Some pillars of the Richmond region's economy collapsed in 2009. Thousands of people lost jobs. Businesses big and small shrank.

But now that the regional economy is just starting to recover, it's also clear that businesses made changes that will affect the way the community looks, works, does business and plays for years to come.

There's a new corporate headquarters by the river, now that MeadWestvaco has moved into its $100 million tower next to the Federal Reserve Building. There is a large new locally owned bank with the merger of First Market and Union banks. A quirky local grocery chain will at last open on Sundays, now that an international giant has bought it. Richmonders will root for a new baseball team and are already going to concerts and plays in a new performing-arts center.

The main drivers of the local economy -- state and local government, tobacco and finance -- drove with less force than usual last year, and no one's looking for a dramatic bounce in 2010.

But new drivers -- overseas companies, higher education and health care -- are emerging.

"We have 144 foreign-owned companies employing 13,000 people. . . . We have something like 60,000 students, that's like the size of the University of Texas. HCA, VCU Health and Bon Secours are among our biggest employers, we've got expansion at Fort Lee," said Greater Richmond Partnership President Gregory Wingfield.

"The complexion of the economy is changing."

State and local governments, which made almost unprecedented large layoffs last year, remain under financial pressure as a sluggish economy bites deep into salesand property-tax collections.

Philip Morris USA's consolidation of all its cigarette manufacturing in South Richmond last year, along with the move here of the headquarters of sister companies U.S. Smokeless Tobacco and John Middleton Co., made Richmond the most important tobacco center in the nation. But smoking remains on a long-term slide.

The economic motor that really stalled over the past couple of years was finance.

"The slump of'08-09 ... hit the finance, insurance and real estate industries harder than in the past," said Christine Chmura, president and chief economist of Chmura Economics & Analytics.

"The concentration of finance jobs in the region resulted in Richmond seeing a larger job loss than in past recessions."

The recession started with the bursting of the housing bubble -- mostly elsewhere, such as the once white-hot California, Florida and Nevada markets, but still touching the Richmond area as well, as sagging local government tax collections show.

The shock wave from the bubble's bursting rippled through the nation's banks and financial institutions, eventually causing a freeze-up in the nation's wholesale money markets. That freeze took down Henrico County-based insurance and real estate services firm LandAmerica. But the pain didn't stop when it closed its doors. More than a quarter of the employees who transferred to the Florida insurer that took over its main insurance operations lost their jobs in the spring.

One of the world's biggest insurers, Henrico-based Genworth Financial Inc., laid off 400 people as it moved to tighten its belt and boost its capital in response to the credit-market meltdown.

Circuit City Stores, which was once one of the Richmond area's largest employers with 1,900 full-time-equivalent jobs, struggled unsuccessfully with its debt. It closed its last store in March.

Semiconductor giant Qimonda, which had employed 2,500, shut down.

And even as MeadWestvaco worked on its new building, its worldwide cost-cutting program cost 75 headquarters jobs and saw the closing of its Louisa County carton plant with its 171 jobs. Kaiser Aluminum cut back at its Bellwood plant in Chesterfield County, eliminating 56 of about 125 jobs and closing the plant temporarily in July.

But developers also generated more than $1 billion of projects just in the city, with some $630 million worth completed during the year.

Besides MeadWestvaco's headquarters, there was the $110 million conversion of the former Miller & Rhoads department store building into a Hilton Garden Inn hotel and a 133-unit condominium complex. There were $110 million worth of new facilities at Virginia Commonwealth University's MCV campus, including the eight-story, $71.2 million Molecular Medicine Research building on the site of the former nursing education building

The $75 million CenterStage performing-arts center, backed by some of the area's most influential business leaders as a way to generate downtown convention business as well as improve the area's quality of life, opened its doors.

The suburbs also saw activity.

Hard-hit Henrico, home to LandAmerica, Circuit City and Qimonda, saw Bank of America launch a $150 million expansion of its operations center in Villa Park in northern Henrico, a move that added 50 jobs last year and will eventually create more than 125 positions.

British insurance giant Admiral Group Inc. decided to enter the U.S. auto insurance market from a base in Henrico, opening an office last year with 45 people and expecting its Elephant Insurance unit to grow by 100 positions by the end of this year. T-Mobile expanded its Henrico operation by adding a call center, with 250 jobs.

In Chesterfield, Sabra Dipping Co., a maker of kosher, vegetarian foods, expects to employ 260 people when it opens its plant by the middle of the year.

The local economic-development agency, the Greater Richmond Partnership, reported that during its fiscal year ended in June, new plants and expansions meant 1,200 jobs and $100 million of new investment.

Since then, noodle-maker Maruchen Virginia Inc. announced an $18 million, 50-job expansion, and Hill Phoenix Inc. a $9.3 million expansion of its refrigerated display manufacturing operation.

The partnership's latest survey of firms across the region found signs some are getting ready to hire: Of 165 contacted, 44 said they planned to hire a total of 200 people.

"We expect to see employment begin growing by the middle of 2010," Chmura said. "We should see much stronger growth in 2011 when the economy benefits more fully from the Fort Lee expansion and Rolls-Royce engine manufacturing plant."

Still, it isn't going to be the easiest year for everyone.

"From 1992 to 2007, it was a bull market; for a lot of us, that's the bulk of our business life," said Michael Byrne, owner of Richbrau Brewery Co. in Shockoe Slip. "With what we're having to do now it's, 'Wait a minute, now I know what my parents were talking about.'"

Byrne said he tracks what he's spending on 119 separate line items in his books. These days, he's going over all of them, all the time. At the same time, after a year that saw 30 restaurants close, he figures it's a buyers market these days, so the food he serves has to be better than ever.

"In the past, where if one plate in a hundred wasn't exactly what I wanted, that was OK," he said. "Now, nobody can afford that. Quality is everything . . .

"At the end, I think it will be a healthy place for businesses to be if they make it through."

The Times-Dispatch asked three key economic-development officials -- Jeff Anderson of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Gregory H. Wingfield of the Greater Richmond Partnership and Renee Chapline of Virginia's Gateway Region -- to give their take on our prospects.

Q: After the economic tumult of 2009, how does 2010 look from your perspective?

ANDERSON: Inquiries from consultants working on behalf of companies, and from company decision-makers, are on the rise, especially in the manufacturing, data center and energy sectors. The quality of the prospects we are hearing from has also improved. While we still have a ways to go, economic indicators are pointing in the right direction.

WINGFIELD: In the first two months we have had nine prospect visits. As we look forward into March, we have several more interested companies queued up to visit. This year's start is much stronger compared with this same time in 2009 when we were dead in the water.

I attribute this uptick in activity to the lowering of inventory and business's need to replenish, the loosening of commercial credit, federal stimulus funds beginning to trickle down, increasing consumer confidence, an unusually good talent pool and undervalued real estate.

CHAPLINE: We are encouraged that activity in late December and January brought nine new projects to the region. We anticipate that the U.S. economy will grow in 2010, but only at a very moderate rate. as many of the same issues remain: high unemployment/underemployment, tight credit markets and inflationary fears. What does this mean for Virginia and more specifically the Gateway Region? We must remain vigilant and active in our core industry sectors.

The aerospace sector, although down overall along with all manufacturing, remains a growth sector because Rolls-Royce is here and needs essential suppliers to operate. Likewise, the defense sector will grow in our region because Fort Lee is expanding, almost doubling in size.

We are also actively marketing to green technology companies that can take advantage of federal and state funding in support of new advanced manufacturing techniques. The Gateway Region is transitioning away from traditional manufacturing techniques and ideologies to a new era of advanced, sustainable manufacturing technologies essential to our economy.

Q: What are your economic-development goals for the coming year?

ANDERSON: The economic recession has challenged Virginia to evaluate its economic-development strategy and, where necessary, reposition our assets and incentives. VEDP will continue to aggressively recruit businesses to Virginia from across the industry spectrum. In addition to our present efforts, we plan to focus marketing resources on three business sectors: advanced manufacturing, information technology and energy. In addition, we want to continue to work with the public and private research and life-sciences companies and universities to create the assets and programs necessary for the commonwealth to expand in these markets.

We will also continue to focus on Virginia's more distressed communities. Many rural areas of Virginia have unemployment rates that well exceed the state average. We will continue working with the regional and local leaders and their economic-development teams to ensure we are marketing them appropriately both domestically and internationally.

WINGFIELD: We are funded on a five-year cycle, so we have both a 2009-2014 series of goals and annualized goals that we monitor year by year for each of four programs we manage. They include:

• Business attraction and regional marketing to help create 8,500 jobs generating $391 million in new payroll and encourage $1.5 billion in new capital investment. •Talent development and promotion, with the Greater Richmond Chamber, to help fill the need for a trained and available work force for existing and new companies to meet their competitive needs. •Business retention and expansion to support the creation of 7,500 jobs and secure $250 million in new investment. •New business formation and small-business support to assist in the expansion of 600 existing companies, stimulate $30 million in new capital investment and stimulate $35 million in new sales revenue.

CHAPLINE: The goals for Virginia's Gateway Region are largely centered around the greatest need in our member communities: the creation of new, quality jobs. Existing company expansions are a large part of the VGR strategy. We work closely with these companies to facilitate growth opportunities for companies.

Economic development has always been centered around the creation of jobs and investment, but to enable us to come further out of this recession, we need new, quality jobs. A significant part of this organization's resources are centered around that goal, our marketing efforts, our independent research and our outreach.

Our international base of companies that are looking to locate in the U.S. continues to grow and therefore we will expand upon our international outreach efforts to meet this new demand.

Q: What attributes make the area appealing for companies looking for sites?

ANDERSON: We have received numerous accolades from CNBC, Forbes.com and others for Virginia's pro-business climate. There's good reason for that. The commonwealth offers streamlined business regulations and fair corporate taxes, state-supported work-force training and export assistance. We provide a stable 6 percent corporate income tax rate that has not increased in more than three decades, property tax exemptions, one of the lowest average workers' compensation costs in the country, and one of the lowest combined state and local sales and use taxes at 5 percent.

The commonwealth comprises an excellent work force. In fact, Virginia has one of the nation's highest concentrations of technology workers. As one of Education Week's top states for overall education quality and "the place where a child is most likely to have a successful life," Virginia schools provide an excellent education from kindergarten to adult learning. Our many training resources help keep Virginia's workforce on the cutting edge and Virginia's corporate partners competitive.

Our state enjoys global access that is unique when compared to other states. We are home to both the Port of Virginia and Washington Dulles International Airport, two major international gateways that ease companies' ability to move people and product around the world quickly and cost-effectively. Our central location on the Atlantic Coast provides interstate and rail access to the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest, and Virginia provides a location that is in close proximity to our nation's capital.

WINGFIELD: Depends on the type of industry we are seeking to attract to the region, but as part of our "elevator speech," we cite four features:

• The region's strategic mid-Atlantic East Coast location. We are an overnight delivery to 55 percent of the nation's consumers. We have the Port of Virginia two hours east and our own Port of Richmond, and the gateway to the world, Dulles airport is two hours to our north.Our RIC airport provides outstanding domestic air service at a competitive rate.
• Our outstanding educational opportunities, including both public and private K-12 and higher-education institutions. We have 18 colleges and universities within 100 miles of Richmond with 190,000 students.Thirty-one percent of people in our labor force have a college education, one of the highest rates in the South. • We have one of the best quality of place of any community our size in the U.S. as recognized by third-party publications such as Trail Runner, Forbes, Business Week, WomenCo.com and more. Our housing options vary from downtown urban options, out to the suburbs and rural locations, all accessible with an average 24-minute commute.
• The greater Richmond area has a diverse economy. The Richmond region is not dependent on a single industry, so the variety helps soften the effects of a difficult economy. The region claims 140 internationally owned companies, and 10 Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered here.

CHAPLINE: The region has the benefits of a major metropolitan area but not the high costs of doing business, high traffic and high cost of living that are typically associated.

Our slogan is "access is everything," and the region's access to a strong transportation infrastructure (highways, interstates, rail, ports); strong, diverse and large labor pool; varied and affordable housing; and available land and properties make this region a very appealing place to do business.

The region is strategically located within a day's drive of the majority of the U.S. population -- making this area a logistical nerve center for distribution and manufacturing operations on the East Coast.

Q: What are the state's deficiencies, and how can they be compensated for or remedied?

ANDERSON: Virginia is fortunate to possess many economic-development strengths that have earned it numerous "Best State for Business" rankings. But the irony of these rankings is Virginia's lack of marketing resources to promote the recognition to the global business community. Additional funding for marketing and advertising campaigns, and a greater overseas presence, especially in Europe and emerging markets such as China and India, can leverage these accolades that will differentiate Virginia from other North American locations in the minds of global corporate decision-makers.

We believe Virginia has a real opportunity to shine in the life-sciences sector, but the state must be cohesive in its approach. We need to continue working with Virginia's publicand private-sector entities to ensure we have the focus, assets and programs that will be conducive to the expansion of this important sector.

There is also room for improvement in Virginia's incentives program. The complexity of the global business environment and competitiveness both nationally and abroad dictate that we work with our partners and allies to develop the programs that support the commonwealth's economic-development strategy, specifically developing incentives that align with the industries and sectors we believe are critical to the future of Virginia.

Even more important than incentives is a strong work force. In today's highly competitive market, a quality work force is our clients' top consideration.

We need to continue collaborating with Virginia's education community to develop, train and re-train a highly skilled workforce in all regions of the Commonwealth. A strong workforce will attract companies and entrepreneurs that bring quality jobs, capital and innovation that will place Virginia in the forefront of the global economy.

WINGFIELD: Over the past 10 to 12 years, we have addressed some of the most serious deficiencies as a community.

When our murder rate rose to one of the highest in the U.S., the community came together to support our police force as we implemented Project Exile. When our business retention surveys consistently cited the airport's high airline ticket prices and ancient terminal as a problem, the business community came together through the Chamber and the GRP with the RIC Airport Commission to fix these problems.

Today, in my opinion, we have challenges around transportation improvements: road, rail (high-speed) and mass transit. Until the Virginia government finds new sources of revenue, these problems will continue.

The other area of concern is in the lack of attention and resources given to early child development and education. I am pleased to note there are several groups addressing this issue: the United Way, Capital Region Collaborative, Bridging Richmond P-20 are all working together to set aggressive goals to help combat this situation.

CHAPLINE: The main deficiency is the perception associated with not being the nucleus of a metropolitan area. Additionally, constraints on water/wastewater within some parts of the region prohibit certain industrial users.

As in many areas in the U.S., work-force development is the key to successful growth and a healthy economy, and therefore VGR will continue to partner with our academic community to collaborate on building a competitive work force to retain and attract industries.

Q: Which industries or economic sectors are you targeting to bring jobs to Virginia?

ANDERSON: Virginia is fortunate to have a diverse economy, demonstrating strength in everything from food processing to global logistics. While we will continue to leverage our diversity, we plan to place a strong focus on four broad business sectors: advanced manufacturing, information technology, energy and life sciences. Virginia has all the right ingredients to succeed in these business sectors now and in the future.

WINGFIELD: We have eight industry clusters we are attempting to attract to the greater Richmond area and have developed business cases for them to locate here that are part of our marketing outreach strategies: advanced manufacturing, including specialty chemicals, advanced materials, aerospace, marine and defense; green, clean and energy technologies; life sciences; information and communication technologies; creative and knowledge-based services; food processing; finance, securities and insurance; and logistics and supply chain.

CHAPLINE: Logistics/warehousing/distribution and advanced manufacturing have had a historical and successful presence in our region. We continue to grow existing companies and expand these sectors.

With the emergence of green tech/clean tech/renewable energy companies, we continue to target this growing sector as well.

VGR is actively working to grow the aerospace sector's presence in the region as a direct result of the Rolls-Royce aero-engine facility currently under construction, assisting in the attraction of its suppliers.

The presence of Fort Lee and its logistical expertise also draws industries related to defense/logistics. VGR will continue efforts to support the growth of the installation and leverage the opportunities for job growth and private investment.

Even as the recession has delivered punches to industry sectors ranging from paper and packaging to high-tech electronics, the region has seen some investments in manufacturing, particularly in smaller, niche markets that have weathered the economic storm fairly well.

Other entrepreneurs are trying to find ways to salvage new opportunities from what has been lost in manufacturing.

One example of that is in Ashland, where Howard Hager and a group of former employees of the Reynolds Metals Co. and Alcoa Inc. manufacturing operations in the Richmond area have started their own business, Hanover Foils.

"We are essentially starting from scratch," Hager said. The startup company has set up operations in a former Philip Morris USA product development facility on Hill Carter Parkway.

Production machinery was moved into the site in January, and the company began production earlier this month making packaging for customers such as the confectionary and pharmaceutical industries.

Hager and other Hanover Foils employees were part of a wave of people who lost jobs at the Reynolds Packaging operations in early 2009 when the company closed its downtown Richmond aluminum foil plants. The decision to close them came after the local businesses, which had been owned by aluminum maker Alcoa since 2000, were acquired by a New Zealand-based investment firm.

Hager said he has received numerous calls from former Reynolds employees interested in working for the new company.

"We have got so many qualified people who have been in the business for many years and now they don't have jobs," he said. "People that I never expected have called me about jobs."

The hundreds of job cuts at Reynolds were among several major losses that have hit the region's manufacturing base during the recession.

The Virginia Employment Commission reported in January that manufacturing employment in the Richmond metropolitan area was down by 3,300 jobs, or 8 percent, from the end of 2008. That sector directly employs about 7 percent of the local work force, though its economic impact extends much further through the supply chain into the service sector.

Yet since early 2008, the Richmond metropolitan area has had new investments in manufacturing worth about $414 million, expected to create about 1,565 jobs, according to Virginia Economic Development Partnership records of major job announcements. Many investments have come from small to medium-sized firms. The average announcement was about 46 jobs.

Food processing, for example, is one industry sector that has gained some traction in the area.

Will Davis, Chesterfield County's economic-development director, cited several manufacturing-related expansions that were announced in 2009. Those include packaged-foods maker Maruchan Virginia Inc.'s announcement that it would invest $18 million to open a new product line at its Chesterfield plant, creating 50 jobs. Refrigerated food display case maker Hill Phoenix also announced a $9 million investment to expand its operations in Chesterfield.

"Our manufacturing base in the Richmond region is very diverse, when you think about what is made here," Davis said.

Sabra Dipping Co., a maker of kosher packaged foods, has completed work on a new factory in Chesterfield that is expected to employ 250 people.

"We have progressed very well," said Meiky Tollman, Sabra's executive vice president and the plant's director. Plans now call for a late spring start of production, and Tollman said the company's market is holding up well. The company serves a niche, but growing, market for kosher, vegetarian foods.

At Hanover Foils, Hager and other employees are courting customers in the food, confectionery and pharmaceuticals industry who once bought packaging from Reynolds.

"As soon as I got out [from working at Reynolds], I started looking for investors" to start up a new company, said Hager, who started as a machinery operator but eventually became a supervisor at Reynolds.

"For six months, I went up and down the East Coast looking for and meeting with potential investors. I had three different investors at different times that wanted to fund it."

For various reasons, however, those investors fell away. Finally, in the summer, Hager found a local investor who was able and willing to help finance a startup manufacturing company.

Local economic developers say future growth in manufacturing likely will come from smaller factories, many of them serving niche markets and employing smaller numbers of people than the large-scale manufacturing of 20 to 30 years ago.

"I think that is where we will see the growth, mostly in the niche manufacturers," said Marc Weiss, Hanover County's economic-development director. "It's people who are making high-value products that cannot be made overseas for a variety of reasons."

The Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic-development group, has about 438 manufacturing prospects in its database, out of 1,500 total prospects. Of those, about 68 of the manufacturing firms are considered active prospects, meaning they are considering locating in the region and either have visited the area or soon will.

The trend has been down because of the economy, said Greg Wingfield, the partnership's president. But some of the more promising sectors include aerospace-industry firms that are looking at the area because of Rolls-Royce's planned investment of more than $100 million for an aircraft engine components plant in Prince George County.

Alternative energy, medical devices and food processing also are strong sectors within manufacturing, Wingfield said.

When a recovery comes in manufacturing, the types of jobs that are created are likely to be different from those of past recoveries, he said.

"I think it is going to be different in that there will be fewer people hired back," Wingfield said. "We are talking about a more productive kind of manufacturing, and more capital intensive, so you will have more equipment and machinery with less people doing the work."

"I think there will be more diversity in the job requirements, with one person doing a couple of different aspects of the job," he said.

That type of scenario seems to be developing at Hanover Foils, which has no plans to employ the kind of work force that Reynolds once had in the Richmond area. Instead, Hager said the company is drawing from among the most talented and experienced of the labor force. About 10 have been hired so far.

Carol Graves, a chemist who worked as a packaging scientist for Reynolds and Alcoa for more than 30 years, joined Hanover Foils to operate its packaging testing laboratory.

"This is probably the one place where I can put to use about everything I learned in 30 years at Reynolds and Alcoa," Graves said. "We know what can go wrong, so here we have an opportunity to do it right."

July 1, 2009 marked the start of the Greater Richmond Partnership’s 16^th year as an organization as well as the start of our 2009-2014 funding cycle.  We welcomed new Board Chair, Gail Letts, Central Virginia. Region President and CEO of SunTrust Bank, and other new board members: Robert Setliff, member of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors, James B. Donati, member of the Henrico Board of Supervisors, Katherine Busser, Executive Vice President at Capital One, William A. Casey, Senior Vice President of Bank of America, and Douglas Roth, Senior Vice President of BB&T.    

The Board quickly immersed themselves to help guide the Partnership as we continue to navigate and adapt to economic challenges.  The initial months focused on budgeting and strategies for accomplishing the goals of the five-year plan, Still Globally Focused, Regionally Competitive. This issue of Envoy provides an overview of the Partnership’s activities taken in support of those goals from July 1 through December 31, 2009.

Click here to download the PDF file.

That was the message from two top economic development officials to local government leaders from around the region yesterday.

The Richmond Regional Planning District Commission voted unanimously to seek federal money to create a comprehensive economic-development strategy so that business boosters can bid for stimulus money and other grants to help attract new businesses to the region.

"The bottom line is because we don't have a [comprehensive economic-development strategy], we're leaving money on the table, which as everyone knows is something we can't do in these economic times," said Robert A. Crum Jr., the region's executive director.

For example, the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park sought stimulus money last year to expand its business incubator operation in Richmond, said Robert T. Skunda, the park's president and chief executive officer.

"Without an approved [strategy] in place, we can't even make an application," said Skunda, who was accompanied at yesterday's meeting by Gregory H. Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic-development organization.

Richmond had a plan in the early 1990s that allowed it to bring in a federal grant that helped establish the park, but the plan lapsed. The city was working with Skunda and Wingfield on reviving the strategy last year when they decided to take a regional approach instead.

The commission vote will allow its staff to apply to the U.S. Economic Development Administration for a grant to develop the plan, which will take about a year in order to involve the public.

"Let's do it!" urged Chesterfield County Supervisor James M. Holland.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

That's where the new Department of Economic and Community Development will set up shop, in historic Main Street Station.

It's also where the city hopes to attract millions of dollars in private development, including a commercial project that officials say is being courted with $10 million in newly approved federal stimulus bonds.

Similarly, the administration said in an exclusive interview Friday that it is looking to start a loan program to spur investment citywide by small and minority-owned businesses, as well as housing developers. Officials said it's part of a strategy to make the city an aggressive deal-maker that has access to capital and is no longer content to simply distribute grants to worthy projects.

"We'll not be able to cut our way out of the recession or tax our way out, so we've got to grow our way out," Jones said Friday, echoing themes from last month's State of the City address.

Main Street Station

In his first major move at City Hall, Jones reorganized the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Community Development into a new Department of Economic and Community Development. In April, 33 employees from the merged department will move to the city-owned train station. It'll free up offices on two floors of City Hall and allow the city to stop renting space at 501 E. Franklin St., saving about $100,000 per year, officials said.

Jones said the decision also underscores a commitment to revitalizing the Bottom, with high-speed rail, urban infill development and a slavery museum.

"Our being there kind of says that, 'We get it. We're not only going to help you from City Hall, but we're going to be part of the neighborhood,'" he said.

Federal stimulus bonds

Officials recently learned that the city would be able to tap $34 million in bond financing to support private development projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Initially, the city was allotted $8.8 million in bonds, but officials said they jumped at the chance to get capacity that was declined by other localities.

Now, officials said, they're talking to a developer about a project in or near Main Street Station, with $10 million in bonds as an incentive. They also are planning to provide $3.5 million in bonds to support plans by Cephas Industries to start a biomass recycling and manufacturing facility in the Broad Rock Industrial Park.

The federal Recovery Zone Facility Bonds are intended to help finance projects that are ready to go. While details of the prospective Main Street Station development haven't been finalized, the potential investment is "definitely not pie in the sky," said Peter H. Chapman, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development.

Other projects approved for financing include outfitting space according to a tenant's needs in a building at the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, a parking deck at the planned Manchester on the James apartment complex in South Richmond, and a planned conversion of the P. Lorillard Co. warehouses on Tobacco Row into an office and retail development.

Loan program

With the fiscal year starting July 1, the city plans to establish a loan program using about $2 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds that have been allocated to the city but not committed for specific uses.

Details, including loan terms, haven't been fleshed out, but the idea is to create a pool of capital that can be replenished and can grow over time as loans are repaid with interest.

"We are going to be flexible, but I want to underscore the fact that this is not free money," Chapman said. "Regardless of the scope of the project . . . there is going to be an expectation that the money is going to be repaid."

Shockoe Bottom study

The city is hiring a consulting group, an affiliate of StreetSense in Alexandria, to prepare a development strategy for the Bottom. The $125,000 study is expected to identify one or more anchor projects that would be market-tested and followed perhaps by a request for proposals for the use of city property. The study is expected to take about six months and to build on the vision outlined in the Downtown Master Plan.

"We want to put something on the ground, make some stuff happen that can provide some synergy for the community," Jones said.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

The decision sets the stage for a developer to convert the Hippodrome Theater and adjoining Taylor Mansion into a live-music and entertainment venue that would open next year one block from the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

The project, known as The Hipp, also would include a restaurant, retail space and 31 apartments.

The Hippodrome and Taylor Mansion are on North Second Street, which was once the center of African-American nightlife and entertainment in segregated Richmond.

The new theater would be operated by the Bensusan Corp., which established the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York. The project will make Second Street an entertainment and tourist destination like Beale Street in Memphis, Tenn., said developer Ronald Stallings of Hippodrome-Taylor Mansion LLC.

With the council's 6-1 vote, the city will contribute $281,000 in an economic-development grant, plus $319,000 from its share of federal HOME funds, which are used to create housing for low-income residents.

Councilman Bruce W. Tyler and two residents opposed the agreement, arguing that public money should not be directed to the for-profit venture and that the council was rewarding Stallings for keeping the Hippodrome in a blighted state for years.

But Councilman E. Martin Jewell said Jackson Ward deserves the help, given how part of the neighborhood was diced up to make way for the convention center and Virginia BioTechnology Research Park.

"If any neighborhood deserves help from this city for resuscitating itself, it's Jackson Ward," he said.

The theater was built in 1904 and rebuilt after a fire in 1945. James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and other black entertainers graced the stage during the venue's heyday.

The Taylor Mansion was designed by architect John Lankford and built in 1907 for the Rev. W.L. Taylor, a leader of the United Order of True Reformers. The home was credited at the time with being the largest home of an African-American, and it later became an Elks lodge.

The council also approved Mayor Dwight C. Jones' proposal to consolidate the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Community Development into a Department of Economic and Community Development and to create a Department of Planning and Development Review.

The consolidated department is being led for now by Peter H. Chapman, deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development. The new planning department is being led by Rachel Flynn, former director of community development. The city plans to hire a director for the consolidated department eventually.

Council President Kathy C. Graziano said she looks forward to that appointment "so we will be at a level playing field with the counties in economic development."

The reorganization, announced in September, was approved in time for Jones to claim it as an accomplishment in tonight's State of the City address at Richmond CenterStage.

Tyler said he supports the reorganization in part because the administration is projecting a net annual savings of about $200,000 beginning in fiscal 2011.

"The current community-development process is broken," he added. "I believe the city needs an advocate for people who want to develop in the city. I believe Mr. Chapman understands that and is going in that direction."

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

"Despite the slow economy, Ironworks has seen organic growth rates of over 30% annually in both 2008 and 2009. Through strong customer and partner relationships, we have successfully expanded from a regional to a national customer base. We felt that an expansion into the Midwest was a logical next step for Ironworks and that Minneapolis was the optimal city to start that expansion," said Scott Walker, chief executive officer of Ironworks.

Ironworks has hired an initial team of seven consultants to staff the Minneapolis office and plans to aggressively scale this year, adding to the existing 250 employees companywide. Locally, Ironworks is currently looking to hire consultants with skills in portal, enterprise content management, and web strategy as well as senior level consultants with industry expertise in the healthcare, financial services, retail and distribution, government solutions, and not-for-profit verticals.

About Ironworks Consulting

Ironworks is a management, IT and Web consulting firm with one mission - never fail a client. Ironworks offers expertise to clients nationwide in the practice areas of Strategy and Program Management, Business Process Improvement, User Experience, Content Management, Portal Solutions, Enterprise Search, Service-Oriented Architecture, and Business Intelligence. Headquartered in Richmond, Va., Ironworks also operates from offices in Tysons Corner, Va., Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis, Minn. For more information, visit http://www.ironworks.com.

The information-technology consulting firm will hire the workers for its Richmond office and for an office opened last year in Washington, CEO Charles A. "Sandy" Williamson said.

Founded in 1997, the company provides IT management consulting, systems integration and data management.

"We help [companies] make their technology better," he said. "Clients hire us to solve business problems."

CapTech, which employs 210 people, has contracts with state and federal governments, and does work locally and in California, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New York.

"We were focused on Richmond initially and we've been expanding nationally," Williamson said.

CapTech, formerly CapTech Ventures, has begun hiring and is looking for experienced project managers, senior technology architects and business-system analysts.

Last year, the company also hired an additional 50 workers.

For more information, go to CapTechVentures.com.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

The overall acquisition strategy is to offer our customers an even broader array of products and application expertise for cooling, filtration and crankcase gas cleaning of diesel and gas engines, in the recreational and commercial marine, on/off highway, rail, generation sets and stationary industries.

Founded in 1964, Champ Products’ include unique shell-and-tube and plate heat exchangers and other heat transfer devices for marine, mobile equipment and industrial applications. Together, our complementary, unsurpassed product portfolio now comprises of the Eliminator Filter, an optimized lube oil treatment solution, compact, efficient brazed and fusion-bonded heat exchangers, rubber end tube sheet shell-and-tube heat exchangers, charge air coolers, as well as the Alfdex and PureVent oil mist separators for cleaning crankcase gases.

The corporate press release and additional information can be found at http://www.alfalaval.com.

Editor’s Notes:

Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.

The company’s equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimizing the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol.

Alfa Laval’s products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications.

Alfa Laval’s worldwide organization works closely with customers in nearly 100 countries to help them stay ahead in the global arena.

Alfa Laval is listed on the Nordic Exchange, Nordic Large Cap, and, in 2008, posted annual sales of about 2.9 billion Euros (approx. $4.1 billion). The company has approximately 12,000 employees.

For additional information, please contact:

Ted Esplin, Market Unit Manager, EFU OEM Engine and Transport, Alfa Laval Inc., USA, 215 443 4195, E-mail: theodore.esplin@alfalaval.com and Chip Bresette, Vice President, Communications, Alfa Laval Inc., USA, 804 545 8120, E-mail: chip.bresette@alfalaval.com

The combined entity, called Union First Market Bankshares Corp., has $4 billion in assets and 900 employees.

The bank holding company will merge its two largest bank subsidiaries, Union Bank and Trust Co. and First Market Bank, to form Union First Market Bank in March.

Union First Market Bankshares' corporate headquarters will be in downtown Richmond as Union Bankshares offices will move from Bowling Green to Richmond, home to First Market Bank, in April.

The merger, announced in March, was an all-stock deal valued at $96.1 million, the company said. Shares closed yesterday at $13.01, up 16 cents from Friday's close.

"This day is the culmination of nearly a year of diligent efforts by both organizations," said G. William Beale, CEO of the newly named holding company who formerly was the CEO and president of Union Bankshares.

"Everyone's spirit was lifted Jan. 14 when we received regulatory approval and the spirit was lifted further" yesterday, Beale said. "Everyone wanted to get to the end."

Regulatory approval took longer than expected because of the complexity of combining a public company with First Market Bank, a private company that was majority owned by Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. and the Ukrop family.

The bank deal comes as the Ukrop family divests itself of its grocery retailing business.

The sale of 25 Ukrop's grocery stores to the U.S. division of Dutch supermarket conglomerate Royal Ahold NV is expected to close this month, possibly later this week.

Union First Market Bankshares operates 41 Union Bank branches, 38 First Market Bank locations, nine Northern Neck State Bank and seven Rappahannock National Bank locations.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

"Our commitment to the smart grid and automatic metering really has not changed," said Kenneth Barker, Dominion Virginia Power's vice president for customer solutions and energy conservation. "We think it's the best interest of everybody to demonstrate this a little longer."

When the new meters will be fully installed is uncertain, but their use is inevitable, company officials said yesterday.

"We know it works," Barker said. "We're getting a significant energy reduction for our customers."

When fully phased in, the automated meters would replace all 2.4 million electric meters that Dominion Virginia Power customers now use.

Smart meters provide more precise control of voltage -- and thus energy use -- throughout the utility's electric delivery network, officials said.

A test is under way in the Midlothian area of Chesterfield County, where the utility has installed about 7,000 smart meters, and in the Charlottesville-Albemarle County area, where it has 48,000 meters.

But Dominion Virginia Power wants to expand its smart-meter test by installing 30,000 meters in parts of Northern Virginia.

"The company believes that this expanded [smart-meter] demonstration will assist in confirming the results already achieved from the current demonstration and will address many of the concerns expressed" by parties to the company's rate cases pending before the State Corporation Commission.

The SCC will begin hearings today on Dominion Virginia Power's request to implement as many as 12 new energy-demand management programs and for rate increases to pay for them.

The SCC's staff has questioned the economic wisdom of the smart-meter program.

"The actual benefit value realized by ratepayers will be less than the costs borne by ratepayers," said Howard M. Spinner, director of the SCC's division of economics and finance.

"The project is likely to save only 60 percent of the energy claimed by the company," Spinner said in previous testimony filed with the commission.

State law allows utilities to recover the costs of investing in efficiency programs much as they can for investing in traditional energy sources, such as power plants.

Among other features, smart meters allow two-way communications between the utility and its customers.

According to Dominion Virginia Power, the high-tech meters are the foundation for building a smart grid, which would enable customers to take advantage of dynamic energy pricing and allow the company to detect power outages remotely.

Its customers "will pay some [for smart meters in order] to pay less over the long haul," said Dominion Virginia Power's Shannon L. Venable, vice president of integrated resource planning. "They're avoiding higher costs."

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

Dominion has invested $3 million in the privately held company, which is based in Superior, Col.

"Power Tagging offers a key to opening a world of improved energy information and customer service through the smart grid," said Mary C. Doswell, senior vice president-Alternative Energy Solutions for Dominion. "We anticipate that for the first time, utilities will be able to measure, trace and audit the flow of electricity on the smart grid - in effect, to 'tag' it and follow it - with a technology that is embedded in the power grid itself rather than on a parallel communications network. This should improve the flow of information and help provide cost and environmental benefits."

With Power Tagging's technology, utilities would know immediately about changes in electrical flow on the circuit between a customer's home or business and the neighborhood substation, pinpoint problems and needed repairs, and manage specific consumer electricity demand.

Dominion studied Power Tagging's patent-pending Grid Location Aware™ technology through its Alternative Energy Solutions group. Dominion formed the group last year to provide technology research to support its business units, identify business opportunities, participate in the nation's energy policy development process, and provide an information- and idea-sharing forum within the company on conservation and load management and renewables.

About Dominion

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of more than 27,500 megawatts of generation, 1.2 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas and oil reserves, 14,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,000 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 975 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 12 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at http://www.dom.com

About Power Tagging

Power Tagging is the leader in next generation smart grid communications for the 21st century. Power Tagging's rapidly growing team is focused on delivering excellent solutions that fundamentally transform what is expected from the power grid. Power Tagging leverages its patent-pending technology for digitally "tagging" electric power and attached devices to drive solutions in grid mapping, fault isolation, electric vehicle integration, demand side management and grid cyber security. By working with utilities, the stewards of the power grid, Power Tagging solutions are ready for immediate adoption and maximal impact. For more information, please visit: http://www.powertagging.com

SOURCE: Dominion Resources

Web site: http://www.dom.com/

The Shockoe Slip advertising firm was named the top U.S. ad agency of 2009 by industry publication Adweek. The designation is one of the top honors in the industry -- and the first time Martin has received the honor.

"This is pretty special," said John Adams, Martin's chairman and CEO.

"This is a very, very big deal. It's absolutely a tremendous honor [for Martin] to be recognized as the very best," said Kelly O'Keefe, managing director of VCU Brandcenter, Virginia Commonwealth University's graduate-level advertising and marketing program.

Martin, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies Inc., also ranked fourth on Ad Age's list of top U.S. agencies. That's up from seventh place last year.

Adweek cited Martin's aggressive growth last year, particularly in a difficult economy.

Though it has lost shipping giant UPS as one of its biggest clients, Martin's new accounts include Pizza Hut, Expedia, the United States Tennis Association and the account for Microsoft's retail stores.

The agency also has continued its work for clients including Geico, FreeCreditReport.com and Wal-Mart.

Martin's revenue grew last year by an estimated 12 percent to $129 million, according to Adweek.

"A double-digit gain would be noteworthy in most any year, but it's particularly impressive in a year when 'flat is the new up' became a common, if wishful, refrain among agency executives," Adweek said.

Eleftheria Parpis, creative editor at Adweek, said the publication reviews the top agencies by looking at who has had the best year in terms of financial performance, creativity and management initiatives. The process takes several months.

Parpis said Martin has succeeded because it has done a good job in this economy by building value for clients, particularly Wal-Mart. "That's been very attractive for clients in this economy."

Karol Tompkins, president of the Richmond Ad Club, said local industry professionals are well aware of Martin's standing.

"The ad community here has obviously understood and respected Martin's stature in Richmond for quite some time, and it is phenomenal to see such a prestigious national trade publication recognize what we've known for decades," she said.

Martin's Richmond roots have helped elevate the community's visibility in the ad industry, she said.

The Brandcenter's O'Keefe said Martin's ability to stay atop the creative field and still grow is what has made it so strong.

"It's tremendously difficult" to run ad agencies, he said. "Agencies come and go, and few are able to stay strong long term. But Martin has been very consistent."

What has separated Martin and made it stronger is its ability to create work that resonates in popular culture, Parpis said.

"You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who has not heard of the Geico gecko or the FreeCreditReport guys, that pop-culture penetration is invaluable," she said.

Mike Hughes, the agency's president and co-chief creative officer, said connecting with people is key to its campaigns. (John Norman, former executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy's Amsterdam office, started work yesterday as the agency's co-creative director.)

"I certainly want our peers to see we can do state-of-the-art work," Hughes said.

"But at the beginning of the last decade, we started putting much more emphasis on connecting with people through popular culture and doing things real people cared about. So that it wasn't just our peers talking about that commercial we did, or print ad we did, or Web site we did, but it was people in day-to-day life who could relate to [the work]."

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

Gregory H. Wingfield, CEO and president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc., said, “Despite the difficult economic times, metro Richmond is consistently rated as a good place for jobseekers.  As recent as January, Juju.com ranked metro Richmond as one the top 20 least difficult places to find a job”.  Wingfield added, “RichmondJobNet’s purpose is to continue to help build Greater Richmond’s reputation as a career destination.  The site’s tools make it easier for a talented workforce to find jobs in our region and help us support new and expanding businesses.” He continued, “With workforce one of our top selling features for businesses looking to expand or locate in our area, it’s imperative to nurture our talent pool.”

Sara Dunnigan, senior vice president at the Partnership and program manager for RichmondJobNet, said, “We recognized there are hundreds of online job boards which makes it difficult for jobseekers.  On the RichmondJobNet site, we list some great local job boards and now feature a simple job search function to make it even easier for job seekers to find opportunities in Greater Richmond.”  Dunnigan added, “The new search feature helps people find job listings faster. This gives them more time to research organizations they’re interested in, tailor resumes, pursue additional training and get out to network.  That’s really what it takes to position oneself for job opportunities.”

One year statistics:

• The website has had more than 33,100 unique visitors from every state in the U.S. and well as several foreign countries.
• Twitter also helps the Partnership to connect directly with jobseekers.  The Twitter account has more than 2,030 Followers and has posted 14,414 tweets of which 90% were Richmond region job leads.  There have been several individuals receiving interviews with companies they didn’t know were hiring except for the Tweet lead.  Several have landed jobs.

New site features:

• The new job search feature makes it quicker and easier for visitors to link directly to job postings within a 50 mile radius of Richmond, Virginia.
• A new directory of blogs dedicated to job searches and career development has been added as an additional resource to site visitors seeking to enhance their job search skills.
• RichmondJobNet Radio will host a series of interviews available as podcasts with regional and national experts and best-selling authors on career development, business and entrepreneurism.

Dunnigan stated, “We recognize people are still looking for jobs and we want to help.  The RichmondJobNet Extreme Career Makeover contest is our way recognizing the site’s one year anniversary and to help one lucky jobseeker receive professional career counseling to land their next job.” 

The contest runs from Monday, February 8, 2010 through Friday, February 26, 2010.  The winner will receive expert career counseling services valuing more than $1500 in total.  Contest details and entries can be found at www.richmondjobnet.com/contest.

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.

###

Media Contact:
Sara Dunnigan
Senior Vice President
Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc.
O: (804) 343-6968
C: (804) 263-6393
sdunnigan@grpva.com

Greater Richmond was rated:

• The 14th best city for business among the 101 metro areas, rated by Dow Jones MarketWatch, December 16, 2009.
• Ninth lowest among 50 cities for the cost of operating a corporate headquarters, according to the Boyd Company, Inc., November 30, 2009.
• Ranked 65th among the nation’s 100 Best Bang-For-The-Buck Cities, based on solid housing markets, relatively stable employment, enviable cost of living and quick commutes, in Forbes.com, November 30, 2009.
• One of America’s 50 fastest-recovering cities by Forbes.com, November 19, 2009.
• One of the 20 best cities of its size for young professionals to live and work, by Next Generation Consulting, June 10, 2009.
• The sixth-best place in the nation to start over in a study by Manpower reported in BusinessWeek, June 9, 2009.
• North America’s 9th best small city and 4th best in foreign direct investment strategy in Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) Magazine’s North American Cities of the Future 2009/10, April/May 2009.
• One of the nation's 40 best places for business and careers among the 200 largest metro areas by Forbes, March 19, 2009.
• A top 10 city for finding a job in 2009 in a study by Ajilon Professional Staffing reported in Forbes.com, January 5, 2009.
• Ranked 56th of the nation's 366 metropolitan statistical areas for long-term economic strength by Policom Corporation in 2009.

Intro | New Companies | Expanding Companies | Green News | LEED Buildings | BioTech Park Update | Downtown Development | Culture & Recreation | Hotel Activity | Transportation | Accolades

The Capital Region Airport Commission announced more than $28 million of airfield improvements to be completed over the next two years at Richmond International Airport. Improvements include additional parking, upgrading the airfield electrical system, taxiway rehabilitation, improved signage and reconstruction of Runway 2-10. A decade-long $280 million capital improvement program was completed at the airport in 2008.

GRTC Transit System started a new commuter bus service between the Town of Ashland in Hanover County and downtown Richmond in April. At the end of the year GRTC moved to a new $38 million headquarters on 12 acres in South Richmond. The move makes available 6.8 acres near the City’s Fan District for redevelopment.

Funds for high-speed passenger rail service were requested by Virginia under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Requests for Greater Richmond included funds to bypass the current bottleneck at Richmond’s ACCA rail yards and for track improvements between Richmond and Washington and between Richmond and Petersburg.

Intro | New Companies | Expanding Companies | Green News | LEED Buildings | BioTech Park Update | Downtown Development | Culture & Recreation | Hotel Activity | Transportation | Accolades

The Hilton Richmond Hotel & Spa in western Henrico County opened in December with 254 guestrooms and suites plus more than 22,000 square feet of meeting space.

Near Richmond International Airport, the Hampton Inn Richmond Airport with 104 rooms and the Hyatt Place at White Oak Village with 151 rooms opened and in Glen Allen the aloft Richmond West with 135 rooms opened.

A total of nine new hotels with 1,235 rooms were added in Greater Richmond during the year, according to the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Also in 2009, the Richmond Marriott adjacent to the downtown convention center completed a $14 million total renovation.

Intro | New Companies | Expanding Companies | Green News | LEED Buildings | BioTech Park Update | Downtown Development | Culture & Recreation | Hotel Activity | Transportation | Accolades

MWV (MeadWestvaco) completed construction of their 310,000-square-foot corporate headquarters on the river and began moving in at the end of 2009. The project includes 1,050 parking spaces.

Williams Mullen’s new 16-story building was nearing completion in 2009. The $65 million building includes 200,000 square feet of Class A office space plus first-floor retail and 114 parking spaces adjacent to the Richmond Metropolitan Authority’s parking deck.

Afton Chemical Corporation completed a 30,600-square-foot expansion to their R&D center to provide additional office, lab and mechanical test space.

On the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Monroe Park Campus construction projects completed in 2009 included the $13.5 million, 25,000-square-foot Health and Life Sciences Laboratory addition to the Engineering School and the $45.7 million Cary Street Recreation Center. On VCU’s Medical Campus completed projects included a new 125,000-square-foot $71.5 million molecular medicine research building and additions to the School of Dentistry and the MCV campus recreation center.

In the planning stage is a new $158.6 million 200,000- square-foot School of Medicine designed by I.M. Pei Architects that will allow the school to grow from the current 750 to 1,000 medical students. Also in the planning stage are a new School of Social Work and additional parking and student housing.

Rocketts Landing, a 45-acre mixed use project on the James River, continued development with the opening of the Boathouse restaurant and of a private marina with 40 boat slips.

Intro | New Companies | Expanding Companies | Green News | LEED Buildings | BioTech Park Update | Downtown Development | Culture & Recreation | Hotel Activity | Transportation | Accolades