Golf course files bankruptcy

The Federal Club, a $9 million Arnold Palmer golf course and upscale housing development in Hanover County, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The course, which opened three years ago, lists assets of less than $50,000 and liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million, according to the bankruptcy filing. The company owes $4.96 million to unsecured creditors, many in Richmond. Read more

Heard on the street: Golf course might be sold

The Golf Club at Brickshire, a relatively new public/private golf course in New Kent County, might be sold to another chain of courses.

The current owner, Blue Green Golf, might be in the process of selling the course to Traditional Golf Properties, which owns three other courses around Richmond, including Royal New Kent, which abuts Brickshire. Read more

Former S&K chief suited for new job

The former chief executive of S&K Menswear has found a new home as the president of locally-based RetailData Services.

The company collects information about supermarkets and sells it to the grocery industry.  Oliver said he wanted to stay in retail and had known about the company for a decade.

“So much of what you see right now is downsizing or cost cutting. The owners [of RetailData] are really investing in the business right now and adding new divisions and bringing in new people,” Oliver said.

Oliver, a California native, moved to Richmond more than a decade ago and started working at Davenport & Co. He took over as chief executive of S&K Menswear in 2006 and was unable to turn around the company in time to save it from bankruptcy. Read more

Upcoming Event: reporting Local, reaching Global

Press in a local or national outlet can make a business and catalyze growth. Please join BizSense and a panel of local business journalists as we discuss how the business media finds sources, scoops and compelling stories. Moderated by BizSense Editor and Founder Aaron Kremer, the event is intended to help small-business owners and public relations and marketing professionals learn how the business media thinks, and how their companies can get more press. Read more

Retail vacancy continues to rise

There are more storefronts in Richmond than ever before; the problem is that more of them are also empty. Commercial real estate brokers say that could mean banks might soon start taking back some retail properties if tenants don’t start signing leases.

The metro area’s retail vacancy rate rose to 6.9 percent in the second quarter, up from 5.5 percent a year ago, according to Thalhimer’s recent market report. And that most recent figure is up from 6.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. Read more

So far stimulus saves 160 jobs

The U.S. Recovery Act has saved or created 160 jobs in Richmond so far, according to the city’s newly launched stimulus tracker.

Read more

GVA Advantis closing some Virginia offices

GVA Advantis announced Monday it is closing some of its Mid-Atlantic brokerages but not the Richmond office, which lists 24 employees on its website.

The Washington, D.C.-based company said in a statement it will shut down offices in Newport News and Northern Virginia but the company said it will remain in the property management and construction industries. The company blamed the closures on the recession. Read more

Sticker shock for drug dealers

Even drug dealers are dealing with the recession.

Prices for a kilo of cocaine have risen from around $22,000  to $24,000 to upwards of $26,000 to $30,000 per kilo, according to Bryan Dixson, a narcotics detective with the Richmond Police Department. Read more

Richmond: The city of new beginnings?

Richmond is a top ten city for starting over, according to BusinessWeek.

The city was picked as number six, between Omaha, Nebraska and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The rankings were based on the percentage of companies planning to hire in the third quarter, according to an April survey by Manpower.

Twenty-two percent of Richmond companies are planning to hire, according to the study.

From Businessweek’s description of our city:

Richmond has a diverse economy, which includes chemical, food and tobacco manufacturing, biotech, high-tech fibers and semiconductors. For those who want to start over with a job in the arts, it has a symphony, ballet, art galleries and theater companies.

That is no comfort to those who feel stuck in Richmond and want to start from scratch somewhere else.

Those folks may want to move to the number one city on the list, but they better remember to pack a parka. The number one city: Anchorage, Alaska.

Google it ain’t

Bing, schming.

If you need to search the Web, Google is still your best bet. It’s still the easiest to use and handles the dozens of searches most of us perform better than Bing, which Microsoft launched May 28. And for business owners, why mess with a good thing? Read more

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