As promised, VEDP is delving into UBED (University-Based Economic Development) in our institutions of higher learning across the Commonwealth.

“William & Mary (W&M) is looking at how to grow what’s already in Virginia, as well as to help bring companies into the Commonwealth,” said Leonard Sledge, William & Mary’s Director of Economic Development.

To that end, W&M’s Technology and Business Center has partnered with the county to run the James City County Business & Technology Incubator (JCC-BTI). The incubator provides support and advisory services to help accelerate the growth of younger companies. This support includes help setting goals and milestones, general business advice, organizational guidance, networking events, assistance locating financing and other service providers, and the use of a professional business facility.

The incubator also liaises with W&M’s Mason School of Business and Entrepreneurship Center. Business school professors are assigned to each incubator company to help determine strategy. Business school students are also engaged in problem-solving initiatives for incubator companies through project and classroom exercises.

Launched in January 2007, the JCC-BTI has worked with 10 companies, graduating three to date. One such graduate is MODU System, a Malaysian manufacturer of conveyor belt systems. The incubator helped the company enter the U.S. market, advising management on how to position the product and locate resellers in the U.S.

Another success story is Breathe Healthy, a manufacturer of antimicrobial face masks with superior comfort and filtering abilities. JCC-BTI helped the veteran-owned company locate key markets for its product, as well as launch international sales.

According to William Bean, Director of W&M’s Technology Business Center, “We’re looking for companies that are passionate and serious about the growth of their business. Our incubator clients span a variety of industries, but the one thing they have in common is a genuine excitement to use the services of our incubator for accelerating growth.”

To learn more about W&M’s Office of Economic Development or the James City County Business & Technology Incubator, click on the highlighted links.

On Tuesday, advertising company Mail America announced plans to expand operations in Bedford County through a $5 million investment. The company will maintain its current facility while adding another 42,000 square feet through a nearby location.

This expansion will create 75 new jobs over the next three years as the company seeks to hire print and mail insertion operators, maintenance staff and administrative personnel to help meet growing customer demand.

Producing nearly 400 million U.S. mail pieces each year, Mail America has operated in Bedford County since 1989 and currently employs 325 Virginians. The company’s positive experience with the region’s skilled and motivated workforce was a major deciding factor for this project.

Virginia’s competitive operative costs and pro-business environment also influenced the company’s decision to expand in the Commonwealth. According to Virginia Delegate Kathy Byron, “Our region continues to demonstrate that it is an ideal place for businesses to grow and to locate. The attributes we have here—reasonable taxes and regulations, a skilled and talented workforce, and welcoming state and local governments that are ready to work as partners—are instrumental to the success of firms like Mail America.”

This is the second expansion Bedford County has seen this year. Forestry Equipment of Virginia announced plans to expand its truck assembly business earlier in March. Both companies received assistance from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission for their expansions.

To learn why companies continue to find success in the Commonwealth and why Virginia is ranked America’s Top State for Business, click here.

Virginia Tech has developed a number of University-Based Economic Development (UBED) programs as part of its long-term strategy to help connect faculty and students with companies and communities. 

According to John Provo, Office of Economic Development Director, “The global network starts as soon as you walk out the door. We facilitate the sharing of Virginia Tech’s intellectual capital with the private sector to develop problem-solving solutions.”

One such group is VT-IDEA (Virginia Tech Intelligence and Defense Executive Alumni). Founded in January 2009, VT-IDEA is made up of alumni working in senior government and industry positions in the national security sector. The group’s mission is two-fold:  it serves as both a resource for national security professionals to better connect, and it helps Virginia Tech get even more plugged in to the national security space.

Through its efforts to build a faster pipeline from the research in Blacksburg to the cyber security needs in D.C., VT-IDEA has recently helped introduce two new ideas to industry insiders. The first is a data safeguarding device that can wipe tablets and cell phones clean, removing confidential information once the individual has left a secured area. The second technology foils radio signal eaves-droppers. The technology senses the intrusion and reconfigures the network to make it secure.

VT-IDEA not only helps spot and commercialize winning solutions; it also puts early stage entrepreneurs in touch with financing and venture capital sources. The group will be doing just that at its upcoming meeting “VT-IDEA Presents Innovation and Entrepreneurship at VTECH” on June 21 at the VT Research Center - Arlington.

To learn more about how the VT-IDEA group and Virginia Tech’s Office of Economic Development are building partnerships with the business community, click on the highlighted links.

German manufacturer McAirlaid’s recently celebrated the addition of a 75,000-square-foot expansion to its existing U.S. headquarters in Rocky Mount, Va. Adding to the company’s 70,000-square-foot facility at Franklin County Commerce Center, the expansion will increase the company’s global capacity by 30 percent while creating 40 new jobs in the region.

The expansion provides McAirlaid’s with the additional space to serve its customers in the hygiene, medical, food packaging, filtration and home décor spaces through its non-woven absorbency materials. It also allows the company to reduce imports of raw materials and rely more heavily on U.S. vendors, primarily on the East Coast.

McAirlaid’s first announced it would establish its U.S. headquarters in Virginia through an $85 million investment in 2006. In the words of CEO Alexander Maksimow, “Franklin County’s commitment to education through the public school system and job training programs, coupled with an existing workforce of highly motivated people with a strong work ethic, were key factors in McAirlaid’s site selection.”

Since opening its U.S. headquarters in Franklin County in March 2008, the company has received a warm welcome while experiencing the benefits of Virginia’s skilled workforce, education system and premier East Coast location. This additional investment allows McAirlaid’s to build on its success to date, illustrating the company’s commitment to grow in Franklin County.

To learn why companies continue to locate in Virginia due to the Commonwealth’s skilled workforce and excellent education system, click here.

Company and local officials joined Mary Rae Carter, Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade for Rural Economic Development, at McAirlaid’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Universities play an essential role in developing the human capital so important to economic development, leading to the current term UBED (University-Based Economic Development). Over the coming weeks, VEDP will feature a series of blogs focusing on what universities are doing across the Commonwealth to play a more active role in reaching out to the business community.

According to Tom Osha, President and CEO of Old Dominion University’s (ODU) Innovation Research Park (IRP), ODU is transitioning to a more active role in economic development by developing a 24/7 live-work-play community. IRP is capitalizing on the move away from traditional research parks to an updated model — the “knowledge community.” 

This new community caters to the next generation of researchers who desire a higher level of engagement in the neighborhood where they work. No longer satisfied with commuting home to the suburbs, this generation is looking to live, work and play all in the same location. 

IRP provides just that through its location within ODU’s University Village. Impressive on its own, IRP currently has 350 employees working in two 100,000-square-foot buildings, with plenty of room for expansion. Add to that University Village’s 10 restaurants, retail stores, hotel, theater, art gallery and the Ted Constant arena, and one can see the attractiveness of such a hub.

The economic development impact occurs when companies are drawn to communities like this, bringing with them investment and new jobs to the area. One such company is ipConfigure, which chose to locate at IRP over a location in Texas due to ODU’s multidimensional offerings.

ODU’s Computational Intelligence and Machine Vision Lab was a significant consideration for the company, as their video surveillance technology utilizes just the sort of facial recognition algorithms developed at the lab. Easy access to a qualified employee base and close proximity to amenities also clinched the deal.

"ipConfigure hires ODU graduates and interns, utilizes the ODU Business Gateway, eats in the ODU Village, puts guests up at the hotel, buys tickets to ODU football and other sporting events, and attracts its customers to come to IRP to see the research happening at the Vision Lab and elsewhere around ODU," Osha stated.

The university also put ipConfigure in touch with the Virginia Port Authority, the first customer of the company’s new Wide Area Surveillance products.

ODU is a shining example of a Virginia university that is seeking to bring the benefits of its research outside the classroom by catering to the needs of businesses. To learn more about ODU’s interaction with the business community, click here.

The Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford area was ranked Top 5 on the recently published Forbes.com Best Small Cities for Jobs list. Looking at 242 MSAs, Forbes.com calculated the ranking using employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period November 2000 through January 2012.

This ranking continues the positive recognition the region has received including a No. 4 rating on Site Selection magazine’s Governors Cup for metro areas with a population of less than 200,000. Blacksburg, Va. was also named the No. 1 Best Place in the U.S. to Raise Kids by Bloomberg Businessweek.

The Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford MSA continues to receive accolades for a number of reasons. Home to top-ranked Virginia Tech, the area’s workforce is highly educated, with two-thirds of residents above the age of 25 holding a bachelor’s degree or higher and 40 percent holding a graduate or professional degree.

The research capabilities of Virginia Tech combined with a highly-educated workforce have proven to be a winning combination, attracting companies and research parks to the area. The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, located adjacent to Virginia Tech’s main campus, is home to 140 high-tech companies which employ more than 2,200 Virginians.

The Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford MSA is able to retain its highly-skilled workforce due to the strong quality of life the region offers. The family-friendly community provides residents with numerous recreational activities due to its convenient access to the Appalachian Trail, Washington-Jefferson National Forest, Smith Mountain Lake and New River.

To learn more about the Commonwealth’s plentiful resources — including a world-class workforce, top-ranked education system and strong quality of life — that make Virginia America’s Top State for Business, click here.

Congratulations to Virginia State University’s (VSU) Reginald F. Lewis School of Business for winning three awards over the last few months.

Last week, VSU’s business school was awarded the RichTech Technology Innovation Deployment Award for its creative use of technology to enhance a process. RichTech honors organizations that help advance Virginia’s technology-based economy.

This win was a nice follow-up to the “Best Business Program in the Country” award received earlier this month from The Center for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). The Center for HBCU ranked VSU’s business school No. 1 for its commitment to innovation. 

Last September, VSU’s business school received the Governor’s Technology Award in the category of Innovation in Higher Education. The award was presented at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium in recognition of the most creative initiatives in the public sector. 

All three awards recognized the business school’s “Digital at the Core” initiative. As the first school in the country to delivery its core curriculum primarily via digital format, the school launched its pilot program in the fall of 2010. Digital textbooks, MP3 audio chapters, MP3 study guides, quizzes and flashcards were all available via download for a cost-friendly licensing fee of $19.95.

Founded in 1882, VSU is an example of Virginia’s premier higher education system that partners with industries to prepare students with the technological training and skills they will utilize upon entering the workforce.

To learn more about Virginia’s highly skilled workforce as well as customized training and recruitment programs, click here.

Congratulations to Loudoun County for winning another expansion from data center provider, Digital Realty. The company officially broke ground on its fourth building in what’s known as “Data Center Alley” in Loudoun County, Va.

The two-story, 214,000-square-foot building will house 10 data centers and bring an $80 million investment along with 180 temporary positions and 12 full-time jobs to the area. With more than 50 percent of the world’s internet traffic flowing through Loudoun County each day, the region certainly has become a hub for leading data center operations. Add to that an energy rate 28 percent below the national average and 10 million square feet of data center capacity, and one can easily see why data centers are flocking to Virginia.

Data processing was actually the dominant sector across the Commonwealth in 2011, accounting for more than $960 million in capital investment and almost half of the nonmanufacturing investment. Virginia is poised to continue its growth in the sector as it has both the highest concentration of high-tech workers in the nation and the advanced telecom infrastructure across the Commonwealth to support the industry.

Virginia data centers claimed three of the top 10 spots in Southern Business & Development’s 2011 Ten Best Data Center Sites in the South list. In addition, Bristol, Va., was touted in the study Broadband at the Speed of Light as one of the first municipalities in the nation to build a citywide Fiber-To-The-Home network.

To learn why leading companies have invested more than $4.4 billion in Virginia data centers over the last ten years, click here.

State, local and company officials celebrated the opening of Digital Realty’s newest building at the groundbreaking ceremony in Loudoun County.

Governor McDonnell and Lieutenant Governor Bolling attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Henry County, Va., to celebrate the opening of ICF International’s Business Process Management operations center. The opening of the facility comes just over a year after the Governor announced the project would bring 539 new jobs and a $15 million investment to Southern Virginia.

As a global professional and technology services firm, locating near a skilled workforce is critical. Following the company’s $20 million expansion of its Fairfax County headquarters in 2010, this project is further validation of the strength of Virginia’s workforce across the state. 

This victory also illustrates the breadth of Virginia’s technology infrastructure, another key deciding factor that helped the Commonwealth compete against Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee and West Virginia. Companies in Southern Virginia can take advantage of Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative’s 800 mile open-access, fiber optic broadband network.

In the words of ICF International Chairman and CEO Sudhakar Kesavan, “ICF is proud to expand its operations in Virginia and to call the Commonwealth its home. As a professional services firm, ICF International maintains its global headquarters here, which offers the best combination of a robust economy, a pro-business climate, a high-quality workforce, and an outstanding quality of life for ICF employees. We are pleased to open this new operations center in Henry County and to build our workforce from local residents.”

With the highest concentration of technology workers in the country, Virginia continues to attract world-class companies and gain recognition as the Top State for Business. To learn more, click here.

Governor McDonnell addresses the crowd at ICF International’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in Martinsville, Va.

Site Selection magazine named Virginia the winner of its annual Competitiveness Award, which recognizes excellence on the part of a state-level economic development group. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) accepted the award at the Industrial Asset Management Council’s Spring Professional Forum held in Austin, Texas.

The Competitiveness Award was based on a 10-factor index using Conway Data Inc.’s New Plant database. The number of new and expanded facilities, capital invested in new and expanded facilities, total jobs created, the individual state tax climate and state unemployment rate were a few of the factors used in selecting the Commonwealth as the winner.

Virginia’s low-tax business climate, right to work status and competitive operating costs were just some of the benefits touted by Site Selection. Add to that a world-class transportation infrastructure, robust telecommunications network, and a tech-savvy workforce, and it’s easy to see why Virginia is the clear winner.

This award continues the positive recognition the Commonwealth has seen in 2012. Virginia has already been recognized with a Top 3 Economic Outlook Ranking from the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Rich States, Poor States study, a Top 5 ranking in Site Selection’s Governor’s Cup, a Top 3 ranking on Gallup’s Job Creation Index, and a Top 10 ranking on Chief Executive’s Best States for Business.

To learn why Virginia continues to garner attention as a top state for business, click here.

Mark Arend, Site Selection Editor in Chief, presents VEDP representative Brent Sheffler with the Competitiveness Award.

Alleghany County won a new manufacturing operation when Balchem Corporation decided to locate its first operation in the Commonwealth there. The project will bring an initial investment of approximately $10 million and 55 new jobs to the region over the next 2-3 years.

As a leading producer of encapsulated ingredients for the animal nutrition and health market, Balchem’s growing portfolio of products has gained strong market acceptance at a global level. The manufacturing facility in Covington, Va., will allow Balchem to build on this success by more than doubling its output capacity for this market.

Virginia’s strong manufacturing workforce, rich raw material supply and competitive overall cost structure weren't the only reasons the Commonwealth was selected for this project. Alleghany County’s strategic location was also a critical factor in the selection process. Direct access to Interstates 64 and 81 will provide the company with convenient access to customers in the Northeast and Midwest markets, and close proximity to Virginia’s world-class port system will allow Balchem to easily serve its international customers.

A 45-year-old, publicly-traded company, Balchem was ranked #29 on Forbes.com’s 2011 America’s Best Small Companies list. To learn more about Virginia’s extensive manufacturing capabilities and why the Commonwealth continues to attract top companies like Balchem, click here.