Archive for category: Archives

Mazda Motor Corporation is planning to open an engine and transmission remanufacturing facility in Chesterfield County. The facility will also include a dealer training center and information call center.

Mazda will lease 133,000 square feet of space from Weingarten Realty in Enterchange @ Walthall, Building A. The building is located at the Interstate 95 Walthall interchange on Ruffin Mill Road and is in the Walthall Enterprise Zone.

“Mazda is thrilled with its new location in Chesterfield County, which will enable us to effectively serve our desired distribution area,” said Mazda’s Manager of Facilities and Administration, Rumi Walsh. “With the assistance of Chesterfield Economic Development, we were able to quickly assess potential locations for our new facility and select the ideal location to best meet our needs.”

Mazda will invest approximately $1.6 million on building improvements, equipment and initially hire 20 employees.

“We are pleased to welcome Mazda Motor Corporation as another member of the County’s Japanese and International manufacturing community. We are particularly happy to have such a prominent company in the international automotive manufacturing industry.” said Art Warren, Chairman, Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors.

In addition to Chesterfield Economic Development; Mazda was assisted in the site selection process by the Staubach Company, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Virginia Jobs Investment Program and the Greater Richmond Partnership.

Seven-week program at John Tyler Community College offers pathways to new careers

Applications are now being accepted for John Tyler Community College’s QuickStart program. QuickStart, a free, seven-week program taught at the College’s Chester Campus, prepares motivated men and women for entry-level jobs with area companies in manufacturing, construction and the skilled trades.

The part-time program is designed with working individuals in mind. Classes are held Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. In addition, trainees are required to go on three plant tours at QuickStart partner work sites. Tours are generally held Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. During the program, students will learn about applied technology, safe practices in the workplace, and industry practices as they work toward earning an OSHA 10-Hour Industry Certification, a Commonwealth of Virginia Career Readiness Certificate (Silver Level), four college credits, and an Award of Completion as an entry-level manufacturing technician from John Tyler Community College. At the end of the program, QuickStart graduates will participate in a job fair featuring a wide-variety of well-paying, full-time positions with benefits and advancement opportunity.

The next QuickStart class begins on March 31, 2008. Those interested in being considered for the program must submit their applications by 5:00 p.m. on February 15, 2008. Applications and information about the admissions process may be found online at www.jtcc.edu/quickstart. Questions may also be directed to QuickStart Project Manager Jackie Anderson at 804-706-9800 or quickstart@jtcc.edu.

QuickStart is an initiative of John Tyler Community College, guided and supported by the John Tyler Community College Manufacturers’ Coalition, whose purpose is to unite local manufacturing, construction and skilled trades’ employers to address important industry issues.

John Tyler Community College is a two-year, public institution of higher education and is the fifth largest of the 23 community colleges in Virginia. With campuses in Chester and Midlothian and off-campus classrooms throughout the area, John Tyler offers quality and economical opportunities for students who want to earn a degree or certificate, transfer to a four-year college or university, train for the workforce, or switch careers. The College also has an outreach enrollment center located in Petersburg at 218 N. Sycamore Street. Each year, the College serves more than 10,000 students and offers 13 associate degrees, seven certificates and 29 career studies certificates. The institution also serves 14,000 non-credit students and more than 500 companies and government agencies annually through the Community College Workforce Alliance. John Tyler Community College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Date	Company	New or Expansion	Investment (millions)	# New Employees	Square Footage
3/07	Boulevard Flowers	New	$2.000	9	33,396
4/07	C & F Financial Corp	New	$1.300	8	12,000
5/07	Colonial Hyundai	New	$3.500	6	17,700
6/07	HCA-PAS	Expansion	$1.000	140	12,000
7/07	Knight Transportation	New	$1.250	22	3,000
7/07	Richmond Steel	New	$2.000	30	36,000
7/07	More Xtreme Allstars/Cheer Challenge	Expansion	$0.239	6	8,408
8/07	Honeywell	Expansion	$2.500	0	6,000
9/07	CCA Wesco	New	$0.600	50	24,000
9/07	Priority Collision Center	Expansion	$6.000	35	35,000
10/07	Village Bank Headquarters	New	$14.000	20	79,000
10/07	Jim’s Formal Wear	New	$4.500	40	42,000
11/07	Virginia Air Distributors	Expansion	$5.500	41	66,000
11/07	Mitsubishi Advanced Polymers	Expansion	$1.000	0	0
11/07	Fiorucci Foods	Expansion	$3.900	25	6,000
12/07	Franklin Street Marketing	Expansion	$3.100	4	7,300
12/07	MTI Global	New	*	*	35,500
12/07	Eastern Aluminum Supply	New	$2.000	10	20,000
12/07	Kids R Kids Learning Center	New	*	45	17,000
2007	TOTALS		$54.389	516	460,304
	* Confidential – not included in total

Franklin Street Marketing, one of the nation’s premier healthcare communication firms, has announced the opening of its new office building. The 7,300 square foot building features a 20-foot clerestory that allows for natural light to wash the interior. Designed with a natural, earth-tone color palette the building has more of a residential feel rather than the usual commercial feel of an office building. The contemporary design of the building includes curved walls and tall ceilings, a wood burning fireplace, and a full café area with an attached patio. Designed by Baskervill, the building is located in Moorefield Park at 9700 Farrar Court.

Since 1986, Franklin Street Marketing has been Building Healthy BrandsSM by providing brand consultation, strategic planning, research, advertising, and public relations services to the health and wellness community. By not striving to become the largest healthcare communications firm, but rather the best, Franklin Street has been able to provide all of its clients outstanding customer service and creative work.

“With clients spanning from the East to West Coast, we had outgrown our old space and were in need of a larger area,” says President and Founder William Flynn. “We’re honored to have such a distinguished roster of healthcare clients and we now have adequate space to better serve them. Additionally, with our focus on the healthcare industry we wanted the building to be designed as naturally as possible.”

Virginia Air Distributors, a wholesale distributor of HVAC equipment, will be expanding and moving to the Waterford Business Center on Waterford Lake Drive in Chesterfield County. Waterford Business Center is located at Charter Colony Parkway and the Powhite Parkway, just off of Route 288.

Virginia Air Distributors purchased five acres to build a 66,000 square foot office and warehouse facility. The company plans to invest approximately $5.5 million in the new location and will create 10 new jobs within the first year of operation. They currently have 31 employees.

Mr. Ken Baker, President, started the company in 1987. They have 15 branches located in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and South Carolina. The Chesterfield County location will serve the Greater Richmond area.

Thalhimer is listing the new business center. Chesterfield County Economic Development assisted the company with their expansion plans.

The subject of Arc Flash is fast becoming an important part of many facilities overall safety concern. An arc flash is the explosive release of energy resulting from an electrical fault that produces an arc. This can result from an electrician making inadvertent contact with a tool in an energized panel. The Arc Flash can create intense heat, light and explosive blast conditions that result in burn injuries for personnel in close proximity to the electrical panel.

OSHA has begun enforcing the requirements of the NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety Requirements for Employee Workplaces guidelines regarding Arc Flash Hazards. NFPA 70E requires that employees be informed of the potential hazards and the personal protective equipment (PPE) required when working on an energized panel before beginning work. The National Electric Code (NEC) requires this information to be affixed to each panel in the form of a label, according to the 2002 edition which was adopted by Virginia in 2006. This is the first edition to require arc flash labeling of electrical panels. These two documents are being used together for overall enforcement of improved safety practices by OSHA.

Alliance Engineering has been assisting clients with Arc Flash compliance since 2003. Typical services include:

• Field data collection.
• Development of computer model required for arc flash analysis.
• Analysis of power distribution system to identify each electrical panel’s hazard level and the PPE required for any work while they are energized.
• Printing of warning labels.
• Application of warning labels to each panel.
• Recommendations of how to lower the hazard rating at the panels whose hazard categories are higher than desired.
• Development of single line CAD drawings that will reflect the “as-is” condition of the plant’s power system.
• Compliance training for electrical personnel.

For more information, contact Alliance Engineering at 804-275-1400.

Local NBC affiliate WWBT 12 has a report on the the current advertising campaign being run by the Department of Economic Development.

The segment can be viewed here.

Below is a photo of the new billboard on southbound Interstate 95.

A groundbreaking ceremony for Watkins Centre, Chesterfield County’s new high-end, mixed-use development, was held on Friday, June 29, at 11 a.m. This event marked the beginning of a public-private project to construct the development, which will be located at the interchange of Route 288 and Midlothian Turnpike in western Chesterfield County.

Once complete, this area will be a major employment center for the county and the region because of its strategic location and ease of access. Watkins Centre will incorporate the latest in building design and technology, emphasizing architecture and building aesthetics. The complex will include retail stores, a high-end corporate and suburban office park and light industry. The healthy-lifestyle design also includes multi modal transportation, walking paths and abundant landscaping to make Watkins Centre a place to live, work and shop.

The land where the Watkins Centre will be developed is owned by Watkins Land, LLC, and has been in the family of Senator John Watkins for more than 130 years. The land has been used as a nursery and, going forward, the site will continue to grow new things, with the focus changed from growing plants to growing business.

“I’m so pleased that the property will be used to develop the newest gateway into Chesterfield County and the region,” Watkins said. “This intersection is a key strategic business location, and its proximity to a corridor that incorporates existing business services with residential and entertainment venues presents an enormous opportunity for economic growth. I think that my great-grandfather, who first purchased this property back in the late 1800s, would be very pleased with this new direction.”

Celebrating this event with Chesterfield County officials and the Watkins family were the Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Patrick Gottschalk along with representatives from: Zaremba Metropolitan Midlothian LLC, the developer of the project; The Rebkee Co., developer of The Shoppes of Westchester (at Watkins Centre); Gray Land and Development Company, LLC, developer of The Village of Westchester; Village Bank, whose corporate headquarters will be the first in the corporate-office portion of Watkins Centre; and BB&T and SunTrust, whose branch facilities will locate in The Shoppes at Westchester.

C&F located a new branch in Chester. They invested $1.3 million and will employ eight at this location. The building is approximately 3,500 square feet.

City Ice has expanded at their current location. They invested approximately $1 million in the 7,000 square foot expansion and added 1-2 more employees. They are currently at 13600 Permilla Springs Drive in Chester.

City Ice manufacturers their ice, which moves from one piece of equipment to the next without human contact. The package is also manufactured at this facility.

City Ice was the second company recognized by the International Packaged Ice Association for meeting Good manufacturing Processes and the Packaged Ice Association’s Quality Control Standards.

If you would like to learn more about City Ice, visit their web site at www.RoadToCool.com.

Jim Dunn, development manager for the Meadowville Technology Park, has helped to develop a new design plan for the park. The new 20-page design plan describes the roughly 921 acres that can be developed.

More information is available on the Economic Development blog.

On May 23, Northrop Grumman broke ground on its new information technology facility at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Pictured above are (l-r) Hugh Taylor, president of Northrop Grumman Information Technology’s Commercial, State and Local Group; Tim Kaine, Governor of Virginia; Jim O’Neill, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Information Technology; James McGuirk, chairman of Virginia’s Information Technology Investment Board; Lem Stewart, CIO, Commonwealth of Virginia; Dickie King, chairman of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors.

As part of a landmark public-private IT infrastructure partnership, the Northrop Grumman Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center will house both the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and Northrop Grumman operations. Approximately 600 Northrop Grumman and VITA employees will be located in the Center and throughout the greater Richmond metro area.

The ceremony was held at 2:30 p.m. EDT at the Meadowville Technology Park. Remarks highlighting the occasion were made by Governor Tim Kaine; Dickie King; James McGuirk; and James O’Neill.

“This new facility will be more than a workplace,” said O’Neill. “It represents Northrop Grumman’s partnership with Virginia and VITA, and our mutual commitment to improving IT service to the commonwealth’s agencies.”

The Northrop Grumman Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center will have approximately 185,000 square feet of office space on 28 acres. In addition to serving as Virginia’s primary data center, the facility will also host a video broadcast studio, a security operations center, a technology lab, a training room, and a fitness center, among other features.

In addition to housing VITA operations, the facility will also serve as a hub for Northrop Grumman’s own IT operations, creating more job opportunities as the company expands.

Construction of the building is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2007. Northrop Grumman will serve as the anchor tenant of the technology park.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense company headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in systems integration, defense electronics, information technology, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding and space technology. With approximately 125,000 employees and operations in all 50 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.