Virginia Business: news

Norfolk International Airport reports decrease in passengers and cargo for May

2013-06-18T21:09:22-05:00

Norfolk International Airport reported a 4.9 percent decrease in passenger activity for the month of May with 281,701 passengers. This figure compares to a May 2012 passenger count of 296,303. So far this year, for the January through May period, passenger activity has dropped a total of 4.6 percent versus the corresponding period in 2012.

In other activity, 4,862,632 pounds of cargo were shipped in and out of the airport during May 2013. This represents a 23.9 percent decrease versus May 2012, which saw 6,393,150 pounds of cargo shipped. For the January - May 2013 period, cargo activity has decreased 9.2 percent versus the corresponding period in 2012.

True Food Kitchen to open at Mosaic

2013-06-18T20:53:42-05:00

A restaurant that specializes in healthy food is coming to Northern Virginia next summer. True Food Kitchen will open its first east coast location at Mosaic, a mixed-use development project in Fairfax.

Founded by restaurateur Sam Fox and wellness author Dr. Andrew Weil, True Food Kitchen offers dishes that closely adhere to the principles of Dr. Weil's anti-inflammatory diet, according to his official website. Menu items include soups, salads, pasta and burgers.

Mosaic is owned by Columbia, S.C.-based developer EDENS.

$1 million gift to add market building to Colonial Williamsburg

2013-06-18T20:10:25-05:00

Colonial Williamsburg plans to reconstruct a market house on its grounds with the help of a $1 million gift from one of the owners of McLean-based Mars Inc.

The market house is the third major historic reconstruction funded by Forrest Mars Jr. of Big Horn, Wyo., since 2007 with gift funds totaling $11 million.

The reconstructed market house will be a wooden structure on a brick base. It will be about 20 feet in width and 40 feet in length with a shingled hip roof. The sides of the building will be entirely or partially open.

Early in the 18th century, the colonial legislature set aside space in Williamsburg midway between the Capitol and the College of William and Mary to be used for markets and fairs. By midcentury, Market Square was an important center of community life with daily markets and auctions.

Despite its well-known existence, physical evidence of Williamsburg’s 1757 market house is scarce. The building was used through the early 19th century until it was replaced by a new structure in 1835.

Previous gifts by Forrest Mars include $5 million for reconstruction and endowment of R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse and $5 million for reconstruction and endowment of the James Anderson Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury, including the recently completed Tin Shop, which formally opens this fall.

Four Virginia organizations make AARP employer list

2013-06-17T20:45:59-05:00

Four Virginia organizations have been named the AARP’s list of “Best Employers for Workers Over 50.”

Richmond-based Bon Secours Virginia ranked eighth on the list of 50 employers followed by the Arlington-based National Rural Electric Cooperative Association at No. 9.

Fairfax-based George Mason University was 13th, and Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University was 17th.

Leading the list was the National Institutes of Health, based in Bethesda, Md.

The list of 2013 winners includes a variety of employers representing nonprofit and for-profit organizations, health care networks, universities, financial services firms, construction companies aerospace firms, and federal and county government agencies.

Best Employers for Workers Over 50 awards, co-sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), began in 2001.

To compete for the awards, organizations submitted an application that included information about their human resources practices and policies. Employers are not required to have programs dedicated exclusively to older employees. However, employers who can demonstrate that their programs are particularly valued by mature workers can stand out in the evaluation process., AARP says..

Hiring firm selected to find new port leader

2013-06-17T18:53:55-05:00

The Virginia Port Authority has retained executive search firm Boyden to help it find the next leader of the Port of Virginia.
Boyden helped the VPA in its 2007 search, when it hired Jerry Bridges as its executive director. Bridges retired in October, and Rodney W. Oliver has been serving as interim executive director since then.
The search for the next CEO of the VPA will be lead by Tim McNamara, managing director of Boyden’s Baltimore and Washington, D.C., offices, and head of its transportation and infrastructure practice.

W. M. Jordan proposes $250 million project for Newport News with research component.

2013-06-17T16:41:13-05:00

W. M. Jordan Co. in Newport News has proposed a $250 million mixed-use project for its hometown that would bring a new research center to a prime piece of land adjacent to the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

The federal research and testing agency, known as Jefferson Lab, is located at the intersection of Oyster Point Road and Jefferson Avenue. John Lawson, CEO of W.M. Jordan, said in an interview that he purchased a vacant, wooded 43-acre tract of land across the street from Jefferson Lab in 2010 from the College of William and Mary for $8 million, with the thought of supporting the expansion of the lab, a major employer in Newport News.

“I knew they needed additional land to expand,” he said in an interview. However, the federal government doesn’t react as quickly as private business can. “Their timeline was longer than what I wanted,” said Lawson. So, he started thinking that the site — at a prime location off Interview 64 — could support a major project that would play off the synergy of an existing research facility while adding shopping, multi-family housing and new commercial space.

The result is that Lawson has partnered with the Virginia Tech Foundation (which owns and operates the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg), the city of Newport News and S. J. Collins Enterprises, a retail developer based in Georgia, on the mixed-use project.

It proposes 300,000 square feet of retail space, 350,000 square feet of multifamily residential, 150,000 square feet of commercial office space and up to 600,000 square feet of corporate research center buildings.

Lawson, an alumni of Tech and a former rector of the school’s Board of Visitors, said the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center has agreed to run the new corporate research center. “They will have an office in the center and will be working with entrepreneurs and the Jefferson Lab to take science discovered at the lab and convert it into applied, practical uses. The center would be involved in new patents and new start ups,” he said. While the Virginia Tech Foundation would operate the center, Lawson said his company would own the buildings.

Joe Meredith, president of Tech's CRC, said the project would expand Tech's presence on the peninsula. "This park has been very successful," he said referring to the 150 companies in 30 buildings in the Blacksburg center, "and we think this park can also be successful. We're excited about the possibility of doing it again." To gauge public interest in the Newport News location, Meredith noted that the CRC has created a Website, http://www.vttechcenter.com, where people can go to learn more about the proposed center and take a survey.

In another departure for a major mixed-use project, Lawson said W.M. Jordan will privately finance the project, rather than seek financial help from public entities as other new mixed-use projects, including the Town Center of Virginia Beach, have done. “If I had gone to the city and asked them, they probably would have tried to help, but I can do this,” Lawson said. He does plan to work with the city in purchasing additional land, contiguous to the 43-acre site.

W. M. Jordan has filed an application with Newport News to rezone that parcel from research and development to mixed use. The application goes before the city’s planning commission in July and is scheduled to go before the City Council in August.

Lawson is confident of approval and plans to begin construction on the project’s first phase in October. “When someone wants to put a $250 million investment on the tax rolls. This is all taxable real estate, and it would generate sales taxes from food and beverage. It would be a big job creator,” he said, estimating that construction alone would create 200 to 300 jobs.

While he is yet to receive approval, Lawson says he already has signed leases on 80 percent of the retail space with Whole Foods in the line-up. He wouldn’t reveal the names of the other tenants, except to say that many are new national players that would be making a first-time appearance in Newport News.

The first phase of development would total about $100 million in construction. It would include 12 retail buildings, three office buildings and three apartment buildings, plus a fitness center. These buildings would take about 18 to 24 months to complete, Lawson said.

The corporate research center would come in the second phase, he added. He’s expecting 15 or 20 buildings, with phase two taking anywhere from five to 10 years to build. The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center could get started in space that’s available now in an existing applied research center, Lawson said.

The mixed-use center would be a signature project for his construction company. “When all is said and done, your measure as a business is what have you done to improve the quality of life in your community,” he said.

Northern Virginian philanthropist pledges $200,000 challenge grant for Ferrum College

2013-06-17T15:27:13-05:00

A Northern Virginia philanthropist has pledged a $200,000 challenge grant toward a $1 million endowed chaplaincy for Ferrum College.

The challenge grant is from McLean real estate developer Guy Beatty, who has been a longtime benefactor of the Franklin County college.

Last December, Beatty and his wife, Betty, gave $1 million for a new building for the Franklin County Free Clinic after a series of discussions with Ferrum President Jennifer Braaten about the area’s health needs.

The endowed chaplaincy will be incorporated into the Ferrum College Campus Ministries program.

The challenge grant requires that matching funds be raised by Dec.25.

NOVA’s newest industrial warehouse is for sale

2013-06-17T15:19:20-05:00

Gunston GSA, one of NOVA’s newest industrial warehouses, is for sale.

Eastdil Secured, based in Washington, D.C., has been retained as the exclusive adviser in the sale of the new 112,500-square-foot warehouse facility in Lorton.

According to Eastdil, the facility is 100 percent leased to a confidential government agency and plays a critical role in the agency’s operations.

“Gunston GSA features the most advanced technologies in the industrial sector,” John Kevill, managing director of Eastdil Secured, said in a statement. “It is a state-of-the-art facility that has no peer across the Northern Virginia industrial market and offers a buyer a long-term lease with the U.S. government.”

The building is located on a 13.1-acre parcel just off I-95 and Route 1. It is close to Fort Belvoir and Quantico Marine Corp Base, as well as Langley and Washington, D.C.

Gunston GSA was completed in February and the undisclosed government agency moved in at the end of May. Eastdil said the agency has committed to a 10-year lease with two five-year, fixed-rate renewal options. The seller is a partnership between FD Stonewater and Ardent, two local developers.

Virginia Beach apartment complex sells for $44 million

2013-06-17T15:17:38-05:00

Atlanta-based ARA has announced the sale of Chase Arbor, a 430-unit, garden-style community in Virginia Beach.

According to ARA, the property sold for $44 million to Los Angeles-based JRK Property Holdings, a subsidiary of JRK Investors, an apartment, hotel, and real estate investment management firm.

ARA mid-Atlantic principals Drew White and Mike Marshall and Richmond-based broker, Wink Ewing, represented the seller, Harbor Group International LLC in Norfolk.

Constructed in 1985, Chase Arbor is located off South Independence Boulevard, less than two miles from Interstate 264. Wink Ewing said in a statement that “investors are drawn to assets in central Virginia Beach, such as Chase Arbor, due to the continued development of the Town Center at Virginia Beach — one of the hottest destinations in Hampton Roads. The new owners will easily increase rents with modest unit upgrades given the property’s excellent location and above market occupancy.”

ARA said occupancy at the time of the sale was 94 percent.

ARA, based out of Atlanta, is the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory firm in the country that focuses exclusively on the brokerage, financing and capital sourcing of multihousing properties.

Dave and Buster’s to open new restaurant in Va. Beach on July 20

2013-06-17T11:27:15-05:00

Dave & Buster’s is opening a 41,000-square-foot restaurant in Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach that it says will have a staff of 280 people.

Positions include bartenders, servers, cooks and host staff. The location will be the company’s 62nd store.

Beginning July 20, the restaurant, game and special event areas will be open seven days a week. Besides food and cocktails, the restaurants are known for their large-screen, high-definition televisions and games, including state of-the-art simulators, billiards and shuffleboard.

Based out of Dallas, Texas, Dave & Buster’s, operates 61 other restaurant/entertainment complexes throughout North America. The company is expanding by four to six locations each year.