Pardon Our Dust
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In a Feb. 27, 2022, Virginia Business article, McGuireWoods Consulting senior vice president Chris Lloyd said Virginia needs to adapt and begin preparing industrial sites for future businesses that bring with them large-scale projects.
“Until recently, [Virginia] just didn’t invest in sites,” said Chris, who also chairs the national Site Selectors Guild. The situation, he added, “has been 30 years in the making.”
Virginia has a few structural disadvantages when it comes to landing coveted large-scale industrial projects like multibillion-dollar chip factories, Chris said. The state’s governmental structure, where cities and counties are independently governed, disincentivizes local governments from partnering on a project in a neighboring city because they would see no direct tax benefit. Another impediment is that Virginia’s utilities regulation can discourage investment in projects without clear outcomes.
Chris noted, however, that the Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Act, allowing a revenue-sharing agreement between governmental entities, could overcome these hurdles.