For the second year in a row, Virginia was honored with a Silver Shovel Award from Area Development magazine in the 5-10 million population category.

The award recognizes Virginia for its economic development achievements in creating new jobs and attracting new businesses and investment into the Commonwealth. Virginia previously won in 2006, 2009 and 2012.

Area Development, one of the leading site selection publications, has run this awards program for eight years. Each state submits 10 projects that broke ground in 2012, and the magazine uses weighted scores based on added jobs per capita, amount of investment, number of new facilities and industry diversity to select the winners.

The 10 outstanding projects that helped make Virginia a winner are as follows:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters – Isle of Wight County
Health Diagnostic Laboratory – City of Richmond
Bechtel Corporation – Fairfax County
Metron Aviation – Loudoun County
Web Parts, LLC – City of Danville
McKesson Corp. – Frederick County
Ply Gem Windows – Franklin County
The Vitamin Shoppe – Hanover County
Phoenix Packaging Operations, LLC – Pulaski County
BAE Systems – Montgomery County

According to the magazine, “If there’s one word to describe Virginia, it could be ‘diverse.’ From an economic point of view, that’s a great thing. There’s growth to be found in many corners of the economy, and that bodes well for prosperity as well as for making it onto the Silver Shovels list.”

Virginia continues to garner accolades as a top state for businesses from leading institutions, including Forbes.com, CNBC, Pollina Corporate Real Estate and Site Selection magazine.

To learn how Virginia’s unique combination of assets has helped businesses succeed in the Commonwealth for more than 400 years, click here.