By Anne Cosgrove
From the September/October 2024 Issue
Site development across Virginia is in motion, with the state having introduced a targeted effort in 2022. This past July, Governor Glenn Youngkin awarded a total of $126 million in Virginia Business Ready Sites Program (VBRSP) development grants for 23 sites across the Commonwealth. Administered by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), this discretionary program partners with localities, utilities, and state agencies to fund infrastructure improvements that build operations-ready sites.
In addition to developing the project-ready sites, the VBRSP program assembles permits and approvals to make way for a smooth construction process. VBRSP identifies, assesses, and improves industrial sites with at least 100 contiguous, developable acres, or 50 acres in the western part of the Commonwealth and in areas with other qualifying conditions.
“Speed to market is a major consideration in site selection decisions, and the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program has helped Virginia increase its inventory of suitable sites for major projects,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick at the July announcement. “This round of the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program will enhance 23 sites across the Commonwealth, ensuring all of Virginia is positioned to fully capture economic development and job creation opportunities for years to come.”
Since the program’s inception in 2022, 45 sites have received funding, and to date, 3,720 direct jobs have been announced on sites that have received VBRSP grants. In 20224, 23 sites representing more than 10,000 acres of developable land are receiving funding.
“Virginia has worked strategically to create a diverse portfolio of project-ready sites to meet company needs in a variety of target sectors, and these grants are a primary reason why Virginia is recognized as a national leader in site development,” said Jason El Koubi, VEDP President and CEO. “I am incredibly proud of the results of the program’s efforts. This investment in Virginia’s infrastructure will continue to accelerate economic development in every region of the Commonwealth for years to come.”
VBRSP was developed by a team of state, regional, and local partners including VEDP, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, railroad representatives, utility representatives, civil engineers, and other government, business, and industry representatives.
Richmond Airport Handles Record Cargo
According to reported statistics, activities attributable to the Richmond International Airport (RIC) create nearly 16,000 jobs and contribute about $2.1 billion in annual economic activity. Commercial activity at RIC reflects operations by Allegiant, American, Breeze, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, Sun Country (seasonal), United and their regional airline affiliates, as well as cargo operations by Amazon, DHL, FedEx, and UPS.
Over the past two and a half years, an average of 16 million pounds of cargo has moved through RIC each month. The May 2024 data reporting 20.3 million pounds was the most cargo through the facility since at least January 2014. Since January 2022, cargo moving through the airport has increased an average of 1% per month.
Canon Virginia Expands, Plenty Unlimited Opens
Canon Virginia, Inc., the global manufacturer of consumer and office products, will expand its manufacturing facility in the City of Newport News. The expansion will support Canon’s initiative to scale a method of isolating natural silk protein to create a solution with applications for multiple industries. Canon Virginia will retrain 30 employees to staff the new line, which is one of the company’s first ventures outside their longstanding core business of image-related products.
“This announcement brings great opportunity for Canon Virginia to continue our commitment to innovation, growth and development in Virginia,” said President & CEO of Canon Virginia, Inc. Shingo Shigeta.
“With this expansion, we will make silk protein a viable commercially scaled technology with broad application use in various segments,” continued Shigeta. “Virginia’s conducive business environment and the healthy business ecosystem has helped us achieve this goal—this is only possible through unwavering support from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Gov. Youngkin, VEDP, the City of Newport News, and the Hampton Roads Alliance.”
Canon Virginia, Inc., a subsidiary of Japanese corporation Canon Inc., serves as the Canon manufacturing, engineering, recycling and technical support center for the Americas. Canon Virginia produces products such as the new silk protein using advanced manufacturing methodologies while also serving as a factory service center providing customer service in the repair and refurbishment of Canon products. Canon Virginia’s manufacturing services extend to injection mold making, contract manufacturing, medical contract manufacturing and aftermarket services.
VEDP worked with the City of Newport News to secure the project and will support Canon Virginia’s retraining efforts through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program. Gov. Youngkin also approved a performance-based grant of $350,000 from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies.
In Chesterfield, VA, Plenty Unlimited chose a site in 2022 for its indoor vertical farming operation. This fall, the company opened the new facility slated to produce more than four million pounds of strawberries annually by growing vertically on towers that are 30 feet tall. The Greater Richmond operation is the world’s first farm to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale.
The Plenty Richmond Farm Campus is the largest indoor vertical farm campus in the world and a projected $300 million investment that is planned to bring more than 300 total jobs to Virginia.
The first set of strawberries from the farm is expected to be available in early 2025.
Check out all the latest news related to Virginia economic development, corporate relocation, corporate expansion and site selection.
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