Southern Virginia’s recent deals COMPANY


Morgan Olson LLC PRA Group Inc. Litehouse Inc. AeroFarms


Teal-Jones Group


Traditional Medicinals Inc. Capps Shoe Co.


Hodedah Import Inc. Advanced Revert LLC Gefertec LLC


Source: Virginia Economic Development Partnership


development, who took over when the city’s former director, Telly Tucker, left to head Arlington County’s economic development department in January. “Through strategic investments in


workforce training, we have been able to attract new businesses that will bring living wage jobs to residents within our community,” Bobe says. During the past five years, the region


has invested more than $50 million in developing a workforce program that assures businesses will find skilled labor to meet their needs and “be able to access talent for years to come,” she adds.


Martinsville-Henry County “Consistent” is the key word for


Martinsville’s economic development efforts. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2019, the region had more than $80 million in investments and added 550 jobs. Of those projects, six were in calendar year 2019, with 167 jobs and $41 million in investment. Last year saw the opening of the


Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre and its new tenant, Press Glass, which is starting to fill more than 200 jobs. The company’s meet and greet in September drew more than 400 people, says Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County Eco- nomic Development Corp. The area continues to look for


larger projects for Commonwealth Crossing in industries such as plastics, metalworking, food processing and aerospace. “We’re working with several


30 | MARCH 2020


consulting firms that specialize in those projects,” Heath says. Foreign investments include


Advanced Revert, an aerospace recycling firm in Sheffield, England, making a $5 million investment and creating 30 jobs over the next few years for its first U.S. operation, which will be in Henry County. “They are buying a former property and converting it into a recy- cling operation,” Heath says. British Columbia-based forest


products company Teal-Jones Group is investing $21 million and creating 67 jobs at its Henry County facility, where it manufactures Southern yellow pine dimensional lumber. The area has also seen a number of


expansions, including Eastman’s most recent expansion with an all-capital investment of $7.7 million.


Halifax County 2020 is going to be an “interesting


year” for Halifax, says Brian Brown, execu- tive director of the Halifax County Indus- trial Development Authority. The county is making workforce training a priority. It is home to South Boston’s South-


ern Virginia Higher Education Center, with its R&D Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Energy Efficiency and the IT Academy. Located in a new 10,000-square-foot facility downtown, the center serves about 50 clients, offer- ing companies the “ability to go from prototype to small production runs for manufacturing and development,” Brown says.


LOCATION


Pittsylvania County Danville Danville


Pittsylvania County Henry County Franklin County


Pittsylvania County Henry County Henry County Danville


#JOBS 1,000 300 160 92 67 56 50 35 30 8


Additionally, the county is just months away from breaking ground on a shell building in Southern Virginia Tech- nology Park and is continuing to work toward foreign direct investments from England and other European countries. “We are very confident in terms of where we are,” Brown says.


South Boston


Technology is also an important focus in the town of South Boston, where Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are partnering to build the 15,000-square-foot SOVA Innovation Hub downtown. Ground has already been broken on the $5 million project.


Microsoft, through its TechSpark


initiative, will use the space to encourage innovation and spur economic opportu- nities in the region. The facility will also bring together local nonprofit organiza- tions across Southern Virginia to offer programming for digital skills education and workforce training. “We are hoping it will be up and


running by September or October of this year,” says South Boston’s town manager, Tom Raab. Additionally, the final phase of


Imperial Lofts in the historic Imperial Tobacco Building, with 26 market-rate apartments, should be completed this spring. The facility also has 11,000 square feet of commercial space rented to the R&D Center. On the tourism front, the town


received an $876,000 grant last year from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation for a motorized boat landing on the Dan River located at the entrance into the downtown area. The project should be complete by 2021 and provide “easy access to the Dan River,” Raab says. As the saying goes, it takes a village to accomplish great things and over the last 10 years, the region has benefited from supportive leadership at the local, regional and state levels. The goal now, says Bobe, is “to become the region of choice for businesses in search of a skilled workforce and residents in search of a great quality of life.”


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