For the Record – Central Virginia, May 2013

Published April 26, 2013 by Virginia Business

Dominion Resources Inc. will transfer about 100 employees of its interstate gas transmission subsidiary in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to its Richmond headquarters. Most of the moves will take place before September, with some pipeline company employees remaining in place through year’s end. Consolidating the white-collar employees in Richmond was based on the demanding business climate facing the company, a spokesman said. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Ledbury finished a $10,000 renovation to its 500-square-foot storefront in downtown Richmond. The updated space includes new shelving, lighting and a wall to set it off from the rest of the company’s 4,100-square-foot headquarters. Ledbury co-founder Paul Watson said the upgrade is part of the clothing company’s push to boost its local retail sales after four years in business as mostly an online retailer. (RichmondBizSense.com)

Porter’s Group LLC, a fabricated metal products company based in Bessemer City, N.C., will establish its first Virginia operation in Lynchburg, creating 120 jobs. The company has acquired a manufacturing site in the city, which it will upgrade with an investment of $1.8 million. The plant will produce fabricated metal products, such as safes, and related products and parts. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Professional Solutions Delivered LLC, or ProSoDel, is expanding in Caroline County. The company is leasing more space in the Ladysmith Business Park, where it currently has its corporate headquarters and plans to add another 10 to 14 employees, doubling the current staff. With the expansion, ProSoDel will occupy about 3,500 square feet in Caroline County.  The staff hired for its new Ladysmith Integration Facility will be in direct support of a government contract, valued at $20 million over three years that will provide unique identification marking for a logistics division of the Marine Corps Systems Command. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Roses plans to open two discount department stores in the Richmond area this year. One store will take over the space known as The Showplace, a popular exhibition hall in eastern Henrico County. Roses is negotiating for another space in a shopping center on Beulah Road in Chesterfield County. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

A long-vacant former Circuit City headquarters building is coming back to life with its first tenant in three years. Travelers Insurance inked a deal to occupy 71,800 square feet of Deep Run III in Western Henrico. The 383,000-square-foot building is owned by Markel | Eagle Partners and Diversified Realty Ventures. J.B. Gurley, a principal at Markel | Eagle, said the landlords are in talks with other potential tenants to fill another 55,000 square feet of Deep Run III. (RichmondBizSense.com)

University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University are among six Virginia universities selected to receive grants from the Virginia Innovation Partnership. Created last fall by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s i6 Challenge, the partnership announced $861,086 in awards in its first round of funding. The program is designed to advance early-stage research and connect academic researchers with mentors, corporations and investors to accelerate commercialization of new projects.  (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The U.S. Small Business Administration has opened a new business center in Central Virginia. Women’s Biz, located at the Richmond Economic Development Corp. in Richmond, serves women entrepreneurs in the Richmond and Petersburg area. The center offers counseling, networking events, training, technical assistance and mentoring to women interested in starting and growing their businesses. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Richmond–based Virginia Farm Bureau Federation has bought the remaining share of the Virginia State Fair from a Tennessee fair operator that had the winning bid in a foreclosure sale last year. The farming advocacy organization had been a 50 percent owner of the fair after partnering with Universal Fairs LLC of Cordova, Tenn., in July. Details of the sale were not disclosed. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)