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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 tariffs and changing trade policies under the Trump administration 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, Gov. , 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 Trump administration, 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 Fairfax County, 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. Gov. ‘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.

 

Hampton Roads housing market remains competitive

Summary

  • median home price reached $375K in June, a 4.2% increase year-over-year
  • Active listings rose 24% from June 2024, giving buyers more choices
  • Properties are staying on the market longer, with a median of 18 days
  • New development expanding in Suffolk, Chesapeake, New Kent and upper James City County

It’s still a sellers’ market in the Hampton Roads region, causing residential to hit all-time highs month after month this year.

In June alone, the median sale price (MSP) for homes sold reached $375,000, according to a market summary from Real Estate Information Network, which is the multiple listing service that covers the region from Williamsburg east through Virginia Beach and south across the North Carolina border.

That price is up from $368,900 the previous month and up 4.2% from the MSP of $360,000 in June 2024, according to REIN.

The reason? Not enough properties in the pipeline to meet demand, says Crisney Brooks, the Williamsburg Area Association of Realtors board president and a Realtor at Coldwell Banker Traditions. She advises first-time buyers that getting a sold sign on a property can take time.

“More building is going on, which is good, but even on the resale market, it just isn’t enough,” she says. “It boils down to what price people are willing to pay.”

The supply and demand imbalance will continue to cause prices to climb, but the rate may slow as more inventory hits the market than has been available in past years, says Ryan Price, Virginia Realtors’ chief economist.

Home buyers already are starting to get more choices. Active residential listings during June rose to 5,437. That’s up from 5,276 in May, and up 24% year-over-year from 4,380 in June 2024, according to REIN.

Properties are also staying on the market a bit longer. Median days on market for June was 18, compared to 16 in June 2024, according to REIN.

“It’s a more reasonable market,” says Barbara Wolcott, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty and REIN’s board president.

“You’re not getting multiple offers the day it comes on the market. That’s pretty much in the rearview mirror.”

Pending sales in June were down slightly month-over-month — 2,468 compared with 2,582 in May. Still, that was a 15% increase year-over-year from 2,145 in June 2024. Meanwhile, settled sales were up — 2,541 in June compared with 2,445 in May. The number of settled sales in June was an 8% increase year-over-year from the 2,355 reported in June 2024.

Buyers hoping for lower if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates may be out of luck as lenders consider other factors as well, Price says.

“The reality is these 6% rates are going to be here for a while, but they could drift downward a bit towards the end of the year,” he says.

Affordable property is available, especially in Hampton and Newport News. These houses tend to be older, and many people resist buying there if a commute includes the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, says Wolcott.

New houses are being built, and 260 listed with REIN sold last June compared to 224 the previous month. Developers are having to go into more rural parts of the region to find land that’s available and cheaper, but they can offer more amenities and lower price points, she says.

“What I see going on right now in the Suffolk area reminds me of what happened to Chesapeake, where it was mainly farmland,” says Wolcott. “Now development has really picked up [in Suffolk] and some of the outlying parts of Chesapeake.”

Brooks says she sees the same trend in New Kent County and upper James City County, which have some of the last land available for development between Richmond and Hampton Roads’ southern side. Both have attracted major national developers such as D.R. Horton.

“New Kent has certainly taken off,” Brooks says. “I feel like it’s going to be quite bustling over the next 10 years.”

 

Danville invests $3 million to prep Coleman site

In July, City Council members OK’d an infusion of funding for 158 acres on Gypsum Road known as the Coleman site, which is being readied for industry.

In July, council members unanimously agreed to move $3 million from the city’s gas fund to its fund to meet grant matching requirements. City officials say the funding will help attract an enterprise with high-volume energy demands that can be served by the city’s utility infrastructure.

“On occasion, the city council has transferred excess funds from utilities to help spark new investment in the city,” says Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones. “In this case, the $3 million will match over $11 million in grant funds.”

Recruiting heavy utility users to the site will increase revenue and stabilize rates for existing customers, according to Jones.

The Coleman site features “very robust” utility access, including electric, water, gas, fiber and sewer, according to Corrie Teague Bobe, the city’s director of economic development and tourism. It’s close to U.S. Route 58 and is the only rail-served site available for development in Danville.

However, the site, acquired in 2011 by the Industrial Development Authority of Danville, is not shovel-ready.

“The Coleman site was difficult to view due to trees and overgrowth to the extent it was hard to see the property’s potential,” says T. Neal Morris, chairman of the city’s industrial development authority. “Some prospects, when they were shown the property, really liked the location but would not walk due to the vegetation.”

Site preparation, which will include grading 80 acres and constructing an access road, carries a total cost of $17.43 million. The work — which will elevate the site to a Tier 5 certification, the highest level in the state’s Program — is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2026.

The graded pad will have the capacity to support a facility of more than 1 million square feet, according to Bobe.

Of the $11.33 million in grant funding going toward the Coleman site, the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program awarded $9 million, and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission awarded $2.33 million.

The Coleman site is among more than 65,000 acres of properties available for development in Danville, Pittsylvania County and the town of Hurt. Most of the available land is co-owned and co-marketed by the three localities, according to Bobe.

Sentara College of Health Sciences moving to Virginia Wesleyan

Summary

Beginning in January 2026, the Sentara College of Health Sciences of will begin training regional health sciences professionals.

In April, Sentara Health announced it would be ending its independent Sentara College of Health Sciences’ nursing and non-nursing degree programs, although the Chesapeake-based college planned to continue its nondegree offerings. At the time, Sentara officials said that state and regional universities would pick up the degree programs, in which 385 students were enrolled in April.

VWU — which will be renamed in July 2026, after noted philanthropist Jane Batten — announced in June that it would be the college’s new home. Through summer 2026, all current students will complete their courses of study under the current SCOHS name, and there will be no changes to out-of-pocket costs, courses of study or graduation timelines. By fall 2026, programs will move from Chesapeake to the VWU campus in Virginia Beach.

Both institutions are working on required regulatory and accreditation processes as part of the transition.

“Our shared vision is to prepare the health care  of the future while honoring Sentara College’s deep community ties and proud academic legacy,” Sentara College of Health Sciences President Angela Taylor said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Virginia Wesleyan University to create new opportunities for students, expand access to in-demand programs and continue meeting the growing health care workforce needs of our communities.”

Meanwhile, the Hampton Roads area saw a fair amount of health care growth.

Bon Secours Harbour View Medical Center in Suffolk began serving patients in May. This new, 100,000-square-foot, three-story hospital is attached to Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View and is forecast to serve about 75,000 patients annually. It will have four operating rooms.

In Isle of Wight County, Riverside Health is building a new hospital expected to open in early 2026. The 200,000-square-foot building will include an emergency department, diagnostic imaging services and 50 inpatient beds. A separate 20,000-square-foot medical office building with 40 exam rooms was set to open in September.

In May, Chesapeake Regional Medical Center opened its dedicated psychiatric emergency room, which helps patients in mental health crisis receive aid without being seen in the general ER. The hospital is also adding a 20-bed inpatient psychiatric unit expected to be open early next year.

Meanwhile, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at finished its first year as the new home of the Eastern Virginia Medical School and other health sciences degree programs. In October 2024, the State Council of in Virginia approved the formation of the Joint School of Public Health as a partnership between ODU and Norfolk State University, and will offer classes at the two campuses.

The Veterans Administration’s North Battlefield Clinic opened in Chesapeake in April, but a former local union president representing government employees said at a congressional hearing in July that the facility opened with only 27% of staff because of fewer than usual applications.

Federal Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have raised alarms that cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress earlier this year could cause six rural hospitals in Virginia to close, including Bon Secours Rappahannock General Hospital in Kilmarnock and Bon Secours Southampton Medical Center in Franklin. Republican officials, though, say that there will be fixes available to save the hospitals.

Data centers stir debate in Frederick

In June, the Board of Supervisors voted by consensus against moving forward with applications to build two large . Most supervisors felt that too many unanswered questions surrounded the project’s potential effects. They also saw firsthand the passion that these projects can arouse, as more than 100 people attended the meeting, most to voice their fears over the possibility of data centers ruining the county’s rural landscape.

That meeting may have ended the proposed 644-acre Meadow Brook Technology Park and 105-acre Winchester Gateway 2 data centers, but not the broader debate. In an August session, the supervisors voted 5-2 to green-light a planning commission proposal to produce a fact sheet about data centers.

Working with the county’s authority (EDA), planners will explore issues like site selection, size, water and power needs, noise, job creation, open-space impacts and tax revenues. Frederick Water and the Shenandoah Valley and Rappahannock electrical cooperatives will also be consulted.

Putting together such a fact sheet “won’t require reinventing the wheel,” says Planning Commission Chairman Tim Stowe. Although Frederick currently has just one data center, located near Middletown, it can look to its neighbors for guidance. Loudoun County is home to 199 data centers, with 117 more in the pipeline, while Prince William County reports 44 data centers operating and 15 under development.

Blaine P. Dunn was the lone supervisor in June to vote in favor of further study of the two data center applications. The revenue that data centers can generate could build schools and lower the tax rate, he says, “but that discussion was not discussed.”

As for preserving the county’s rural character, Dunn points to thousands of housing lots entitled to be built, and to Frederick’s burgeoning population being now a shade under 100,000, but almost double what it was in 2000, with 30,000 to 40,000 more residents expected to be added in the next 20 years.

Like Dunn, county EDA Executive Director Patrick Barker recognizes the potential value of having data centers in Frederick. They are one of the most physically productive uses of land, he says, generating long-term and substantial revenue, while requiring minimal public services. However, he says, “the public discussion has been incomplete,” with conflicting information.

“Fact-finding,” Barker says, “will ensure that future conversations are informed.”

 

Don’t import 996: Why America should reject overwork culture

China’s 996 model — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — was sold as a path to speed, discipline, and dominance. In reality, it became a case study in how overwork corrodes the very foundation of business success.

People can push themselves for a while, but there’s a ceiling. Past a certain point, more hours don’t mean more output — they mean more fatigue, more mistakes and more medical leave. The research is consistent: Long hours shorten careers and lives. The toll isn’t metaphorical. It’s physical, measurable and permanent.

On paper, 72-hour weeks look like commitment. In practice, they deliver shallow engagement and sloppy execution. Companies eventually discovered that an army of burned-out employees doesn’t innovate, doesn’t solve problems creatively, and doesn’t stay long enough to compound skills. The “hustle” turned out to be theater — activity mistaken for achievement.

Younger workers in have already begun rejecting this model, treating it as outdated and exploitative. In the U.S., where talent mobility is even higher and employee voice carries weight, a 996-style culture would repel the very people companies most need. Burnout doesn’t just hurt performance — it erodes employer brands, drives attrition and makes recruitment more expensive.

China’s own tech giants are backing away. Midea shuts down offices early. DJI enforces lights-out rules. Not because they grew soft, but because the numbers didn’t add up. Overwork drained productivity, wrecked culture and bled talent. If the birthplace of 996 is walking it back, adopting it in the U.S. would be more than misguided — it would be self-sabotage.

High performance doesn’t come from pushing people to the breaking point. It comes from clarity, focus and systems that let people perform at their best without sacrificing their health. Companies that understand this build cultures where people want to stay — and where innovation compounds.

996 isn’t just a bad idea for China. It’s a warning shot for the U.S.: Overwork isn’t competitive advantage. It’s competitive decline disguised as discipline.

Jaime Raul Zepeda is EVP, Principal Consultant for and COLOR Magazine, part of BridgeTower Media. Want managers who maximize effectiveness with clarity, not fear? Let’s talk: [email protected]

Wondering whether your organization is on the right path to win? Talk to us at Best Companies Group so we can analyze your organization’s health, your team dynamics, and your ‘s effectiveness. We’ve helped over 10,000 companies understand and improve their workplace using data-driven strategies. Send me a note at [email protected].

ODU internship boost preps students for future

Summary

  • ODU aims for every student to complete an internship by 2027
  • Monarch Office has connected with 700+ employers
  • funds 750 humanities student placements

As a creative writing major at , Kayla Boney says she knows jobs in her field after graduation may be “one in a million.”

However, an internship with Teens with a Purpose, a Norfolk-based youth creative arts nonprofit, showed Boney, a 20-year-old rising junior, that her pursuits in the humanities, while challenging, can result in meaningful — and paid — work.

Boney, a Norfolk native and an aspiring screenwriter, volunteered with the organization while attending high school. But it was through an on-campus encounter with representatives from ODU’s , part of the university’s Monarch Internships and Co-Op Office founded in 2023, that she learned she could be paid and also earn academic credits to intern there.

President Brian Hemphill, who has led ODU since 2021, says the idea to launch an office solely dedicated to connecting students to internships or other work-based learning opportunities came from conversations with business leaders in the community during his first year on the job.

“I would come back to campus and have that realization … [that] we don’t have the infrastructure right now as it stands,” he says. “We didn’t have the infrastructure to spin up quickly and address some of those concerns and needs that they have, and that’s why we launched this particular operation and made the investment.”

Boney is one of about 2,500 students that ODU has tracked through its Monarch Internships and Co-op Office. Launched in 2023, the office is building on an ODU goal to have each of its approximate 24,000 students, including more than 17,000 undergraduates, complete one internship, work-based learning program or co-op experience by 2027.

“Employers, students, faculty, they realize that when you host an intern during their degree program, then you’ve got first shot at great talent,” says Barbara Blake, who has led ODU’s internships office since its inception.

Hemphill says ODU’s internships office is the first of its kind in the state, and the university has convened two meetings with business and industry leaders and faculty stakeholders, including one that drew as a speaker, as it looks to address gaps in industries including health care, engineering, data sciences and more.

Meanwhile, the president has been busy integrating the formerly independent Eastern Virginia Medical School under the university’s new Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences umbrella.

Following the 2024 merger, the Brock hub includes five schools and colleges, comprising more than 50 academic majors, to form the largest health sciences program in the state.

In April, ODU broke ground on a $184 million biological sciences building, which includes labs, a 120-seat lecture hall, an orchid conservatory, classrooms and other facilities and represents the university’s largest capital construction project to date. It’s expected to be completed in spring 2028.

Positioned for success

Since launching the internships office, Blake has led a team of faculty to build a central database launched this fall to track internships university-wide.

While the goal of the office is to help students land an internship or experience that can lead to valuable full-time employment after graduation, it is also emerging as an important tool for , a region that is already working hard to attract and retain top talent. Blake says her office has worked with at least 700 businesses — from corporations to mom-and-pop operations — to build a “one-stop shop” to link interns with employers, including helping some employers that don’t have money to pay an intern to find grants to do so.

In the old days, interns often worked for free, and that served as a gatekeeper for less affluent students who needed summer and after-school jobs to make ends meet. To help students get experience in their fields, no matter their financial background, ODU and many other universities have applied for and won funding to subsidize paid internships with participating workplaces.

In 2024, The Mellon Foundation announced a $5 million grant for ODU to develop the Monarch Humanities Internship Academy, which will place 750 humanities students in internships over five years, including providing stipends for interns.

The office also has also partnered with the Council to build an apprenticeship pipeline around maritime logistics and supply chain, cybersecurity and K-12 education.

The State Council of for Virginia also awarded ODU a two-year $100,000 grant to pilot the Federal Work-Study Internship Program, which started last fall.

Paid internships in Hampton Roads range from about $14 to $24 an hour, with some interns with engineering backgrounds making up to $28 an hour, Blake says, and some employers may have simultaneous needs, including for interns with engineering, accounting and technical writing backgrounds.

“How do I have those needs met?” Blake asks. “They can come to us. We write up the prospectus. We draw in the faculty. We work on the student placement end, and that has been the most exciting work, because the employers absolutely love it.”

HEARD AROUND VIRGINIA

McLean identity verification tech company ID.me has raised $340 million via Series E financing and its recent credit facility, according to a Sept. 3 announcement. The funding raises the company’s valuation to more than $2 billion. Ribbit Capital led the round, with participation from existing investors Ares Management credit funds and Moonshots Capital and new investors like Positive Sum. ID.me has 152 million users and works with 20 federal agencies and 45 state agencies, among other organizations. The company creates “digital identity wallets” allowing users to verify their identities with ID.me and then sign in across websites without verifying their identities again. (News release)

Shift5 landed $75 million in new funding to fuel research and development and marketing for products that monitor and protect defense and transportation systems, the Arlington cybersecurity startup announced Sept. 3. The funding brings Shift5’s total outside investment to $185 million since its founding in 2018. Hedosophia — a London-based venture capital firm that was an early backer of Uber Technologies, Spotify Technology and Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group — led the Series C funding round. The venture arm of McLean-based Booz Allen Hamilton, Baltimore’s Squadra Ventures and New York investment firm Insight Partners participated as repeat investors. (DC Inno)

McLean investment firm Veteran Ventures Capital raised $60 million, according to a mid-August news release. It will use the funding to deploy equity investments into about 15 defense and civilian technology startup companies in the next few years, backing Series A startups generating at least $1 million in annual revenue by offering investments between $1 million and $6 million on average. Founder and Managing Partner Derren Burrell said it took VVC about a year to raise the fund, a fraction of the time it took to raise its inaugural $20 million fund. (DC Inno)

A new initiative between Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. and Virginia’s six Research 1 (R1) universities aims to double the number of startups coming from the universities each year. The Lab-to-Launch initiative intends to help technology breakthroughs quickly enter the marketplace, according to an August news release from the governor’s office. The initiative’s components will be launching throughout the school year. Lab-to-Launch has two core pillars, said VIPC President and CEO Joe Benevento: The first is creating a standardized fast-track license agreement to commercialize university research. The other is expanding private sector collaboration with Virginia university commercialization. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Richmond tech accelerator Activation Capital appointed Michael Steele as president and CEO, it announced Aug. 26. He succeeds Robert Ward, who had served as interim CEO since July 2024. Ward took on the role following the departure of Chandra Briggman, who left to pursue other opportunities. Activation Capital is an accelerator arm of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority, a subdivision of the state government. The accelerator aims to commercialize local biohealth research and build a biohealth entrepreneurship hub in Central Virginia. Steele has held senior positions at Biocartis, Chembio Diagnostics, SeraCare Life Sciences and Serologicals. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

McLean-based health care tech startup Zephyr AI announced in late August it had appointed Allen Chao as its new CEO and acquired Tampa, Florida-based oncology data company Aster Insights, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Zephyr. Chao, who has over 40 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, succeeds Jeff Sherman, Zephyr’s co-founder and chief technology officer, who served as CEO in an interim capacity for more than a year. Chao founded Watson Pharmaceuticals in 1984 and served as its CEO and chairman until 2008. (VirginiaBusiness.com)