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Virginians bet $235M on sports in June

Sports wagers total $1.3B since becoming legal in January

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Virginians bet $234.9 million on sports in June but nearly broke even, making $212.9 million during the fifth full month for legal sports wagers, according to data released Friday by the Virginia Lottery. Virginia sports betting wagers now total more than $1.3 billion since the state legalized sports betting in mid-January. In May, the state…

Eight Va. companies graduate from VEDP export program

VALET program helps companies grow international exports

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Eight companies became the latest to graduate from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday. The VALET program helps Virginia companies use international exporting as a growth strategy. During the two-year program, businesses learn international sales plan development services through trainings from international service providers,…

Two Hampton Roads car washes sell for $1.6M

Solar Wash Inc. sold Franklin and Suffolk locations

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Two Solar Wash Inc. car wash locations in Hampton Roads sold for $1.6 million, S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. announced Wednesday. Located at 910 W. Washington St., the Suffolk property has five self-service bays, seven vacuum bays and a fully automatic, soft touch station. The Franklin location, found at 1021 Armory Drive, has seven vacuum bays,…

Chesterfield EDA eyes mixed-use project at Spring Rock Green

County supervisors will decide on $16M acquisition

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The Chesterfield County Economic Development Authority has proposed purchasing Spring Rock Green — a 42-acre property on the northwest corner of Midlothian Turnpike, near Chippenham Parkway — for $16 million to create a mixed-use development. The property is located between the Stonebridge Shopping Center and The Boulder’s Office Park. The first phase of the project…

Small Black-owned businesses “were struggling before the pandemic,” says Tortica Anderson, owner of A Family Affair Event Management. “We feel like we have to work twice as hard to prove we’re capable of being business owners and invest in ourselves to show we’re legitimate businesses.” Photo by Will Schermerhorn

Bridging the gap

Black-owned small businesses seek to overcome pandemic challenges

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At the beginning of 2020, A Family Affair Event Management had already filled its schedule for the year with an array of weddings and corporate, social and destination activities. Then COVID-19 struck, wiping the Stafford event planning company’s calendar clean. “It greatly impacted us,” says Tortica Anderson, owner of A Family Affair Event Management. “We…

Photo Illustration by Mark Jeffries

The Powell Memo

Did this document put big business in the political driver’s seat?

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The Powell Memorandum has been praised and vilified, denounced as a blueprint for business to seize control of American life, and embraced as a way to protect liberty and free enterprise. Whether because of its lasting influence or alarming prescience, the Powell Memorandum has become one of the most important single documents in understanding the…

“It’s very difficult to find a $1 billion bank” in the Richmond region, says Rex L. Smith III, president and CEO of Henrico County-based Community Bankers Trust Corp., which is being acquired by West Virginia-based United Bankshares Inc. “They’ve either been gobbled up or they don’t exist.” Photo by Shandell Taylor

Come together

Community bank consolidations gather steam

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Virginia is seeing a wave of bank mergers and acquisitions, a trend that could intensify, banking experts say. “We could potentially see a record-setting year for bank mergers and acquisitions,” says John Asbury, president and CEO of Richmond-based Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp. and chairman of the Virginia Bankers Association. Banks are reaching for scale, meaning…

North Carolina-based Advance Auto Parts is closing this administrative office at Roanoke’s Crossroads Mall and a smaller one in Richmond, shifting 650 employees permanently to remote work. Photo by Don Petersen

Free space

Companies mull post-pandemic office space needs

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Six hundred. That’s how many Advance Auto Parts employees are bidding adieu to their desks, cubicles, printers, water coolers and commutes in Roanoke, the city where the company was founded in 1932. The giant auto parts retailer won’t be bringing back employees to its 275,288-square-foot office space at Crossroads Mall. They’ve all been working remotely…

Scheduled to open in 2025 on George Mason’s Virginia Square campus in Arlington, this distinctive, $168 million building will house Mason’s Institute for Digital InnovAtion and its School of Computing. Rendering courtesy George Mason University

Tech support

George Mason aims to produce nearly 16,000 high-tech workers

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In summer 2025, George Mason University is scheduled to open a distinctive, $168 million, 360,500-square-foot glass-and-steel tower on its Virginia Square campus in Arlington. Inside its walls, the university’s commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship and the creation of a tech-savvy workforce will be on full display. In its 60-odd years of existence, Mason’s unwavering fealty to…

Tysons Partnership President and CEO Sol Glasner says the urban community’s population will continue to increase as the community adds amenities such as the Capital One Hall performing arts center, opening in October. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

Turning the corner

Tysons leads Fairfax’s economic recovery

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, it felt as if the long-running goal of transforming Tysons from a commuter-driven “edge city” into a vibrant, urban, walkable destination “would be so disrupted,” says Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. But the increase in social distancing and remote work caused…