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Tomorrow! Prominent D.C.-area minority business leaders and Virginia Sen. Mark R. Warner will be featured in a Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) virtual forum, “Access to Capital for Minority-Owned Businesses” on Friday, August 21, beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

The forum will highlight challenges facing minority entrepreneurs in accessing capital to begin, grow and sustain businesses — a problem that has worsened during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — and solutions from the public and private sectors.

Panelists will include Sen. Mark Warner; B. Doyle Mitchell, Jr., president and CEO of Industrial Bank; Staci Redmon, founder, president and CEO of Fairfax County-based Strategy and Management Services; and Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners. The free interactive event will be led by FCEDA President and CEO Victor Hoskins.

The panelists will discuss a range of topics, including efforts to ensure access to government-backed funding programs, such as the CARES Act, for minority-owned firms; what the financing community can do to close the gap regarding access to capital; and how minority entrepreneurs can best position themselves to increase their chances of being funded. A Q&A with the audience will follow.

Warner last month introduced the Jobs and Neighborhood Investment Act, S.4255, which calls for $17.9 billion in investment in low-income and minority communities hard hit by COVID-19. It has been co-sponsored by six Democratic senators and seven Republican senators.

For more information and to register please click here.

Amazon HQ2 small business opportunities accelerate

Momentum is building around construction of Amazon headquarters (aka HQ2) in Arlington, and the general contractor for the project has put out a call for small businesses in a variety of construction fields to learn how they can be part of the development.

Join Clark Construction Group to learn about subcontracting opportunities on Metropolitan Park, phases 6, 7 and 8, in an Amazon HQ2 Small Business Virtual Outreach Event next Wednesday, August 26 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Clark Construction is serving as general contractor for the first phase of new development at Amazon’s new Arlington headquarters. The project, otherwise known as Metropolitan Park, Phases 6, 7, & 8, is located in National Landing just blocks from Reagan National Airport and less than a mile from the Pentagon. Clark is looking for subcontractors for everything from drywall and carpentry to plumbing, electrical and even traffic control.

“This is the first major regional impact from the Amazon HQ2 project, the first of many ways Amazon is going to change Northern Virginia and the Washington area,” said Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the FCEDA. As director of Arlington Economic Development, he led the effort to land HQ2 in Arlington County and Northern Virginia in 2018.

(Rendering of Metropolitan Park courtesy of Clark Construction Group)

Clark Construction announced that it will demolish nearly 270,000 square feet of existing warehouse space in preparation for the construction of two, 22-story office buildings. The project encompasses nearly 2.1 million square feet of office space, as well as a 2,000-space, below-grade parking garage. The campus will also include 65,000 square feet of street-level retail, new and renovated public spaces, and more than a half-mile of protected bike lanes.

The project is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification and will feature green roofs, electric vehicle charging stations, and grey-water exchange and storm-water heat exchange systems, among other sustainable features. Amazon has committed to powering the facility with 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, according to Clark Construction.

The project is scheduled to be complete in spring 2023. When finished, the new buildings are expected to support approximately half of Amazon’s future 25,000 employees in the region.

“This project will be a great source of opportunities for companies in construction trades throughout the region,” Hoskins said. “It couldn’t come at a better time either, when the region has a 9 percent unemployment rate and so many businesses have suffered from the coronavirus pandemic.”

For more information and to register, click here.

August 20, 2020