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Richmond: Economy/Business/Real Estate


wrldcoupe4

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15 hours ago, whw53 said:

Amazing how much attention one of the smallest neighborhoods gets. I'm not sure what's more annoying - the always looming Oregon Hill existential crisis or the  Manchester reddit ppl whining about a grocery store. Both neighborhoods are better served and better 'protected' than  whole swaths of the metro area. I get the impression in this highly mobile day and age people literally move to certain neighborhoods to cut their teeth on some bleeding heart urbanist issue in a last ditch attempt to root themselves psychologically to a certain place. pathetic. 

and just catching up on this...yea, not keen on any sot of geographic discrimination. For better or for worse everything is nationalized now - if the elite class can hop around and weigh in on everything so can the whole lot of us. A  density fight in Varina is a density fight everywhere. This is a larger discussion about the responsibilities of local government in a highly unaffordable trajectory for for-sale housing in this country. I want more people jumping in on this - it was great to see Reason the other day chime in on the preposterous proposal by this city council to ban corner stores in certain zoning districts. Our issues need more national exposure and tie-in to larger economic themes -and lets fight for what we can get in a dwindling journalistic environment- even down to what seems like local land use cases.

Regarding these land use type issues specifically, let's stop deferring opinion to existing constituencies based on proximity - what gets built affects the entire people. I've never understood giving such a high degree of clout to those who surround a project site - are they not the most biased?

Sorry if we were over this.

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Well said! :tw_thumbsup: 

I didn't follow all the details re: the proposal by city council to ban corner stores - Jesus - I'm guessing that proposal was voted down, yes? And I'm sure a council representative didn't just dream up this inane idea - anyone care to weigh in on from whence such a stupid idea came? (No doubt - it start with an "N" and ends in "IMBY" ... but I'd like more specifics.)

Idk - the absurdity of some of these things makes my brain ache.

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Here's the coverage from Reason. I believe it was tabled. It was a knee jerk reaction to a shooting at the Carolina Express mart at 6 Points. 

https://reason.com/2022/12/15/richmond-wants-to-limit-new-convenience-stores-because-there-was-a-shooting-at-an-old-one/

Edited by whw53
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1 hour ago, whw53 said:

Here's the coverage from Reason. I believe it was tabled. It was a knee jerk reaction to a shooting at the Carolina Express mart at 6 Points. 

https://reason.com/2022/12/15/richmond-wants-to-limit-new-convenience-stores-because-there-was-a-shooting-at-an-old-one/

Thanks, @whw53I'm having difficulty opening it but i think it may be something related to my PC. I'll try later on my laptop and see if I can get it to open. :tw_thumbsup:

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Yet another one of those seemingly "small" but potentially big WINS for Richmond:

The 94-year-old NYC-based CRE brokerage firm Newmark -- a big national player in the CRE industry -- has (as Mike reported it) planted its flag in Richmond after recruiting three brokers from Colliers to lead it's RVA team. I'm a tad confused - Mike's reporting indicated that Newmark declined comment on whether they're planning to open a physical office in metro Richmond. (MY QUESTION - is this part of the "new normal" where we have v-offices now?) Newmark is also currently in D.C., NOVA and in Raleigh. With the help of the company's leader of the mid-Atlantic market team, RVA got on Newmark's radar and apparently made a pretty good impression. 

I know I say this a LOT - but EVERY time we get a big national firm to open up an office in RVA - it's a HUGE win for us. This means Richmond (city and metro) is getting noticed and starting to garner name recognition. All of these are great steps that move us in the right direction.

From today's Richmond BizSense:

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/01/31/national-brokerage-newmark-lures-colliers-trio-to-break-into-richmond-market/  

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3 hours ago, Child2021 said:

I don't think the yearly report was posted, but here it is: GRP_AnnualReport_2022.pdf (grpva.com)

Here's an important snippet: 

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Enjoy!

CoStar and Lego -  HUGE for the area!  We need several of these a year arriving to the area…building downtown would be a bonus (and also preferred in my book!).

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  • wrldcoupe4Metropolitan Area
  • Editor
  • Location: Richmond, VA

I'm not sure any of this matters for the reasons that you guys want it to matter. I'm pretty sure GRP has studied this stuff and the reality is that most business leaders nationally don't have a negative view of Richmond, but they don't really have an opinion at all. The reality is Richmond is a great quality of life (we check a lot of boxes in that regard). If you want population migration, you need business investment and job creation. Why do businesses pick locations? How do we stack up? Business climate, access, talent depth, etc. How do we improve in that regard?

So I'm copying @wrldcoupe4's post from Grocery Wars to this subthread and putting my reply to it here. I meant to respond a couple of days ago and it slipped my mind.

Either way -- fully agreed that GRP are definitely looking long and hard at all these things and have been doing so for quite a while and continue to do so. You've hit the nail on the head, though, Coupe - the $64 million answer is population growth if fueled by business investment and job creation. And the subsequent $64 million question is - why do businesses pick location and how to we improve in those qualities/factors that businesses are seeking in a location?

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On 1/28/2023 at 5:21 PM, whw53 said:

Here's the coverage from Reason. I believe it was tabled. It was a knee jerk reaction to a shooting at the Carolina Express mart at 6 Points. 

https://reason.com/2022/12/15/richmond-wants-to-limit-new-convenience-stores-because-there-was-a-shooting-at-an-old-one/

The convenience store in question and local leaders recently came to a compromise. Virginia ABC was set to permanently revoke their ABC license (the bread and butter of that business). Instead they are on probation for a year and have to comply to certain stipulations the community put in place. Some of the stipulations include not being able to sell single serve alcohol--it must at least come in a four pack. Putting up signage of no more than 15 minute parking and hiring a towing company to enforce. Closing at 11 instead of 12. They can't have "skill games" which is a legal loophole to have video slot-machine style games. etc.

 

----------

I think businesses drive population. I also think population drives businesses. Big businesses attract skilled professions. Skilled professionals attract big businesses. It's a feedback loop.

 

I think there is going to be a shift of some sorts coming though. My company closed 4 offices (all but HQ) and halved the HQ office size. Me and everybody on my team work remotely. The whole country isn't going to go remote, but we're certainly not going back to pre-2020.

Ironically, a main reason for not living in the city in RVA was jobs. The largest private employers, CarMax, CapitalOne, Markel, PFG, Genworth, Altria, Owen's & Minor, ASGN, etc. all have their HQs outside of the city. Living in Church Hill or Manchester isn't super convenient if you have to commute to Glenn Allen or Short Pump every day. 

The great position that RVA is in is that many people in the city live in the city despite of their work location, not specifically because of it. That means increase remote work will keep more people in the city. If you work in CarMax or Capital One and only have to go in two days a week, living close to downtown just became more enticing, not less.

With the exception of perhaps Dominion Energy, many of the companies downtown are ones that still require in-person. I have a friend who works at one of the large law firms downtown and I know he works remotely 0 days of the week. The government, legal, and healthcare professions concentrated downtown aren't going to be able to pick up and work remotely someplace else.

Edited by RiverYuppy
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  • 2 weeks later...
32 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Uh...so I was just browsing around the Thalhimer economic report for Richmond during the 4th Quarter last year (Oct, Nov, and Dec 2022), which looks pretty strong...and then I read this: 

I know two of those seven megaprojects went to Ohio and New York, which were just recently announced.  That means there are 5 more that are looking at the Richmond area!  Check out the report here (the other parts of the report are good too):

https://thalhimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Richmond_2022_Q4_Office_Market_Report.pdf

We weren't ready for the two that went to Ohio and New York - we've gotta be ready for these other megaprojects and put on a full-court press to land them!

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On 2/23/2023 at 8:34 PM, eandslee said:

Uh...so I was just browsing around the Thalhimer economic report for Richmond during the 4th Quarter last year (Oct, Nov, and Dec 2022), which looks pretty strong...and then I read this: 

I know two of those seven megaprojects went to Ohio and New York, which were just recently announced.  That means there are 5 more that are looking at the Richmond area!  Check out the report here (the other parts of the report are good too):

https://thalhimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Richmond_2022_Q4_Office_Market_Report.pdf

How do we know the projects from New York and Ohio are included in those 7 mega projects? What if they didn’t even include those in it. Either way 5 is still awesome.

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15 minutes ago, Downtowner said:

How do we know the projects from New York and Ohio are included in those 7 mega projects? What if they didn’t even include those in it. Either way 5 is still awesome.

Because Richmond was on the list for both of these companies as a possible location.

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45 minutes ago, Child2021 said:

Holy moly!! A small operation in terms of number of people, but a HUGE WIN for metro RVA in terms of the implication. Wow - the first such operation in the entire country - and it's going to be in metro Richmond! This is really fantastic!

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18 hours ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Richmond was a close 2nd on the Ohio deal from what I have heard on the street. 

We HAVE to make sure we outpace any/all other regions for at least one or two of these other five heavyweight relos/investments/developments that the GRP are chasing. This HAS to happen for us!

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On 2/25/2023 at 3:06 PM, Downtowner said:

How do we know the projects from New York and Ohio are included in those 7 mega projects? What if they didn’t even include those in it. Either way 5 is still awesome.

I'm coming in blind here: Do we have a list of these 7 mega projects or are they purposely kept in secret to manage the PR in case we don't get them?

Sad to hear we lost 2 of them - What were they?

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19 minutes ago, ancientcarpenter said:

I'm coming in blind here: Do we have a list of these 7 mega projects or are they purposely kept in secret to manage the PR in case we don't get them?

Sad to hear we lost 2 of them - What were they?

We do not have a list of these mega projects for business non-disclosure reasons (I’m sure)…just know that 5 of them are still looking in RVA area.  

The two we lost were Intel (Ohio, a $20B factory ) and Micron (New York state a $100B factory). 

RVA/Chesterfield has to get the Upper Magnolia mega site ready ASAP!

Edited by eandslee
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31 minutes ago, eandslee said:

We do not have a list of these mega projects for business non-disclosure reasons (I’m sure)…just know that 5 of them are still looking in RVA area.  

The two we lost were Intel (Ohio, a $20B factory ) and Micron (New York state a $100B factory). 

RVA/Chesterfield has to get the Upper Magnolia mega site ready ASAP!

I thought one of them would have been the Ford plant but these two projects eclipse that. Wow...what a number in the billions!

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34 minutes ago, ancientcarpenter said:

I thought one of them would have been the Ford plant but these two projects eclipse that. Wow...what a number in the billions!

Ford plant was going southside Virginia…however, these plants are probably more technology-related (think electronic chips).  And yes, these projects would be BILLIONS of dollars!  HUGE for the area!

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