For the Record – Central Virginia, September 2013

Published August 28, 2013 by Virginia Business

Amazon.com Inc. is adding hundreds of jobs in the Richmond region as part of a nationwide plan to increase the number of workers at its warehouses. The company said in July that it will add 5,000 full-time jobs at its U.S. distribution centers, which currently employ about 20,000 workers who pack and ship customer orders. It also will hire 2,000 people in customer service. The online retail giant has two centers in the Richmond region — in Chesterfield and Dinwiddie counties. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Bold Rock Hard Cider in Nellysford has started construction on a $4 million cider barn that will help the company more than triple production and offer a new experience to customers who stop in for a hard Virginia apple taste. The company, which recently marked its one-year anniversary of opening, has started building a “classic cider barn that will be like a dolled up cow barn,” said John Washburn, the chairman and co-founder of the cidery. (The News & Advance)

Dominion is one of the first 48 companies in the nation to join the U.S. Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge, designed to help increase the number of U.S. employers offering workplace charging for electric vehicles. Dominion said it has installed two separately metered electric vehicle charging stations as a pilot program at its Tredegar Street campus in downtown Richmond. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL) said it is partnering with Toronto-based GeneNews Ltd. to establish an accredited clinical laboratory to be named Innovative Diagnostic Laboratory LLP.  The 25,000-square-foot laboratory in Henrico County initially will focus on the development and U.S. commercialization of GeneNews’ ColonSentry blood test, which can be used to assess a person’s current risk of having colon cancer. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The Virginia BioTechnology Research Park plans to extend its reach in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood. Construction for BioTech 10, an $18 million office and laboratory building and new parking structure, is slated to begin this year. The organization will seek private financing for BioTech 10. (RichmondBizSense.com)

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond plans to rehabilitate and repurpose the Robinson House, an Italianate building constructed about 1850, to include a regional visitors’ center. The visitors’ center will be operated in collaboration with Richmond Region Tourism. The visitors’ center is scheduled to open in summer 2015 in time for the UCI World Championship cycling event in September of that year. VMFA has engaged Glavé & Holmes’ Cultural Studio for the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The new Locust Grove Wal-Mart is bringing 300 jobs and two new traffic signals to Orange County. The signals are at the intersections of Somerset Ridge and Flat Run roads. The 128,000-square-foot Supercenter – at 2533 Germanna Highway and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week – will possibly bring more development along the mostly country stretch of road lined with towering trees and miles of farmland, linking Culpeper to Fredericksburg via Orange County. (The Daily Progress)