Everybody likes the ribbon cutting and the big announcement.
The harder part is investing 10 or 15 years earlier, when there isn’t much there to take a picture of.
Recently, the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission’s new executive director, David Manley, spent two days traveling with us through Henry County, Martinsville, Pittsylvania County and Danville. We didn’t bring him down here to look at PowerPoints. We put some miles on him.
The purpose was simple: show him where the commission and our local communities have invested, what those investments have accomplished and what we need to do next.
“As a proud native of rural Virginia and the Tobacco Region, I know that every community has its own unique history, culture, and priorities. I am excited to get to know them during my time as executive director,” said Manley. “These visits are just the beginning. Building sustainable economic resilience takes partnership over time, and our years of investing side-by-side in site readiness have helped turn industrial potential into massive regional wins. I know that many of the best ideas originate right in the communities we serve. Whether I’m working in Southern or Southwest Virginia, or in our office in Richmond, I look forward to keeping those lines of communication open and productive.”
Our first day was spent in Henry County and Martinsville with local officials and economic development leaders. We toured Patriot Centre Industrial Park and Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre, two places that show what long-term local, state and tobacco commission investment can produce.
At Commonwealth Crossing, Press Glass and Crown Holdings have brought major investment and jobs. Tract 2 was the first site in America to earn a platinum designation through the Site Selectors Guild’s REDI Sites program, leaving Henry County positioned for another major project.
At Patriot Centre, a new shell building is another example of getting ready for the next opportunity before it comes knocking. Construction is also well underway on Nathan Trotter’s $65 million Tin Ridge facility, expected to create 118 jobs and establish the nation’s first large-scale tin production and processing facility.
We also met at the West Piedmont Higher Education Center before visiting 51 Lester Street, the old American of Martinsville Plant 10.
The tobacco commission awarded the Martinsville Economic Development Authority, where I currently serve as chairman, $1 million to help stabilize the nearly 100,000-square-foot building for redevelopment. Plans call for more than 70 apartments, commercial space and other amenities.
Furniture helped build Martinsville. An old furniture factory getting a second life as much-needed housing seems like a pretty good definition of revitalization.
“The Tobacco Commission’s investment in 51 Lester helped us move a nearly 100,000-square-foot former factory from a redevelopment challenge toward a viable project,” said Martinsville EDA Executive Director Eric W. Payne. “Our next step is turning that public investment into housing, private investment and renewed economic activity in Uptown Martinsville.”
The next morning, we headed to Pittsylvania County and Danville.
Pittsylvania County Economic Development Director Matt Rowe knows Manley well from his years in Wythe County.
“Having worked with David during his many successful years serving as Director of the Wythe County Industrial Development Authority, I could not be happier with the Commission’s decision to hire him as its next executive director,” Rowe said. “He is from the Commission’s footprint, knows the stakeholders and communities, and fully understands their immediate and long-term needs. I applaud the Commission for making the best hire possible, and I look forward to working with David and his colleagues at the Commission on upcoming transformational projects for Southern Virginia that will benefit not only Pittsylvania County residents, but many others throughout the Commission’s entire footprint.”
Former Delegate and current Danville City Councilman Danny Marshall also helped make many of those early investments. He remains a commission member and chairs its Incentives & Loans Committee.
“Years ago, we were investing in sites and infrastructure without knowing which companies would eventually come,” Marshall said. “What we are seeing today shows why communities must prepare for opportunity before opportunity knocks. I have been blessed to serve through the full economic development life cycle, from when these early investments were first made until now, when we are seeing the payoff as dirt is being moved and project construction has begun.”
That pretty well sums it up.
We visited Cane Creek Centre before heading to the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill.
For years, you could drive past Berry Hill and see a whole lot of land.
Local leaders saw something else. So did the tobacco commission.
Pittsylvania County and Danville, the tobacco commission, the commonwealth and other partners spent years investing in the land and infrastructure without knowing who would eventually come.
Well, now you don’t need much imagination.
We drove through the Microporous site, where an investment of more than $1.6 billion is under construction and more than 1,800 jobs are expected.
STACK Infrastructure is also planning another major development at Berry Hill under a local performance agreement that contemplates as much as $100 billion in investment and 2,500 jobs over the next 30 years.
The dirt is moving. The investment is real.
From Berry Hill, we visited the Olde Dominion Agricultural Complex, another example of the commission’s long-term investment in the region and a fixture of this area’s agricultural economy that is still strong today, before traveling to Hurt.
At the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park, Avio USA is investing more than $537 million and creating more than 1,500 jobs in aerospace and defense manufacturing.
We returned to the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, which the tobacco commission helped establish with more than $14 million in its early years and has supported ever since, to discuss GO TEC.
Because it doesn’t do much good to prepare the land if we aren’t preparing our people.
GO TEC started as a pilot in Pittsylvania County and Danville and now reaches more than 11,000 students annually in middle schools across Virginia, introducing young people to skills and careers needed by growing industries.
When tobacco, textiles and furniture declined, nobody handed our communities a replacement economy. We had to build one.
The tobacco commission was there early, alongside local governments, the commonwealth and economic development leaders who turned those investments into opportunities.
I am fortunate to serve on the tobacco commission, led by Chairman Delegate Will Morefield and Vice Chair Senator Lashrecse Aird. Its bipartisan commitment to Southern and Southwest Virginia remains one of its greatest strengths.
That is why David’s visit mattered.
He saw old buildings finding new life, industrial sites producing results and billions of dollars in new investment coming out of the ground. More importantly, he heard from the people doing the work every day.
I appreciate David giving us two full days and the local and state leaders and economic development professionals who helped make those successes possible.
The folks who invested in these sites years ago didn’t know Microporous, Avio, Press Glass, Crown and others were coming.
They just knew Southern Virginia was worth betting on.
Turns out, they were right.
Now we have to make the same kind of smart bets for the next generation.
The investments we make today may not produce a ribbon cutting tomorrow.
But sometimes the investments that require the most patience end up paying the biggest dividends.
Delegate Eric J. Phillips serves Virginia’s 48th House District, which includes Pittsylvania County, Henry County and the city of Martinsville.
