Reinventing the Economy of Virginia’s Southwest

In September 2019 we kicked off InvestSWVA, a business attraction and marketing initiative for Southwest Virginia, launched with the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission and backed by the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission and private industry partners Appalachian Power, Dominion Energy and Scott County Telephone Cooperative.

The initiative was born out of the region’s senior legislators’ desire to pilot whether a private entity could, on behalf of the entire region, attract unique economic development opportunities by leveraging relationships, generating high-quality leads, and establishing new strategic partnerships.

At our launch we announced a partnership with the Northern Virginia Technology Council to push the “future of work” by attracting and retaining young talent with a focus on high-tech and higher-wage jobs.

We named four legislators as our co-chairs — Del. Terry Kilgore, Del. Israel O’Quinn and Sen. Todd Pillion, and the late Sen. Ben Chafin — to use political heft to our advantage.

With a blank slate we created a new, disruptive model and sought key economic development partners like the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. VEDP and others are valuable partners because they know that, in today’s economy, disruption is good.

A modern economic development operation requires an aggressive lead generation strategy, and it must be held accountable. As a private outfit, if we don’t deliver, then we’re fired. Our new approach has already yielded benefits.

Roadmap for Economic Sustainability

We began by emphasizing Southwest Virginia’s strategic advantages:

  • Quality of life,

  • A dedicated workforce,

  • Affordable real estate, and

  • Availability of grant dollars to pair with private investment.

We use these advantages to sell executives unfamiliar with the region on opportunities. We reduce bureaucracy for the benefit of prospects, essentially becoming an extension of a company as it explores investing here.

We developed a roadmap for economic sustainability — a vision in which Southwest Virginia can be:

  • A home to high-tech companies looking to grow,

  • A location of choice for data centers,

  • A hotbed for energy innovation,

  • A strategic location for advanced manufacturing, and

  • A player in the craft beverage industry.

For each of these “big idea” areas, we’ve had significant wins with a shoestring budget and skeleton crew. We leveraged nearly $2.5 million in grants to support projects. More importantly, we found ways to keep projects moving during the pandemic.

Results Matter

Here’s a snapshot of our model in action:

  • 160 jobs by leading medical record and image retrieval company eHealth Technologies.

  • 113 jobs and $7.9M investment by highway guardrail manufacturer SPIG Industry.

  • Teamed up with Aldrich Capital Partners to explore business expansion opportunities for portfolio companies.

  • Defining Southwest Virginia’s competitive advantage in the data center industry with the innovative use of geothermal mine water cooling and solar power to realize significant energy and cost savings.

  • Strategic partnership with the Northern Virginia Technology Council to market growth opportunities for member companies.

  • Developing a first-of-its-kind energy park focused on renewable, clean and zero-carbon projects to make Southwest Virginia the energy innovation capital of the East Coast.

  • Strategic partnership with Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy to advance the R&D, manufacturing and deployment of energy storage technology.

  • Created specialty grain market opportunity in the craft beverage industry for the region’s farmers, growing malting quality barley for the first time in Southwest Virginia.