Hello Cardinal News readers. Welcome back to Cardinal Commerce Notes, our regular feature catching you up on various recent business news items.
If you missed last week’s edition, check it out here to learn more about a new website for healthcare jobs, a new Virginia Chamber of Commerce president and the role that fuel made by BWX Technologies played in a recent advanced reactor test.
I’m always on the lookout for news tips. Please email me at matt@cardinalnews.org or connect with me on LinkedIn and message me there.
Botetourt grocery store plan advances
The Botetourt County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a 51,000-square-foot grocery store with a bakery, deli, butcher and drive-thru pharmacy at the Daleville Town Center.
The county’s board of supervisors will review the project on June 23. It requires two special exception permits.
A traffic analysis recommended several improvements, including a traffic signal at the intersection of Roanoke Road and Glebe Road, near where the store would be located, according to the county.
The grocery store would be sized similarly to others in Botetourt, according to a report prepared for the county and included in documents submitted to the planning commission. The Food Lion in Daleville is 37,000 square feet, the Kroger in Daleville is about 49,000 square feet and the Food Lion in Blue Ridge is about 32,000 square feet.
The documents do not name the store. The developer, North Carolina-based Harris Development Partners, has a webpage of projects with images that all appear to show Publix stores. Publix is currently building its first store in the Roanoke region at 4449 Brambleton Ave. in Roanoke County.
The Daleville Town Center is a “traditional neighborhood development,” a style of planned development that mixes residential and commercial uses. The town center’s original planning documents call for a large store in the space where this development would go.
New renderings of NRV train station released
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority has released new renderings of what it says the Christiansburg rail station, currently under construction, will one day look like.
Once built, the station is anticipated to return Amtrak passenger rail service to the New River Valley in late 2027.
Construction continues, and recent milestones include crews completing the structure of the foundation of the nearly 1,000-foot platform and canopy and building a retaining wall along what will become the parking lot, the rail authority said in a recent update.
Work also continues in Radford, where crews are building a layover facility — a storage and maintenance area to park trains overnight. A modular building to house an Amtrak office and maintenance facilities is expected to be installed this fall.
Microsoft to expand Mecklenburg County data center footprint
Microsoft plans to expand its data center complex in Mecklenburg County, according to a notice filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The project, called AVC22, will be on 490 acres south of U.S. 58, east of Panhandle Road and next to the tech company’s AVC17 data center.
An application for the project states that it will include “three one-story buildings that will store multiple storage servers, along with access roads, an on-site electrical substation, water storage facility, laydown areas and detention ponds.”
The project is needed to address increasing customer demand for cloud computing services, data storage, gaming and more, according to the application.
Officials first announced plans for Microsoft’s Mecklenburg County operations in 2010 with a $499 million investment. The company has expanded its footprint in the area multiple times, including with applications filed in May 2021, July 2022, October 2022 and April 2023.
As of 2023, it had about 500 employees in what it calls its Southern Virginia Regional Network Group, and that year it paid $23 million in property taxes to Mecklenburg County, according to information provided by the company.
Valley Link meeting in Buckingham postponed
The developer of a controversial extra-high-voltage electric transmission line proposed to run 115 miles from Campbell County to Culpeper has postponed an open-house informational meeting in Buckingham County that was scheduled for Thursday.
The developer, Valley Link, said in a statement that the decision was prompted by a recent measles outbreak in the county that makes a large gathering risky.
Valley Link has planned a series of open-house meetings through June 25 after publishing revised route proposals for its transmission line project.
“Valley Link is still eager to discuss recent route refinements to the Joshua Falls to Yeat transmission project with Buckingham residents. We will share our plans for another public engagement opportunity soon,” the company said.
Electric upgrades underway at Wythe County’s Progress Park
Appalachian Power is upgrading an electric substation and a quarter-mile of transmission line at Wythe County’s Progress Park.
The work began June 1, is expected to end in February and is expected to occur from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
Appalachian Power said the project will “help support existing and future customer needs and enhance reliability in the area.”
“It will also help maintain a strong, dependable electric system for the communities served,” the company said in a news release.
Last year, officials announced that a complex of data centers, which generally are large users of electricity, would be developed on 99 acres in Progress Park. Officials have said that the project is not expected to impact the electric rates that residents pay.
That’s a wrap for this week. Do you know of a new business expanding or relocating in your town? Excited about a restaurant opening up soon? Maybe you’ve got an update on a story we’ve reported before. Please send me your tips and suggestions: matt@cardinalnews.org or connect with me on LinkedIn.
