
Local business owners started discussing the need for creating a unified district around 2011. Over the next few years, the effort grew. By 2015, Virginia Beach City Council passed an ordinance establishing the ViBe as the city’s official creative district. What was once an underdeveloped and rundown industrial area — a place that was “not for people,” as one longtime resident puts it — has blossomed into a cultural mecca with trendy shops and weekend farmers markets.
Kate Pittman, executive director of the nonprofit ViBe Creative District organization, which supports and promotes the district, says the district’s founders deliberately planned for it to become the “No. 3 destination” in Virginia Beach, behind the Oceanfront and the upscale Town Center, a mixed-use district with a blend of retail, restaurants, hotels and office towers.
“The ViBe district is something that has very much that local flavor and really is the kind of locals’ opportunity to win and live the life of their dreams in their own hometown,” she says. “So, for us, we think it’s a beautiful asset [for] tourism because while [tourists are] here in Virginia Beach exploring the Oceanfront, they can come inland just a few blocks and get to meet and see local business leaders and local artists engaging in beautifying Virginia Beach and making it just something new and different and really enriching.”
The ViBe district’s creation was no coincidence. It’s a primary example of placemaking — a term developers use to describe the purposeful development of people-centric public spaces and districts. Placemaking is defined by vibrant, transit-oriented walkable neighborhoods and a mix of retail, offices, residential and even hotels.
From farm to metropolis
Placemaking is more than just physical buildings or a design philosophy, says Juanita Hardy, managing principal of Silver Spring, Maryland-based Tiger Management Consulting Group LLC and a former senior visiting fellow for creative placemaking at the Urban Land Institute. It’s about what goes on around a development, including parks, public art and events programming — everything that attracts people to spend time in an area.
While there are multiple ways of interpreting it, placemaking in Virginia dates back at least 60 years, when developers had a vision for the transformation of Tysons Corner. What had once been a rural crossroads marked by farms and a mom-and-pop gas station has grown into a thriving edge city lauded by planners and developers as one of the nation’s premier examples of placemaking.
Now known as simply Tysons, it evolved from office parks and a sprawling shopping mall into a budding metropolis that is now home to corporate headquarters for Fortune 500 companies such as Freddie Mac, Capital One Financial Corp., Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
Tysons “represented something new and profoundly different for Fairfax and all of the suburbs,” says Terry Clower, a professor of public policy at George Mason University and director of Mason’s Center for Regional Analysis.
Featured in the 1991 book “Edge City: Life on the New Frontier,” by Joel Garreau, Tysons forged the way for the success of other planned communities and developments.
“I don’t think Reston could have happened without the success of Tysons,” Clower says, referring to the similarly successful Fairfax County community that also began as a planned development in the 1960s and has now grown into a nearly 16-square-mile district featuring suburban neighborhoods, corporate office towers and the mixed-use Reston Town Center.
While placemaking is hardly a new trend, the idea of placemaking as an economic development panacea and redevelopment tool has gained popularity, with local governments even creating positions to support it.
“In conversation after conversation with business executives, we hear that a sense of place is paramount,” says Anthony Romanello, executive director of the Henrico County Economic Development Authority, which appointed a dedicated placemaking manager this year. “Creating workplaces that are attractive, fun, walkable and engaging is as essential to economic development as low taxes, good roads, quality schools and a pro-business climate.”
Virginia offers a variety of examples of placemaking in different stages of development, ranging from billion-dollar projects in the planning stages to mature communities like Tysons.
Changing identities
In Arlington County, a new neighborhood, National Landing, is rising around Amazon.com Inc.’s $2.5 billion-plus HQ2 East Coast headquarters.
Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Smith Properties, the real estate company developing HQ2 and the surrounding area, is aiming to create a “vibrant, transit-oriented, walkable” neighborhood there, “with ground-floor retail and a mix of uses,” says company Vice President Jack Kelly.
National Landing encompasses three older neighborhoods: Potomac Yard (straddling the Alexandria-Arlington line), Crystal City and Pentagon City (both in Arlington). In decades past, these were largely business districts that emptied out at the end of the day, encouraging car-centric commuting back and forth from the suburbs. But local economic developers and JBG Smith are hoping to unite them under the National Landing moniker as one downtown district — a place where people can live, work and play.
The late 2018 announcement that HQ2 was coming to Arlington presented the opportunity for a “big shift in our planning and development … to move toward good urbanism,” says Tracy Gabriel, president and executive director of the National Landing Business Improvement District (formerly known as the Crystal City Business Improvement District).
Amazon HQ2 will have about 4.9 million square feet of office space, divided across two phases: Metropolitan Park, the first phase, is set to open in 2023, with two 22-floor office towers, a 2-acre public park and 65,000 square feet of ground floor retail. The second phase, PenPlace, slated to open in 2025, includes plans for three additional 22-story towers. It’s also expected to feature HQ2’s centerpiece, the distinctive, 354-foot-high spiral-shaped Helix building.
But more than that is planned for National Landing.
“Everything we do is rooted in that idea that we’ve got a big opportunity to really change the identity of a place that’s been around a long time,” Kelly says.
That means creating public spaces where people can gather, as well as adding design elements to create a sense of continuity in the neighborhood. “It’s really all about that civic space,” he says, “identifying those areas that are meaningful to the community … and then creating a landscape and streetscape that is attractive and unifying … across large areas.”
While National Landing is already well underway to fulfilling its vision of becoming a new community, other placemaking projects in Virginia are in earlier stages.
In Henrico County, developers are preparing to redevelop the former Best Products Co. corporate headquarters campus, which closed in 1997, into GreenCity, a $2.3 billion, 200-acre mixed-use “ecodistrict” that will include an up-to-17,000-seat multipurpose arena; two or three hotels; about 2,200 housing units; and 2.2 million square feet of office space.
Developers Susan Eastridge and Michael Hallmark brought the privately funded GreenCity project to Henrico after a similar, publicly funded project they pitched to Richmond, the $1.5 billion Navy Hill development, failed to receive support from Richmond City Council.
Henrico’s government has embraced GreenCity, which was announced in December 2020 and approved for rezoning by the Henrico County Board of Supervisors less than 10 months later. GreenCity’s full buildout will take 10 to 12 years, says Eastridge, CEO of Fairfax-based Concord Eastridge Inc. Construction is expected to begin by late 2023 or early 2024.
One of the core components of the project is the arena, which developers hope will attract major sporting and entertainment events. Hallmark, founder of Los Angeles-based Future Cities LLC, has a background in designing arenas. The co-founder of a handful of sports arena architecture firms, he helped lead the design of projects such as Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. He hopes that GreenCity’s status as an ecodistrict — a development focused on environmental sustainability — will draw interest from large music acts that have pledged to make their tours ecologically friendly.
He and Eastridge also anticipate that GreenCity will be a magnet for businesses and residents who care about saving the planet. GreenCity’s sustainability features include devoting more than 20 acres of rooftops for a solar energy farm and harvesting and reusing rainwater.
JBG Smith Properties is developing National Landing as a “vibrant, transit-oriented, walkable” mixed-use neighborhood around Amazon.com’s HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington, says company Vice President Jack Kelly. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Places in the pipeline
Around the commonwealth, placemaking can also be seen in the planning and creation of new buzzworthy downtown districts. Examples range from Norfolk‘s Military Circle Mall redevelopment and Richmond’s Diamond District to Chesapeake‘s Summit Pointe.
Norfolk is in early negotiations with developers, including music icon and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams, to redevelop the old Military Circle Mall property into Wellness Circle, a proposed $1.1 billion mixed-use community with 1 million square feet of office space, a 200-room hotel, 1,100 new housing units and a 15,000-seat arena. The project’s other developers include Virginia Beach-based Venture Realty Group and California arena management company Oak View Group. (Two other development teams, including groups connected with Virginia Beach hotelier Bruce Thompson and Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, submitted competing proposals for the project.)
In nearby Chesapeake, Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc. is developing a downtown district around its 12-story corporate headquarters built in 2018. The $300 million Summit Pointe development is expected to have 1 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail and 1,400 residences when all 70 acres are fully built out.
In 2018, Chesapeake Mayor Rick West described Summit Pointe as “the beginning of a new downtown Chesapeake.”
That’s how Chris Williams, a senior vice president with Dollar Tree and its Summit Pointe Realty subsidiary, sees it, too.
“There really isn’t a place [like this] in Chesapeake, so I think between the restaurant and the residential spaces we are building, it gives the community a place to come and enjoy,” says Williams, who now sees people in Summit Pointe gathering at Wasserhund Brewing Co. in the evenings or jogging around the streets. “It really becomes a community.”
Another district primed for placemaking is the area around the Diamond, the aging stadium that’s home to Richmond’s Minor League Baseball team, the Flying Squirrels. The city wants to build a new baseball stadium as the centerpiece of a new, pedestrian-friendly residential, business and entertainment district. It’s planned for a 67-acre site that currently includes the stadium and underdeveloped properties alongside Interstates 64 and 95, not far from the popular Scott’s Addition neighborhood. Three teams have submitted competing redevelopment proposals. The city’s evaluation panel was expected to recommend a developer in late July to Richmond City Council, which would have to approve the development agreement.
Good ViBes
While National Landing, GreenCity and other places are in earlier stages of development, Virginia Beach’s ViBe Creative District, which has been around for about seven years, is blossoming.
After the city redeveloped the convention center in 2005, there wasn’t anything nearby to attract convention-goers — just lots of vacant storefronts and industrial properties. “There was a real need to … breathe new life into this area,” says Pittman with the ViBe’s nonprofit booster organization.
In response to that problem, local business owners Laura Wood, whose family owns Croc’s 19th Street Bistro, and Andrew Fine, co-chairman of The Runnymede Corp., came up with the idea for the ViBe, rallying businesses and property owners to develop the community.
Together, Wood and Fine co-founded the ViBe. Working with the city and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, they were able to launch the nonprofit group and hire Pittman in 2016. The nonprofit, which has raised more than $1 million since its founding, has evolved into an entity that is able to collaborate with the city’s economic development office to create a matching grant program for the district’s small businesses.
Today, the ViBe has a coworking space, restaurants and artsy shops, and hosts bustling flea markets and farmers markets during weekends.
The ViBe’s nonprofit developed a cohesive identity for the ViBe by engaging local artists to produce an array of colorful neighborhood identifiers such as fence murals and brightly painted street meters, signaling the district’s emphasis on creativity.
Michael Hallmark, founder of Future Cities LLC, is co-developing GreenCity, a $2.3 billion redevelopment of the former Best Products corporate headquarters in Henrico County into a mixed-use ecodistrict with hotels, housing, offices and a multipurpose arena. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
“Creative placemaking through art supports a triple bottom line for sustainable communities and creative energy enhanced by creative arts,” says Wood, and that translates into economic benefits, health and environmental benefits, and social cohesion.
“We believed these creative and public art spaces must be discovered, seen, felt, heard, tasted, smelled and touched,” Wood says. “It could be explored on fence walls, streets, sidewalks, parking lots, open spaces and gardens, alleyways and buildings. I saw a blank canvas for ViBe and the 19th Street corridor via the Old Beach Farmers Market to create a heartbeat in our neglected neighborhood that could be filled with authentic local food, farmers, spaces with paint, native gardens and an environmentally friendly, artful soul and emotion to entice, with creative opportunities to be discovered.”
Another integral figure in the ViBe’s development is L.G. Shaw, president of Wave Riding Vehicles, a Virginia Beach-based retailer and manufacturer of surfboards and sporting apparel and goods.
Growing a community is not a new concept to Shaw. “Being surfers first, we’ve always had to build our own sort of clubhouse and community here in Virginia Beach,” he says. “Surf shops have always been a placemaking headquarters on accident — that’s where [surfers] went back in the day.”
WRV had unused warehouse spaces around the district, so Shaw decided to lease the spaces to “cool little artistic” businesses like North End Bag Co., where shoppers can buy handbags made by hand right on premises. Nearby, Igor’s Custom Signs & Stripes makes hand-painted signs, banners and murals, and Jars of Dust makes and sells handcrafted ceramics carried by national retailer Anthropologie.
More than 50 businesses have opened or expanded operations in the ViBe since 2015, and real estate values within the district rose by more than $45 million collectively between 2015 and 2021.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that other developers are hoping to capture some of the ViBe’s vibe.
“I think the ViBe district has organically and authentically evolved into a vision of what Virginia Beach could be,” says Donna MacMillan-Whitaker, managing partner of Venture Realty Group, which is co-developing the nearby
$350 million Atlantic Park with Pharrell Williams. “We want to expand on and help anchor that.”
Tysons is a nationally recognized example of placemaking, evolving from a rural crossroads in the early 1960s to a budding metropolis that is a headquarters for several major global companies, including Capital One Financial Corp. and Mars Inc. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
In its first phase, set to break ground in October, the Atlantic Park project, which will be about three blocks from the ViBe, calls for a 2-acre, manmade wave lagoon, 120,000 square feet of retail, 310,000 square feet of residential living space, 15,000 square feet of office space and a 3,500-seat entertainment venue.
The ViBe was “a true grassroots effort by a passionate and dedicated community group,” MacMillan-Whitaker says. “Look around the country at other successful cities — which cities are expanding, retaining their talented youth, growing their population, their tourism, and even their wages? Art and culture and placemaking are what people want to be a part of.”
On July 13, 2021, against a backdrop of ships blasting their horns and spraying water in celebration at the Port of Virginia’s Norfolk International Terminals, Gov. Ralph Northam sat for a harborside interview with CNBC, which had just named Virginia the nation’s best state for business for an unprecedented second consecutive year. (Virginia previously won the No. 1 spot in CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business list in 2019; the cable business news network suspended the 2020 rankings due to the pandemic.)
“This is an exciting day for Virginia,” a grinning Northam said, going on to tout the state’s investment in the port’s infrastructure.
Exactly one year later, under new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the commonwealth presented a very different response after Virginia was bumped from the top spot by North Carolina, with CNBC ranking the Old Dominion as the nation’s No. 3 state for business in 2022.
There were no news releases sent out from the governor’s office recognizing the fact that coming in third out of 50 is still pretty darn good. Ditto, there were no kudos extended to our southern neighbor.
Instead, when asked by reporters about the rankings, Youngkin said, “I’m always so appreciative of Virginia receiving good accolades … [but] Virginia has not been performing like the best state for business.”
This isn’t a case of sour grapes on Youngkin’s part — it’s a consistent position.
During his campaign for governor, Youngkin downplayed Virginia’s No. 1 ranking, noting that Virginia’s pandemic job recovery numbers in late summer 2021 had placed it among the bottom five states. He’s also been critical of the cost of living and doing business in Virginia, as well as the fact that Virginia lags behind many other states in the availability of large, shovel-ready sites for larger economic development projects. (Incomplete site grading was cited as one factor for why Hyundai chose a site in Savannah, Georgia, for a $5.5 billion electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in May instead of Pittsylvania County‘s Southern Virginia Mega Site at Berry Hill.)
CNBC bases its rankings on 88 metrics, including workforce (the most heavily weighted category); education; cost of living; technology and innovation; and access to capital.
“A great education system is building a smart workforce,” CNBC said about Virginia this year, “but migration has slowed to a state where living costs are high.”
In terms of infrastructure, CNBC ranked Virginia ninth best in the nation, citing the commonwealth’s ongoing $3.8 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion, as well as the fact that 89.3% of Virginians have broadband access. (Also, just 4% of bridges and 13% of roads in Virginia are in poor condition, the network noted.)
Nevertheless, CNBC gave Virginia a D+ grade for cost of living and C+ grades for its economy and life, health and inclusion.
To his credit, Youngkin, former co-CEO of Washington, D.C., private equity firm The Carlyle Group, has said that as governor his priorities include job creation and lowering the costs of living and doing business in the commonwealth.
Responding to the CNBC rankings, Youngkin noted that Virginia jobs numbers improved dramatically during the first six months of his administration, and he touted economic development successes such as the June announcement that the Lego Group plans to build a $1 billion toy manufacturing plant in Chesterfield County. Yet, the governor distanced himself a bit from the factors that CNBC criticized, saying that while he’s working to improve the economy, his administration’s also “had to dig out of a hole” he inherited from Northam.
Meanwhile, Virginia Democrats issued a statement, claiming that Youngkin’s “culture war” and stances on issues such as abortion (the governor has proposed banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy) “are driving business away” from Virginia. State Democrats also charged that Youngkin is too focused on his rumored interest in a 2024 presidential bid.
After just six months in office, though, it was probably still a little early for Youngkin to either take credit for the good or blame for the bad. And if Virginia politicos learned any lessons from former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s term, it is likely also far too soon to chase national ambitions.
Interim Pittsylvania County Administrator Clarence Monday knows what’s better than two localities working together: a whole region working to support them in a joint effort.
“The partnership between Danville and Pittsylvania County is unusually strong, so it makes sense that Pittsylvania County is a partner in the economic and community success of this region. We’re natural partners,” he says.
The partners are two of the stakeholders of the newly formed Partnership for Regional Prosperity, which aims to expand on the region’s reputation for economic development partnership.
The group’s formation is the outcome of a recommendation from the 2019 Regional Economic Development Strategic Plan, which was jointly funded by Danville, Pittsylvania and the Danville Regional Foundation in 2018.
Representing the public and private sectors along with community organizations, the seven members of the steering committee were appointed by Danville City Council and the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors. They are Monday; Clark Casteel, president and CEO of the Danville Regional Foundation; Danville City Manager Ken Larking; Angela Hairston, superintendent of Danville Public Schools; Tommy Mathena, president of the Center for Pediatric Therapies; Anne Moore-Sparks, president and CEO of the Danville Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce; and Telly Tucker, president of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.
“The goal, ultimately, is you have this regional thinking group,” says Casteel.
Casteel and Monday point out that
$1.1 billion of investment and 4,000 jobs have sprung up in the region since 2018. They want to build on that success.
“We have some real momentum and [are] making real progress, and we think more is on the horizon,” Casteel says.
But with more growth comes challenges. Over time, the region’s industries have changed.
“Since the closing of Dan River Mills and the decline in the tobacco industries, our region has worked hard to rebuild its economy and we’ve seen tremendous progress,” Larking says. “I believe our community needs to refocus its energy on how to best manage the change that comes from growth. We are confident that our area is poised for significant change. Planning for that change will produce the best outcome.”
Monday agrees. “The region has come a long way since the demise of furniture and textiles,” he says. “The area could have rolled over and played dead, but instead the community leadership chose to do something about it and we’re seeing dividends of that at the present.”
Many companies in Virginia are taking a flexible approach on whether employees must return to work in offices or continue working remotely or via hybrid models.
For instance, Capital One Financial Corp., the McLean-based credit card company, is planning to reopen its U.S. offices in a hybrid model on Sept. 6. Capital One delayed its initial call to return to the office in September 2021 because of the delta and (later) omicron variants of coronavirus causing spikes in infection rates.
Company spokeswoman Stacy Jones says the post-Labor Day date was intentionally chosen “in order to provide ample time for associates to plan and prepare for their transition to our hybrid model. “
In a statement, the company says, “For associates who are ready to return to in-person work sooner, Capital One offices are open on a voluntary basis. We will continue to closely monitor the health environment and state of COVID in its communities. If health conditions do not support a safe reopening, adaptations may be made to reopening plans.”
Travel insurance company Allianz Partners has about 550 employees in Henrico County, working remotely and in a hybrid model. Its office is open weekdays, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are designated as common days, when fully vaccinated employees are encouraged to come to the office to collaborate and meet in person.
“Our new model will be hybrid, where teams may have colleagues both onsite and remote (local or otherwise). Given the global nature of our company, we also work increasingly with colleagues from other countries,” the company says.
Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc., which is building its multibillion-dollar HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington, also has indicated its plans to maintain a flexible hybrid office environment going forward. It had initially stated it would return workers to hybrid schedules in January, but that was delayed due to omicron spikes.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in an October 2021 note to employees that the company is going to be “experimenting and learning” about what approach works best, adding that there is no “one-size-fits-all policy.”
Jassy said, “For our corporate roles, instead of specifying that people work a baseline of three days a week in the office, we’re going to leave this decision up to individual teams. We expect that there will be teams that continue working mostly remotely, others that will work some combination of remotely and in the office, and still others that will decide customers are best served having the team work mostly in the office. “
Virginia-based insurance company Genworth Financial Inc., which has offices in Henrico and Lynchburg, reopened its Virginia offices for hybrid work on April 4.
The majority of the company’s employees have the flexibility to work from the office or home on whatever schedule best suits their needs, says company spokeswoman Amy Rein.
Few of the company’s employees have returned to work at an office full time. In Richmond, only about 5% are working from the office two or three days a week, with about 15% coming in occasionally, Rein says. In Lynchburg, about 7% of employees work from the office two or three days a week.
“We do not expect our hybrid work approach to change for the foreseeable future as we consider not only the continued effects of the pandemic, but also employment and economic trends,” Rein says.
Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Big Tobacco company Philip Morris USA, has adopted a flexible work policy that enables its office staff to work remotely or in the office whenever needed.
“I would say that, so far, the opportunities vastly outweigh any concerns that we have had,” says Michelle Cutter, Altria’s vice president for talent management.
“We are also seeing that we have more and better access to remote [job] candidates,” Cutter says, adding that Altria has seen no significant uptick in turnover during the pandemic.
Altria has not closed or consolidated any of its office space. The company is maintaining its corporate headquarters office in Henrico County along with its downtown Richmond research and development center.
“We want to make sure we have a footprint that allows for true flexibility,” says Cutter.
“No, I don’t think so,” says Pete Graham, CFO for PRA Group Inc., a debt-buying company headquartered in Norfolk. “It’s quite something. Any one of those things would be a challenge, but to put them all together …”
Today’s array of issues is unprecedented, says Graham — at least in the 30 years he’s spent working in the financial industry, with the past six at PRA Group. “Our business is more than 25 years old,” he says, “and we’ve never faced anything like this.”
Fast-changing economic and geopolitical conditions have changed how and when CFOs are dealing with everything from audits to budget and operational planning, says Luther Griffith with Sweet Briar College. Photo courtesy Sweet Briar College
Few have. In the past, CFOs mostly focused on the job’s traditional responsibilities: the numbers — balance sheets, expenses and revenues.
Not anymore. In today’s world, the formerly narrow lens of duties expected of a CFO has considerably widened.
“The bar is continually getting raised higher,” Graham says. “The numbers part of it is just table stakes — you need to be really good at that, but to succeed now you need to bring much more value to the company.”
In Graham’s case, one of his added responsibilities is information technology: “The CIO reports to me now.”
Says Joel Flax, CFO for Cohen Investment Group, a commercial real estate investment firm based in Norfolk: “Today’s CFO could be named the chief flexible officer.”
While a CFO’s job is tough and getting tougher, the median salary for a CFO in Virginia is $411,800, according to Salary.com, perhaps accounting for their expanded roles.
Stephanie Peters, president and CEO of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, says Graham’s experience is typical of CFOs today.
“Now some are having to be responsible for reporting how the company is doing in certain ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance] and DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] areas,” she says. “They have to track their environmental footprint and some social issues. They need to worry about what the customer of the future is going to want and expect.”
Peters, who has led the VSCPA for 15 years, hears from many CFOs who also have personnel matters added to their plates.
“It’s all about people,” she says, “and that involves a variety of issues. Finding people is already hard — and finding finance people is particularly challenging. And it’s not only finding people, but dealing with the salary … [and] benefit issues, along with costs going up so much, and how are we taking care of people mentally?”
Peters also says the field of finance is rapidly transforming, forcing CFOs to stay ahead of the trends: “They’re really working on, ‘How can I shift this team away from doing the traditional work of looking at the past and starting to shift to looking at the future?’ To do that, you need to use technology, be digital-first, be data-driven, and you need people with the skill sets to do that.
“I hear people saying, ‘Oh, accounting is going to go away with automation.’ If only!”
Expanding roles, stresses
Extra duties, combined with a tight labor market, put added pressure on CFOs, she says. But there’s an upside: “It’s making businesses think about how they are using technology, how they are getting work done, making them get creative and look at other options. You have to start thinking about what is the work you should be doing versus what is the work you are doing.”
Businesses are still feeling elements of a pandemic hangover, but many have solved — at least temporarily — the issue of whether to have staffers back in the office, working from home, or on a hybrid schedule. But for more than two years, staff location also has been a major burden placed on many CFOs.
“The title of CFO is mostly associated with the finance part of the business,” says Ana Gomes, controller for Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC, a wealth management firm in Norfolk. “Nowadays, the need to wear many different hats is crucial for a successful CFO. That can include technology oversight, strategic support and company culture advocate.”
In addition to their expanding roles, Peters says, some Virginia CFOs also are navigating global economic reverberations from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ranging from inflation and supply chain woes to recessionary worries and companies seeking to divest assets in Russia.
“There is so much going on,” she says. “We just came out of a global pandemic, and we’re still dealing with that on top of rapid changes in the economy, and now geopolitics. … It’s just another stress on top of the other stresses people are having.”
Luther Griffith, vice president for finance, operations and auxiliary enterprises at Sweet Briar College, a private women’s college in Amherst County, says adapting comes with the territory for CFOs: “Most CFOs deal in four time segments at once: auditing the prior year’s financial results, operating the current year’s business and finances, planning the budget and operating plan for next year, and updating a rolling five-year model.”
Historically speaking, he says, “This cycle was pretty routine — ‘rinse and repeat.’ Today, with the variations caused by the global pandemic, as well as economic, domestic political and geopolitical influences, the four segments can be vastly different. So, it’s much more challenging to manage and educate board members and administrators on the nuances.”
Ana Gomes with Norfolk wealth management firm Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management doesn’t think a recession is ahead, but says that “it all depends on the Fed’s ability to dampen inflation without diminishing growth.” Photo courtesy Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC
The elephant in the room
Of all the economic challenges out there for financial officers right now, one looms largest, however: the possibility of recession and the accompanying headaches it could bring. While no one knows for sure whether there will be a recession, Peters says simply, “Something’s coming.”
Nearly 70% of economists believe a recession will occur in 2023, according to a Financial Times survey. In late June, responding to the Federal Reserve’s 0.75% rate increase, Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank, said, “We now expect an earlier and somewhat more severe recession.” Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs analysts rated the risk for recession higher than they had previously, now rating the chance of recession this year at 30% (up from 15%) and within two years at 50% (up from 35%).
“We now see recession risk as higher and more front-loaded,” they said, citing high inflation and energy prices. They downgraded their economic growth forecasts but aren’t predicting that the economy will shrink.
Most every CFO has an opinion about the potential for recession — as well as a plan for weathering the potential storm.
“One day the economic gurus will be right, and we will have a recession,” says Flax. “I have been preparing since I started here in 2016 to build a cash reserve. I maintain a running budget to monitor projected cash needs for the next 15 months.”
At Smith-Midland Corp., a precast concrete company in Midland, its CFO, AJ Krick, is among those preparing for the worst. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but the economic signs are pointing in that direction,” he says. In the meantime, Krick says he is “increasing the amount of cash kept on hand for future reinvestment, and a potential rainy day.”
Even if there won’t be a recession this time around, the future probably holds one, says P.J. Ross, CFO for Hitt Contracting Inc., a Falls Church-based commercial real estate construction firm.
“Recessions are an inevitable part of the U.S. economic cycle,” says Ross, “so we are going to see more expansions, contractions and recessions in our lifetimes. Knowing this, it’s important that we always plan ahead to ensure we are well-prepared to handle what’s next.
“Borrowing rates are still relatively low from a historical standpoint, but the supply chain is being stressed like I have never seen before. We’re putting extra emphasis on supplier diversity to ensure we maintain our project schedules and quality standards.”
Griffith, of Sweet Briar College, says a recession “would have revenue impact,” potentially on philanthropy, which would require the school to dip into its reserves. “As with many recessions, we confirm them in hindsight,” Griffith says, noting that even without a recession, inflation and supply-chain issues are having immediate effects on campus construction plans and the college’s endowment.
Not everyone is wringing their hands over the “R” word.
“I don’t think there will be a recession,” Gomes says. “The current labor market is robust, with low unemployment rates. Consumer balance sheets reflect savings built up during the pandemic, gains in the stock and housing markets.
“To a large extent, it all depends on the Fed’s ability to dampen inflation without diminishing growth — a task that becomes even more difficult with the uncertainties surrounding Ukraine, but not an impossible one.”
Cheryl Morris, financial manager for Salem Montessori School, says, “I think we will have a mild recession and we’ll see a restriction of luxury, nonessential purchases.”
Graham, who believes “it’s not a matter of if, but rather when a recession will begin,” says PRA Group is prepared, but not panicking.
“We see some consumers already experiencing financial stress caused by increased expenses and inflation rates, regardless of whether the recession has been formally declared,” he says. “But our business is somewhat countercyclical, so we anticipate more investment opportunity as credit metrics are impacted by recessionary forces.
“When it comes to preparation, our focus is twofold: We must ensure that we maintain a strong balance sheet with access to funding for investments, and that we maintain a highly trained and dedicated workforce, so we are equipped to partner with customers to help them on the pathway to financial recovery through these challenging times.”
Read about Virginia Business’ 2022 Virginia CFO of the Year award winners:
When manufacturers thinking about setting up shop in Southern Virginia visit Pittsylvania County, the county’s economic development director, Matt Rowe, doesn’t just show off expansive, shovel-ready industrial sites. He also touts the region’s workforce, which includes many workers with advanced manufacturing skill sets.
Eighteen percent of Southern Virginia’s labor force works in manufacturing, an industry that has been a central part of the region’s landscape for more than a century. However, as textile, apparel and furniture production moved offshore over the past several decades, many local factories closed. Southern Virginia, however, refused to cast aside its industrial heritage.
The cities of Danville and Martinsville, along with Pittsylvania, Halifax, Patrick and Henry counties, banded together to train workers to participate in a new generation of manufacturing, with a focus on advanced technologies, including robotics, mechatronics, precision machining, computer coding and automation. Along with community college and tech center programs, trade skills have been integrated into local schools’ K-12 curriculum, with dual enrollment courses leading to advanced certifications for high school graduates.
“We’ve invested in workforce programs highly desired by industry,” Rowe says, noting that Pittsylvania and Danville have earmarked more than $70 million for workforce training over the past decade. “The community asked industries what they needed and put significant resources into meeting those needs. Having those skill sets is highly valued by industries. It’s not only kept businesses in place, but it’s helped attract new businesses.”
Corporate investment is surging in Southern Virginia as firms take advantage of available land and talent. During the past six years, new and expanding industries have invested more than $700 million in capital projects and brought 3,200-plus jobs to the region. Much of that largesse has occurred at Cane Creek Centre, an industrial park co-owned by Pittsylvania and Danville; about 1,500 new jobs have been created at the park since 2018. Companies that have moved into Cane Creek in recent years include North America’s largest step van manufacturer, Morgan Olson LLC; indoor vertical produce grower AeroFarms; and Walraven Inc., a manufacturer of installation systems for plumbing and mechanical applications that moved its U.S. headquarters and manufacturing operations from Cadillac, Michigan, to Danville.
Next summer, Tyson Foods will bring nearly 400 jobs to the region when it opens its $300 million, 325,000-square-foot plant at Cane Creek. The food production facility marks the largest economic development project in Pittsylvania to date. While Southern Virginia boasts a central location and lower costs for utilities, labor, raw materials, taxes and real estate than many other U.S. locales, the region’s workforce training program was a major factor in Tyson’s decision to build in the region.
“Tyson saw the technical skill sets we’ve developed and adjusted plans for their facility and made it more automated and technologically advanced,” says Corrie Bobe, Danville’s economic development director. “The average wage increased, compared to what was originally planned. That’s a large success for our community.”
The region’s focus on preparing students for the manufacturing workforce was key to Tyson choosing to build in Southern Virginia, says Nancy Frank, plant manager of Tyson Foods Danville. “We’ve partnered with area high schools [and] community colleges, including Danville Community College, to offer a new maintenance technology training program and made significant local and state investments in training programs and facilities across the region to help find highly skilled workers and create pathways for employment for our future team members.”
“There’s a rich manufacturing heritage in the region,” says Telly Tucker, president of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, which provides training in skills ranging from advanced manufacturing to information technology. Photo by Hannah King
‘A rich heritage’
Danville’s Institute for Advanced Learning and Research plays a major role in cultivating those skill sets. Established in 2002 to diversify Southern Virginia’s economy, IALR works with middle and high schools, community colleges and higher education centers to teach skills such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, automotive manufacturing and cybersecurity.
“There’s a rich manufacturing heritage in the region,” says Telly Tucker, the institute’s president. “Legacy manufacturing has defined Virginia for over a century, but when industries that supported the region for generations were no longer able to do that, we began investing in new technologies and new training to be relevant and make the region more attractive for industries. That provides opportunities for better quality of life for our residents.”
Tucker joined the institute in May after serving as Arlington County’s economic development director since 2020. He previously held the same position in Danville for six years. “I was surprised by how much has happened in the two-and-a-half years since I left,” Tucker says. “I’m just really thrilled and proud seeing the new energy and excitement. It’s been very much a regional effort with a significant investment of capital in schools to provide the next generation of Southern Virginia citizens with opportunities to gain skills in targeted sectors.”
Troy Simpson, who was the institute’s director of advanced manufacturing before retiring this summer, adds that as technology becomes more advanced, workers are compelled to become proficient in more complex skills. “We want to make sure we give the next generation the tools to compete,” he says. “Before we can recruit companies into the region, we have to demonstrate that we have a workforce that can support that type of manufacturing.”
Simpson, who spent 31 years in workforce development, initially wanted to be a tobacco farmer like his father, but as the industry waned, he enrolled in a community college machinery program. “I recognized what skilled training can do for people in rural areas to change the trajectory of their lives,” he says.
He also recalls the region’s economic decline after Dan River Mills, a textiles manufacturer that was once the town’s largest employer, closed in 2006. “That was painful to watch,” Simpson says. “We have a manufacturing DNA, but obviously manufacturing has changed, and we had to change.”
Simpson points to the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing pilot program as a way Southern Virginia has shifted gears. The product of a public-private consortium involving IALR, Danville Community College, Phillips Corp. and Alexandria-based strategic consulting firm The Spectrum Group, the program gives the region a chance to play a larger national role in the defense industry while developing a new shipbuilding work force.
“By 2025,” Simpson says, “we will train 1,000 people yearly to build submarines and work in the supply chain building hardware and components needed to build naval systems.”
Rapid launches
“That’s the beautiful thing about what we’re seeing now,” Tucker says. “Technology has completely changed every industry sector. Skill sets taught in the region can be applied to all sectors, and students have the opportunity to work in a plethora of places, based on where their interests lie.”
IALR plans to open the $25.5 million, 51,250-square-foot Center for Manufacturing Advancement by the end of the year. Funded by the state, the center will provide training and space to integrate emerging and new technologies such as additive manufacturing and CNC (computer numerical control) manufacturing. There also will be rapid launch spaces that companies can lease while their factories are under construction. The initial 14,100-square-foot Rapid Launch Facility opened on the IALR campus in 2020 as an incentive to persuade companies to invest in Southern Virginia.
Barker
“Having access to the Rapid Launch Facility allowed us to start making parts right away,” says Richie Barker, chief operating officer of FasTech LLC, a Danville-based metal additive 3D and milling services provider for parts manufacturing. “This is a stepping-stone for when we either build or procure our next building.”
Production facilities combined with highly trained workers made it a “no-brainer to come to Danville,” Barker adds. A spinoff of a United Kingdom company, FasTech employs workers trained in advanced manufacturing through a collaborative effort between IALR and Danville Community College. “That’s a huge, fantastic pipeline of individuals … to support our customer base. I’ve never seen anything as good.”
Meanwhile, Old Dominion University is developing a bachelor’s degree program in manufacturing engineering technology. A full-time ODU faculty member will be based at IALR, which will serve as a satellite campus for the program. Students will be able to transfer into the program from community colleges, IALR’s Academy for Engineering and Technology, and career and technical dual-enrollment programs.
In addition, Patrick & Henry Community College in Martinsville is developing a corresponding associate degree in manufacturing engineering technology that will allow students to either transfer to ODU to complete their bachelor’s degree or proceed directly into the workforce.
‘A happy place’
Another Southern Virginia higher education center, Martinsville’s New College Institute, is leading the drive to assemble the state’s wind energy workforce. A member of the Mid-Atlantic Wind Training Alliance along with Virginia Beach-based Centura College and Norfolk‘s Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy, New College is the first Virginia higher ed provider to offer wind technician training courses certified by the Global Wind Organisation.
“Offshore wind is one of the most exciting emerging targeted industry opportunities we have,” says Jason El Koubi, president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. “It’s a very strong emerging cluster in Hampton Roads, but there are potential benefits for other parts of the commonwealth that want to participate in the supply chain.”
Southern Virginia aims to play an active role in that supply chain, says Linda Green, executive director of the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance. “We’re looking for companies that have tentacles in the community and can be part of the supply chain. Our workforce already has a lot of skill sets needed for new industries.”
Manufacturing is Virginia’s fifth-largest private sector employer and the third-largest contributor to the state’s total economic output, El Koubi notes. In 2019, the state’s manufacturing output totaled $45 billion. It’s also among Virginia’s 10 highest-paying industries, with estimated average annual worker salaries exceeding $80,000. “For rural communities that do not have a substantial white-collar workforce, manufacturing provides some of the most attractive opportunities,” he says.
El Koubi
“Southern Virginia was built on manufacturing,” El Koubi says. “It offers strategic access to markets, a skilled talent pool, innovative workforce training [and] a strong infrastructure, including freight rail, a strong highway system and direct access to the Port of Virginia.”
Once home to Burlington Mills, JPS Apparel and Daystrom Furniture, Halifax County is also ready to embrace an industrial resurgence. “Southern Virginia has always been the right place for manufacturing,” says Kristy Johnson, executive director of the Halifax Industrial Development Authority. “It’s just [that] today manufacturing is no longer dark, dirty and dangerous. Highly skilled jobs are available.”
Many of those positions are with Hitachi Energy, Halifax’s third-largest employer, which plans to hire about 265 workers during the next two years for its transformer factory in South Boston. “We’re looking to serve new and growing markets, so we’re increasing our capacity at this site,” says Hitachi’s community relations and engagement manager, Ryland Clark.
Geography and the workforce have kept Hitachi in South Boston since 1968. “We’re close to everything, and there are a lot of people in the area who know about transformers, so that knowledge has kept us here,” Clark adds.
Those skill sets are also keeping those who grew up in the region close to home, says Pittsylvania County’s Rowe. “There’s a huge demand for these positions, so when students graduate, they get multiple job offers. That changes people’s lives and allows them to go up the economic ladder.”
It’s also allowing IALR’s Simpson to achieve his careerlong dream as he enters retirement. “I’m able to retire in a happy place seeing people training and staying here and competing for high-quality
jobs.”
Virginia continues to perform well on the Fortune 500, with 21 companies from the commonwealth making the 2022 list, which ranks the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States by total revenue.
Mortgage finance company Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (“Freddie Mac”) once again topped Virginia’s list of Fortune 500 companies. With $65.89 billion in 2021 revenue, the firm placed 56th on the list. (Freddie Mac will have more competition next year, though, when Raytheon Technologies Corp., ranked 58th this year with $64.38 billion in revenue, will be counted among the Virginia-based companies.)
Nine of this year’s Fortune 500 companies are based in Fairfax County. Coming in a close second is the Richmond region, with eight companies, including Richmond-based Arko Corp., which debuted on the Fortune 500 this year at No. 498. Arko is the parent company of Richmond-based GPM Investments LLC, one of the nation’s largest convenience store chains.
The only Virginia companies that moved up on the Fortune 500 this year were Goochland County-based Performance Food Group Co., which rose two slots to No. 112, and Henrico County insurer Markel Corp., which shot up 22 places to No. 289.
Notable companies that dropped from Virginia’s Fortune 500 list include railroad corporation Norfolk Southern, which moved to Atlanta last year, and federal contractor CACI International Inc., which slid to No. 522.
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