Impact Stories

How winning the Washington County Business Challenge helped Appalachian Drafting LLC take a big next step.

As you might imagine, as community-focused bankers we have taken interest in this year’s launch of Opportunity Zones, a federal program intended to spur economic development in distressed counties, cities, and towns around the country.

ValCon Masonry is a woman-owned, Class A contractor with a loyal team serving the Hampton Roads, Virginia Peninsula, and northeast North Carolina area. The company was founded in 2011 by Cassandra Kramer, who has more than 30 years of experience in the Commercial Masonry industry (bricklaying, stonework, and the like).

The Town of Pulaski, located just southwest of Radford, is undergoing a large-scale downtown revitalization in an effort to preserve the historic buildings in the commercial district, encourage economic development along Main Street, and attract visitors and customers to local businesses.

Mountain Top Timber Products provides quality wood chips to the paper and pulp industries and various other markets. The demand for the high-grade chips produced by Mountain Top has given the company the opportunity to expand operations and double in size – creating roughly 15,000 tons of wood chips per month.

Virginia Community Capital has a mission to support development and job growth throughout Virginia. You’ll find an example in the greater Richmond area, where we have been working alongside numerous partners to rebuild the Jefferson Davis Highway corridor, which starts in the south of the city and extends well into Chesterfield County.

This year Virginia Community Capital was named 2018 Best for Overall, 2018 Best for Community and 2018 Best for Customers by scoring in the top 10 percent of all B Corps of the B Impact Assessment. See our score and learn more about the other honorees — we’re in great company. bthechange.com

Pinecrest School, now in its 61st year, is a non-profit, independent preschool-through-sixth grade located just outside of Washington, D.C. Pinecrest has two buildings on campus, the most recent built in 2004. The second structure, however, is deteriorating and in need of a safer, more energy efficient replacement to accommodate a larger student population.

Cape Charles Brewing Co. is bringing locally made craft beer into the heart of the resort town of Cape Charles along this 70-mile stretch of land between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The Marshall family purchased a 2.5-acre property on Stone Road – the main thoroughfare into Cape Charles – and is in the midst of developing a 16,000-square-foot brewery and tasting room and, later, brewpub and event space. The production facility is expected …

In the small southern Virginia city of Emporia, a low-income housing community – while well-managed and maintained – was in need of an upgrade to preserve the property and keep its operation cost effective. So the 22-year owner of Weaver Manor, Bob Margolis, decided to sell the community to a limited partnership composed of his two longtime business partners, Adam Stockmaster and Ari Severe, and together they would update the aging property. The team turned …