Gov. Ralph Northam has announced $13.6 million in grants statewide through the Growth and Opportunity for Virginia (GO Virginia) program. Here are the ones for Southwest and Southside and how the governor’s office describes them:
Project Seed – Innovation Hub at Midtown Square : $674,304. Region 3: Counties of Cumberland and Prince Edward. Longwood University, in partnership with Hampden Sydney College, will connect the community to local and regional resources for business and social entrepreneurship development by establishing an Innovation Hub in Downtown Farmville. This hub will include a digital makerspace, a community co-working space, a Small Business Development Center office to accelerate business concepts and an educational outreach center to host youth entrepreneurship courses and educator professional development opportunities to develop entrepreneurial education practice in the classroom.
Pathway Park Infrastructure: $600,000. Region 1: Counties of Bland and Smyth. The Smyth County Economic Development Authority will further advance a business-ready development site by installing 2,000 feet of 8-inch water line and 1,600 feet of sewer line to Pathway Park, a 70-acre site in Smyth County. The project also includes the formation of a Regional Industrial Facilities Authority between Bland and Smyth counties to allow the localities to collaborate and competitively market the site for manufacturers and distribution centers.
Project Eagle+ : $599,437. Region 2: Montgomery County and the city of Roanoke. The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Virginia Tech Foundation, in partnership with the city of Roanoke, Montgomery County and Johnson & Johnson JLABS, will support a three-prong approach to grow the region’s health and life science cluster. Project Eagle+ will pilot a shared lab facility in Blacksburg at the VTCRC to meet the demand from small, early-stage companies, many of which are spinoffs from Virginia Tech and/or alumni of the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP). (See previous coverage of this project from Cardinal’s Megan Schnabel here.)
Agricultural Innovation Center: $550,000. Region 8: Cities of Buena Vista and Lexington, and the counties of Augusta and Rockbridge. The Advancement Foundation and partners will create a multi-use facility featuring a business incubator and classrooms, agriculture and food tech labs, and a small-scale manufacturing space, as well as a processing and product development space. Strategically located in downtown Buena Vista, the Agricultural Innovation Center will transform a vacant 37,000-square-foot factory into a flagship, agricultural innovation facility that will grow the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, support Buena Vista’s downtown revitalization and serve as a model for future agricultural enterprise facilities in the Shenandoah Valley.
Mobilizing the Supply Chain with Critical Infrastructure: $212,200. Region 1: Scott County, the city of Bristol and the town of Duffield. Appalachian Sustainable Development will create critical infrastructure in the food supply chain, including outfitting building space at Appalachian Harvest Food Hub with the equipment and space needed to process produce. This new infrastructure will help increase processing capacity and revenue for small scale agricultural product producers, a priority industry sector for Region 1. This facility will also enable trainees to learn value-added processing techniques in preparation for the increasing need for small-scale local food production and grocers’ needs for trained workers.
Strategy and Roadmap for Growing the Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) Sector: $77,053. Region 3: Counties of Amelia, Buckingham, Brunswick, Charlotte, Cumberland, Halifax, Lunenburg, Henry, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Patrick, Pittsylvania and Prince Edward, and the cities of Danville and Martinsville. The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, in partnership with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement, will develop a strategy and roadmap for supporting industry growth and workforce development for Controlled Environmental Agriculture in Region 3. The strategy and roadmap will include an analysis of this emerging and dynamic agribusiness sector, including its industry and economic growth potential while identifying and validating needed facilities and infrastructure, workforce development issues, opportunities and applied research assets.
Project Veer: $49,750. Region 1: Counties of Washington and Wise, and the city of Bristol. InvestSWVA will perform a market analysis to evaluate opportunities for Region 1’s manufacturers to participate in the onshore and offshore wind supply chain. Project Veer builds on the region’s manufacturing history, recent efforts to become a key player in the renewable energy economy and regional strategies to advance as a manufacturing hub. This project will help manufacturers assess the business opportunity and assist companies in looking to diversify. (See previous coverage of this project from Cardinal’s Megan Schnabel here.)