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Federal job cuts ripple through Northern Virginia

Summary

  • plans to cut 300,000 federal jobs by 2025
  • home to 175,000 federal workers, most in U.S.
  • Contractors freeze hiring as contracts stall, sparking layoffs

In early January, FlexProfessionals, a Fairfax-based staffing and recruiting firm, saw its job listings triple from the previous month.

Years of “fits and starts and challenges” in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, rising interest rates and inflation appeared to be in the rearview, and businesses seemed buoyed by the promise of a new presidential administration.

Then, says CEO and co-founder Gwenn Rosener, “the bottom dropped out.”

As uncertainty set in over the Trump’s administration’s plans to slash federal jobs and spending, as well as impose hefty tariffs on a variety of imported goods and materials, job listings evaporated as companies “retrenched,” Rosener explains.

“They’ve told us, ‘We’re waiting. We want to understand what contracts are real now,’ because they’re still waiting for … affirmation of existing contracts. Many of them had to pivot and try to win new contracts.”

FlexProfessionals handles placements for professional roles including accounting, sales, marketing and human resources for small and mid-size businesses, including , associations and nonprofits, and has worked with about 1,000 companies over the past 15 years.

About 25% to 30% of the agency’s placements throughout the Washington, D.C., region have been with government contractors or technology firms that work with the government. That’s dropped to about 15% now, Rosener says.

Since Trump’s second term started, job placements have been suspended and hires in progress have stopped, she notes, and at the same time, the firm has seen a 10% increase in monthly registrations from job seekers from March through July, compared with the first two months of the year.

Many of these job seekers are former federal workers, Rosener notes. “What we heard from many of the government employees is that they never thought they’d ever have to go through a job search.”

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine says Northern Virginia is resilient, but he has been critical of Gov. ‘s response to Trump’s workforce cuts. Photo by AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.

Uncertain future

As the Trump administration continues to take aim at the federal civilian workforce, with plans to cut 300,000 jobs by the end of 2025, Virginia is likely to feel an outsized effect, particularly Northern Virginia.

With 321,516 federal civilian workers, the commonwealth has more federal workers than nearly every other state, trailing only California, according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. Also, Virginia ranks No. 1 in federal contract spending, with $109 billion spent in the state in 2023, 62% of which went to Northern Virginia. More than 441,000 jobs depend on that money, according to the center.

As many as 175,000 federal workers live in Northern Virginia, and more than 80,000 federal jobs are based in the region, the Northern Virginia Regional Commission reports. It’s difficult to pin down the exact number of Northern Virginia-based federal workers who have taken buyouts or been fired, but Terry Clower of ‘s Center for Regional Analysis says the number hovers around 6,000, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

That number may not sound like a lot, but it adds up, Clower says. “Let’s put it this way: If a company was coming to town and they told the governor they’re going to bring 6,000 jobs with them, they would be in line to get a really, really big incentive package.”

For every federal civilian job lost, another 0.4 jobs are lost because of the household spending effect, Clower says, adding that those losses can indirectly affect other areas, including commercial real estate and the housing market.

In a July survey by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and Pinkston, 23% of local business leaders reported that they had downsized operations this year, while 7% laid off employees.

Herndon-based software company Deltek, which is tracking terminated federal contracts, reported as of mid-August that more than 2,330 prime government contracts have ended this year, contributing to private sector layoffs. The state’s Virginia Works reported in August that the professional and business services sector, which includes many firms, has lost the most jobs statewide, a decline of 10,900 jobs between July 2024 and July 2025. Mitre, Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos and other big names have announced layoffs, and other businesses are encountering difficulties as well.

“It makes it tough for companies, because when you have uncertainty, they can’t invest,” says Loudoun County Economic Development Executive Director Buddy Rizer.

Loudoun lost a “major” project planned around a Metro stop by a government contractor in the spring because the company didn’t know if its contracts would be renewed, Rizer says. He declined to name the company but adds the project “would have been a game changer.”

“That’s an impact that we can’t measure, right? We can’t measure what’s not happening because of this,” he notes.

What is measurable is rising and a softening housing market, two areas that might reveal some of the early impact.

The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors noted that as of June, homes were taking an average of 20 days to sell, more than 40% longer than in June 2024, and inventory was up more than 52% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s unemployment rate has increased for seven consecutive months, hitting 3.6% in July, up from 2.8% a year earlier, and 2.9% in December 2024. Each of Northern Virginia’s cities and counties have also seen increases, according to BLS.

Since February, about 1,500 federal employees and 5,100 people tied to the state’s top 500 government contractors have applied for unemployment, says state Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater.

“It warrants monitoring, and we are concerned,” he says. “That’s why we’re doing some of the things that we’re doing.”

In February, the state launched VirginiaHasJobs.com, which links to jobs boards and also offers resources for laid-off federal workers seeking new jobs. Through mid-August, the site had more than 237,000 visits, according to Slater.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay has criticized the job board, as well as Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s response to the Trump administration’s actions, saying it’s not going far enough to soften potential losses for affected workers, some of whom may work in jobs that are not easily transferrable.

The county is home to about 80,000 federal employees and 120,000 contractors, and among McKay’s chief concerns is a talent drain among people who lose jobs and relocate to less expensive areas. Fewer jobs are now available, too, which McKay attributes in part to contractors pulling back on speculative openings. According to Fairfax County data, there were 26,800 jobs open in August within the county, down from 48,000 in February. That can have a ripple effect.

“I do think most companies decide where they’re going to locate or expand based on what does the talent landscape look like, and if our talent landscape is taking a hit because people are deciding to leave our region, that’s a huge long-term problem,” McKay says.

The Weldon Cooper Center’s most recent quarterly forecast, issued in August, anticipates that the statewide unemployment rate will reach 4.2% by the end of this year and 4.6% in 2026, marking the highest rate since 2021, and Virginia is expected to lose more than 22,500 jobs in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, federal employees who took deferred buyouts earlier this year came to the end of their salaries at the end of September, and Reddit discussions are full of stories about their challenges finding new jobs, as well as others leaving the D.C. region for work.

“I think we’re going to see more inventory coming on the market this fall, and I think it’s possible to see some price drops in local markets year-over-year, prices falling,” says Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist from Bright MLS, the multiple listing service for the mid-Atlantic region.

Building resilience

This isn’t the first time Northern Virginia has suffered job losses, notes U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democratic former governor who has criticized Youngkin’s response to federal cuts.

In 2005, the region lost about 17,000 U.S. Department of Defense personnel as part of a realignment. and Alexandria bore the brunt of the losses, but this helped pave the way for Amazon.com’s HQ2 and the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, Kaine says. “I’m always of the belief that we’re resilient. We’re strong. As long as we keep making investments in talent, we will both grow our own talent and attract talent.”

Regional economic development professionals have worked for years to diversify Northern Virginia’s economy, with pushes into artificial intelligence, commercial spaceflights, quantum computing and life sciences, as well as a focus on startups. Meanwhile, under Trump, federal defense spending has continued to be strong, which has helped that sector this year.

In July, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce released a roadmap to revamp the region’s economy, focusing on building tech sectors, as well as providing more child care options and affordable housing.

Julie Coons, the chamber’s president and CEO, says that she’s learned from talking with other business leaders that they no longer can depend on future surges of federal dollars in the region.

“The CEOs that I talk to continue to this day to believe that we have got to seize our future,” she says. “We’ve got to plan for it. There is no time like the present. Waiting is not an option.”

Beyond the roadmap, the chamber is building an engagement council to discuss changes to draw more business to Northern Virginia, Coons says, but she expects the process to take three to five years.

Meanwhile, says Ryan Touhill, director of Arlington Economic Development, more companies in the tech, defense and aerospace industries have expressed interest in coming to the county, and there are discussions underway to potentially create an innovation district in National Landing. That could be announced later this year, Touhill says.

According to the chamber’s July survey, 68% of business owners are optimistic about their companies’ prospects through the end of this year, a feeling Gwenn Rosener shares.

While there are some struggles in her job placement firm, she’s seeing more demand for marketing, recruiting and human resources jobs, she says. “I think there’s some pent-up demand, and I think it’s going to get better.”

Northern Virginia at a Glance

The commonwealth’s economic engine, Northern Virginia — including Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Stafford, Spotsylvania and Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Fairfax, Fredericksburg and Alexandria — is home to many government contractors and federal workers due to the region’s proximity to Washington, D.C. Higher education institutions include George Mason University, University of Mary Washington, Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus and Northern Virginia Community College.
Population
2.6 million
Major employers
  • Inova Health System
  • Amazon.com
  • Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Capital One Financial
  • Freddie Mac
  • General Dynamics
  • Northrop Grumman
  • RTX
companies
  • AES
  • QXO Building Products
  • (formerly Beacon Roofing Supply)
  • Boeing
  • Booz Allen Hamilton
  • CACI International
  • Capital One Financial
  • DXC Technology
  • Freddie Mac
  • General Dynamics
  • Hilton Worldwide Holdings
  • Leidos Holdings
  • Northrop Grumman
  • NVR
  • RTX
  • Science Applications International Corp.
Major attractions
Northern Virginia boasts many historical and cultural attractions including Mount Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s annex, where visitors can see the retired Space Shuttle Discovery. Outdoor lovers will find ample parks and trails, including Great Falls Park and Wolf Trap National Park in Vienna, whose outdoor amphitheater attracts national performers. Old Town Alexandria’s cobblestone streets and boutiques draw shoppers and diners.
Top convention hotels
  • Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles (Chantilly) 59,538 square feet of event space, 336 rooms
  • Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport (Arlington) 70,000 square feet of meeting space, 685 guest rooms
  • Crystal Gateway Marriott (Arlington) 39,983 square feet of meeting space, 703 guest rooms
  • Hilton Alexandria Mark Center (Alexandria) 37,091 square feet of event space,  428 rooms
  • DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Washington D.C. – Crystal City (Arlington) 33,316 square feet of meeting space,  627 guest rooms
  • Hilton Arlington Rosslyn The Key (Rosslyn) 28,000 square feet of meeting space,  333 guest rooms
Boutique luxury hotels
  • Watermark Hotel (Fairfax County)
  • Salamander Middleburg (Loudoun County)
  • Lansdowne Resort (Loudoun County)
  • Hotel Burg (Leesburg)
Notable restaurants

Workforce education in Hampton Roads

The Apprentice School at Shipbuilding

Founded in 1919, The Apprentice School in Newport News has graduated more than 11,000 apprentices over its long history. Part of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, it offers apprenticeship programs and Associate of Applied Science degrees in 19 shipbuilding disciplines and six optional advanced programs of study, including marine design. Apprentices complete 1,000 hours of coursework and a minimum of 7,000 hours of on-the-job training. as.edu

Goodwill of Central and Coastal Virginia

The Goodwill Academy of Virginia provides paid training opportunities in programs where students develop foundational skills needed to get a job and to be successful at work. Participants are assigned a job coach and often do job shadowing and internships. goodwillvirginia.org

Workforce Council

Established by the Hampton Roads Board, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council oversees federally funded workforce development programs for all localities in the region. The council offers general workforce services like skills assessment, helping businesses find qualified workers and hosting workshops covering job searches, résumés, job interviews and other topics. It operates the Hampton Roads Veterans Employment Center and offers programs for people ages 14 to 24 through its NextGen programs. theworkforcecouncil.org

Old Dominion University Veterans Business Outreach Center

Program offers a variety of services for active-duty and transitioning service members, reservists, national guardsmen, veterans and their families who are interested in entrepreneurship and small business ownership. One program offered is Boots to Business, an entrepreneurial education and training program offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration as part of the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program. odu.edu/iie/vboc

Paul D. Camp Community College

The community college’s workforce development division offers options for employers and workers in western Tidewater. The college offers courses to gain industry credentials, professional certifications and licenses in various professions, including commercial driving, health care, welding, logistics and IT security. For businesses, the division offers customized workforce training. pdc.edu/workforce-development

Rappahannock Community College

Rappahannock Community College provides multiple skills and training programs for credentials, professional certificates and licenses across a range of industries, such as health care, welding and transportation. The college also offers career studies certificate programs that students can complete in one to two semesters, with courses in the culinary arts, HVAC, cybersecurity, criminal justice and other fields. rappahannock.edu/explore-programs/programs/short-term-programs.html

Tidewater Community College

Companies can book customized training at TCC’s campus, at the workplace or online, and TCC can provide classroom space, mechatronic and welding labs, as well as trucks or motorcycles for training needs. The college offers career readiness certificates as well as a variety of short-term workforce training courses in advanced manufacturing, health care, IT, maritime, hospitality and other fields. workforce.tcc.edu

Veteran Entrepreneur Program

Sponsored by the PenFed Foundation, a nonprofit founded by PenFed Credit Union, this accelerator program for veteran- and military spouse-owned and led companies begins with a three-day, in-person seminar that is followed by six weekly virtual sessions. Participants meet for networking events, roundtables and mentorship opportunities. penfedfoundation.org/how-we-help/vep

Veterans Entrepreneur Scholars at William & Mary

Over the course of five weeks, current and former service members learn, on a part-time basis, the foundational skills of innovation and entrepreneurship. After identifying a startup idea and validating the market, students will take the first steps toward launching their own ventures. Programs are held in person and remotely. wm.edu/offices/veterans/certificates/veterans-entrepreneur-scholars/

Veteran Startup Challenge

A part-time training initiative that runs over five weeks to train those who served the United States to create their own jobs through entrepreneurship and to begin careers in tech. Veterans, active-duty service members, reservists, spouses of those in the military, workers from the intelligence community and from the U.S. Department of Defense and Gold Star families are eligible. veteranstartupchallenge.org

Virginia Apex Accelerator

Administered by , this program partners with public and private organizations to offer counseling and training
to businesses that want to participate in the government procurement process. Counselors are located throughout Virginia, including Hampton Roads. The organization also hosts seminars and industry events. virginiaapex.org

Virginia Peninsula Community College

Virginia Peninsula’s workforce development program provides customized workforce training options for local employers and short-term career training for workers. Training program options include cybersecurity, health care, welding and transportation. The college offers businesses customized training virtually or in-person locally. vpcc.edu/workforce

 

Wind energy projects continue despite federal headwinds

Summary

  • Dominion’s $10.7B project is 60% complete
  • Offshore turbines, substations and cables advancing toward 2026 launch
  • and legal challenges raise costs but project remains on schedule

Despite cost increases, legal challenges, tariff uncertainty and ‘s dogged opposition to wind , ‘s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is on track to begin powering 660,000 homes in late 2026.

Construction on the 2.6-gigawatt project 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast was 60% complete as of late July. According to Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton, all 176 monopile foundations have been installed, as well as 59 of the 176 transition pieces which connect the foundations to the turbine towers. The first turbine components, including tower sections, nacelles and blades, arrived at Portsmouth Marine Terminal this summer in preparation for construction of the first turbines later this year.

In addition, the first of three offshore substations has been installed, along with all deepwater offshore export cables and about 45% of the near-shore offshore export cables. Onshore overhead transmission work was completed this summer, while the underground infrastructure will be finished late this year. Both onshore and offshore cables will be installed in early 2026.

However, Trump’s tariffs on imported materials compelled the Richmond-based utility to readjust CVOW’s expected $10.7 billion cost; if current tariffs continue through construction, Dominion expects about $500 million in added costs.

The price hike follows a 9% upsurge from $9.8 billion earlier this year due to higher onshore electrical connection costs and network upgrades assigned by regional electric grid operator PJM.

A long-time opponent of wind energy, Trump issued an executive order in January that froze new offshore wind leases in federal waters and directed the Department of the Interior to review wind projects’ environmental impacts and the economic effects of intermittent electric generation. The order did not affect CVOW, which completed the federal approval process during the Biden administration.

But in August, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management halted work on a wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut that was nearly complete, and the U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew nearly $40 million awarded to the Norfolk Offshore Wind Logistics Port in 2023.

CVOW has also faced resistance from conservative interest groups that filed a lawsuit in late 2023 against Dominion and federal agencies that approved the project’s permitting. They contend that federal regulators did not adequately assess potential environmental impacts to marine life.
In June, a federal judge ruled that the parties had until late September to decide if they wished to proceed with legal action.

Ripple effects

Matt Smith, director of energy and emerging technologies for the Alliance, does not think the lawsuit will impede CVOW, noting that the project underwent a rigorous, multiyear environmental review process with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that Trump’s executive order has caused uncertainty in the offshore wind industry and could delay Dominion’s second offshore wind project, a 40,000-acre lease off the coast of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Dominion purchased the site from Avangrid Renewables for $160 million last year.

Smith adds that some foreign manufacturers have scaled back plans to invest in offshore winds while waiting for the ambiguous trade situation to play out.

“It causes companies to pause or rethink how quickly they will invest in the U.S.,” he says. “You can’t expect people to invest half a billion dollars if there is uncertainty about the business climate.”

However, , a subsidiary of South Korean undersea cable manufacturer LS Cable & Systems, remains committed to building a $681 million plant in Chesapeake that will manufacture underwater electrical cables for offshore wind projects. The company broke ground in April on the 750,000-square-foot facility on the Southern Branch Elizabeth River. It is expected to be finished in late 2027 and fully operational in early 2028, with more than 330 full-time employees.

Patrick Y. Shim, the company’s managing director, says LS GreenLink USA is attracting business globally. “We are already filling up our order book into the 2030s,” he notes. “Most of our orders are coming from Europe. We are also talking with many customers from Latin America.”

Cables produced at the facility can be used for inter-connection projects as well as for offshore wind. Future expansion plans include land cables.

LS GreenLink USA’s investment is one of the biggest industry investments in Hampton Roads in the last two decades, notes Smith.

“It validates that we are one of the best places to invest and build out the domestic supply chain,” he says. “Other companies will see that we have sites ready and available and the and regional partners here to assist companies in making their decisions.”

Editor’s note: The online version of this story has been updated since publication to reflect the latest construction progress on the CVOW project as of Sept. 30, 2025.

 

George Mason president resists federal pressure

Summary

  • George Mason University faces four federal investigations
  • DOE accuses the university of discriminatory hiring practices
  • Faculty, lawmakers and business leaders rally behind GMU president

After federal pressure from the led to the stunning resignation of University of Virginia President Jim Ryan, political watchers wondered which college leader would be next in the hot seat.

They merely had to look a couple hours north to George Mason University and its president, .

As of early September, the state’s largest and most diverse public university is in negotiations with the U.S. , which announced in August that George Mason was in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by “illegally using race and other immutable characteristics in university practices and policies, including hiring and promotion.”

In essence, the federal government has concluded that George Mason committed acts of “reverse racism” by showing preference for people of color in hiring and promotions.

That was the finding in just one of four federal investigations into Mason launched in July by the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice’s civil rights division. Three of the investigations are related to hiring and promotions practices that the federal government alleges are discriminatory against white and male employment candidates and employees, and the DOE is also examining allegations of on campus.

So far, Washington has kept his job, despite a conservative-leaning board of visitors appointed by and the added pressure of the investigations.

Through his lawyer, Washington has said he will not publicly apologize to the university as demanded by the Department of Education. An apology, Washington’s attorney has counseled, would place George Mason in future legal jeopardy.

Ryan, by contrast, resigned in June weeks after the opened an investigation into U.Va.’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In his farewell letter, Ryan said he was resigning to try to preserve research jobs and student financial aid, which he said would be removed if he stayed.

So far, though, George Mason’s Washington is fighting the coordinated efforts to oust him, which critics of say is part of a larger politically motivated initiative to gain conservative influence over universities and eliminate what the administration decries as an epidemic of “wokeism” on college campuses.

Discrimination and antisemitism charges brought by the DOE and DOJ, they say, are part of a playbook to remove university presidents that the administration disagrees with, along with threatening federal funding at universities. For example, Northwestern University President Michael Schill resigned in August amid a federal freeze on Northwestern’s research funding. The Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, Schill had been the target of heavy criticism by Republicans for not taking strong enough action against alleged antisemitism by student protesters of the war in Gaza.

George Mason student Makayla Davis George participates in an April Hands Off Our Schools rally outside the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. Photo by AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Strong conservative ties

Some observers are asking why George Mason University, which is not as famous or as well-resourced as Harvard and Columbia universities, or even U.Va. or Northwestern, is now a federal target.

The answer may lie in its proximity to D.C. and the university’s long conservative ties.

For instance, several of Mason’s past and present board members are connected to the Heritage Foundation, the organization that created Project 2025. The university’s rector, Charles “Cully” Stimson, is deputy director of the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, and the Charles Koch Foundation has been a notable backer of the university. Additionally, the university’s law school was renamed for the late conservative Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016 in response to a $20 million gift from an anonymous donor, and in September, former Vice President Mike Pence was named a distinguished professor at GMU’s Schar School of Policy and Government.

Ironically, George Mason was a staging ground for dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives long before Trump took office in January. Mason’s board and Washington began taking actions to end George Mason’s DEI programs a year-and-a-half ago.

Still, the federal government has found significant fault with Washington’s .

According to Craig Trainor, the DOE’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, “Washington [in 2020] called for expunging the so-called ‘racist vestiges’ from GMU’s campus. Without a hint of self-awareness, President Washington then waged a universitywide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race. You can’t make this up.”

The university’s first Black president, Washington arrived at George Mason in July 2020, a time when racial justice protests were taking place nationwide, sparking conversations in board rooms and public agencies over how to respond. One of Washington’s first official actions was to host a video town hall to discuss how the university would address racial inequities through DEI initiatives. He also announced a series of actions “to advance systemic and cultural anti-racism at George Mason University,” ranging from oversight of university police to examining faculty pay equity and the naming of buildings.
“As part of addressing this national reckoning, we were examining ourselves, looking for ways to become better,” he wrote this summer, addressing the federal investigations.

As a state institution, the university was directed by then-Gov. Ralph Northam to expand access to diverse job candidates and vendors. And in 2021, the state legislature enacted amendments to the state code that required public institutions to integrate DEI goals into their missions and operations — which continues to be state law, Washington has noted.

Starting in late 2023, after the election of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Washington complied with direction from the university’s more conservative board of visitors to “review and scale back DEI efforts,” he wrote. “By 2025, after a year of study from two university committees whose membership included board members and staff, … the board instructed us to dismantle programs and reassign or eliminate staff, which we have done.”

The first federal investigation into George Mason, opened July 1 by the DOE, is examining allegations that the university didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students and staff from antisemitism associated with pro-Palestine protests over the past two years.

In 2022, Virginia delegates honored George Mason with a proclamation on the floor of the House of Delegates, attended by President Gregory Washington (center). Photo by AP Photo/Steve Helber

Washington has denied the allegations, and some of his faculty champions have criticized how he and his administration handled protests at GMU, deeming the approach overly harsh toward student protesters. Late last year, the university suspended the Students for Justice in Palestine group for several months, barred three students from campus for their activities during protests and expelled a fourth. Campus police also searched the home of two SJP leaders in November 2024.

And in September, the university issued a statement about an Instagram video posted by SJP that “raised safety fears and alarm among members of the university community,” noting that SJP removed the video “at the university’s insistence, citing its nondiscrimination policy.”

Despite differing opinions over his administration’s response to student protesters, Washington has many defenders, particularly among faculty and Virginia Democratic lawmakers. A group of business leaders and chambers also issued a public letter of support for him.

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner wrote in a July op-ed published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that they viewed Washington as the Trump White House’s next academic target after Ryan’s resignation.

In a letter this summer, the university’s faculty senate urged the board of visitors to protect academic freedom and oppose overreaches by the White House. And George Mason’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors went further, passing a vote of “no confidence” in the board, which is now entirely composed of Youngkin appointees.

“Against this politicized backdrop, Washington and his administration have walked a tightrope, responding to claims of antisemitism and to conservative anti-wokeness pearl-clutching with a combination of rational arguments and capitulation to the board’s political and partisan interference in George Mason’s curriculum and day-to-day operations,” wrote the president and vice president of Mason’s AAUP chapter and a retired public policy professor in an op-ed published in The Chronicle of .

‘Departure from the norm’

On July 8, state Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office sent a letter to Torridon Law partner Michael Fragoso to appoint the Republican-affiliated law firm to advise the GMU board on compliance with federal executive orders and antidiscrimination law.

In early July emails, board members discussed the optics of hiring Torridon Law, founded by former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr, rather than relying on the university’s general counsel. Virginia Business received these emails via a Freedom of Information Act query, although Stimson’s writings were redacted.

Vice Rector Michael Meese, in a July 11 email responding to Stimson, wrote, “As we discussed and you wrote, this action is taken ‘in the best interest of the university for the board, through the rector, to direct and manage the interaction with the Department of Education.’ As you explained to me, this is intended to put GMU and our actions in the best possible light and minimize legal jeopardy (given the truth/facts) and will be a good thing for the university.”

Meese noted, however, that “it would be very easy for someone to think that the board and Torridon Law [PLLC] (and by implication you, me and others on the executive committee) are trying to throw the school and Greg under the bus as the DOE is driving the bus. I know that is not our intent, but I suspect that is how some people may interpret what you wrote. When you talk with Greg to explain this, I just wanted you to understand that alternative interpretation and be sensitive to it.”

Paul G. Allvin, George Mason’s vice president and chief brand officer, wrote to Meese on July 12 that hiring outside counsel “does represent a significant departure from the norm, in fact an action without precedent at this university. I think this is why it is being greeted with such surprise and concern. The board should be ready for the public to react very skeptically to this, as news coverage is already focused more on questions about the process than the accusations. You don’t want to be blindsided by that.”

The Mason AAUP chapter’s no-confidence resolution against the board labels the hiring of Torridon Law to speak for the university “like hiring a wolf to protect the sheep.”

In September, both the AAUP chapter and state Senate Democratic leaders called for Stimson to either resign as rector or recuse himself from discussions and votes regarding Washington’s job performance and any university responses to federal DEI investigations or compliance matters. The senators also noted that the six-member board does not currently have a quorum required by state law, after a Senate committee voted not to confirm 22 Youngkin university board appointees this summer.

Stimson and Fragoso have not responded to messages from Virginia Business seeking comment, and the university’s communications department has responded to requests for interviews with Mason officials by referring to public statements made by Washington and the board.

Meanwhile, Washington has hired former Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft’s law office in Washington, D.C., as his legal counsel. Gansler and Fragoso are both involved in negotiations with the DOE, according to the board.

In a letter to the board, Gansler called the DOE’s findings “incomplete” and containing “gross mischaracterizations” of Washington’s statements, as well as “outright omissions” regarding the university’s nearly two-year DEI review process. He added that if Washington apologized, as the DOE has called for, the university would be legally vulnerable.

In the bigger picture, Gansler’s letter indicates Washington’s different tack from other university presidents, including U.Va.’s Ryan and Northwestern’s Schill, in dealing with pressure from the Trump administration.

On Aug. 1, as the GMU board met privately with Washington to discuss his job performance, the president’s supporters steeled themselves for his possible firing, showing up with protest signs on campus. In the end, Washington received a state-approved 1.5% raise and a reprieve, at least for now.

But the question of Washington’s future could come down to money, as the Trump administration has control of the federal research purse strings, which Washington acknowledged in his letter to the campus.

“Being under such federal investigations is not familiar territory to George Mason, and I understand how this can be upsetting and distractive to so many who work or study here,” Washington wrote. “As we work through this, it is my hope that we will be granted due process.”

George Mason University at a glance

Founded
Originally formed in 1949 as an extension of the University of Virginia, George Mason University became an independent institution in 1972.

Campuses
George Mason’s footprint covers 848 acres in Northern Virginia. In addition to its Fairfax campus, this includes the Mason Square campus in Arlington, the Science and Technology campus in Manassas, and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation in Front Royal.

The Fairfax campus, with a residential student population of about 6,000, is home to seven colleges, including the state’s first College of Public Health, as well as the university’s 22 men’s and women’s Division I athletics teams.

Located in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, Mason Square is home to the Antonin Scalia Law School; the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution; the Schar School of Policy and Government; and classes for the College of Engineering and Computing, the Donald G. Costello College of Business, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. In 2024, the new Fuse at Mason Square building, a collaborative hub uniting scholars, students, researchers, policymakers and business developers, opened in Arlington.

George Mason’s SciTech Campus serves more than 4,000 students in five innovative facilities specially designed for classrooms, laboratories, libraries, recreation, the arts and other uses. And the Mason Korea campus in Songdo, South Korea, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024.

Enrollment*
40,449

Student profile**
Female: 51%
Male: 49%
In-state: 78%
Minority: 51%

Academic programs
George Mason offers more than 200 degree programs, including 78 undergraduate degree programs, 94 master’s degree programs, 38 doctoral degree programs and a juris doctorate.

Faculty
1,705 full-time

Tuition, fees, housing and dining
In-state tuition and fees: $14,220
Out-of-state tuition and fees: $38,688
Room and board: $14,090

*Including Mason Korea campus, fall 2024
**U.S. campuses only, fall 2024

Navy, Dominion sign energy agreement

In June, leaders from , which provides weapons and munitions support to the U.S. , and utility signed an agreement to explore the development of a “reliable, resilient and responsible” source at the base.

It could involve solar power, a small modular nuclear reactor or a natural gas power plant, Dominion says.

A working group that includes leaders from the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Atlantic, the Yorktown installation and Dominion Energy is studying specific sites and feasible energy options, says the weapons station’s public affairs officer, Max Lonzanida.

The goal is to ensure that the site and power option are the best fit for the base, Dominion and surrounding communities, and public works officials and community stakeholders will be consulted.

“We’re also evaluating our current power grid and how that can be upgraded,” Lonzanida says.

In 2024, the Virginia Department of Energy announced the Navy was considering four sites in Virginia for SMRs, including Naval Air Station Oceana, Naval Support Activity South Potomac, Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and Marine Corps Base Quantico. Now the Navy appears to be considering other options.

In August, the Department of the Navy issued a request for white papers from companies that develop SMRs and energy storage and generation technologies that will help keep Navy and Marine bases functional as demand for electricity grows.

This effort is in the exploratory phase, and Dominion officials say they are “engaged and open to future collaborations.”

Command consolidation could decimate Fort Eustis

Summary

  • Army merging at with Futures Command in Austin
  • Local leaders fear job cuts, including 250 in intelligence section
  • Unclear how many soldiers and civilians will relocate to Texas
  • Economists warn Fort Eustis could face long-term closure risks

Uncertainty swept through this summer when the announced a significant transformation of its Training and Doctrine Command, aka TRADOC, headquartered at Fort Eustis in .

In May, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that the command would be merged with the in Austin, Texas, to form a new Army Transformation and Training Command. The decision follows a directive by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to streamline the and eliminate “wasteful spending.” In an April 30 memo from Hegseth to senior Pentagon , he directed Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll to merge the two commands to “downsize, consolidate, or close redundant headquarters.”

So, where does that leave Fort Eustis?

Established in 1973, TRADOC supports the Army by training soldiers and support units. It oversees 32 Army schools organized under 10 Centers of Excellence, each focused on a separate area of expertise within the Army. The command trains over 750,000 soldiers and service members annually and has more than 35,000 military and civilians worldwide. Of this number, approximately 2,000 are based at Fort Eustis.

TRADOC moved its headquarters from Hampton’s Fort Monroe to Fort Eustis in 2011, after Fort Monroe ceased to be an Army post under the 2005 and Closure Commission.

At the end of June, the TRADOC musical band was inactivated after its founding at Fort Monroe in 1932. The band, which performed at President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in January, was already scheduled to be eliminated as part of the Army’s realignment in February 2024 and was not part of the ‘s plans. Still, it was a bittersweet moment, especially as larger questions persisted about the future of the command.

Many questions

News of the merger left Hampton Roads officials wondering how many military and civilian personnel would be affected, which functions would remain in Virginia, and whether the headquarters at Fort Eustis would be vacated entirely. It would take them a while to get any answers.
By early June, a bipartisan delegation of Virginia’s congressional lawmakers pressed for answers.

In a letter to Driscoll and George, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, along with 10 U.S. representatives, wrote that they had received “troubling updates” from community stakeholders, which led them to believe that the impact on Virginia would be more substantial than the Army had previously shared with Congress.

One of the major rumors was that the G-2 intelligence section at Fort Eustis might be eliminated, which would result in 250 job cuts. The lawmakers said they had heard about other cuts, including at the Center for Initial Military Training and the headquarters staff of the three-star general, with ongoing general staff reductions projected between 20 and 80 personnel.

In July, a TRADOC spokesperson said that the new command will be based in Austin, but not all Fort Eustis personnel would be relocated. The merger process was expected to begin in October and continue “well into” 2026, but as of August, it was still unclear how many Army and civilian personnel will relocate from Virginia to Texas.

“When units inactivate or change mission, a move for military personnel is not automatic,” TRADOC spokesperson Maj. Chris Robinson said in a July email. “Several factors — such as rank, current position and stabilization, among other factors — determine whether a soldier will relocate. There may even be opportunities for soldiers to transfer to a different unit on Fort Eustis. Each soldier can work with the Army to explore assignment options that support their career goals and family needs. In most cases, Army personnel will stay at one assignment for two or three years.”

Robinson added in July that the command’s leadership is “committed” to working with affected civilian personnel whose jobs migrate to Texas or are eliminated to “identify and pursue open opportunities across Fort Eustis,” but specific numbers were still a mystery at the end of August.

Long-term risks

Old Dominion University economist Bob McNab says that even without firm numbers, historical precedent suggests such military consolidations often lead to the complete relocation of personnel and resources to the new headquarters.

“We have enough history to know that once you essentially say, ‘We’re taking this command and we’re moving it to another location,’ that troops and civilian employees follow and that you typically don’t end up with a split command between two bases,” McNab says. “And over time, you end up with a gradual reduction of forces from the site that is being taken away, to where it’s eventually just reduced to zero, and that command essentially gets fully absorbed into the new command.”

Despite the Army saying it wouldn’t entirely relocate all of Fort Eustis’s TRADOC functions to Texas, McNab says, the cost and inefficiency of operating geographically separated parts of a single command are what will likely drive consolidation into a single location over time. He expects functions at Fort Eustis to wither away over time.

“It wouldn’t make sense to say, ‘Oh, we’re going to have a portion of it in Texas and a portion of it at Fort Eustis’ just because of the coordination costs involved between two separate commands that are geographically separate,” McNab says.

While the near-term impact on Newport News’ economy may be modest, the loss of military and civilian jobs would reduce the flow of dollars into the local economy, he notes. More importantly, the shift signals a longer-term risk for the region’s military footprint, possibly setting the stage for future reductions.

For instance, McNab speculates that a diminished Army presence at the base could make Fort Eustis more vulnerable to closure in a future Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. “If we believe at some point in time the defense budget is going to come under pressure and the Department of Defense is going to look for efficiencies, then this is a potential warning signal about Fort Eustis’ future. As you reduce the presence of forces and civilians of Fort Eustis, the argument for keeping it open in a future BRAC round declines.”

McNab says that although for the most part defense spending has remained healthy under the Trump administration, that could change in the future and cause economic pain in the commonwealth and specifically Hampton Roads.

“I think in the broader sense for Virginia, it does show the pressure that Virginia will be under in the coming years with regards to federal resources, that federal civilian employment and even military employment may not be as guaranteed.”

 

Digital Gateway opponents score legal win

Prince William County residents who sued to block what would be the world’s largest data center complex have prevailed in one of their cases, potentially upending the controversial project.

Developers of the Prince William Digital Gateway proposed to build 23 million square feet of in the county, projecting a windfall of $500 million in local tax revenue over the next two decades.

Since supervisors voted in December 2023 to rezone nearly 1,800 acres near Manassas National Battlefield Park, the project has been tied up in court. Oak Valley Home-owners Association filed suit, alleging that the county failed to give adequate legal notice and details before the vote.

“There is no justification that anyone can make to allow nondisclosure agreements to keep the details away from the public about the largest land-use decision in the county’s history,” says Mac Haddow, president of the Oak Valley association. “That’s what the central focus of this dispute has been: the lack of transparency and the impacts that were hidden from us until the very last minute.”

Also at issue are prospective changes to quality of life. The concerns range from traffic impacts, noise and water pollution, preservation of a historic Civil War site and rising utility rates due to the amount of required for data centers.

In August, Prince William Circuit Judge Kimberly A. Irving ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and voided the rezoning decision.

County officials and lawyers for developers did not respond to questions, but the county and developers requested a stay of Irving’s ruling to keep moving the project forward.

changes on the county board give Haddow hope for the neighbors’ case, but the court’s decisions could ripple throughout the state.

Earlier this summer, an appeals court ruled in favor of the developers in a related lawsuit, dismissing a complaint that the board of supervisors failed to give due consideration to opposition posed in a 29-hour public hearing before the rezoning vote.

Haddow said the plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Brian Buniva, a land use lawyer based in Richmond, calls the appeals court ruling an “absurd result. According to this decision, the public hearings are just a check-the-box process that is, frankly, a waste of time. The legislative body doesn’t have to consider anything. It doesn’t even have to listen.”

 

Hampton Roads grows warehouses, industrial projects

Summary

  • Amazon’s 3.2M sq. ft. robotics fulfillment center in Virginia Beach to open in 2025, creating 1,000+ jobs
  • Suffolk’s $61.6M MSI distribution center and Hampton’s $113.8M Phenix Commerce Center opened in 2024
  • in Suffolk will deliver 5M sq. ft. of industrial space across phases
  • Forecasted industrial vacancy rate of 4.9% keeps market balanced

Despite a nationwide slowdown in industrial growth, Hampton Roads has major projects in its pipeline.

In Virginia Beach, Amazon is wrapping up work on its five-floor, 3.2 million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center, the second part of a $350 million project that includes a 219,000-square-foot delivery station that opened last year. At the site, robots will move and store items, pick and pack orders for shipment, and work alongside human workers.

Amazon spokesperson Sam Fisher says the center is expected to open before the year’s end. announced in 2023 that the fulfillment center and delivery station would create more than 1,000 full-time jobs.

Recent projects

In May, California-based flooring, countertop, wall tile and hardscaping products supplier MS International (MSI) opened a $61.6 million, 548,000-square-foot distribution facility in Suffolk, creating 80 jobs.

That same month, Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development announced that e-commerce fulfillment, warehousing and logistics provider Cirro Global would be the first tenant to move into Hampton’s $113.8 million Phenix Commerce Center.

The project is a two-building, 840,000-square-foot industrial facility that was completed in January. As of early September, NorthPoint has not announced other tenants.

Construction is progressing on the $35 million speculative Greenbrier Commerce Center, located at 521 Woodlake Circle in Chesapeake. The first 90,720-square-foot building was completed in August, and the 98,280-square-foot second building is expected in early 2026. Construction on a third building is scheduled next year.

Clay Bales, development director for Hoffler Land Solutions, the Virginia Beach-based company building the center, says his company is trying to attract tenants in the distribution/logistics, manufacturing or defense sector.

“There is a lot of demand,” says Daniel Hoffler Jr., Bales’ business partner and son of Armada Hoffler founder Daniel Hoffler. “We’re in a unique position being right in the heart of Greenbrier, with the most interstate exposure in the region.”

W.M. Jordan Co. in August wrapped up construction on 460 Commerce Center, a 352,000-square-foot spec industrial facility in Isle of Wight County, located within the county-owned 1,200-acre Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park. Construction on the building started in early 2024. Lang Williams, an executive vice president at Colliers, says it is the largest logistics building built in Isle of Wight in over 15 years.

In the pipeline

Site work has begun on the Lovett 64 Commerce Center in James City County, a 328-acre industrial park that will eventually provide 2.24 million square feet of industrial space across six buildings. Developer Lovett Industrial plans to begin construction of Building 1 and Building 2, speculative buildings that are 221,000 and 436,240 square feet, simultaneously at the beginning of next year, with construction expected to wrap up in late 2026.

Ellis Colthorpe, a senior associate with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, the firm listing the property, expects the tenants will be Port of Virginia users.

At the Hampton Logistics Center, a $70 million project, Turnbridge Equities and Manekin are building two Class A warehouses totaling more than 500,000 square feet. According to Gregg Christoffersen, a JLL managing director responsible for leasing the buildings, the first building was scheduled for completion in September, and the second is set to be complete by January 2026. The developers say both buildings will have LEED Gold certification.

Meanwhile, Suffolk’s 500-acre Port 460 Logistics Center, a venture between Rocke-feller Group and Matan Cos. estimated at $420 million, is on track to finish its first phase by October, according to Christoffersen. That phase will deliver 2.4 million square feet across five buildings, with a subsequent phase bringing the total to 5 million square feet.

In an announcement, the governor said he expects the project will support over 9,000 jobs upon full development. Geoff Poston, a senior vice president and managing broker with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer says a post-pandemic spike in construction led to numerous developments being delivered at once, pushing vacancies up in both Hampton Roads and the country as a whole.

That’s caused some developers to hit pause on future projects, except those that were already under construction, notes Poston. Meanwhile, higher and changing trade policies under the have also made developers cautious.

Still, Poston notes that Hampton Roads’ smaller development pipeline compared to markets like Savannah, Georgia, or Charleston, South Carolina, has kept vacancy levels balanced. Thalhimer forecasts an industrial vacancy rate of 4.9% for Hampton Roads in 2026.

Projects delivered this year are largely the result of work that began years earlier, but Poston notes tenant activity has improved this year compared to last and that the region’s tenant activity is better than “most” other regions.

“Once we see a couple leases get signed up, that’ll trigger some of the developers …to get back in the game and get building,” he says.

Women execs have tougher climb to top rung

We’ve written about glass ceilings and glass cliffs, but to quote the Beatles, let’s look through the glass onion.

What’s the glass onion? Well, it’s a metaphor I’m using to describe the multilayered challenges facing women who aspire to be . The good news is, there are more female CEOs than in years before, including in the S&P 500 and the , and more women occupy other C-suite roles that often provide launching pads for future CEOs.

However, a study published in May by Eos Foundation found that for every 10 women who reach C-suite “launch positions” in S&P 100 companies — think chief operating officer, chief financial officer, division head — only three reach the top rung of CEO. Men, however, occupy 76% of launch positions and represent 92% of all S&P 100 CEOs, indicating that women’s careers tend to peak sooner than men’s.

Also, women CEOs typically take longer to get to the top than male CEOs, with more women having previously served as president than their male counterparts. And not all C-suite roles are created equal; chief human resources and marketing officers are less likely to jump directly to CEO, and far more women occupy these positions than profits-and-loss executive roles. Finally, women of color are far less likely to be CEOs than white women; among S&P 500 companies in 2024, just six Asian women were CEOs, but no Black or Hispanic women were.

In the October issue of Virginia Business, there are 12 CEOs among this year’s 45 Virginia Women in Leadership Awards honorees — all of whom have multiple decades of experience and significant professional achievements. Meanwhile, quite a few other winners are at the pinnacle of their organizations, where executive director, president or a similar position is the top role.

On the theme of executive , this issue also highlights Virginia’s gubernatorial race, to be determined in November. We know already it will be a historic election, as the commonwealth’s next governor will be a woman for the first time — either Republican Lt. Gov. or Democrat .

One can’t help but notice, meanwhile, that both women have more experience in elected office — Spanberger having served three terms in Congress, and Earle-Sears having been a state delegate and now lieutenant governor — than our current leader, , who had never run for elected office before seeking the governorship in 2021.

This leads me to peel the glass onion a bit more, because over the years, I’ve read and heard anecdotal evidence that women are less likely to apply for jobs for which they aren’t fully qualified. We’re also less likely to negotiate higher salaries before accepting a new job, and among women who seek elected office, many are encouraged by multiple people to do so before running.

When we think about CEOs or political candidates, they often are very confident in their abilities and willing to put themselves forward as leaders who can make companies (or states) reach higher levels of profit and success. And certainly, we know women who have that level of self-confidence, but for decades, women had to overcome lower expectations in the workplace — that they were just working until they got married and had children, or that women were naturally better at “soft skills” jobs that don’t typically lead to being chief executives.

In this moment, as businesses and public sector workplaces revise and repeal their diversity, equity and inclusion policies due to the federal government’s opposition, I wonder what effect this will have on women’s ability to attain CEO status in the future.

While we celebrate our 2025 awardees, let’s also give some thought to how to maintain and improve women’s numbers in top leadership.

Federal funding repeals could halt rural broadband expansion

The much-heralded efforts in may not come to fruition after all.

Virginia lawmakers and broadband advocates are facing a wave of uncertainty in the wake of a repeal of meant to close the digital divide in underserved communities, including many of the rural counties in Southwest Virginia. The , through a June executive order, rescinded millions in grants, calling them “unconstitutional,” “racist,” and “woke handouts.”

The decision eliminated $18.3 million in State Digital Equity Capacity Grants and $10.5 million in Digital Equity Act grants awarded by the National and Information Administration, funding that was poised to assist rural Virginians in particular, according to state Sen. of , who chairs Virginia’s Broadband Advisory Council. The repeal also clouds the fate of $1.74 billion Virginia was expecting from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. Boysko expressed frustration with the move, citing years of preparation by localities and providers to meet federal criteria for the grant money.

“It’s a huge waste of money, effort and time,” she says. “This is funding that was passed through Congress into law and appropriated to Virginia. Now we’re all left scrambling.”

While not formally revoked, the guidelines have been changed, and applicants had to resubmit their proposals within 90 days.

“Requirements continue to change, and there’s a lot of confusion,” Boysko says. “Our broadband office is working diligently, but this is a real disruption.”

Virginia made significant investments in anticipation of receiving these federal funds. ‘s budget had already phased out some state funding under the assumption that BEAD would fill the gap.

“We’ll have to address all this in the next legislature,” Boysko notes. “This was supposed to be the great equalizer. It’s heartbreaking to know that people might now have to decide whether to stay in their communities simply because they can’t get online.”

But the news on the ground isn’t all bad. Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission Executive Director Scotty Wampler says the broadband expansion in his district — Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties — has already been funded and will be completed by 2026.

News on the remainder of that BEAD money — where and how it will be allocated — is still up in the air, Boysko says.