Essential workers
With the pandemic’s disruption, CFOs have taken on more duties
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The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted business models. It has forced employees to seek new office sites in their kitchens, bedrooms and basements. It has ushered in hybrid educational models involving in-person and virtual learning, and imperiled funding for colleges and universities. And nobody really knows what’s coming next or when. Meanwhile, who’s minding the store?
This burg has grown
Fredericksburg region retains small-town feel amid population boom
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Three-term incumbent Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw recalls when her city moved at a slower pace, as did surrounding Spotsylvania and Stafford counties. All that has changed, profoundly. Fredericksburg’s population has jumped by more than 50% during the past 20 years, from 19,279 in 2000 to an estimated 29,036 in 2019, according to the U.S.
Testing the waters
VCU goes back to school during the pandemic
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At colleges across Virginia and the nation, this will be a fall semester like no other. The coronavirus is turning campuses into petri dishes for experimentation. One of the state’s largest public colleges with an enrollment of about 30,000 students in the heart of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University is also pivoting to confront the unprecedented
The mouse that roars
Arlington aims to become new and improved Silicon Valley
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Arlington County encompasses an area of just 26 square miles, making it geographically the smallest self-governing county in America. But in many ways, it is the mouse that roars. In November 2018, Arlington snagged the biggest economic prize in Virginia — and possibly U.S. — history when Amazon.com Inc. announced it would build its $2.5
A new line of work
Workforce training program aims to fill gap for mid-skilled workers
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As a single mother, Megan Yeager began working as a pizza delivery driver. Over the years, she rose to regional manager of a small pizza chain in the Richmond area. But the pizza chain couldn’t offer her what she wanted in a career: vision and dental care, retirement benefits, career advancement opportunities and, most importantly,
A watershed moment
Coronavirus prompts rethinking, but Norfolk hopes for renewed growth
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Only a few months ago, the economies of the historic port city of Norfolk and the greater Hampton Roads region, with which it is inextricably intertwined, were continuing to rebound after emerging from what Old Dominion University’s 2019 State of the Region report has called “the lost decade.” During the period from 2007 to 2016,
Subsea cable country
Henrico makes a play for data center dominance
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The scheduled 2020 arrival in Henrico County of a third connection to ultra-high-speed internet subsea cables should give the Richmond region bragging rights as a destination for data centers. In other words, it makes Central Virginia an alternative to Loudoun County, where 70% of all internet traffic flows but lacks a direct line to the
The arena of politics
The hotly debated $1.5 billion Navy Hill plan dies
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A historic vote on the biggest economic development proposal in the city of Richmond’s history — the potentially transformative $1.5 billion Navy Hill downtown redevelopment plan that would have included the state’s largest entertainment venue — collapsed in mid-February amid sound and fury as seven of Richmond City Council’s nine members refused to approve the
Online pioneer becomes powerhouse
Liberty now has more than 111,000 students
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If colleges and universities have a golden age, then this may be Liberty University’s. Founded in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr., the Lynchburg-based institution will mark its 49th year in 2020. For decades, the school battled debt — at one point in the triple-digit millions — and was threatened with losing its accreditation. Today,
New EDA chief tries to do business amid scandal
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There is no normal — even a new normal — for the executive director of the Front Royal-Warren Economic Development Authority, Douglas Parsons. Not while his predecessor, Jennifer McDonald, faces criminal charges and a civil suit alleging that she engineered a $21 million embezzlement scheme. A veteran in economic development, Parsons took office in May.