REGIONAL VIEW eastern virginia


Ikea to open its second Virginia store in Norfolk by Joan Tupponce


H


ampton Roads Ikea customers soon won’t have to trek


to the retailer’s Woodbridge store to shop. The Swedish company will open its 331,000-square- foot Norfolk store on April 10. The store will be Ikea’s second in Virginia and 50th in the U.S. Ikea sells ready-to-assem-


ble furniture, kitchen appli- ances and home accessories. The company chose


to open a store in Norfolk because of its potential customer base. “We already have 35,000 customers in the region,” says Michelle Ste- phenson, the retailer’s loyalty manager. “Ikea is a destination and regularly draws custom- ers from hours away. We believe that our regional draw will enhance the I-64 retail corridor.” The Norfolk store, which


broke ground in 2017, sits on 19 acres on the northwestern corner of Interstate 64 and


FOR THE RECORD


Christopher Newport University broke ground on its $57.6 million Fine Arts Center earlier this year. The new Fine Arts Center and band rehearsal hall will be an addition to the Ferguson Center for the Arts and will house the Peninsula Fine Arts Center, which plans to relocate when the build- ing is finished. It also will include new studio spaces and offices for the school’s fine arts programs and a large rehearsal hall. Most of the building will match the rest of the campus’ brick buildings but with an added series of three staggered glass domes. (Daily Press)


Hampton Roads Connector Part- ners beat out two other bidders for the $3.3 billion design-build contract to build the Hampton


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The Norfolk Ikea store will employ about 250 people in a mix of full- and part-time positions.


Northampton Boulevard. “It has good visibility and access from the highway,” says Stephenson. “It is reachable from many points throughout the area.” Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander agrees that Ikea will help attract people to the city. “Visitors are drawn to Norfolk for its concentration of arts and culture, recreation, business and job opportuni- ties,” he says. “Ikea’s visibility from the interstate on the way to and from these major


Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project, the largest construction project in the Virginia Department of Transportation’s history. New York-based Dragados USA is the lead contractor for the joint venture, which also includes Nebraska-based HDR and England-based Mott MacDonald as the lead designers. Hampton Roads Connector Partners also includes Colorado-based Flatiron Constructors, France-based Vinci Construction and Dodin Campenon Bernard, a construc- tion company also based in France. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion will add new, two-lane tunnels and widen parts of Interstate 64. Plans call for it to be completed by Nov. 1, 2025. (VirginiaBusiness.com)


Toano-based Lumber Liquida- APRIL 2019


attractions will bring attention to the region’s most notable features.” The Norfolk store will


employ about 250 workers in a mix of full- and part-time positions. “We will also be bringing on another 150 temporary positions to sup- port during grand opening,” Stephenson says. The new store falls within


the average range of most Ikea stores — 250,000 to 400,000 square feet. By comparison, Ikea’s Woodbridge store is


tors, one of the largest flooring retailers in the country, has agreed to pay a $33 million penalty for misleading investors about formaldehyde-laced laminate flooring from China. The investigation and agreement with federal prosecutors in the East- ern District of Virginia stemmed from a 2015 “60 Minutes” investigation finding dangerous levels of formaldehyde in Lumber Liquidators’ laminate flooring. The company agreed to pay a $19 million criminal fine and $14 million in forfeiture. Under the deferred prosecution, the Justice Department will dismiss a charge of securities fraud in three years if Lumber Liquidators meets its obligations. (The Wash- ington Post)


A former hardware store in


325,000 square feet. The Norfolk store will offer nearly 10,000 items as well as a 354- seat restaurant serving Swed- ish and American fare. The store’s roof features a 180,000-square-foot solar array consisting of 3,654 pan- els. It will produce 1.26 mega- watts of electricity, enough to power 215 homes while help- ing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. “It is the largest solar


rooftop array in Hampton Roads,” Stephenson says.


Warsaw will soon house a craft brewery. Old Rappahannock Brewing Co. LLC is investing more than $1.2 million to open the first craft brewery in Richmond County. The company expects to hire 11 people. The brewery will be the first tenant in the 37,000-square-foot Jenkins Build- ing, a former hardware store that’s almost vacant. The brewery will take up about 7,000 square feet in the building, which also will house new retail and restaurants. Gov. Ralph Northam approved a $50,000 grant from the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Develop- ment (AFID) Fund, which Warsaw is matching with local funds. As part of the deal, the company will source more than 90 percent of its beer ingredients from Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)


PEOPLE


Nick Bishop has been named Skanska USA’s vice president of environmental, health and safety for its Southeast civil operations. He will be based in the Virginia Beach office. Bishop was EHS director for Skanska’s civil operation at the national level. (VirginiaBusiness.com)


Virginia Beach-based FinFit has hired Matthew Fahy as chief financial officer. Fahy was CFO and executive vice president of global services at AgilQuest. He will be responsible for leading FinFit’s finance strategy and overseeing the company’s financial operations. Founded in 2008, FinFit is a financial wellness benefit platform serv- ing more than 125,000 clients. (VirginiaBusiness.com)


Photo by Mark Rhodes


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