Top 10 business news events of 2009

Good riddance, 2009.

Companies that have been around for decades dropped like flies. RIP S&K Menswear, Circuit City, LandAmerica and Roper Lumber. It’s also time to start saying our goodbyes to Ukrop’s, although the stores won’t be changing over just yet.

But there were some more uplifting moments, and some funny ones, too. Plus, tough times are instructional.

We tallied the Top 10 biggest moments in business, and there is some painful medicine there. But there’s lots of reasons for encouragement – some of which we’ll be getting to in tomorrow’s Top 10 trends to watch.
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Surprise: Former LandAmerica customers vote for bankruptcy plan

LandAmerica’s former 1031 exchange customers have come to the final stage of grief: acceptance.

After a fiercely contested – and emotional – battle against the formerly Richmond-based title insurance company, 97 percent of the exchangers voted for the bankruptcy plan. Read more

LandAmerica settlement hard swallow for former customers

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

LandAmerica’s former 1031 exchange customers can either battle themselves for the shrinking scraps of the bankrupt company or collect some money now and hope two other lawsuits recover the rest of their money.

And that second part could take years.

Around 350 customers who used the Richmond-based company have until Nov. 10 to vote on a plan that divides the bankrupt company’s current assets and lays out how future proceeds will be divided. Read more

Chamber exits workforce development, cuts 1 job

The Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce cut another position.

Mark Manasco, manager of Workforce Development for the Chamber, was let go June 26.

The Chamber has suspended its workforce development initiative because its purpose overlapped with the Capital Regional Workforce Investment Board.

Since December, the chamber has eliminated nine positions and currently has 27 staff members.

Kim Scheeler, president and chief executive, said the organization is stepping back from workforce development so as not to complicate the efforts of the newly formed board. As a result, Manasco’s position was eliminated.

“We are looking at how this is going to shake down,” Scheeler said.

He said the initiative was targeted at retaining and attracting talent. Now, he said, the challenge has shifted to creating jobs, a task that will be left to the CRWIB.

The new regional board is part of a federally mandated statewide network of workforce organizations. It was formed by combining the Capital Area Workforce Investment Board with the Richmond Workforce Investment Board. A partnership was formed last fall to put together a new board, which is in the process of being assembled. Read more about that here.

While the new board takes on the task of creating jobs and training workers, Scheeler said the chamber would reshuffle resources to take on other agenda items — namely high-speed rail.

“We will be spending a lot of time and energy on making sure that goes forward and the state does everything it can to get as much stimulus money as possible,” Scheeler said.

Scheeler said that high-speed rail would be a great economic driver for the area and strengthen business relationships between Richmond and Washington.

If high-speed rail brings new business into Richmond, it would also be a good thing for the chamber, which has seen a 15 percent decline in membership since the recession started.

The Chamber is cutting its costs in part because there are a dwindling number of members. In October 2007, the chamber’s website listed 2,208 members. Currently the website lists 1,870 members, or 15 percent less.

The chamber has only had a net loss of three “trustee” memberships in the same time frame. Circuit City, Land America and Qimonda are absent from the esteemed list that currently stands at 23. Those memberships cost $10,000 and up.

Although membership has declined overall, the chamber has added 17 members in the past 30 days, including Canon Business Solutions, Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations and Momentum Design Studio.

Al Harris is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to Al@richmondbizsense.com.

Hurry up and wait: How much will LandAmerica’s 1031 customers recover?

The saga keeps getting worse for 450 former LandAmerica customers who last fall tried to complete a simple real estate deal and now can’t get funds they thought would be safely held for a few months by the formerly Richmond-based Fortune 1,000 company. Read more

LandAmerica jet goes to auction

After flying high on the mortgage boom, LandAmerica took a nosedive when the title company filed for bankruptcy last year.

With the company grounded, it apparently no longer has a need for the corporate jet, a 1999 Hawker Beechcraft 400A.

The jet, owned by LandAmerica subsidiary Beech Fly LLC, will be auctioned by Martin Air via conference call May 6. The opening bid is $850,000, and bidders must submit a refundable deposit of $100,000 by May 5.

The aircraft has logged less than 3,600 hours of flying time.

BizSense took a tour of MartinAir in a recent Office Sense video.

Was LandAmerica’s 1031 business a Ponzi Scheme?

The gloves have come off as former LandAmerica customers fight to retrieve money they gave to the company to hold for a few months.

Lawyers representing former customers of LandAmerica’s 1031 Exchange business have filed two class action lawsuits against the company, alleging that the Richmond-based firm committed fraud and was using money from new customers to pay existing customers – or a Ponzi scheme of sorts.

And they’re also gunning for executives and anyone else who knowingly helped the company defraud customers, including SunTrust Bank. Read more

Henrico’s plan

Qimonda, LandAmerica, Circuit City, Genworth.

Four of the major corporations and private employers in Henrico County have shed at least 5,000 high-paying jobs. And it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, says Leonard Cake, the county’s director of economic development. Still, the county has more than 20,000 businesses, and as of November the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (That will likely rise). Read more

LandAmerica files for bankruptcy & sells underwriting units

Title insurer LandAmerica has filed for bankruptcy. Three of its underwriting units will be sold, the company said.

The stock is trading at $.20 a share, down 80% from the close yesterday.

Fidelity National Financial said it would buy LandAmerica’s underwriting units Lawyers Title Insurance Corp and United Capital Title Insurance Co for $139.4 million. The units Fidelity National is purchasing remain solvent and continue to operate. Read more

Innsbrook Empties Out: Vacancy Rate Poised to Double

Nearly 1 million square feet of class A office space in the Innsbrook area could be vacated as locally-based corporations downsize, driving down rental rates in the area but potentially making the Richmond area more attractive to corporations considering moving here.

Almost every office building at Innsbrook has a “for lease” sign, and the situation is going to get worse before it gets better. After declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy Nov. 10, Circuit City will probably consolidate from two buildings to one on Mayland Drive, giving back 250,000 square feet. Read more

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