Category: Economic development
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Changing How Virginia Thinks about Economic Development
Stephen Moret, CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), is doing more than closing billion-dollar deals and resurrecting Virginia’s reputation as a top state to do business. He’s trying to change how Virginians think about economic development — or at least change what outsiders think about how Virginians think about economic development. The VEDP…
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A Big Win for Rockingham County
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. has announced plans to invest $1 billion over the next three years to expand its manufacturing operations in Rockingham County. The project will add 120,00 square feet to an existing 1.1 million-square-foot plant to increase production of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The project is expect to create “close…
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Bacon Bits: Boomtowns, Amazon, and Rent-a-Tribe
Pockets of prosperity. America’s big metropolitan regions may be sucking up most of the growth and prosperity of the current business cycle, but they’re not sucking up all of it. In crunching data measuring economic prosperity, population growth and rising incomes, GOBankingRates found numerous “cities” (not metros) that qualify as “boomtowns.” One region stood out…
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When Nobody Was Looking, Virginia Developed a Thriving Medical Device Industry
Virginia business boosters have long fanned fantasies that the state might join the ranks of the nation’s biotech industry leaders. There isn’t much chance of Virginia becoming a center of pharmaceutical commercialization — an industry in which the required expertise is highly concentrated geographically — but there may be hope for medical devices. Writes Virginia…
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Bacon Bits: Alexa, Graphene, Nurse Practitioners
Hey, Alexa, does Amazon have any job openings for its Alexa project? Amazon has posted its first job listings for its new Arlington County headquarters and is moving two vice presidents from Seattle to Arlington, reports the Washington Post. One will oversee workforce development, and the other will run a technical team focused on international…
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Large Metros Rule, But There Is Hope for Almost Everyone
The employment-growth gap between metropolitan areas and non-metro areas in the United States is displayed dramatically in this chart compiled by the Brookings Institution and published in the New York Times. The disparity in growth rates between metro and non-metro is old news. What I find intriguing — and even encouraging — is that the…
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Bacon Bits: Economic Development Edition
High-tech bonanza. Virginia has captured almost $16 billion in capital investment through economic development since Governor Ralph Northam took office 16 months ago, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It’s probably the biggest 16-month period in state history,” said Stephen Moret, who came on board as CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership in early 2017. The investment…
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Bacon Bits: Rural Development Edition
Seeding entrepreneurship. The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority has approved $180,000 in seed-capital grants up to $10,000 for businesses that have been operating less than a year and have fewer than 10 full-time employees. The new businesses are projected to create $770,000 in total private investment and create 135 full-time and part-time jobs. Assuming the…
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Does Facebook Solar Pay Its Own Way?
Dominion Energy has announced the construction of six new solar farms — three in Virginia and three in North Carolina – to offset the electricity demand of Facebook data centers in the two states. The 590 megawatts of new renewable energy generation will be enough to power 147,000 homes at peak output. The partnership will…
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Arlington Could Spend $11.5 Million to Do What?
Let’s see now. Arlington County offered $29 million in incentives to land the economic development coup of the decade, Amazon’s HQ2 project. Now, according to the Washington Business Journal, the County Board is considering granting another $11.5 million in incentives to keep the Drug Enforcement Administration in town. Are you kidding me? Citizens are raising…
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What can Virginia learn from Nashville (Part 1)?
Juggernaut. The Guardian published a story today on the amazing rise of Nashville as a business center, an entertainment center, a tourist destination and a city. Music City is certainly going through a multi-decade growth spurt rising from a population of 170,874 in 1960 to an estimated population of 691,243 in 2017. Interestingly, Richmond had 28%…
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Danville’s Bad $912,000 Loan — Isolated Case or Tip of the Iceberg?
Danville City Council will decide next week whether to forgive $912,000 owed the city by its land purchasing arm, the Industrial Development Authority. The money represents the unpaid portion of a $1.6 million loan issued in 2015 to entice Telvista, a call center operator which closed its facility in 2018 and ceased making lease payments.…
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Addiction as a Workforce Development Issue
How ubiquitous is drug abuse in Virginia’s workforce? In western Virginia, it’s mind-numbingly pervasive. “In many environments, as many as 50 percent of employee applicants who are eligible on the basis of their training, skills, and background fail to be employable because they fail to pass a drug screen,” Dr. Bob Trestman, chairman of psychiatry…
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Food Trucks Can Create Oases in Food Deserts
Food desert theory. Food deserts in cities can be defined as urban areas where it is difficult to buy high quality fresh foods at an affordable price. This lack of access to healthy food causes problems for people living within these food deserts. Instead of eating healthily people living in food deserts buy the “junk…
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Yes, Virginia, There Still Is Hope for Manufacturing
I remain skeptical that Virginia’s mill towns should peg their hopes for economic revival on manufacturing (see “Virginia Manufacturing Jobs Still in Decline“). But Stephen Moret, CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, makes a powerful case that Virginia can improve its track record in luring manufacturing investment. In a lengthy comment to my post,…