BlackRock director headlines VCU Real Estate Conference

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 30, 2009) – Sally Gordon, managing director of BlackRock, will be the opening speaker at the 19th annual Virginia Commonwealth University Real Estate Trends Conference on Oct. 13 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Gordon, who has done research on commercial real estate property markets and capital markets for nearly 20 years, will provide an overview of national and regional housing market conditions. The conference, which is organized by the Real Estate Program in the VCU School of Business, has sold out the past 14 years and will attract more than 800 people from both the academic and professional ranks, representing segments such as banking, engineering, investments, consulting, valuation, government and brokerage.

SBA lending rebounds

Lending is starting to flow again to small businesses.

The Small Business Administration Richmond office helped broker 230 loans in the most recent quarter, which ends today. That’s 19 more than the same quarter last year – and the first quarter in a year not see at least a 27 percent decrease in the number of loans issued.

Two quarters ago, the number of loans was down more than 50 percent from the previous year.

“There’s a little more confidence out there in the small-business community,” said Scott Dailey, an assistant director at the SBA’s Richmond office, which handles the entire state except for Northern Virginia.

Country crooner launches ad startup

A 26-year-old former Air Force musician has launched his own company in Richmond, an advertising startup called Valupump.

“We’re still pounding the pavement, trying to figure out who the ideal candidates are,” said Michael Mason, the sole employee of the firm.

The idea is to pay gas station owners to let Valupump install coupon dispensers above their pumps, for which Valupump receives money from companies to place their coupons. The coupons or ads are printed on sticky note type pages, which use an adhesive that loses its stickiness when it is removed. The pads are placed inside of a clear plastic dispenser above the pump.

NewsFeeds 9.30.09

Virginia must borrow to make jobless payments (Times-Dispatch) Virginia will need to borrow as much as $1.27 billion from the federal government over the next three years to keep making unemployment compensation payments.The state trust fund's balance has plunged from just less than $547 million at the start of the year to about $69 million now. One reason: The number of people filing for benefits so far this year is up nearly 80 percent from last year. Buyer sought for Kingsmill Resort (Virginia Gazette) Busch Properties has signed with a commercial real estate broker with the idea of selling Kingsmill Resort. In a letter e-mailed Monday to members of the Kingsmill Golf Club, general manager Robin Carson said “we have just begun this process, but our intention is to sell the property if appropriate terms can be met.” Judge starts deliberating case over Arby’s signs (Daily Progress) The latest ...

Richmond’s king of coal

Among the most ardent opponents of federal cap-and-trade legislation is Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

Blankenship recently took some time out from running the Richmond-based coal company and posting on his Twitter page to answer questions from Forbes reporter Brian Wingfield.

From Forbes.com:

Blankenship speaks in a soft drawl, but he staunchly opposes much of the current U.S. government's policies. He worries that the country is stuck in a "reg-cession," in which over-regulation will hinder the recovery. He thinks U.S. trade policy is killing American blue-collar jobs, although he sees China as a booming market for Appalachian coal. He makes no apologies for what may be perceived as political incorrectness. ("Turn on more lights, burn more coal," he says, half-jokingly, of the dimly lit lobby in Forbes' Washington office.)

Read the rest of the Q&A: ...

Mondial Assistance Joins Global Partnership for Humanitarian Aid

Richmond, Va., Sept. 28, 2009 – Henrico-based Mondial Assistance today announced its participation in a new global fundraising initiative, aptly named:  MASSIVEGOOD. The aim of MASSIVEGOOD is to encourage consumers to make small, voluntary financial contributions (around $2, for example) when they make a travel-related purchase. The funds will be used by UNITAID, a partner organization of the World Health Organization, to combat diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. President and CEO of Mondial Assistance USA, Jon Ansell, joined Prime Minister of the U.K., Gordon Brown, and President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, along with other major players in the travel and tourism space and numerous representatives from around the world to announce MASSIVEGOOD during the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23. “Mondial Assistance is an organization dedicated to helping people, anywhere, any time and this project is a very natural and important extension of that mission,” said Jon ...

If you listen to one podcast this year …

There is an absolute must-listen podcast available for free this week only.

It will be an hour well spent, and if you burn it onto a CD, you can play it to and from work.

The NPR program This American Life has produced a follow-up to its incredibly popular episode, The Global Financial Meltdown. This new one explains exactly how the mortgage fiasco started, and with whom. And it goes back and talks to the sources about what’s happened in their lives since the original broadcast and how they feel about what they did.

End of the road for car dealership

After 75 years in business, the Lawrence family’s last remaining dealership has closed.

“To make a long story short, we made a business decision that we felt better closing the doors and selling the property,” said Skip Lawrence, who co-owned the dealership at 5400 S. Laburnum Ave. in Henrico with his brother Mark. The dealership, along with 788 others across the country, received a letter in June that the bankrupt automaker was abruptly terminating their franchise agreement.

Tech Review: The go-to place for trademark info

Trademark: (Noun) A mark that is used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify the origin or ownership of goods and to distinguish them from others and the use of which is protected by law.

I found a great resource this week for businesses that helps make one of the most bureaucratic hassles less painful: Trademarkia.com, an online database of every single trademark filed in the U.S. since 1870. It is interactive and highly searchable by company or city.  The website is well designed and fun to use.

It is also a database of every attorney or correspondent (person who filed and manages the trademark) in the U.S. – which is hundreds of thousands of entities. Each entry is accompanied by a picture and some amplifying data, including the name and location of the company, what kind of products or services the company provides and who registered the trademark.

NewsFeeds 9.29.09

‘Is’ joins ever-growing list of local venue closures (Daily Progress) Another smaller music venue in Charlottesville has bitten the dust. Is Venue, the music spot on West Main Street, will close its doors this week, as will its neighbor, Si Tapas. Whole Foods to Food Banks (Washington Post) Awkward scenes are playing out frequently at food pantries and other charities across the region as they struggle to help the still upward-spiraling number of formerly middle-class people knocking on their doors. For the charities, the surge in demand has tested their resourcefulness -- and sometimes their patience. Not only must they stock millions of pounds of additional food in bigger warehouses, but they also must adopt fresh tactics to help the newly needy, who can be more bewildered, more emotional and more selective than their traditional clients. Talk to the Invisible Hand (Slate) A great read about why health care ...

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