Upon learning about the economic development efforts underway in Martinsville and Henry County, as well as past successes, the executive director of the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission said the community’s work to increase its economic development provides a lot of optimism.
“Visiting these areas and understanding these concerns, these needs, seeing the progress that has occurred, hearing about the progress, and meeting individuals like yourselves who are so dedicated … it’s inspiring, and it’s first class,” said James Campos, an American political, business consultant and speaker on energy issues, who recently co-founded Right Energy Group and Right Energy Services, was in Henry County on Wednesday at the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre (CCBC).
Campos, who also served as the director of the office of economic impact and diversity for the Department of Energy during the Trump administration, noted that Virginia has experienced tremendous success over the past three years and record job growth.
He added that “a lot of these companies donating over $74 billion in capital investments for major corporations, $5 billion in tax relief for all Virginians, reforming workforce development efforts to focus on job creation, preserve Virginia’s right to work status, implementing all American all-of-the-above energy plan.”
Campos also toured the CCBC, and Tract 2 – the newest site being developed and ready for construction.
While a definite tenant for the site has not yet been identified, Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC), said “hopefully something big” will take up residence in Tract 2, which is situated near the operations of Crown Holdings, Inc. and Press Glass, Inc.
Heath said that much of the dirt used for grading comes from a nearby section of the property. He also explained that Tract 3, a 100-acre ungraded site, will be situated beside Tract 2. Tract 5, a seven-acre pad, will be located near a one-million-gallon water storage tank.
The CCBC includes electricity and a substation inside the park, with a 100+ megawatt (MG) capacity, natural gas with a 27,000 MCF per day capacity, and one terabyte per second of fiber served by Mid-Atlantic Broadband, Heath said.
The site also has a sewer and water capacity of three million gallons per day, the nearby one-million-gallon water tank, and is adjacent to the Norfolk Southern Mainline railway line, he added.
The total investment to the CCBC to date is $111,314,957, including $28 million from Appalachian Power, and $25,273,955 from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), Heath said.
The Harvest Foundation invested $16,860,000, Virginia Tobacco Commission invested $16,543,793, and the Southwestern Virginia Gas Company invested $9,000,000. Henry County donated $7,937,509, $2,710,000 is from New Markets Tax Credit Program, and $2,230,600 is from the M-HC Economic Development Corp.
The City of Martinsville invested $1,959,100, and the Small Business Administration has invested $800,000.
Heath noted work on the CCBC site first started in 2008. It has since expanded to include the Advanced Manufacturing Training Center and two tenants who have expanded and brought over 300 jobs to the community.
Tim Pace, director of Engineering & Mapping, said that so far, about 57 acres of 150-acre pad has been graded.
“They’ve only been working for about 60 days, because they’re actually starting to bring this” site up now. It “will come up to about the elevation we’re standing,” Pace said during a tour of the site Tuesday.
“This is only about 30 percent of the pad. They’re just getting started and then all of what you can see… will be cleared and part of the 150-acres,” Pace said, adding the contract for completing grading is the end of 2025. However, he believes the work will be finished around mid-2026.
