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Danville's $400 million Caesars Virginia casino is set to be built on the former Schoolfield textile plant site. Rendering courtesy Caesars Entertainment Inc.

A jackpot for Danville?

Casino set to open in 2023 on former mill property

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The now-blighted property that was Dan River Mills when textile was king in the city of Danville will soon morph into the gleaming, $400 million Caesars Virginia casino and resort. At one time, the 80-acre site in the Schoolfield neighborhood was the world’s largest single-unit textile manufacturing site. Now abandoned, the unsightly property represents the…

Chambers of commerce

A sampling of statewide chambers and business organizations from around the commonwealth

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STATEWIDE Asian American Chamber of Commerce Tysons (571) 633-9754 asian-americanchamber.org   Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce Richmond (804) 344-1540 aabac.org   Virginia Chamber of Commerce Richmond (804) 644-1607 vachamber.com   Virginia Hispanic Chamber North Chesterfield (804) 378-4099 vahcc.com   CENTRAL VIRGINIA Altavista Area Chamber of Commerce Altavista (434) 369-6665 altavistachamber.com   Amelia County Chamber of…

Pure Salmon International Co. is constructing a $228 million, 1-million-square-foot indoor fishing farm facility in Tazewell. Photo courtesy state Del. Will Morefield

Regional reboot

Southwest looks to high-tech biz for new direction

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Public and private investments are boosting the economy in Southwest Virginia, bringing in a diversified group of new companies, from indoor salmon farming to medical information technology firms — as well as a long-awaited casino. Addressing the region’s steady decline in the coal industry, officials in the Southwestern region continue to lay out the roadmap…

Catrina Mullins, general manager of the Sessions Hotel in Bristol, stands on the site where the hotel plans to build a music stage this spring. Mullins hopes to launch a concert series as soon as June. Photo by Earl Neikirk

Better times ahead

Lodging, tourism, travel industries look ahead to recovery

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Catrina Mullins can picture the scene: A stage, musicians and a grassy lawn. People leaning back in chairs or sitting cross-legged on blankets on the ground, tapping their toes to familiar tunes. Others open windows to listen to the sound from their hotel rooms, which look out onto the lawn. This is what an outdoor…

A rendering shows the future Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, a $400 million resort set to be built on the Bristol Mall property. Rendering courtesy Friedmutter Group

Payout on a dream

Bristol started casino quest in 2018

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“Get it done!” Those three words sent Jason Eige and Martin Kent on a mission to bring a casino to Bristol Mall before commercial gaming resorts were even legal in Virginia.  Eige, general counsel for The United Co., and Kent, the oil and gas company’s president and chief operating officer, vividly remember the day they…

The FBI Central Records Complex in Frederick County is a repository for billions of pages of records from 56 FBI field offices and other locations around the nation. Photo by Will Schermerhorn

‘Miles of files’

After 16 years, FBI records complex opens in Frederick County

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After 16 years in the making, the $135 million FBI Central Records Complex opened in Frederick County in August 2020. The 225,000-square-foot facility off Millwood Pike (U.S. 50) is designed to archive billions of pages of FBI records — some dating back to the bureau’s earliest days — from its 56 field offices and other…

If approved, the GreenCity project in western Henrico County would include a 17,000-seat arena and 2.2 million square feet of office space. Rendering courtesy GreenCity LLC

Seeing green

Navy Hill developers look to Henrico for newest project

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You can almost see the dollar signs flashing as John Vithoulkas talks about the revenue that he hopes will flow to Henrico County from the $2.3 billion GreenCity development, anchored by a 17,000-seat, $250 million arena. “Once it’s running and out of the ground, fully built, it will be producing revenues greater than our top…

"We are staying busy," with activity in the food and beverage and automotive sectors, says Pittsylvania County Economic Development Director Matt Rowe. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Growth and development

Southern Virginia weathers pandemic with economic boosts

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Despite dealing with the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Southern Virginia is celebrating the development of a resort casino, new investments in the area and several company expansions. The pandemic has presented localities in the region like Danville with a number of challenges they haven’t seen before, but the city continues to look for…

During April 2020, Atlantic Union Bank processed more than 10,000 Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling more than $1.7 billion. Photo by Kira Jenkins

Life preservers

Virginia banks helped companies secure vital PPP loans

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With small businesses struggling to tread water during the early, unpredictable days of the pandemic, the U.S. Small Business Administration in early April 2020 launched the initial $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) relief fund to provide forgivable loans to help businesses stay afloat. Eligible businesses could use the funds to meet payroll costs and…

In Suffolk, Amazon.com Inc. is building what will be the state’s largest industrial building, a robotics fulfillment center. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Bigger boxes

Manufacturing sector expanding in the region

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Online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc. continues to expand its footprint in Virginia, bringing 1,500 jobs total to Suffolk and Chesapeake with the construction of operations facilities in those cities. Located less than two miles apart, both facilities are slated to open this year.    In Suffolk, Amazon is building a $230 million, multistory robotics fulfillment…