Page 62 – Virginia Business

Something in the Water called off, found in breach of contract

Something in the Water, music and fashion mogul Pharrell Williams’ Virginia Beach music festival, has been called off after missing an extended deadline Monday.

Last week, Virginia Beach officials gave concert organizers a five-day deadline to meet the city’s requirements for a lineup of performers and a start to ticket sales for the April 26-27 festival. Having failed to meet the Monday deadline, the concert was in breach of contract, according to the city.

Virginia Beach issued a statement Monday night: “While the city values the positive impact and visibility the Something in the Water festival has had on Virginia Beach in years past, regretfully organizers did not meet the cure notice requirements in terms of next steps. The SITW team will receive an official termination notice from the city.

“As a result, city staff will begin alternative plans for the weekend of April 26-27. We remain optimistic about future opportunities to work with the SITW team.”

The 2019 festival brought in $24 million in revenue for Hampton Roads, and a report prepared for the city found that the 2023 festival generated an economic impact of $26 million to $29 million for the City of Virginia Beach.

Earlier this month, Virginia Beach City Council member Amelia Ross-Hammond moved to defer an agenda item Jan. 7 giving Something in the Water a five-day deadline, and the council voted 8-2 in agreement.

However, on Jan. 21, Ross-Hammond had changed her tune, as there had not been significant progress toward announcing a lineup and starting sales of tickets, which the city gave an original deadline of Dec. 31, 2024. She asked Mayor Bobby Dyer to give City Manager Patrick Duhaney the go-ahead to inform the festival’s organizers of the five-day deadline to cure the breach of contract.

“We don’t have any definitive answers, we don’t have any contracts right now to look at,” Ross-Hammond said last week in the council’s informal meeting. “We’ve put out the welcome mats, we’ve done the grace, we’ve done the deference for a certain amount of weeks, and it’s coming back the same-old same-old. I’m looking at calling this now.”

After a successful debut in 2019, Something in the Water was canceled in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, Williams decided to host SITW in Washington, D.C., instead of Virginia Beach, after his cousin was shot and killed by a Virginia Beach police officer.

The festival returned to Virginia Beach in April 2023, with some canceled performances due to tornado threats and lightning. Williams then scheduled the 2024 festival for October 2024, but just after tickets went on sale last September, he unexpectedly called off the festival, writing, “Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves the best. So, Something in the Water has to match that. It just isn’t ready yet.”

After that, the city required SITW organizers to sign a contract with specific deadlines in order to receive $500,000 in funding from the city.

According to the agreement signed Nov. 15, 2024, by city and concert organizers, the festival’s promoter would receive $100,000 upon the execution of the agreement, with $200,000 to come after the city received the artist lineup and $200,000 more after completion of a special event permit application. Duhaney said SITW did not receive any funding.

SITW organizers did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Institute of Real Estate Management Hampton Roads Announces 2025 Board of Directors & Committees

We are thrilled to introduce the dynamic and dedicated team leading our Chapter into the new year. The 2025 IREM Hampton Roads Board & Committee members are:

· Christina Montgomery – President
· Rebecca Woolard – President-Elect/Vice President
· Amber Moore – Director of Communications/Secretary
· Sonny Smith – Director of Finance/Treasurer
· Tami Simonds – Director of Education
· Diamond Brown – Director of Membership
· Lindsay Horne – IREM Associate Executive
· Jessica Blake – Legislative Committee Co-Chair
· Joann Gaskins – Legislative Committee Co-Chair
· India Simkins-Vance – Education Committee
· Logan Sundra – Industry Partners Committee
· Jeri Powell – Immediate Past President/Past President Advisory
· Melody Almonte – AMO Committee
· Juli Corbett – Community Service Committee Co-Chair
· Matt Shafer – Community Service Committee Co-Chair
· Will Beasley – Scholarship Committee
· Nesha Ubiles – Next-Gen Committee and Diversity Committee Co-Chair Chair
· Jeri Powell – Next-Gen Committee and Diversity Committee Co-Chair
· Redi Carpet (Amber Mallore) – Industry Partners Committee Liaisons
· Jessica Poyner – Programs Co-Chair
· Rebecca Woolard – Programs Co-Chair

This talented group brings a wealth of experience and a shared commitment to excellence in real estate management. We look forward to their leadership & the continued success they will foster within our community.

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HII closes on South Carolina plant acquisition

Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries announced Monday it has closed on its purchase of a metal fabrication manufacturing facility in South Carolina, which will now be part of its subsidiary Newport News Shipbuilding.

The company did not disclose financial terms. In December 2024, HII said it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of W International SC and Vivid Empire SC. Collectively known as W International, the Goose Creek, South Carolina-based complex metal fabricator specializes in manufacturing shipbuilding structures, modules and assemblies.

“HII is committed to going where the labor is to increase shipbuilding capacity and increase throughput for our national security customers,” HII President and CEO Chris Kastner said in a statement. “This lets us efficiently add trained talent and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities to the urgent job of building ships, making it a unique opportunity to immediately accelerate throughput at Newport News Shipbuilding in support of the Navy and AUKUS.”

AUKUS is a 2021 agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, in which the U.S. and the U.K. share nuclear propulsion technology with Australia, as its Navy is set to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, including three to five Virginia-class submarines produced by NNS.

The acquired assets include advanced production facilities with state-of-the-art equipment, tooling and infrastructure used to fabricate complex metal modules and structures, and are located on a leased 45-acre site with more than 480,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The site has barge and rail access, and is located near Charleston, South Carolina.

The facility in Goose Creek is now known as Newport News Shipbuilding – Charleston Operations. HII employs 44,000 people and is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder.

$40M Diamond District lawsuit dismissed in Richmond

A Richmond Circuit Court judge dismissed a $40 million lawsuit over the city’s $2.44 billion Diamond District project last week, in which a Connecticut developer claimed its former partners, including Richmond’s Thalhimer Realty Partners, cut it out of the development deal.

Judge Bradley B. Cavedo ruled Jan. 22 in favor of defendants Thalhimer, a subsidiary of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, and Chicago-based Loop Capital Holdings, which requested a demurrer on the complaint. Republic Projects sued the two companies and four employees of the two firms in July 2024, alleging that they cut Republic out of the project and formed their own development partnership, Diamond District Partners, behind Republic’s back.

In his ruling, Cavedo wrote that “the court finds a distinction between pursuing a contract and carrying on as co-owners of a business. The course of dealing between the parties was considered in the court’s determination of whether a partnership was adequately pled. However … the court finds that the plaintiff has not advanced facts that, if taken as true, would support plaintiff’s claims against the defendants.” The ruling gives the plaintiff 28 days to amend its lawsuit.

“We are pleased with the court’s ruling,” Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer CEO Lee Warfield said in a statement Monday on behalf of Thalhimer Realty Partners, Diamond District Partners and Jason Guillot, a Thalhimer principal who is the Diamond District’s lead developer. “Our team is now 100% focused on bringing the Diamond District project to fruition for the benefit of the City of Richmond, its residents and all of the visitors this project will attract.”

The Diamond District is set to be the city’s largest mixed-use development project, centered on the new stadium for the Richmond Flying Squirrels Double-A baseball team. Republic, Thalhimer, Loop Capital and other developers won the project as RVA Diamond Partners in 2022, but Republic Projects and Loop Capital are no longer part of the development.

The 67-acre, $2.44 billion Diamond District project’s first phase is expected to cost $627.6 million, and includes an 8,000-capacity, $117 million-plus baseball stadium dubbed CarMax Park, which is set to open in time for the 2026 baseball season. The development is also set to include a hotel with at least 180 rooms from a high-end brand, such as Hilton or Westin, and 2,800 residential units, 935,000 square feet of office space, 195,000 square feet of retail and community space, and another hotel.

The Squirrels team is overseeing the stadium’s construction, which will replace the 40-year-old Diamond.

In August 2024, the Richmond Economic Development Authority’s board approved a 30-year lease and stadium development agreement between the EDA and the Flying Squirrels, in which the Squirrels will pay $3.2 million in annual rent for the next 10 years, with the rates decreasing after that point.

Pharma company to invest $54.2M in Richmond R&D facility

Pharmaceutical company Haleon will invest $54.2 million to upgrade its research and development facility in Richmond and launch an internship program in partnership with state government and Virginia Commonwealth University, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday.

The physical upgrades at the facility, located at 1211 Sherwood Ave., will allow United Kingdom-based Haleon to accommodate new technologies and expand its research capabilities, according to a news release. Youngkin discussed the project with Haleon leadership in London in July 2024.

“Haleon’s choice to expand its research capabilities and upgrade its Richmond facility strengthens the commonwealth’s pharmaceutical sector and highlights why Virginia is America’s Top State for Business,” Youngkin said in a statement.

Haleon and the Commonwealth of Virginia are launching the Haleon-Commonwealth Consumer Healthcare Internship Program for Advanced Life Sciences in partnership with VCU. Haleon and the state are supporting the five-year program with equal investments.

The internship will have paid work opportunities for undergraduate VCU students in the pharmaceutical science degree program launched in May 2024 and summer internships for undergraduate and graduate students for all Virginia higher education institutions.

Haleon’s Richmond roots date back to the 1960s, and its site has grown through mergers and acquisitions. Haleon launched as an independent company focused on consumer health in July 2022, when it completed its demerger from GlaxoSmithKline. GSK previously announced it would expand its Consumer Healthcare center, now Haleon’s Richmond facility, in 2019.

The site specializes in research and development and holds Haleon’s R&D Center of Excellence. Multiple Haleon brands were either created at the site or have grown from it, including Advil, Emergen-C and Robitussin.

Haleon’s Richmond site has added 100 team members since 2020. The R&D Center of Excellence holds technical functions including consumer science, formulation development, process scale up, analytical test method development, microbiology, product stability, packaging design and clinical supplies.

“Today’s announcement is a significant milestone for Haleon,” Haleon North America President Lisa Paley said in a statement. “Our investment in the modernization of the lab space at our research and development facility is an investment in delivering on our mission of everyday health with humanity as well as the Richmond community.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Richmond and the Greater Richmond Partnership to secure the project for Virginia. Youngkin approved a $950,000 Virginia Investment Performance Grant, a performance-based incentive for existing Virginia companies making continued capital investment.

Haleon reported 11.3 billion pounds — about $14.09 billion — in 2023 revenue.

Spanberger leads Earle-Sears in early state polling

It’s still early days, but in Virginia’s 2025 gubernatorial race, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger leads Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in a pair of new statewide polls.

In the Virginia Commonwealth University Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs poll released Friday, former U.S. Rep. Spanberger has the support of 44% of people polled, and Earle-Sears has 34%, while 17% say they are undecided. Christopher Newport University‘s Wason Center for Civic Leadership reported last week that Spanberger has a five-point lead over the lieutenant governor, 44% to 39%, with 16% undecided.

The two polls show a wider gap between the candidates than previous surveys.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, in a poll conducted in December 2024 and released Jan. 10, reported that Spanberger was ahead by 3 points, while she had only a one-point advantage in a poll released Jan. 8 by Emerson College and The Hill.

Spanberger and Earle-Sears are their parties’ presumed gubernatorial nominees, although U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott has not yet ruled out a run for the Democratic nomination, as of last week. The Mason-Dixon poll asked respondents who they would vote for between Scott and Earle-Sears, and she had a two-point lead over Scott in that result, although Scott showed stronger results than Spanberger among Black voters, receiving 85% of their votes compared to 81% for Spanberger.

“The 10% lead of Spanberger to Earle-Sears (44% to 34%) should cause Earle-Sears to be concerned, especially given 25% of Republicans do not show support for her candidacy,” former Gov. Doug Wilder said in a statement released with the VCU poll Friday. “Spanberger’s lead, however, could be significantly impacted should Republicans close ranks around Earle-Sears’ candidacy. This is likewise true with independents since they prefer Earle-Sears to Spanberger (21% to 15%).”

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Spanberger has raised more than $9.59 million in campaign dollars and had $6.55 million cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2024, while Earle-Sears raised $2.56 million and had $2.11 million cash on hand. Spanberger declared her candidacy in November 2023, 10 months before Earle-Sears threw her hat in the ring.

If either woman wins the gubernatorial race, as seems likely, the victor will make history as Virginia’s first woman governor. Earle-Sears is the first woman to serve as Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the first Black woman and immigrant to hold statewide office.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer and postal inspector, served three terms in Congress, first beating Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Brat in 2018 in a traditionally GOP-leaning district, and maintaining her seat in 2022 after congressional redistricting. She represented Fredericksburg, Caroline County and part of Prince William County until Jan. 1, when Democrat U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman succeeded Spanberger in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has endorsed Earle-Sears in the governor’s race, is rumored to be interested in running for U.S. Sen. Mark Warner’s seat, which is up for election in 2026. Warner, a former Democratic governor, would be seeking his fourth term in the Senate and has 45% support of voters polled by VCU, compared to Youngkin’s 38%.

As for other areas of focus, CNU poll respondents said that improving K-12 education, reducing health care costs and strengthening the state’s economy are their highest priorities for the governor and the General Assembly. In the VCU poll, nearly 60% of voters said the economy and cost of living were their top issue, and K-12 education was the second most-cited issue.

2024 Va. housing market outpaced 2023 — barely

There were 102,509 home sales in Virginia in 2024. That’s 4,000 more than the previous year, according to Virginia Realtors.

A chart looking at home sales in December in Virginia over several years. — Photo courtesy Virginia Realtors

“While Virginia’s 2024 housing market ended stronger than 2023, it was still relatively slow compared to average levels,” Ryan Price, chief economist for the trade organization, said in a statement. “Looking ahead to 2025, we predict pent-up demand will continue facilitating home sales, though that same demand may keep upward pressure on prices.”

For December 2024, Virginia had 7,907 home sales, up 14.1% from December 2023, according to Virginia Realtors data released January 22. In November 2024, 7,853 homes sold across the state.

Rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.72% in December 2024, according to Freddie Mac data.

“Last year’s housing market was unusually slow due to interest rates staying in the upper- to mid-7% range for much of the fall market,” Lorraine Arora, president of Virginia Realtors, said in a statement. “The surge we observed at the end of 2024 indicates buyers are coming to terms with mortgage rate levels which, while still elevated, are lower than a year ago.”

The Virginia market had 16,588 active listings at the end of December 2024, a 13% increase from December 2023. “Supply in the market has been expanding for more than a year, though overall supply levels remain tight,” a Virginia Realtors news release explained.

The statewide median sales price in December 2024 was $413,490, up $31,000 from December 2023.

A graph illustrating the increase in median home prices. — Image courtesy Virginia Realtors

New listings last month totaled 5,649, up 13% from December 2023. While the situation is improving, the number of new listings remains below average, according to Virginia Realtors.

December 2024’s supply of inventory (MSI) — a measure of how many months there would be homes on the market if no new inventory were added — stood at 1.9, up from 1.8 in December 2023.

Homes took slightly longer to sell last month. Statewide, homes spent a median of 19 days on the market, up from the 16-day median reported in November 2024 and two days longer than the median reported in December 2023.

Based in Glen Allen, Virginia Realtors represents about 35,000 Realtors and is the state’s largest trade association.

Accenture Federal Services wins $3.5B DOE contract

The Department of Energy awarded Accenture Federal Services, an Arlington County federal contractor, a $3.5 billion, single-award, blanket purchase agreement to provide information technology services to the agency on Friday, just prior to the Trump administration’s return to the White House.

The CIO Business Operations Support Services (CBOSS) contract runs through 2032, according to a notice in the Federal Procurement Data System. The DOE received five bids, according to the award.

A spokesperson for Accenture Federal Services directed a request for comment to the DOE Thursday.

In 2019, the Accenture subsidiary won a five-year CBOSS contract with a potential value of $2 billion. It covered general IT support, telecommunications, cybersecurity, systems architecture and engineering, and shared services, according to the federal contractor.

In November 2024, Accenture Federal Services announced the award of a task order of up to $1.6 billion to scale and enhance Cloud One, the cloud computing platforms available to the U.S. Department of Defense that are managed by the Air Force.

An Accenture subsidiary, Accenture Federal Services employs 15,500 workers. Its parent company reported $64.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024.

Va. to receive $107.4M in updated opioids settlement

Virginia stands to receive up to $107.4 million in a multistate settlement proposed by OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced Thursday.

The defendants in the federal case have offered to pay $7.4 billion to 14 states to settle claims that under the leadership of the Sacklers, Purdue “invented, manufactured and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, fueling waves of addiction and overdose deaths across the country,” according to Miyares’ statement. In the agreement, members of the Sackler family would pay $6.5 billion, and Purdue would pay $900 million, and the Sacklers would no longer own the pharmaceutical company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after Purdue was sued thousands of times.

Much of the settlement money would go toward funding opioid addiction treatment and prevention programs over the next 15 years.

However, now the decision will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned an earlier settlement agreement in June 2024. The high court rejected that $4.3 billion settlement, in which Virginia expected to receive $80 million, in part because the agreement would have protected the Sackler family from future civil liability claims. The new settlement does not have that protection.

Although opioid addiction is a problem nationwide, Virginia has played a significant role in the lawsuits against Purdue and McKinsey & Co., which agreed in December 2024 to pay the federal government $650 million in a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Global management firm McKinsey was under investigation for its role in advising Purdue on how to increase sales of OxyContin, a brand name of oxycodone.

In that case, the Virginia attorney general‘s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) collaborated with U.S. attorney’s offices in the Western District of Virginia and the District of Massachusetts, and a former McKinsey senior partner pleaded guilty after being charged with obstruction of justice in Abingdon’s federal court.

In 2018, under former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, the state sued Purdue and related entities in Tazewell County Circuit Court, claiming that the company violated the Virginia Consumer Protection Act in marketing opioids with “misrepresentations and deception regarding the risks of addiction and benefits of prescription opioids,” Miyares said in the announcement. The following year, 2019, the state included members of the Sackler family in the lawsuit. This settlement, if approved, will resolve those claims.

In addition to Virginia, the other states involved in the settlement are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia.

Va. Beach gives Something in the Water 5-day deadline over contract breach

After receiving a brief reprieve, the clock is ticking for organizers for Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water music festival. Organizers were given five days to make significant progress in meeting Virginia Beach‘s requirements for a lineup of performers and a start to ticket sales, city officials decided Tuesday.

If organizers do not meet the city’s expectations by end of business Monday, they’ll be in breach of contract, and the two-day concert in late April will likely be canceled.

“I’m calling it,” said City Councilor Amelia Ross-Hammond, who recommended giving the festival a grace period earlier in January, after organizers failed to meet a Dec. 31, 2024, deadline to provide the city with a full lineup of announced performers and begin ticket sales for the April 26-27 Oceanfront event.

A council liaison to the festival, Ross-Hammond moved to defer an agenda item Jan. 7 giving Something in the Water a five-day deadline, and the council voted 8-2 in agreement. Mayor Bobby Dyer, who had requested the resolution setting a deadline, noted that hoteliers and other city businesses had asked to give the festival organizers more time. However, Ross-Hammond asked City Manager Patrick Duhaney and his staff begin reporting weekly to the council on the festival’s progress.

At Tuesday’s informal council meeting, Deputy City Manager Amanda Jarratt had little news to report.

“They’ve maintained positive momentum towards bringing the festival to fruition,” Jarratt said. “They’ve also indicated that they are in active communication with event sponsors but remain impacted by the destruction associated with the L.A. fires. We have not received any information regarding ticket sales or the release of a lineup from festival organizers. In addition, there’s been no official communication related to a definitive timeline to receive this information. We have not received official confirmation related to their contractors and support teams necessary to support an event of this magnitude.”

Dyer and Ross-Hammond noted that the 90-day window for the festival was approaching, and that the city would need that time to work on public safety measures for the two-day concert.

“We don’t have any definitive answers, we don’t have any contracts right now to look at,” Ross-Hammond said Tuesday. “We’ve put out the welcome mats, we’ve done the grace, we’ve done the deference for a certain amount of weeks, and it’s coming back the same-old same-old. I’m looking at calling this now.”

Ross-Hammond thanked fellow councilors for supporting the earlier deference, and she handed the matter to the mayor’s judgment without a full council vote. Directing Duhaney and his staff to set a five-day deadline for SITW organizers to cure the breach, Dyer said that he and other city officials “wanted to give their full effort” to the festival, which has been a moneymaker in 2019 and 2023 for the city coffers and nearby businesses.

“Unfortunately, our backs are to the wall,” Dyer said Tuesday.

Council member Michael Berlucchi asked Duhaney what precisely the cure would need to be for SITW to avoid default. “The cure would have to be acceptable to the city,” Duhaney said. “I’m not sure what the cure would be.”

Berlucchi said he wanted to avoid confusion among the public, the city and concert organizers, but Duhaney noted that the acceptable cure would involve a “nuanced discussion.”

SITW’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.