Cover Story
Hitting a brick wall
Climbing housing costs pose workforce challenges
Casey Renner has worked in four states over the course of her teaching career, and she’s never liked a school more than Arlington County’s Wakefield High School, where she teaches science and special education. But she has also never had as much difficulty finding housing near work as she has during her 17 years teaching
Opinion
Rising to the challenges
Published
Last summer, as I was eating dinner at a Norfolk bar with a group of my Lead Virginia classmates from far Southwest Virginia, one of them asked what decision makers in Richmond thought about their region. “Most of them don’t think about it at all,” I replied bluntly and not a little sadly. During my
From This Issue
Primed for affordable housing
Published
Virginia Housing CEO Susan Dewey says Amazon.com Inc.’s $2.5 billion-plus HQ2 East Coast headquarters under construction in Arlington created a “launching pad” for awareness of the link between adequate, affordable workforce housing and economic development. Although Amazon expects to pay its 25,000 HQ2 employees generously, the e-tailer was concerned about the availability of affordable housing
Ridge View banks on Roanoke region
Published
Drawn by the Blue Ridge’s “blue-collar atmosphere,” a new bank has set up shop in the Roanoke region. Ridge View Bank, a division of Pennsylvania-based CNB Bank, opened for business in October 2021 and plans to be headquartered in the city of Roanoke next year. “We’re not ready to disclose the exact location yet,” says
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Private accounts
Independent colleges aim for healthy enrollment
Published
One of Terrell Strayhorn’s first assignments as Virginia Union University’s provost was to win final approval for graduate programs seen as a key mechanism for enrollment growth. It was the early months of the pandemic, he recalls, and the Richmond university was also “knee deep” in the reaffirmation of its accreditation process as it sought
Richmond casino sites are up for grabs
Published
With a future casino at least temporarily off the table in Richmond, two of the three land parcels that hopeful developers had been eyeing as future casino sites are back on the market, while the third will remain a movie theater. In spring 2021, city officials selected Urban One Inc.’s proposal to build a $565
Pembroke Mall to get makeover
Published
Hanging out at the mall may soon take on new meaning in Virginia Beach. Within a few years, Pembroke Mall could be home to thousands of apartment dwellers as part of a $200 million makeover of the vintage 54-acre retail property announced in November 2021. “All we’re doing is changing with what the customer desires,”
FOR THE RECORD
Published
CENTRAL VIRGINIA AutoZone Inc. plans to build a $185.2 million warehouse and distribution center in New Kent County, creating 352 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in February. The 800,000-square-foot facility will serve as the auto parts company’s East Coast distribution operation. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, AutoZone has more than 6,000 stores nationwide and reported $14.6
Power plays
Grid upgrades, renewable energy on horizon
Published
Virginia’s largest electric utilities are deploying an array of technologies as they decarbonize, digitalize and decentralize their power grids to meet the state’s and their own clean energy goals. Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. and Charleston, West Virginia-headquartered Appalachian Power are expanding their solar, wind and battery storage portfolios while advancing a massive power grid transformation.
Coalfields Expressway: Mostly unfinished and unfunded
Published
Progress on a proposed 115-mile federal highway to improve transportation connectivity between Southwest Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky has been crawling in the commonwealth. Authorized by Congress in 1995, the Coalfields Expressway (CFX) — U.S. Route 121 — would run from U.S. Route 23 in Pound to Interstates 64 and 77 in West
Remembering John T. ‘Til’ Hazel Jr.: 1930-2022
Published
John T. “Til” Hazel Jr., a major force behind the development of Tysons Corner and several Fairfax County planned communities, died March 16 at age 91. An Arlington native, Hazel also was an attorney who graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. In the 1950s, Hazel began promoting commercial and residential growth in then-rural
Metro delays create hassles for businesses, workers
Published
Metrorail delays played a factor in Danielle Romanetti’s decision at the beginning of the year to close fibre space, her Old Town Alexandria yarn and knitting supplies shop, an hour earlier each day. “We now close at [7 p.m.] instead of [8 p.m.], just so staff can get home in time to eat a proper
