Republicans say Kaine fumbled deal with Apple

Republican Party Chairman Pat Mullins pointed the finger at Governor Tim Kaine today for letting an Apple datacenter bypass Southside Virginia. Read more

Local Cuban Americans mixed on Obama gesture

Cuban American business owners and professionals in Richmond are not on the fence about President Obama reaching out to the island that the United States has kept an embargo on almost five decades.

They either love the gesture or they hate it.

“It’s pretty much anybody over 50 is for the embargo and pretty much anybody under 50 is against it,” said Manny Mendez, co-owner of the popular Fan restaurant Kuba Kuba.

Mendez, 46, thinks it’s long overdue for the United States to reach out to Cuba to re-establish the friendship the countries once had.

“I’ve been against the embargo since the ‘80s,” Mendez said. “If we would give Cuba the money we give to Israel in one day for medicine and food, we would win them over.”

Not so fast, says Omar Gonzalez, 57, owner of Dish Network Retailers in Chesterfield County.

“President Obama is not putting any conditions on the Castro brothers to reestablish relations,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve been suffering for 50 years in Cuba under the Castros.”

He says for the U.S. to normalize relations, Cuba should agree to hold free elections and to release political prisoners that have been held for years. Gonzalez said he had a cousin who was imprisoned for 25 years as an enemy of the state.

Gonzalez, however, thinks the embargo has not worked to exert pressure on the country.

“I think if we do commerce with Vietnam, we should do it with Cuba,” Gonzalez said. “Castro has used the embargo to cry about the policies of this country.”

Virginia officials, meanwhile, have been studying what open trade would mean to the state’s bottom line.

“There certainly are a wide variety of companies that could share in the development,” said Paul Grossman, director of international trade for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

He says the state has already been dealing with Cuba in agriculture and has had some recent success selling apples there.

If Cuba was opened up, though, Grossman said the thing that would be at the top of the list is rebuilding the infrastructure – airports, telecommunications and power generation.

That would be followed by consumer products, which would give Cubans a variety that they don’t have now. The next phase would be building up services, especially in the area of tourism.

There is no dollar estimate as to what normalization could mean for Virginia, Grossman said, and it’s unknown as to where the money would come from for redevelopment. It would have to come from international sources such as the World Bank.

Mendez is very excited about the business prospects. “Think about soybeans, corn, tobacco. Think about MeadWestvaco [paper products]. There is no toilet paper in Cuba. There are no toilets. Pleasants Hardware could make a million dollars.”

Both Mendez and Gonzalez were born in Cuba and still have relatives there. Mendez came here with his family from Cuba when he was 6 from Camaguey to escape the repressive conditions. Gonzalez came here at 29 from Havana as part of the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

“I’m not saying Castro isn’t an evil man, he is,” Mendez said. “But it’s time to make up.”

Richmond Marriott gets $14 million makeover

The newly opened Hilton Garden Inn has been getting the headlines as the latest jewel along Broad Street but its downtown neighbor, the Richmond Marriott, is quietly making its own contributions.

It is in the midst of a $14 million renovation that will give it a new look from top to bottom and inside and out, said Marriott General Manager Tom Underwood.

Underwood said there are various reasons why the hotel decided to invest the money at this time.

“It was overdue for renovations and it had become an underperforming hotel,” he said.

The hotel was acquired for $53 million in January 2008 by Apple REIT Cos., a Richmond-based firm that wanted to improve the property, especially at a time when there were numerous improvements occurring along that stretch of Broad Street.

One of the first steps the city’s largest hotel took was to redo all of the guest rooms and in the process even created 11 new ones boosting the total to 410, Underwood said.

All of the guest rooms have been made over with new carpet, wall covering, beds, desks and flat screen TVs.

The rooms are technologically enhanced, with a device that provides connections for a variety of electronic equipment. The desk in each room will slide open to line up with the television screen, which can be used as a computer monitor, with split-screen capability for TV and computer simultaneously.

The hotel’s fitness center has been enlarged and equipped with all new workout machines that have individual TV screens, as well as new flooring, wall vinyl and windows.

The biggest changes have yet to happen. They involve completely redoing the ground floor area, Underwood said.

For starters, the hotel will remove the traditional long front desk counter where guests sign in. It will have individual check-in stations, much like you see at airports, where the employee can step around and have closer interaction with guests. There also will be self-service check-in stations, Underwood said.

The lobby will have all new furniture with laptop hookups. There will be multiple flat-screen TVs throughout the lobby.

Another change is that waiters will serve food and beverages to guests seated anywhere in the lobby.

“This grew out of some research that found business travelers don’t always want to sit in a room by themselves,” Underwood said.

The coffee shop, which already serves Starbuck’s coffee will be redone as a fully licensed Starbuck’s shop, with the full line of products the company offers.

One of the most noticeable changes will be the restaurant. The existing BlueFire Steakhouse will be replaced with a sports bar that Underwood says will have “a high energy, media driven” look.

It will add outdoor seating at 6th and Broad to accommodate 60 diners, Underwood said. He’s hopeful this will bring in people who are going for shows at the Richmond CenterStage performing arts center across the street or The National music hall in the next block.

The Marriott also will have a new entrance with a water wall and the brick on the front of the hotel will be replaced with a cream-colored tile, matching the new color that will be carried throughout the hotel, Underwood said.

The work is scheduled to be finished in August and a grand reopening will occur sometime in September, close to the opening of the performing arts center, Underwood said.

“It’s an investment for the whole neighborhood,” said Jack Berry, president and CEO of the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Berry pointed to the numerous property upgrades in recent years in the area: the Hilton Gardens earlier this year, a new federal courthouse opened last year, the performing arts center is set for a September opening, a $178 million Convention Center is just a few years old, and The National Theater has been redone.

He said the timing of the work is perfect timed to be in place when the economy turns around. Prices are already climbing in the area, Berry said.

“All in all the tide raises all the boats,” Berry said.

An outsider’s view of Richmond

Last month Richmond received 140 visitors from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The city was selected for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s annual canvassing trip. Julio Melara, president of BusinessReport.com, was on the trip and shared some of his observations on his website. The site is to Baton Rouge as BizSense is to Richmond.

Below are a few of Melara’s thoughts on Richmond:

“The downtown development was a great example of how an urban core can be revitalized through integral cooperation of public and private partnerships”

“One of the major reasons Richmond continues to do a good job in retaining talent in their region is because of issues relating to quality of life. They have an extensive bike trail system [something we need in B.R.], a strong and proud sense of history among the citizens and numerous museums. This, coupled with a much broader community more engaged in the arts than B.R., contributes to a greater quality of life.”

Read more here.

Richmond gets tossed from the Top Ten

Harsh.

Forbes’ new list of best metro areas for business and careers is out, and Richmond is ranked 39.

That isn’t terrible considering there are 200 cities on the list, but it is quite a tumble from last year’s number seven spot that has been touted by local economic development agencies.

Richmond’s descent into the rankings isn’t totally a surprise considering the loss of Circuit City, Land America, Qimonda, and Wachovia Securities, as well as sizeable layoffs among the remaining Fortune 1000’s.

But do Forbes rankings really mean that much? When the city is ranked highly it is a point of pride, and when it isn’t it is quietly ignored. In 2007, Richmond was ranked 14. In 2006, the city was ranked number 41, and the year before that we were 14 again. The up and down roller coaster ride really makes one wonder how arbitrary the rankings really are. What happened in 2006 that made us fall to 41?

According to Forbes, the rankings are based on 11 different criteria including job growth, cost of living, income growth, and quality of life.

The Monday Q&A: Why a new insurance company chose Richmond

Wales-based auto insurer Admiral announced last week that it was locating its U.S. headquarters in Richmond. The company was founded in 1993 and is third largest insurer in the United Kingdom.

Andrew Rose, president and chief executive of Admiral Americas, is a Virginia Tech engineering graduate. Several years ago, he got married and made his first move to Richmond to work for Capital One. He later went to the Darden School of Business. Read more

Richmond lands headquarters for UK-insurer

UK-based car insurance firm, Admiral, announced plans this week that they have chosen Richmond as headquarters for their newly formed subsidiary Admiral Americas.

The company will start doing business across the pond sometime this year. They will hire up to 50 people by the third quarter, and employ as many as 200 by the end of next year, according to a press release issued by the Greater Richmond Partnership.

Some job listings have already appeared online.

The company will lease 26,000 square feet somewhere in the Innsbrook area, according to the release.

Admiral, which is the third-largest auto insurer in Britain, posted a 14 percent net gain in profits last year for a total of $204.7 million U.S. currency, according to Bloomberg.

Richmond was chosen over a list of cities that include Charlotte, Dallas, and Chicago during a six month search.

Andrew Rose, CEO of Admiral Americas, said Richmond was ultimately chosen for its cost-effective real estate and quality labor force.

‘Small businesses really drive the train,’ says Mayor-Elect

As Mayor-elect Dwight Jones prepares to transition from the pulpit back to public office, Richmond BizSense sat down with him to find out his plans for economic development and fostering business growth.

Jones, a Philadelphia native with a deliberate delivery, is no stranger to doing business in Richmond. He chaired the downtown development group Richmond Renaissance and served on the Metro Richmond Convention and Visitor’s Bureau board of directors. As a state delegate, Jones was a member of the Commerce and Labor committee. A corporation operated by his church dabbles in real estate investment, spending a few million to redevelop blighted portions of Hull Street in the city’s Manchester district. Read more