The report by the Organization for International Investment draws on federal government data from 2009, the latest year for which statistics are available on employment by foreign-owned companies.

It showed that Virginia ranked 14th in the nation for total number of jobs supported by global investment.

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The company, a staffing firm founded by two former Old Dominion University classmates, ranked No. 29 on the 2012 Inner City 100. The list recognizes fast-growing inner-city businesses for entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation in urban communities.

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eApps Hosting announced the availability of the company’s Virtual Machine in the Cloud hosting service in a new data center in Richmond, Virginia, USA. Customers can now deploy their Virtual Machines in both the Atlanta, Georgia and the Richmond, Virginia data centers. Both world class data centers are owned and operated by Quality Technology Services, Inc. (QTS), the third largest data center operator in the United States. The Richmond facility occupies 1.3 million square feet of space in four distinct data center buildings. Currently 183,000 square feet of raised floor is operational, with 500,000 additional square feet of expansion planned.

eApps selected the QTS Richmond data center as a location for its Cloud services due to the successful, long standing relationship with QTS, the synergies offered by remaining in the QTS data center network, and ample room for expansion in the facility. The key benefits of offering Cloud hosting services in the Richmond data center are:

• High Availability Services - eApps Hosting offers economical High Availability (HA) hosting services now across physical Cloud Zones and is working on offering HA hosting services that span geographical data center locations for maximum up-time
• Disaster Recovery - eApps Hosting can now offer disaster recovery services for customers with mission critical sites, by storing synchronized replicas of Cloud based Virtual Machines in the second data center
• Proximity to Washington, DC - the Washington Metropolitan Area is home to the entire Federal district of the USA and comprises over 5.5 million residents. It is the seventh largest metropolitan area in the country and is growing rapidly.

Real the full article here.

Six companies with headquarters in the Richmond region made Fortune magazine's annual ranking of the nation's 500 largest publicly-traded companies by revenue. The magazine released the list Monday.

The Richmond region has had a half dozen locally based companies on the Fortune 500 for the past three years. There were seven companies in 2009 and eight companies in 2008.

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Quality Technology Services, an Overland Park, Kan.-based company that acquired the 1.3 million-square-foot facility in a bankruptcy court auction in 2010, has invested more than $100 million to date to turn what was once a microchip plant into a data center.

The company has completed the first phase of a multiyear plan to refurbish the plant as a secure storehouse for vast amounts of data. So far, it has leased about 50,000 square feet to clients for data storage.

"We are about a full year ahead of plan," said Chad Williams, the company's CEO, in an interview Thursday during an official dedication event for the center. About 200 QTS employees and local and state officials, including Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, attended the dedication.

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Watch a video tour of their facility here.

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BrownGreer has signed a letter of intent to buy the old Cedar Works warehouse, owned by Cedar Works 2 LLC, at 250 Rocketts Way, and hopes to move there by early 2013, said partner Lynn C. Greer.

"We wanted to stay close to downtown," Greer said, noting that "the building itself is a unique opportunity to blend the old with the new."

BrownGreer is still negotiating the details of the building's purchase, Greer said.

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Ask Chris Mason, who was watching, not riding, as seven young cyclists from Fairfield competed in one of two mountain bike races that drew 50 high school and middle school students to the park in South Richmond last week.

Mason, 18, is a senior at Armstrong High School and a star graduate of the Richmond Cycling Corps, which brings bicycling to inner-city youth in the East End housing complex and gives them a new way to see the world.

"I saw places in Richmond I thought I'd never see," he said. "I said, 'Is this really Richmond?' "

Richmond is being transformed, one trail at a time, into a haven of opportunity for bicyclists and outdoor enthusiasts of all types as the city prepares to host the UCI Road World Championships in 2015.

The same army of volunteers that built the trails in Forest Hill and James River parks is preparing to build, at minimal cost to the city, a bicycle skills training course on Belle Isle for mountain bikers and road racers alike.

Helped by the Virginia National Guard, the city is preparing to cut the ribbon on the first half-mile of the Cannon Creek Greenway, built in Highland Park next to the site of demolished public housing that eventually will be replaced by a new kind of community.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones will dedicate the first phase of the greenway on Saturday.

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WE NEED YOUR HELP! A key component of the program this year will be the introduction of the Marc Weiss Hanover Workforce Awards recognition. The Hanover Business Council is seeking nominations to recognize Hanover organizations that have achieved success in workforce practices in areas such as recruiting, hiring, retaining, training, incorporating innovative workplace environments, or other strategies that enables the organization to excel in developing an effective, world-class workforce. Winners will be recognized in both small and large organization categories.

Award criteria & nomination form | Event details & registration | Sponsorship Opportunities

The "double-fronted" design signals that the $32 million project will be a new gateway to Richmond, as well as a bridge between the university and the community, said the building's architect, Steven Holl.

But its interior, with "forking galleries" that open to the sculpture garden, is intended to change the narrative about contemporary art, he said.

"The nature of this building," he said, "is to embrace the unknown and act as a catalyst for all the directions that contemporary art might be taking."

Today, VCU is unveiling the design for the three-story, 38,000-square-foot building, which will be built with private funds and is expected to open in 2015. Holl, whose work includes the Finnish Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, designed the project with Chris McVoy.

The institute will provide a venue for art in the broadest sense of the term, said Joseph H. Seipel, dean of VCU's School of the Arts.

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Kim Scheeler, president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Chamber, came away from the trip to Boston with some new techniques to keep talented young professionals in Richmond.

And Andy Stefanovich, an executive with the global branding firm Prophet and a partner with New Richmond Ventures LLC, wants to emulate Boston with an entrepreneurship initiative he thinks could change the Richmond region forever.

"It's less about tactics and as much about shifting our mindset and our mentality," Stefanovich said. "We have the assets, we just have to have the wherewithal, the passion and the boldness to accomplish them."

After an exhausting three days on the chamber's annual InterCity Visit, about 150 civic leaders from the Richmond region are decompressing and beginning the long process of analyzing what they learned in Boston last week.

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As familiar as these names are, none of them existed when the Richmond Times-Dispatch published its first Top 50 report in January 1993.

Credit card and banking giant Capital One had not been created. VCU Health was then Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. HCA was not in the list, but its numbers were reported under the names of three of its area hospitals — Henrico Doctors, Chippenham and Johnston-Willis.

The five largest private employers on that inaugural list were Philip Morris, Virginia Power, Reynolds Metals, Allied-Signal, and DuPont.

That first Top 50 list is dotted with ghosts of Richmond past. Once powerful companies such as Reynolds Metals, Best Products, Circuit City Stores, Wheat, First Securities, and The William Byrd Press now are just memories.

"You've had the demise of some Richmond firms that people thought would be around forever," said William F. Mezger, retired chief economist for the Virginia Employment Commission and a source of information for the Times-Dispatch's first Top 50 and several others.

This year's report still showcases the strength of old-line local companies such as Dominion Resources (formerly Virginia Power) and specialty insurer Markel Corp., but it also shines light on the rise of some relatively younger firms such as Shamin Hotels, Patient First and Old Dominion Security.

In all, 27 companies reported growth in the latest employment survey compared with a year ago and 19 had reductions. One had no change and three did not report numbers for last year.

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Speaking of today’s announcement, Dan Gecker, Chair of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors said, “We are delighted that BGB has made Chesterfield County their U.S. home. The international business community is quite strong in Chesterfield and it is our pleasure to welcome them as our newest member.”

“We look forward to opening our new facility and further increasing our sales to the U.S. market”, said David R. Holt, CEO of BGB. “I would like to personally thank Chesterfield County Economic Development and the Greater Richmond Partnership for their professional assistance. Their pro-business attitude and business friendly environment made the decision much easier”. Mr. Hemstock, Operations Director, will be moving to Chesterfield and overseeing the new facility.

In addition to Chesterfield Economic Development, the Greater Richmond Partnership assisted BGB in their site selection process. The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will be providing workforce assistance.

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Chesterfield Economic Development
Will Davis, Director
Phone: (804) 318-8550
E-mail: wdavis@chesterfieldbusiness.com

The online retail giant has listed openings for some management and administrative jobs at two distribution centers it is building in the Richmond area.

The job listings include finance controller, financial analyst, senior human resources assistant, inventory control and quality assurance managers, safety specialists, facilities managers, administrative assistants, and information technology and operations managers.

Those jobs are being advertised on Amazon's website as the structural work has started on a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County, where the company will ship products ordered by its customers.

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Under a new export deal, five shipments of Virginia cattle have already gone to Canada, with several loads having crossing the border this week, according to Gov. Bob McDonnell's office.

At current market prices, each shipment is worth more than $75,000, the governor's office said in a statement Thursday. McDonnell is traveling on a trade and marketing mission to Canada.

"We play matchmaker. We build bridges," said state Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd P. Haymore. "In this case, a Canadian importer was looking to buy direct and cut out the middleman. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked to build that bridge."

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The GRP has always promoted the region’s impressive workforce, business climate, education system, and quality of life to prospective businesses. LoveWhatYouFind.com houses that type of information but is geared toward positioning greater Richmond as a career destination and to show job candidates that Greater Richmond’s diverse culture welcomes all life styles. Displayed on the home page is the simple message, “Richmond:  Find what you love. Love what you find.”

From the homepage, users can experience what it is like to work, live, learn, and play in Greater Richmond. Users can also navigate the content by selecting the city or one of the three surrounding counties to explore individually. The highly interactive design of the site provides an enjoyable experience for individuals eying the region as a possible relocation destination.

The site’s companion print piece will offer local businesses a simple hand-held version of the site to give to prospective employees.  The pocket guide contains an innovative webkey that can be plugged in to any USB port to automatically load the site. “New and existing businesses need a simple and engaging way to show prospective employees what it is like to live here,” said the Senior VP of Existing Business Services and Talent Development at the GRP, Sara Dunnigan. “This virtual relocation guide addresses that need, while putting Greater Richmond’s diverse culture, fantastic events and beautiful locations in the spotlight.  We think the employment opportunities and the lifestyle make this region a winning choice for talented professionals.” 

To get more information or request the print version of “Love What You Find,” please call Sara Dunnigan at (804) 343-6968 or email sdunnigan@grpva.com.

The Greater Richmond Partnership was launched in 1994 as a pioneering regional public-private initiative to serve as the regional economic development group for the City of Richmond and counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico. The mission is to help grow the Greater Richmond economy through the attraction of high quality jobs and new capital investment, the retention of existing businesses, and the continued improvement of the region's business climate. For more information, please visit www.grpva.com.

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BROCHURE IMAGE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grpva/6896325300/

If you thought the Richmond region was performing better than the numbers had showed, you were right.

In fact, employment in the Richmond metro area grew a lot faster than originally reported while the state showed a slight downward revision.

The revised figures show that regional employment grew 1.6 percent in the year that ended in December, for an addition of nearly 10,000 jobs.

The previous estimates put employment growth at 0.4 percent during the same period, for a gain of 2,580.

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The mood was celebratory because the leveling of the building at Fifth and Jackson streets is part of a big expansion project for Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc., a fast-growing company that is adding hundreds of jobs in downtown Richmond.

"To our surprise and our pleasure, we have been expanding a little bit faster than expected," Health Diagnostic President and chief executive Tonya Mallory told the guests at an event the company dubbed "The Big Chomp," which included a jazz band and refreshments beneath a tent on the parking deck.

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VCU and Dominion signed an agreement that calls for the use of Dominion experts, VCU engineering faculty and Facilities Management personnel and third-party products and services to gather and share power-consumption data. The project will make continuous, real-time energy adjustments to the building, lights and equipment to save energy and lower costs. It is expected to reduce energy costs by $20,000, or 4 percent, annually.

VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D., said, "Leading the way in addressing sustainability challenges is one of the core themes of our Quest for Distinction strategic plan. Working with Dominion on this project is a wonderful opportunity for VCU to provide a powerful example of environmental responsibility while delivering valuable data for the development of more efficient energy technologies."

Paul Koonce, chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power, said, "This project with VCU Engineering will open doors for the establishment of energy-saving micro-grids in many other locations such as universities, military bases and industries. Using the latest technology to collect data on electricity use at the outlet will help us fine-tune the delivery of electricity to where it is needed when it is needed, reducing waste, saving energy and saving money for the customer."

VCU and Dominion, through its Alternative Energy Solutions group, will split the $500,000 cost of the project, which includes the installation of hardware, control systems and solar panels to enable both parties to gather voltage data and analyze energy volume, timing, noise and cleanliness, as well as establish energy usage trends and equipment performance.

VCU's Facilities Management staff will install 230 portable voltage monitors from Dominion's technology partners to manage electrical usage and reduce peak power consumption. EDGE(SM) technology, a product developed by Dominion, will be installed to capture energy and demand savings while the other technologies will predict power consumption and power reduction potential, send notifications prior to peak events and control and verify power reduction.

"We're excited to create a working model that can be used by students and researchers to investigate and create innovative methods for maximizing energy conservation and cost savings," said Ed Bennett, executive director of Physical Plant and deputy for Facilities Management at VCU. "We foresee this as an extension of our efforts to predict and save future maintenance costs based on equipment energy analysis."

Dominion's technology partners include Greenlet Technologies of Israel (http://www.greenlet.net) and Power Tagging Technologies of Boulder, Col., (http://www.powertagging.com). Greenlet's pluggable outlets, which can be installed by consumers, automatically communicate with a utility's central management system to help utilities control power consumption of individual pieces of equipment. Power Tagging's Grid Location Aware™ technology is a grid resident solution for granular command and control of electrical distribution.

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About VCU and the VCU Medical Center: Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 31,000 students in 211 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-nine of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU's 13 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation's leading academic medical centers. For more, see http://www.vcu.edu.

About VCU Engineering: Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering, located in Richmond, Virginia, opened in 1996 and houses three state-of-the-art engineering facilities, the School offers more than 300,000 square feet of the highest quality classrooms and laboratory space. Driven to be the national model for innovation in engineering and research, the School offers BS, MS, and PhD degrees in mechanical, nuclear, biomedical, electrical, computer and chemical and life science engineering, and computer science. Interdisciplinary research opportunities are offered through the Center for Nanomaterials and Characterization, the Institute for Engineering and Medicine, the C. Kenneth and Dianne Harris Wright Virginia Microelectronics Center, and the da Vinci Center for Innovation. For more, see http://www.egr.vcu.edu

About Dominion: Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,200 megawatts of generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,300 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at http://www.dom.com

SOURCE: Dominion

For further information: Joan Izzo, Director, Communications and Marketing, VCU School of Engineering, +1-804-827-3984, jlizzo@vcu.edu, http://www.news.vcu.edu; or Jim Norvelle, Director-Media Relations / Generation, Dominion, +1-804-771-6115, jim.norvelle@dom.com

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission unanimously approved the 5-megawatt wind turbine in the lower Chesapeake Bay about 3 miles off the town of Cape Charles. The project still needs the backing of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a review by the Coast Guard.

The project has a late 2013 completion date, which would make it the first wind turbine in offshore U.S. waters.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, who announced the turbine's approval, said the prototype is an important development in building wind farms off Virginia's coast and creating onshore industries to support it. Part of the prototype's purpose is to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy, which is significantly higher than other forms of energy.

"This step forward holds tremendous potential for jobs and for economic development here in the future," McDonnell said in a statement. His administration has promoted Virginia as the East Coast energy capital using an "all of the above" approach including wind, coal, nuclear, oil and renewable-energy projects.

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The site, about 24 miles off the coast, could generate 1,500 to 2,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind turbines — or enough energy to power 500,000 homes.

The state's largest electric utility filed paperwork Monday with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management formally expressing its interest in offshore wind generation in what could be a powerful message for a slowly emerging domestic source of clean energy.

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