The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) is the state’s economic development agency and is responsible for administering many of Virginia’s state economic development incentive programs, including the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund (COF) and the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP).
The COF is a discretionary incentive available to be awarded by the Governor to secure a business location or expansion project for Virginia. Grants are awarded to localities on a local matching basis with the expectation that the grant will result in a favorable location decision for the Commonwealth. VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP) provides services and funding to companies creating new jobs or experiencing technological change.
The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TRRC) was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1999 to promote economic growth and development in Virginia’s tobacco farming dependent communities, using proceeds of the national tobacco settlement. All of the localities in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region are within the service area of the TRRC.
The Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity (GO Virginia) was created by the passage of legislation during the 2016 General Assembly session. Launched by Virginia’s senior business leadership, GO Virginia supports programs to create more high-paying jobs through incentivized collaboration between business, education, and government to diversify and strengthen the economy in every region of the Commonwealth.
All of the localities within Southwest Virginia’s e-Region are located within GO Virginia Region One.
The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority (VSBFA) is the Commonwealth of Virginia’s business and economic development financing arm. Aligned within Virginia’s Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, the VSBFA offers programs to provide businesses, not-for-profits, and economic development authorities with the financing needed for economic growth and expansion throughout the Commonwealth.
To accomplish this goal, VSBFA offers loans directly to businesses and nonprofits, credit enhancements to banks lending to businesses and nonprofits, bond financing to benefit for-profit businesses, and other programs.
The Virginia Enterprise Zone (VEZ) program is a partnership between state and local governments encouraging job creation and private investment. VEZ accomplishes this by designating Enterprise Zones throughout the state and providing two grant-based incentives, the Job Creation Grant (JCG) and the Real Property Investment Grant (RPIG), to qualified investors and job creators within those zones, while the locality provides local incentives. Enterprise Zones in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region are located in Dickenson, Scott, Tazewell, and Wise counties. Local enterprise zone incentives for qualifying companies vary by locality.
Virginia authorizes its communities to establish Technology Zones to encourage growth in targeted industries. Two of the state’s technology zones are located in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region in the Lonesome Pine Regional Business & Technology Park in Wise and the Russell Regional Business Technology Park in Lebanon.
Opportunity Zones are federal economic development and community development tax benefit areas established as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act available to investors with capital gains designed to encourage long-term private investment in low-income urban, suburban, and rural census tracts. Every county and city in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region has an Opportunity Zone.
The federal HUBZone program fuels small-business growth in historically underutilized business zones with a goal of awarding at least 3% of federal contract dollars to HUBZone-certified companies each year. Most areas of Southwest Virginia’s e-Region are located within a HUBZone.
Planning District Commissions can assist with information and grant writing concerning a variety of programs including those through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. The Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission (CPPDC) serves Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, and Tazewell counties; and the Lenowisco Planning District Commission (LPDC) serves Lee, Wise, and Scott counties and the City of Norton. The Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission (CPPDC) also operates its own Revolving Loan Fund.
Each county and city in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region has a local industrial or economic development authority, which can assist in a variety of ways and with any local incentives that may be available. These local IDAs and EDAs are a component of the county/city governing body and are the economic development arms of their respective localities. VCEDA works very closely with these local IDAs and EDAs in the development of incentive and financing proposals. In addition to these, the Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority (LPRIFA) and the Cumberland Industrial Facilities Authority (CIFA) are regional industrial facilities authorities created to promote regional cooperation and revenue-sharing on regionally significant projects and properties.
