Category: Economic development
-
Time for Richmond and Hampton Roads to Join Forces?
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s economic growth ground to a standstill in 2014 and lagged the nation in 2015. Recognizing that metropolitan regions are the growth engines of the early 21st century economy, civic boosters are looking to spur growth and development at the regional level — but that picture doesn’t look much prettier. The Brookings Institution’s Metro…
-
Great Inversion Update: CarMax Expands Downtown
CarMax Inc., the retailer of used (er, make that “pre-owned”) cars, was a national leader in 2005 when it built a LEED-certified headquarters building in the West Creek office park in Goochland County west of Richmond. Now, a decade later, the company is leasing space in the historic Lady Byrd Hat building downtown. The 26,000-foot facility…
-
A Humble Proposal for Addressing Recurrent Flooding
By James A. Bacon The recurrence of tidal/surge flooding in Hampton Roads has increased from 1.7 days of “nuisance” flooding yearly in 1960 to 7.3 days in 2o14, and with continued land subsidence and sea-level rise, the flooding will become even more common. So say the authors of “Building Resiliency in Response to Sea Level Rise…
-
How Chinese Hustlers Snookered the McAuliffe Administration for $1.4 Million
by James A. Bacon On Nov. 5, 2104, the McAuliffe administration announced that Lindenburg Industry, LLC, a Chinese corporation, would invest $113 million to rehab an old furniture factory in Appomattox County into an industrial-honeycomb manufacturing operation — the first new corporate announcement for the economically depressed Southside county in 15 years. The deal, crowed the press release, “is a…
-
Free Airbnb!
by James A. Bacon Let’s say you’re a widow trying to make ends meet. You convert your basement to an apartment and rent it out to out-of-town visitors through Airbnb. Or, let’s say you’re a young couple. You’ve bought your dream house, but you don’t have any children yet, so you rent out a room…
-
What Virginia Millennials Are Looking For
by James A. Bacon Three out of four Virginia Millennials (belonging to the 18- to 36-year-old age cohort) are largely satisfied with the quality of life in their communities. But local quality-of-life indicators often fall short of what Millennials are looking for, and many are open to moving to other parts of Virginia or even to other states.…
-
When’s the Last Time a Virginia Governor Proposed a Business Tax Cut?
Governor Terry McAuliffe announced yesterday a package of tax cut and credit proposals to improve Virginia’s business climate and stimulate economic growth. A proposed reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 6% to 5.75% would generate nearly $64 million in tax relief for Virginia businesses over two years, while other proposals would create incentives for…
-
Striking a Balance on Municipal Broadband
by John Szczesny Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes… towards municipal broadband, that is. As officials in the Roanoke Valley move forward with plans for a municipal fiber network the state of North Carolina is busy suing the FCC to prevent its local governments from doing the same. To be fair, municipal broadband is no…
-
The Terry McAuliffe Show
by James A. Bacon Terry McAuliffe doesn’t just fill the room — he fills the banquet hall. He’s loud, he’s animated, he’s funny and he’s prone to superlatives. Economic development success, he proclaims, comes from superior salesmanship and the art of the deal. Indeed, if he doffed a wig of thinning blond, slicked-back hair, you’d be…
-
Environmentalist Update on Offshore Wind
by James A. Bacon Judging from comments made in a Environment Virginia-sponsored webinar held this morning, environmentalists, the McAuliffe administration and Dominion Virginia Power are operating on the same wave length when it comes to developing offshore wind power in Virginia. If environmental groups have big differences with Dominion on how to proceed, no sign of…
-
Building an “Unmanned” Industry Cluster
by James A. Bacon Two decades ago the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) had two sponsors, fifteen employees and a dream of becoming a major player in testing new automotive technologies. Sixteen years ago, it opened a literal road to nowhere — a 2.2-mile “smart road” cutting through the hills of Montgomery County that ended in…
-
Incubating Big Ideas
by James A. Bacon Wei Zhang, a research scientist at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering, concluded that the polymer coatings he was studying had commercial potential. The chemical, when applied to power lines, aircraft wings or wind-turbine blades, would prevent ice from building up. By affecting the surface bonding at a molecular level, the…
-
Fuzzy Thinking at the Top
by James A. Bacon Governor Terry McAuliffe views the implementation of the Clean Power Plan as a great opportunity for Virginia to create “green” jobs in solar energy and energy-efficiency while also reducing carbon emissions and head off global warming. “I am working hard with Virginia businesses and environmental leaders to seize this moment to…
-
The Case for a Regional Approach to Economic Development
by James A. Bacon The economies of 17 Virginia localities and one North Carolina locality in the Hampton Roads region are more inter-related than they were 10 years ago. Almost two-thirds (more than 65%) of all workers in the metropolitan statistical area commute to jobs outside the jurisdiction where they live — up from less than…
-
An Intractable Dilemma
When Dominion shuts down the Yorktown Power Station, Virginia’s Peninsula will need another source of electric power. Dominion says a 500 kV transmission line over the historic James River is the the best. Conservationists disagree.