Although the nation’s commercial real estate market is still lagging for the most part, that isn’t the case in Charlottesville, where fresh new multiuse projects have perked up interest in workspaces.
The nationwide vacancy rate for office space in the first quarter of 2022 was a rather dreary 15.7%, according to Yardi Matrix, a commercial real estate research service. The picture in Virginia was only somewhat brighter, with Washington, D.C.-based CoStar Group Inc. reporting a statewide office vacancy rate in the commonwealth of 12.3% for the same period.
However, in Charlottesville, only 8.9% of office space was vacant. Making that stat more impressive is the fact that in the past 18 months or so, the city has added an unprecedented half-million square feet of new Class A office and mixed-use space to its inventory.
Just four prestigious projects — Dairy Central, Apex Plaza, 3Twenty3 and the CODE Building — are responsible for this huge expansion. They’re “a big chunk of space,” says the city’s economic development director, Chris Engel, and that’s no exaggeration, as the four properties alone increased the city’s supply of Class A office space by 63%, even though they collectively represent about 13% of Charlottesville’s total inventory of 4 million square feet of all classes of office space. All this new square footage is being absorbed quickly, however.
CBRE Group Inc. reports that 87% of the large companies it surveyed last year intend to move to a hybrid work model. And with that kind of seismic shift in the employment paradigm, demand for office space, which cratered during the start of COVID-19, has been slow to recover. A few lucky markets have bucked that trend, however, and one of the most notable in Virginia is Charlottesville.
John Pritzlaff IV, senior vice president at Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, has been involved with leasing for three of the major new Charlottesville projects. Because so little commercial space was added to the city’s inventory during the previous 10 or 15 years, he says, Charlottesville’s office vacancy rate had sunk to a negligible 1.5% during one pre-COVID period. That helped support a resurgent post-pandemic demand for Class A space in the city, especially as a flight to quality office assets has become a major trend in the high-end commercial real estate market.
Seeing green
Although LEED-certified buildings currently account for only about 3% of all U.S. office buildings, the online office space database Offices.net reports that 80% of investors plan to add green assets to their portfolios in the coming years. Companies want to be seen as environmentally responsible, and they are seeking sustainable spaces that reflect favorably upon their corporate values and responsibilities.
“Quality” in the Class A office market today includes more than just green bona fides, however. Another expectation is that high-end buildings will include plenty of employee amenities, such as gyms, on-site food options and lactation rooms. Open spaces that encourage collaboration rather than isolation are a new must, too, and rather than being housed in the insular and isolated structures of yore, today’s office tenants want buildings with outward-facing designs intended to integrate them into the surrounding community. All four of the new Charlottesville developments check these boxes.
Located midway between the University of Virginia‘s campus and the Downtown Mall, the mixed-use Dairy Central was the first of the four projects to open, amid the height of the pandemic in late 2020. The redeveloped creamery, which offers a 23,000-square-foot food hall, 180 apartments, 50,000 square feet of office space, a 6,000-square-foot event space and a 7,500-square-foot patio, has a silver rating from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ranking system. It’s 95% leased, Pritzlaff notes.
Closer to the pedestrian mall is 3Twenty3, which was finished in mid-2021. The nine-story, 120,000-square-foot building features a rooftop space and a large lobby, both of which can be used for events. It has several restaurants, a public plaza, electric car charging stations and covered bike racks. Pritzlaff says it is 99% leased, and tenants include a law office and software and financial firms.
The CODE Building on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall is being leased at a rate of $35 to $40 per square foot. Photo by Meridith De Avila Khan
The third project, Apex Plaza, is a 187,000-square-foot, mixed-use building with office, retail and residential space that opened in April just south of the Downtown Mall. The plaza’s wow factor is that it is the tallest cross-laminated timber building on the East Coast and one of just a few in the entire country. Although not LEED-rated, Apex includes extensive green features such as rooftop solar panels capable of generating 300 kilowatts of power and energy storage capabilities that allow it to be net zero. That status aligns with the sustainability ethos of its main tenant, Apex Clean Energy, a wind-power company. The plaza is more than 90% leased.
But perhaps C’ville’s splashiest addition to the commercial real estate market is the CODE (Center of Developing Entrepreneurs) Building, which sits on the west end of the Downtown Mall. Envisioned by owner Jaffray Woodriff, co-founder and CEO of $3 billion hedge fund Quantitative Investment Management LLC, as an incubator for technical innovation, CODE furthers his goal of turning the region into a high-tech leader. Woodriff and his wife, Merrill, donated $120 million to their alma mater, U.Va., in 2019 to establish the School of Data Science.
Opened in fall 2021, Woodriff’s 160,000-square-foot CODE Building, which is more than 90% leased, includes offices, coworking spaces, a 200-seat auditorium and ground-floor retail. It has earned a LEED gold rating in recognition of its green roof terraces, rainwater harvesting, touch-free elevator and entries, electric car charging stations, bike storage, advanced air-filtration system and “wellness” staircases that encourage fitness. In a rarity for a nine-story building, its windows even open. CODE’s lead designer, José Alvarez of the New Orleans-based architectural firm EskewDumezRipple, plans to enter this new Charlottesville landmark into The American Institute of Architects’ building of the year competition.
Bruce Miller, CEO of Investure LLC, which manages money for university endowments and nonprofits, has leased 13,000 square feet plus a 6,000-square-foot deck at the CODE Building for his 45 employees. The building, he says, reflects the values of his firm, which include stewardship, creativity and collaboration.
“We really like the health and wellness benefits and the quality location,” he says, adding that, because of COVID, “it is nice to have lots of fresh air.”
Andrew Boninti, president of CSH Development LLC, one of the CODE Building’s developers, says it was specifically designed “to react to what is important to the tenant. This is what the future is.”
Prices going up fast
Lisa Sturtevant, research leader at Bright MLS Inc. and former chief economist for Virginia Realtors, says although the cost-per-square-foot rates in Charlottesville once were below the state average, they’re now rising three times as fast as the state as a whole. “Charlottesville has been coming into its own in the past couple of years,” she says, “and landlords can ask for and get higher rates.”
Although Pritzlaff declines to provide leasing rates for the buildings he represents, it is probably safe to assume they mirror rates at the CODE Building, where Boninti says space is going for $35 to $40 per square foot. That’s far higher than the $27.78 regional average reported by CoStar, including Albemarle County and less-desirable B and C class office spaces.
Now that the four big projects have opened, Engel says, there’s nothing as ambitious in the works, and CoStar lists only 190,000 square feet of office space under construction in Albemarle during the first quarter of 2022.
J.T. Newberry, Albemarle’s business development manager, says that a couple of office buildings have been approved and are under construction north and south of town. As for the city of Charlottesville, which covers only 10 square miles and is mostly residential, “generally speaking, a lot of businesses find it easier to expand and renovate than build brand-new,” Newberry says.
Business professionals will join Emory & Henry College students this summer for a course that will suggest how blockchain technology can help entrepreneurs, ultimately aiding development in Southwest Virginia.
A collaboration between E&H’s School
of Business, InvestSWVA and William &
Mary’s Global Research Institute, the course will demystify the fundamentals of a technology with far-reaching applications for the region, says E&H Business Dean Emmett P. Tracy.
“A lot of people hear the term ‘blockchain’ and think it is something elusive or wrapped in a technology that’s inaccessible,” he says. But the five-week course beginning June 21 won’t require any technical expertise from students.
Blockchain, known for its association with cryptocurrency, is a technology for storing data in chronological “blocks” to form a transparent and immutable chain of transactions.
The course will be taught by Troy Wiipongwii, affiliated faculty member with the W&M Global Research Institute. He plans to discuss entrepreneurial applications such as how to set up a “smart” contract, which uses a program that automatically executes an agreement when terms are met. He’ll also emphasize the added security resulting from the built-in transparency of a blockchain’s shared data collection.
With traditional databases, he says, “the protocol for how that information is set up and how it is tracked and traced is still very much behind the scenes.”
InvestSWVA Director Will Payne says the course traces its origins to Project Thoroughbred, an effort to make the region the Virginia craft beer industry’s primary source of specialty grains. Blockchain technology would provide supply chain transparency to show breweries they can buy “the best grain” closer to home, Payne says. The project plans to use blockchain to track 82 acres of barley to be harvested this summer, he says.
Payne, vice rector of the W&M board of visitors, spoke as he was on a road trip with Wiipongwii and Will Clear, Virginia Department of Energy’s deputy director, to a waste coal pile to consider ways blockchain might help the state’s effort to identify and reclaim such sites. Blockchain could be used to track the location, size and attributes of each pile, Payne says.
“We see lots of opportunity to create blockchain use in the energy space,” Clear says. “We think that development or redevelopment of southwestern Virginia is really about energy and agriculture at the entrepreneurial level.”
The life of 19th century Richmond Planet newspaper editor John Mitchell Jr. — who fearlessly railed against lynching and segregation — will be showcased in a documentary debuting at the 11th annual Richmond International Film Festival on June 10.
Mitchell became editor of the Richmond Planet at 21, two years after the paper’s founding in 1882. Born into slavery, he earned a reputation as “the fighting editor,” because he sometimes risked his life working as a journalist.
Despite Mitchell’s major contributions, not much has been written about him, says Ron Carey, founder and CEO of Tilt Creative + Production, the Richmond-based advertising company that created the “Birth of a Planet” documentary. Last year, Tilt commissioned an outdoor mural by Richmond artist Hamilton Glass at its Scott’s Addition studio to honor the Planet, and the state legislature just approved a license plate recognizing the newspaper.
“There’s all this synergy happening around [Mitchell],” says Tilt senior producer Sylvester Tucker, “and we are just happy to be involved.”
Tilt’s creative team came up with the idea for the documentary to tell Mitchell’s story and also show off their craft. “We’d love to tell more meaningful stories for brands, and this was an opportunity for us to learn and get better,” says Scot Crooker, Tilt’s chief content officer.
“[Mitchell] resonated with me as an African American businessowner, because often we don’t own media companies,” says Carey. “And to have all of this amazing equipment and storytellers allows us to … do something that not many people could.”
Richmond journalist Sean Gorman partnered with Crooker to build a narrative using interviews with Mitchell’s descendants and articles from the Richmond Planet. Aside from editing the Planet, Mitchell also served on Richmond City Council and founded the Mechanic’s Savings Bank of Richmond. The bank closed in 1922, and Mitchell was accused of misusing its funds, although he was later cleared of all charges. In 1924, the bank reopened under new management, but it no longer reflected Mitchell’s dream of a Black-owned bank.
“Birth of a Planet” was filmed in 2021 while statues of Confederate leaders were being removed from Monument Avenue — a job accomplished by a Black-owned business, Team Henry Enterprises LLC. Prophetically, Mitchell once wrote of Black men: “He put up the Lee Monument, and should the time come, he’ll be there to take it down.”
Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this article.
In late March, Stanislas Vilgrain drove in a convoy of eight trucks from France to Ukraine for 26 hours through a snowstorm, keeping an ear to the radio for news of Russian attacks, The convoy’s mission: to deliver 400,000 meals to Ukrainians from Vilgrain’s Sterling-based business, Cuisine Solutions.
The French-born chairman of a company that manufactures sous-vide (vacuum-packed) foods, Vilgrain had heard that the Russian invasion had severely impacted Ukraine’s food supply, and he was determined to do what he
could to help.
“This is … good against evil,” he says.
That is what has compelled Vilgrain and other Virginia-based business executives to help the people of Ukraine, either by traveling there in person to assist or by sending financial donations and goods. Over the past few months, corporate aid from businesses in the commonwealth to Ukraine has come in the form of everything from money and food to medical supplies and drones.
A louder voice
Lukasz Dominiak of Smithfield Foods’ Polish division has been coordinating food donations to Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw. Photo courtesy Smithfield Foods inc.
Vilgrain’s company typically supplies food for airlines and the military, so when he saw that the Russians were targeting Ukraine’s food supply, he wanted to make sure people there were not going hungry. He started figuring out how to get food from France, where Cuisine Solutions has a plant. He made contact with high-level Ukrainians through YPO, a worldwide association for chief executives.
Poland’s government has told food companies that it believes Ukraine needs almost 10,000 tons of food daily from abroad, The Wall Street Journal reported in mid-April.
Vilgrain traveled to Ukraine with 15 of his employees, including his chief marketing officer, Thomas Donohoe.
“I felt that … [with] me personally going as a C-level executive, it would mean a bit more” and could encourage executives from other companies to do the same, Donohoe says.
Cuisine Solutions brought 300 tons of food to help the Ukrainians: 400,000 meals of beef, pork, vegetables, chicken, French pastries and bread.
Virginia business leaders like Vilgrain say they have chosen to involve their companies in the philanthropic efforts to aid Ukraine because a corporation can have a bigger impact and a louder voice than any executive acting individually.
Mike Lowder, operations manager for Petersburg-based MST & Associates Inc., says, “Whether it’s logistical relationships or nonprofit relationships or company relationships, we have the ability to work with our customers to further the [aid] pipeline that I don’t think the average person has.” A wholesaler of surplus medical and surgical equipment, MST sent 24 pallets of medical supplies, worth about $230,000, to Ukraine at the end of April.
MST has contracts with about 50 medical facilities around Virginia. The pandemic-
generated increase in production of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, gowns, surgical masks, shoe covers, hair covers and hand sanitizer has ultimately resulted in surpluses. With a lot of extra PPE stored in their warehouses, Lowder made plans to send it to Ukraine, where it was in high demand.
“[Russia‘s invasion of] Ukraine is coming at a terrible, terrible time and cost to the people there, but it’s coming at an advantageous time for us,” Lowder says. “Anything we can do to assist over there is what we are trying to do. They have an acute need and we are trying to fill it.”
Also assisting Ukraine with medical supplies has been Mechanicsville-based Fortune 500 health care logistics company Owens & Minor, which donated $500,000 in medical- grade personal protective equipment to support humanitarian relief in Ukraine and other impacted countries in March.
Finding ways to help
Other Virginia-based businesses with a presence in Europe, such as Smithfield Foods Inc., also are stepping up to help the embattled republic.
Lukasz Dominiak, Warsaw-based public relations director for the pork products manufacturer’s Smithfield Polska division in Poland, has been coordinating donations of food to Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw. Smithfield has 1,600 Ukrainian employees who work near the Ukrainian border in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, according to the company, which is helping with relocation and employment.
For example, Dominiak says, his friends have been driving to the border and offering rides for refugees who just crossed.
“There is a special, unique relationship between the two countries on the government level and the people,” Dominiak says of Poland and Ukraine.
Operation Blessing staff member Tony Batchler Jr. entertains young Ukrainian refugees at a church in Poland. Photo courtesy Operation Blessing
Smithfield has provided $2 million in cash and in-kind donations to crisis relief efforts in Ukraine.
As the attack on Ukraine continued, many Smithfield workers and executives wanted to help right away, says Jonathan Toms, Smithfield Foods’ community development manager.
“It wasn’t just these actions we took as a company; it was individual actions our employees took — those are the things I’m so proud of,” he says.
Arlington-based Nestlé USA’s parent company in Switzerland employs 5,800 people in Ukraine and has been helping them by giving advance payment of salaries, enabling employee transfers and supporting hubs in neighboring countries for employees and their families who have fled Ukraine.
Another Virginia-based business is aiding Ukraine by donating drones.
Arlington defense contractor AeroVironment Inc. donated 110 unmanned aircraft systems and training services to defense officials in Ukraine. Originally designed for agricultural use by farmers, the drones are easy to use and can provide aerial intelligence.
“We feel very connected to their fight and we feel very connected to the mission of helping them and we had these Quantix Recon aircraft, and so we asked ourselves [if] could we buy those … at no charge, just to bolster their defense,” recalls Charlie Dean, AeroVironment’s vice president for global business development and sales of unmanned aircraft systems. “It was something that we felt in our hearts we could do. [There was] far too much suffering going on and perhaps our donation could help.”
For some companies, assisting with Ukrainian relief efforts has been even more personal.
Norfolk-based PRA Group Inc., a global debt-buyer with 201 employees in Poland, provided $50,000 to support those employees’ efforts to aid Ukrainian refugees and send supplies to the war-torn nation. When a Canadian employee heard that PRA was helping Ukrainians, she sought the company’s assistance to help a cousin who was trying to flee Ukraine. The operations director of PRA Group Poland picked up the cousin and her 7-year-old child from the border. The two got out in the nick of time — the next day, the cousin’s hometown was bombed.
Operation Blessing, the Virginia Beach-based nonprofit arm of The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc., has been providing food and other supplies to Ukrainian refugees who have been pouring into Poland. Though the nonprofit has helped people in Ukraine and other European countries for years, the war in Ukraine has ramped up their efforts.
“There is so much need and suffering that is taking place among those people. For us, as Operation Blessing, what drives us to be involved is our faith in Jesus Christ,” says Jeff Westling, Operation Blessing’s chief of staff. “We want to serve as his hands and feet.”
Mason Pigue, Operation Blessing’s director of humanitarian relief, is in touch daily with the nonprofit’s relief teams on the ground in Ukraine. During the first 10 to 15 days after the invasion, the relief workers sheltered from the attacks, but they have remained to stay and assist those in need.
“It’s a calling,” he says. “They feel like it’s something God has led them to do.”
Pigue and Westling both have military experience and can relate to the people on the ground.
Westling has a military logistics and engineering background, so his task is to make sure that Operation Blessing is equipping, enabling and empowering their team members around the globe — in this case, in Ukraine and Europe — to make sure they have what they need. Their teams are providing food and water and shelter and even counseling services to the embattled Ukrainians.
‘Keep yourself in the fight’
Businesses large and small across the commonwealth have found ways to help Ukraine.
Herndon data analytics firm HawkEye 360 Inc. and the Arlington-based National Security Space Association have convened a group of space industry companies to assist with fundraising. Space Industry for Ukraine (SIFU), which includes Virginia companies such as Leidos and BlackSky Technology Inc., raised nearly $1 million as of the end of April, with each company donating at least $50,000. SIFU’s funds will finance a number of projects in Ukraine, such as medical treatment, delivery of food supplies and supporting transportation for evacuating civilians.
McLean-based Mars Inc., one of the world’s largest candy and pet food manufacturers, donated $12 million in cash and in-kind donations to provide basic needs for children and families still in Ukraine as well as those who have sought refuge in border countries.
Ashburn-based DXC Technology Co. is making a 200% match for employee donations to Red Cross humanitarian efforts.
McLean-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is donating up to 1 million room nights to support Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian efforts in partnership with American Express Co.
Many companies, such as Herndon-based government contractor Peraton Inc., Richmond-based Performance Food Group Co. and others are donating thousands of dollars to Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which provides meals at a pedestrian border crossing in southern Poland.
Reston-based Fortune 500 government contractor Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) is matching employee donations up to $50,000 to support the American Red Cross’ humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, which include providing water, medical supplies, housing support and other aid.
Smaller businesses across the common-wealth are helping as well. Several Virginia breweries have joined the “Brew for Ukraine” initiative, which aims to raise money for humanitarian relief and call attention to Ukraine’s plight through beer sales. It’s raised several thousand dollars per day, organizers say.
In late April, the 88-member Rotary Club of Richmond raised $75,000 to support the citizens of Ukraine and global disaster relief organization ShelterBox USA. It is seeking additional individual and corporate donations, with the goal of matching the $75,000.
The push to raise money for Ukraine and send resources and donations has spread far and wide since Vilgrain went overseas to help.
He was encouraged by his trip and is already planning to go back. He’s been talking to anyone who will listen about his trip and Ukrainians’ need for aid. “Everybody here is concerned and it’s extraordinary to see – it’s far away, it’s in Europe,” he says.
He thinks the need to help Ukraine is resonating here because the country is a democratically elected republic that is defending itself after being invaded by a much larger autocratic government.
“It created a big movement in the U.S., in Americans, in Europeans … protecting our values, protecting what we believe in, with a country that actually defends itself. If they were not defending themselves, it would have been over in a day or two, but they defend themselves,” he says.
“I keep sending messages to friends in Ukraine and tell them, ‘Keep yourself in the fight.’ … It’s very good for the morale of the Ukrainians to see that the world is behind them.”
This story has been updated from an earlier version.
The top trending major business stories on VirginiaBusiness.com from April 15 to May 14 were led by news of the merger of Roanoke-based Woods Rogers PLC and Norfolk-based Vandeventer Black LLP.
1|Woods Rogers, Vandeventer Black law firms to merge July 1
Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black will be the state’s fifth-largest firm, with a 250-person workforce, including more than 130 attorneys. (April 20)
2|Lambert’s Point Docks in Norfolk to become $100 million maritime center
The Norfolk property will become a maritime operations and logistics center supporting the offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. (May 5)
Boeing Co., the world’s third-largest defense contractor, announced plans to move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington. (See related story, Page 12.)(May 5)
4|McLean-based Appian wins $2 billion verdict in trade secrets lawsuit
The cloud computing firm was awarded $2.03 billion, estimated to be the largest award in state court history, in its lawsuit against Massachusetts-based Pegasystems Inc. (May 10)
5|ABC telework plan diverges from Youngkin mandate
As a state authority, the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Authority will allow its headquarters employees more telework days than the governor will grant most
other state employees. (May 12)
Despite a resounding defeat, organizers are still fighting to unionize The Hershey Co. plant in Stuarts Draft. In late March, about 79% of the plant’s workers voted against unionizing at Hershey, the largest employer in Augusta County with nearly 1,500 workers.
But while that battle might be over, the war is not, according to officials with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union. The organization has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Hershey of 14 unfair labor practices related to the vote. The NLRB had not certified the voting results as of mid-May.
John Price, director of organization for BCTGM International, says he’s confident the labor board’s investigation will find Hershey guilty of “objectionable conduct during a critical period, and they’ll end up tossing the results.” That, he says, could lead to another vote.
Hershey spokesman Jeff Beckman says the lopsided result sends a clear message of support for the company: “We believe the team at Stuarts Draft has spoken with the vote and showed they have a strong preference to continue engaging directly with the plant leadership versus being represented by a third party.”
The effort to organize the plant began last year, with some workers complaining about seven-day work weeks, favoritism and a general lack of respect. Jim Gibson, one of the workers who led the movement, says the union had momentum last fall.
“But the main thing we had going against us was the fear of retaliation, that people were going to lose their jobs for being union supporters,” says Gibson, who quit his job the day after the vote.
The union’s filing with the NLRB cites several examples in which it claims Hershey “interfered with, restrained and coerced its employees” with the intent of discouraging union activities or membership. The filing also claims Hershey improperly offered employees numerous benefits during a union organizing campaign.
Nationwide, union membership has declined for decades until recently, when it scored several high-profile victories, including unionizing five Starbucks Corp. stores in the Richmond area and an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in New York. Virginia, however, has historically had one of the country’s lowest union density rates.
The Stuarts Draft plant, the second-largest of Hershey’s seven operations, primarily produces chocolate candy that includes nuts, such as Reese’s and Almond Joy. Two of Hershey’s other six plants are unionized.
The Boeing Co., the world’s third-largest defense contractor, is moving its global headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, the company announced May 5.
With more than 141,500 employees worldwide and operations in more than 65 countries, the aerospace and defense company will be the largest defense contractor headquartered in Virginia.
Boeing already employs 400 people at its 4.7-acre campus in Arlington’s Crystal City — near Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus. Boeing spokesperson Paul Lewis told Virginia Business that there will be “no major job relocations” accompanying the headquarters move. Boeing also plans to develop a research and technology hub in the area, leveraging a $50 million gift to Virginia Tech that Boeing made in May 2021, according to another company spokesperson, Connor Greenwood. Boeing did not provide details such as a time frame for the move or how much the company is investing.
In a statement following the announcement, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, a Virginia Tech alumnus, thanked Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner for helping to secure the deal, which The Wall Street Journal reported had been in the works for months.
In 2017, Boeing moved its defense unit from St. Louis to Arlington to be closer to the federal government and Pentagon officials.
“We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia,” Calhoun says. “The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters, given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent.”
Youngkin says the move shows Virginia “is the premier location for aerospace companies.”
Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Jason El Koubi agrees. “Boeing and other high-caliber firms are attracted to the commonwealth’s combination of diverse, world-class engineering and tech talent, strategic location and exceptional quality of life,” El Koubi says. “Boeing’s new research and technology hub will further strengthen Virginia’s innovation ecosystem in areas like cybersecurity, autonomous operations, quantum sciences and software and systems engineering.”
Boeing also has research centers in St. Louis; Huntsville, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Cambridge, Massachusetts. A Boeing aeronautics research subsidiary, Aurora Flight Sciences, is located in Manassas. Boeing’s new Arlington-area research center will provide the company “with the ability to develop technology and talent, and see its implementation in real systems,” Lewis says.
Virginia Business Associate Editor Courtney Mabeus contributed to this article.
For Dr. Todd Stravitz, February was an opportune time to make the largest gift in the history of Virginia Commonwealth University — a $104 million donation to support liver research.
The retired medical director of VCU Health‘s Hume-Lee Transplant Center, Stravitz is an heir to the Boar’s Head Provisions Co. Inc. fortune. His mother, Barbara Brunckhorst, died in late 2020. Her father, Frank Brunckhorst, founded the delicatessen products company, which is now based in Florida, in 1905.
“One of the things that she and I discussed when she knew that she was dying of this brain cancer is opening up the [Brunckhorst] Foundation to donate to medical causes,” Stravitz explains. “And since I knew nothing about neurosurgery or brain cancer, but I knew quite a bit about liver disease, that was really sort of what pushed me into it.”
A Virginia native who lives in Richmond, Stravitz is a co-executor of his mother’s estate. Her shares of the deli meats company are the subject of a still-pending court dispute between two branches of the family. Boar’s Head brings in approximately $1 billion in annual revenue.
Dr. Arun Sanyal (L) will be director of the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health. He has known Dr. Todd Stravitz (R) for more than 30 years. Photo courtesy Allen Jones/VCU Marketing
Although Barbara Brunckhorst’s philanthropic interests primarily lay in environmental causes, Stravitz’s donation will go toward establishing the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health, which VCU announced in December 2021, as well as establishing two endowed chairs at VCU’s School of Medicine. One chairmanship is named for Stravitz’s former colleague, Dr. Arun J. Sanyal, a gastroenterologist and liver specialist who has known Stravitz for more than three decades.
“He was one of our fellows going through specialized training,” Sanyal explains. “I actually taught him how to do a liver biopsy. But I’ll tell you, the thing that always struck me was his sincerity … and how important it was for him to put the patient first and to go the extra mile for each and every patient. Even when he was a researcher, he was just very thoughtful and very methodical.”
Sanyal will be director of the new institute, which will align and expand VCU Health’s existing liver disease departments that are spread among the School of Medicine’s internal medicine department, the transplant center, Massey Cancer Center and the Pauley Heart Center.
Currently a professor in the medical school specializing in transplant hepatology, Stravitz built his expertise in acute liver failure, which can cause a patient to bleed to death.
Liver disease is common in the United States — affecting about one in 10 people — but does not have a cure, other than liver transplant, Stravitz notes.
Stravitz’s patients at VCU, where he started as a fellow in 1990, ranged from a 4-year-old to people in their 80s. Many were memorable, Stravitz says, but he was most struck by those he met at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital, where he interned in the mid-1980s during the height of the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
Most liver patients he saw there were young “and often didn’t have any medical care,” Stravitz says. “Some of them were brought in from the street. That was what kind of shocked me into realizing that all of them were going to die, back in the ’80s. We had no treatment for these folks.”
The combination of a challenging disease and its surrounding social issues led to his specializing in liver disease and heading to VCU, which has been a cutting-edge leader in liver research since the 1970s and was one of the first three hospitals to transplant the liver of a living donor in 1998.
His interest in attending medical school, however, started even earlier. “My mother was a determined, intelligent, frustrated doctor herself,” Stravitz says. “She would have gone to medical school 60, 70 years ago, but my grandfather wanted her to go into the family business, which she did for a little bit, and then had a family.”
Brunckhorst gave her son an anatomy book when he was about 3 or 4 years old, he recalls, and “that’s where I got my interest in science and in human anatomy.” After graduating in 1982 from William & Mary, Stravitz earned his medical degree from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.
Stravitz says that scientists started studying liver disease only in the 1970s “and really caught traction from the ’90s on up, but research in human liver diseases was really relatively modern. The science [has] accelerated so tremendously around molecular biology and genetics, especially within the last 10 years.”
That makes it an optimal time “to seize the science by the horns and direct it to VCU for this project and for this gift,” Stravitz says. He’s particularly excited about gene therapy as an alternative to transplants, which often entail long waits for patients.
With the donation, VCU will be able to recruit 30 to 60 more researchers, faculty and staff members, as well as establish new degree programs at the graduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral levels.
Over the past decades, “we relied heavily on the National Institutes of Health … but NIH funding is very focused,” Stravitz says. “It doesn’t allow exploration so much. It’s a finite grant. You have three to five years to show what you have done with their money, and if you’ve not been productive and published, you might not get your next grant. That’s a lot to be looking over your shoulder all the time.”
With Stravitz’s gift, researchers and physicians will be able to focus on their work, rather than worrying about where the next grant will come from, he says. “I’m hoping that VCU, under Dr. Sanyal’s direction, can grab it and run with it, and explore things that haven’t been explored before.”
While 2020 represented a significant year for philanthropic shifts toward social and racial justice causes, 2021 and early 2022 have seen a return to traditional giving, with many of Virginia’s largest donations benefiting universities, medical research and the arts.
Donations to Virginia institutions — topped by a $104 million gift in February from Dr. Todd Stravitz to VCU Health to support a new liver research institute — continued to grow during the past year, and some universities marked record donations. An anonymous alumna gave $75 million to Hollins University in December 2021, a three-installment gift that will establish the Levavi Oculos Endowed Scholarship Fund to support undergraduate scholarships, reportedly the largest donation ever made to a women’s university and among the biggest gifts to any Virginia university.
In September 2021, Charlottesville philanthropist Tessa Ader gave $50 million to the University of Virginia toward building a performing arts center with a 1,100-seat concert hall. It will be sited near two other philanthropy-driven projects: U.Va.’s School of Data Science and the Karsh Institute of Democracy. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech received its largest single-donor alumnus gift in December 2021: a $35 million donation from Norris E. and Wendy Mitchell that will help replace Tech’s 60-year-old engineering college building on its Blacksburg campus.
Leaving an impression
In the art world, part-time Bristol, Virginia, residents Jim and Frances McGlothlincontinued their significant support of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with a nearly $60 million donation that includes 15 works by American artists, including Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth. This gift follows two other donations by the couple to the Richmond museum, including 73 works of art worth more than $200 million and a $30 million gift in 2010 that made an addition possible. The March donation is also going toward an expansion of the museum that will include a new 170,000-square-foot wing named for the McGlothlins.
VMFA Director and CEO Alex Nyerges says the McGlothlins’ gifts have enabled the museum to grow in size and prominence. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
In addition to their gifts to the VMFA, the McGlothlins are major donors to their alma mater, William & Mary, and Mountain Mission School in Grundy, where at-risk students from around the world live and attend school.
Fran McGlothlin, senior vice president of New York-based UC Fine Art Inc., recalls how, early in their marriage, she got her coal executive husband, Jim, interested in collecting art.
“I dragged him into an auction one day in New York, the first one he’d ever been to,” she says. “There was a picture that I had fallen in love with by Robert Henri called ‘Listening Boy.’ I said, ‘Oh, I would really love to have that picture.’ I think Jim wanted to get it for me but was a little unsure about how to pay, so he went to the men’s room. He was talking to some other guy who was in there. That guy said, ‘Yes, it’s a great picture. This is what it should go for.’”
Jim McGlothlin put in a winning bid for the painting, which Fran McGlothlin says is “just dear to my heart for so many reasons.” The couple’s main collecting focus was on American Impressionist works between 1890 to 1925.
“It was a first for me,” Jim says of the auction. “It was very interesting to think about the way you made the transactions there with art. Frances was so excited about it. Twenty-five years later, here we are.”
The couple’s connection to VMFA happened later, when Jim, chairman and owner of The United Co. and a backer of the Hard Rock Bristol casino, was a patient at the former Medical College of Virginia hospital in Richmond in the 1990s.
Frances Lewis, co-founder of Best Products Co. Inc. with her husband, Sydney Lewis, who also was a patient at the hospital then, met the McGlothlins in the hallway and talked with Fran McGlothlin about the art museum. Sydney Lewis, who died in 1999, and Frances Lewis were also significant VMFA donors, providing $6 million for the museum’s West Wing and donating 1,500 pieces from their personal collection.
“[Frances Lewis] said, ‘I’d love for you to come over and see it,’” Fran McGlothlin recalls. “She arranged so that the museum was closed. She and I walked through it. I really was impressed and taken by it, talked to Jim and essentially we were off and running.”
VMFA Director and CEO Alex Nyerges, who has led the museum since 2006, says that the McGlothlins’ gifts are “a key reason that VMFA has grown in size and prominence. These added works have bolstered VMFA’s American art holdings and provided important access to American art for present and future generations of Virginians.”
Hollins University President Mary Dana Hinton says a recent $75 million anonymous gift underscores the importance of women’s education. Hinton photo courtesy Hollins University
After building their collection, the couple decided to give virtually all their paintings — most of which were displayed in their home — to the museum in 2015.
Fran and Jim McGlothlin visited the museum recently and saw a mother and son talking about one of their paintings. “It was so interesting to get someone else’s take on it and the pleasure that they were getting out of looking at it all,” she recalls.
Impactful giving
This is typical of many major philanthropists, who are often driven in part by personal passions and experiences to make donations in the public interest.
“It’s not just about heartstrings but about what people care about,” says Mark Luellen, U.Va.’s vice president for advancement, who is in charge of directing the university’s $5 billion Honor the Future capital campaign, which launched in 2019.
As of April, the university has fulfilled 80% of its capital fundraising goal, surpassing $4 billion three years before deadline.
Private philanthropy, Luellen says, “is extremely important. It’s really thinking critically about where all those external stakeholders and internal stakeholders connect and how they all link together.” State funding has declined at U.Va. and other Virginia public universities over the decades, and tuition rates were frozen during the past two academic years, although U.Va. and other schools have agreed to increase tuition during the 2022-23 year. That leaves a heavy reliance on private funding at most universities.
One area in which he’s seen greater donor interest recently is in need-based scholarships, a trend that’s reflected at other schools, including Hollins University.
Hollins President Mary Dana Hinton hopes that the anonymous alumna’s
$75 million donation will hopefully drive more prospective students to “take the time to research Hollins. Don’t self-select out, but lean into.”
As universities receive less state funding, private donors are more important than ever, notes University of Virginia Vice President for Advancement Mark Luellen. Luellen photo courtesy Dan Addison/U.Va. University Communications
While all types of higher education institutions generally saw lower enrollment amid the pandemic, private, liberal arts institutions have had the most difficult time keeping enrollment levels up. And though interest has increased in single-gender education in recent years, that tends to fluctuate. Just down the road from Hollins, the all-women Sweet Briar College nearly closed a few years ago.
“The higher education landscape is incredibly complex right now, and it has been challenging for quite some time,” Hinton says. “But my hope is that other donors are inspired by this gift. I would celebrate any of our sister colleges getting this gift. I hope similar gifts to other institutions will allow us to really reclaim the power and importance of the liberal arts, the importance of women’s education, and the importance of investing in the missions of those institutions that you care about deeply.”
Noting that billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s donations to higher education — notably at traditionally underfunded historically Black colleges and universities— have made a significant impact in the world of philanthropy, Luellen sees another new trend. “I think [Scott’s] team does tremendous research, and I think that will be a growing trend. It’s setting a tone more quantitative and qualitatively driven than, ‘I went to school here and met my spouse here.’”
Scott’s donations, which included record-breaking gifts to Hampton, Norfolk State and Virginia State universities, are good for all schools, Luellen says, helping “all ships rise.”
Nonetheless, a lot of charity does start at home, as in the case of Norris Mitchell, a 1958 Virginia Tech alum who, with his wife, Wendy, has been a reliable university donor. Last fall, the couple pledged $35 million to replace the aging Randolph Hall, home of Tech’s College of Engineering. Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus, now under construction in Alexandria, also is a gleaming target for philanthropy and has already benefited from major individual and corporate gifts, but Engineering Dean Julia Ross says that there’s plenty of motivation to give to the home campus.
“Investing in Blacksburg, investing in something like this — that is also supporting the Innovation Campus because it’s allowing us to teach the [undergraduate] students who would then go on to the Innovation Campus as graduate students,” Ross says. “You have to support all parts of the pipeline. You can’t think about them independently. You have to think about them as part of the whole system.”
Editor’s note:This article has been amended to reflect that Best Products Co. co-founder Frances Lewis is still alive. The print version of this story incorrectly reported her death. Virginia Business sincerely apologizes for the error.
Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. asked the State Corporation Commission for permission in early May to increase Virginia residential customer bills by about $9 a month to account for rising fuel prices. According to federal data, Virginia already has high electric bills. Dominion cited dramatic increases in fuel prices stemming from the pandemic, inflation and the war in Ukraine as reasons it needs to charge more to cover what’s known as the “fuel factor” component of its electric rates. A $9 increase would raise the typical residential customer bill by about 7%, wrote Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
HCA Healthcare is acquiring Richmond-based BetterMed, a chain of 12 urgent care facilities, for an undisclosed price. The health system announced its preliminary agreement in late April. Founded in 2011, BetterMed is led by CEO Mark Johnson, a former executive at Sara Lee, PepsiCo and MeadWestvaco Corp., and has eight locations in the Richmond area, two in Fredericksburg and two in North Carolina. HCA, which is based in Nashville, operates three freestanding emergency rooms in the Richmond area. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in late April that it plans to ban sales of menthol cigarettes, a billion-dollar industry in which Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., has a 9.4% market share. The ban, which was widely anticipated after the FDA announced its intentions in spring 2021, would affect only traditional menthol cigarettes, not heated tobacco products. Altria has taken the stance that “harm reduction, not prohibition, is the better path forward,” a spokesman said. Proponents of the ban, however, say it could reduce the number of Black and younger smokers who are more likely to purchase mint-flavored cigarettes. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
City of Richmond officials announced in May that three development teams have continued to the finals for the Diamond District redevelopment project, which includes replacing the baseball stadium and revitalizing the area near the
Scott’s Addition neighborhood. The three multi-partner teams will be asked to respond to a request for offers by a deadline of June 28. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Employees at five Starbucks coffee stores in the Richmond area in April voted overwhelmingly for union representation as part of a nationwide effort to organize workers at one of the United States’ largest retail store chains. The Northern Virginia Labor Federation, which has been working with Philadelphia-based Workers United, reported a vote of 82 in favor of union representation and 14 against, making the stores the first ones in Virginia to unionize, followed by two locations in Fairfax and Loudoun counties. A week later, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, appeared at Unity Fest, organized by the NVLF at The National in Richmond, and called unionizing workers “heroes and heroines.” Virginia’s Starbucks cafés follow the lead of a location in Buffalo, New York, which in 2021 became the first Starbucks in the country to unionize. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
The University of Virginia‘s athletics department received a $40 million anonymous bequest from a former student-athlete, the university announced in April. The donation is the largest in the Virginia Athletics Foundation’s history. Part of U.Va.’s $5 billion Honor the Future capital campaign, which surpassed $4 billion in April, the donation will be used to broadly support the university’s athletic programs, student-athletes and coaches. Including this anonymous gift, the athletics foundation has raised all but $57 million of its $500 million fundraising goal for the Honor the Future campaign. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
EASTERN
In a deal predicted to bring more than 500 jobs and over $100 million in capital investment, Norfolk’s Lambert’s Point Docks property will become Fairwinds Landing, a maritime operations and logistics center to support the local offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. The 111-acre property, adjacent to Norfolk Southern Corp.’s coal terminal and owned by Norfolk Southern Railway Co., has been leased by Virginia Beach-based Fairwinds Landing LLC for 30 years, the company announced May 5. Fairwinds Landing CEO Jerry Miller established the special purpose company in October 2021 to develop the property. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Chesapeake’s Greenbrier Mall is headed into foreclosure after its biggest owner, Tennessee-based CBL Properties, defaulted on a $61.6 million loan that used the property as collateral. Chesapeake Mayor Rick West in late April said city officials are working on a redevelopment plan for the area to include the 896,000-square-foot mall. The mall has three owners; CBL owns everything between the mall’s former Sears location and Dillard’s. New York-based Seritage Growth Properties owns the former Sears building, and Dillard’s Inc. owns its location. Plans to turn the mall into a hotel and slots parlor fell through in 2018. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Confirming rumors, music superstar and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williamsannounced April 26 that he is moving his three-day Something in the Water music festival from the Virginia Beach Oceanfront to Washington, D.C. The inaugural 2019 festival yielded $24 million in local economic impact before being cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. In a September 2021 letter to the city manager, Williams called out Virginia Beach’s “toxic energy,” citing fallout from his cousin Donovon Lynch’s killing by a Virginia Beach police officer, as well as other issues surrounding Williams’ economic development projects in the city. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Biden administration’s budget proposes decommissioning 24 U.S. Navy ships, including Hampton Roads-based cruisers USS San Jacinto and USS Vicksburg and dock landing ships USS Gunston Hall and USS Tortuga, according to documents posted April 22. The ships were commissioned between 30 and 32 years ago and would be taken out of service in fiscal 2023. The Navy says decommissioning the ships will save the expense of costly maintenance and repair work, freeing up funds for the new ships it wants to build. (Daily Press)
PEOPLE
Spore
Hampton University alumnus and retired Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams will succeed William R. Harvey as the university’s next president, according to an April 14 announcement. Williams, of Alexandria, graduated in 1983 and serves as vice president and managing director for Reston-based Leidos’ United Kingdom Logistics Division. He is also programme director for the Logistics Commodities and Services Transformation (LCST) programme with the U.K. Ministry of Defence. He retired from the Army in 2020 after 37 years and was the first African American director of the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency, where he oversaw 26,000 civilian and military members. Harvey will retire on June 30 after 44 years. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Nancy L. Grden
Jim Spore, president and CEO of Reinvent Hampton Roads, will retire June 15, the regional economic development organization announced April 28. Nancy L. Grden, executive director of the Hampton Roads Maritime Collaborative for Growth & Innovation and associate vice president of Old Dominion University’s Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, will replace Spore, who served in the role six years after spending more than two decades as city manager of Virginia Beach. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
SHENANDOAH
Front Royal Town Council voted April 18 to direct Town Manager Steven Hicks to authorize and process refunds of all building permit fees received for all applications submitted but not issued, or for permits issued but not finalized, prior to the termination of the town’s building department, which it set up last year. The Warren County Building Department had previously overseen permitting and inspections for in-town projects. Facing pressure from developers and builders, the Town Council agreed to dissolve the town department and let the county resume accepting applications and handling inspections. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Chicago-based Healthcare Development Partners said on April 19 it was proposing its third major mixed-use development in Winchester. The firm’s proposal includes 92 town houses, 170 apartments and 14,800 square feet of retail and restaurant space on approximately 10 acres at the intersection of Fairmont Avenue and West Wyck Street. National Fruit Product Co. used to own the site, which is now owned by Fairmont Avenue Holdings LLC. If City Council approves the development, HDP would buy the site from Fairmont Avenue Holdings. (The Winchester Star)
On April 26, Harrisonburg City Council unanimously approved a request for Northside LLC, represented by Holtzman Oil Corp., to rezone four parcels for Northside Gateway Plaza, a shopping center. Site plans include seven buildings: a gas station and convenience store area and six other buildings designed for purposes such as restaurants, stores, drive-thrus, banks or medical offices. The site will include sidewalks, roadway improvements, solar panels, electric car charging, a bus pad and an easement along Mount Clinton Pike. Roughly an acre of the 5.5-acre property is in Rockingham County, and the Board of Supervisors had already rezoned that part. (Daily News-Record)
Atlanta-based Kingspan Insulation LLC will invest $27 million to expand its Frederick County operations, a project expected to create 37 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced April 13. Kingspan Insulation is a division of Kingspan Group that manufactures energy efficiency and moisture management products for residential and commercial construction. The company will add a 155,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 200 Kingspan Way to create its OPTIM-R vacuum insulated panels. Kingspan Insulation manufactures insulation, building wraps and pre-insulated HVAC ductwork suitable for new builds and renovations in residential and commercial buildings. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Winchester City Council on April 26 unanimously approved the rezoning needed for the construction of Winchester Grove, a large residential and commercial complex proposed for the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Valley Avenue. South Boston-based Echelon Resources Inc. proposed the complex, which would sit on 17.34 acres. The complex would have 440 apartments — 266 one-bedroom units, 142 two-bedroom apartments and 32 three-bedroom units — 19,467 square feet of commercial and restaurant space, 13,038 square feet of indoor amenities, 7 acres of open space, a pool, a clubhouse, grilling areas, a fitness center, a dog park, a playground and sidewalks. (The Winchester Star)
Bill Buchanan
PEOPLE
Millboro-based BARC Electric Cooperative named Bill Buchanan as CEO, replacing Michael Keyser, who left the cooperative in December 2021. Buchanan took over as CEO on May 9. Chief Operations Officer Chris Botulinski had been filling in as interim CEO and returned to his role as COO. BARC is a member-owned utility, providing service to 13,000 residents, farms and businesses in the Shenandoah Valley across five counties: Bath, Alleghany, Augusta, Highland and Rockbridge. Buchanan joined BARC from Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania-based Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative Association Inc., where he was president and CEO. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
NORTHERN
Amazon.com Inc. said April 20 that it has hired 5,000 employees for its Arlington-based HQ2, bringing the e-tailer one-fifth of the way to the minimum jobs the company committed to fill. Also in April, Arlington’s board approved plans for the 10.4-acre PenPlace, the second and final phase of the company’s new headquarters, which includes three office buildings and the spiral Helix tower. The first phase, Metropolitan Park, is expected to be delivered in 2023. (Washington Business Journal)
Google LLC will invest $300 million in Virginia in a plan that includes data centers and a $250,000 grant to Richmond nonprofit CodeVA to develop a network of computer science lab schools. Google will also partner with the state’s community colleges and regional higher education centers for professional certificates, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in April. While details about the company’s investment in Virginia were scant, Google and Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai announced April 13 that the company would spend $9.5 billion in 2022 to expand offices and data centers in nearly two dozen states. Google employs more than 480 people in Virginia, including at data centers in Loudoun County and its office in Reston. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
As bitcoin’s value tumbled below $30,000 for the first time since December 2020, MicroStrategy Inc. CEO Michael Saylor joked via Twitter that he may be taking on a new job, tweeting a badly edited photo of himself sporting a McDonald’s hat, serving fries and a hamburger. “Monday morning is time to get back to work. #Bitcoin,” the cryptocurrency influencer and bitcoin whale tweeted to his 2.4 million followers on May 9. His Tysons-based software company is the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, with more than 129,200 bitcoins in its reserves, worth about $4.1 billion as of May 11. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an inquiry into the Washington Commanders in late April, weeks after a U.S. congressional committee wrote to the Federal Trade Commission saying it found evidence of deceptive business practices by the team over more than a decade, including withholding ticket revenue from visiting teams and refundable deposits from fans. The investigation comes as the team scouts a location for a new stadium complex, including sites in Loudoun and Prince William counties, that would incorporate retail and other development. Legislation pending before the Virginia General Assembly would commit up to $350 million in tax revenues to help finance the stadium. (Associated Press, Virginia Mercury)
PEOPLE
George Mason University on April 11 named Ajay Vinzé as dean of its business school. Vinzé served as dean of the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business from 2017 to 2022, but stepped down to return to teaching and research, and currently serves as a professor of accountancy. Vinzé helped secure more than $30 million in philanthropic funding for Trulaske, which also began offering online credentials during his tenure and increased experiential learning opportunities for students. His first day at GMU will be July 1. (Virginia Business.com)
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld stepped down on May 16, rather than retiring June 30 as previously announced. WMATA Chief Operating Officer Joe Leader also resigned and left that day. The resignations followed news that more than 250 of the troubled transit system’s 500 train operators had lapsed in achieving recertification. In recent months, Metro has faced declining ridership and the suspension of more than half of its rail car fleet due to malfunctions. Randy Clarke, president and CEO of Austin, Texas’ Capital Metro, is set to become the WMATA’s next general manager and CEO in July.(VirginiaBusiness.com)
SOUTHERN
Amazon.com Inc. will launch two more utility-scale solar projects in Virginia, the company announced April 20. A 200-megawatt project in Pittsylvania County, near Axton, and a 50-megawatt project in Frederick County will bring to 19 the number of utility-scale solar facilities the company has in Virginia. Localities across the state have been wrestling with how — and even whether — to allow the continued spread of large-scale solar farms, which can take hundreds and even thousands of acres of farmland and forests. (Cardinal News)
Caesars Virginia has named Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner as the general contractor to build its $500 million resort and casino in Danville, Caesars Entertainment announced April 25. The resort will have a 500-guestroom hotel, a casino with more than 1,400 slot machines and table games, a Caesars sportsbook and a World Series of Poker-branded poker room. It will also include 40,000 square feet of meeting and convention space and a 2,500-person entertainment venue, along with bars and restaurants. But on May 3, a spokesperson told Danville’s City Council that the opening will be pushed back to 2024. (Danville Register & Bee)
It took a retired Virginia Beach judge very little time to rule in Martinsville‘s favor in a civil proceeding on reversion in Henry County Circuit Court April 26. The matter: Where will the future litigation proceedings on reversion be held and who will hear them? The verdict: Before a three-judge panel in Martinsville Circuit Court. Martinsville is seeking to revert from a city to a town in Henry County and the county is opposed, despite both parties previously having agreed to it. Both sides agreed reversion started out as a contested action by the city, became a voluntary action when the county signed a memorandum of understanding, and a voluntary settlement agreement is now contested because the county changed its mind. (Martinsville Bulletin)
A partisan shakeup of the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission in late April has restored not just Republican control of the board but also returned most seats to lawmakers from localities considered part of Virginia’s tobacco regions after Democrats ceded their majority in the House of Delegates and the three statewide offices back to the GOP in November. Among the lawmakers reappointed by Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, after a two-year hiatus is Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville, who had previously served on the commission after first being appointed in 2007. Former Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn had replaced several lawmakers with Democrats not residing in what is widely considered the tobacco footprint in the commonwealth. (Cardinal News)
Construction hasn’t started on the project to redevelop the iconic former Dan River Inc. White Mill building along Memorial Drive, and the anticipated cost has risen yet again. The price tag, which was originally $62.5 million,
has gone up from $68.75 million to about $81 million. Almost all of that is due to new site development costs, allowance for tenant improvements and the increase in construction costs. Officials had initially hoped for construction to begin by the end of last year, but it was delayed due to inflation, worker shortages and supply chain issues. Work has been postponed until August. (Danville Register & Bee)
PEOPLE
Telly Tucker, Arlington County’s economic development director since 2020, became the first president of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) on May 31. Tucker’s return to Danville is a return to his past. The Lynchburg native served as the city’s economic development director before becoming Arlington County’s economic development director in January 2020. He spent five years in Danville and helped turn around the former textile hub after many big employers exited in the 1990s and 2000s. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
SOUTHWEST
Abingdon served the Virginia Creeper Trail Conservancy a 30-day eviction notice on April 22, tossing the 31-year-old nonprofit organization from the Findlay House. Town officials said they wanted the space to develop a new welcome center for the trail and the nearby Meadows Sports Complex. On May 8, the Conservancy’s board of directors voted unanimously to accept the eviction and leave Abingdon. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Ballad Health System officials opened a second children’s resource center on April 20, part of its efforts to improve the health of a region with high rates of childhood obesity, diabetes and families in poverty. Located in Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, the center will provide information to children, parents and families; sponsor outreach and education on children’s health and safety issues; and serve as a clearinghouse to help families improve their children’s outlook. The center and its programming will be geared to help children and parents make healthy choices regarding physical activity, nutrition and safety, said Lisa Carter, president of Ballad’s southern market. (SWVA Today)
In late April, the Blue Ridge Job Corps Center campus in Marion announced it had immediate availability for new students. When the U.S. Labor Department lifted the new student enrollment restrictions, the center was able to return to its pre-pandemic admission standards and has the capacity to serve 192 students. The center provides certified nursing assistants, clinical medical assistants, medical administrative assistant and patient care technician trainings.
The center serves only female Virginia residents, ages 16 to 24. (SWVA Today)
In May, High Knob Regional Initiative and the University of Virginia’s College at Wise launched a public campaign that aims to provide community leaders and entrepreneurs with a toolkit to cultivate environmentally sustainable growth in Southwest Virginia’s outdoor economy. Funded by a grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, the yearlong “Growing Smart” campaign includes a 75-page planning blueprint crafted to help local governments, landowners and small businesses more sustainably plan and implement economic development practices. A group of academic experts, government agency representatives, nonprofit organizations’ staff, outdoor user group members and regional entrepreneurs created the blueprint.
(The Coalfield Progress)
A federal judge issued a summary judgment in late April, dismissing all claims in former banking executive Mary Y. Trigiani‘s lawsuit against Russell County-based New Peoples Bank for discrimination and wrongful termination. Trigiani’s complaints of a “cultlike office culture” did not hold up to judicial scrutiny, U.S. District Judge James P. Jones ruled. Trigiani was employed as New Peoples Bank’s senior vice president of strategic planning and development from 2017 to 2019. In January 2021, Trigiani sued New Peoples Bank in the U.S. Western District Court of Virginia, claiming that she was discriminated against because of her Catholic, nonevangelical religious beliefs, her age and her gender. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Virginia Lottery Board has issued its first license for a casino in Virginia to Hard Rock Bristol, the board announced April 27. With its permanent casino still on track to open at the former Bristol Mall in July 2024, Hard Rock International Inc. is preparing to open a 30,000-square-foot temporary casino with 870 gaming slots and 21 tables on July 8. The 90,000-square-foot permanent facility will include a 3,200-seat performance venue and a 20,000-person capacity outdoor entertainment venue. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
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