BizSense Beat is a weekly collaboration between VPM News and Richmond BizSense that brings you the top business stories during NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.
Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of Sept. 1, 2023:
Shake Shack orders up first Chesterfield location
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
Shake Shack is making it a double in the Richmond market.
The New York-based burger joint is planning to open a new location at 1371 Huguenot Road in Chesterfield, according to permits filed with the county last week.
It is set to occupy a roughly 3,000-square-foot new-construction building with a drive-thru near Chesterfield Towne Center. The shell of the building was completed in recent months and a tenant up-fit permit lists Shake Shack as the building’s lone occupant.
It’s currently unclear when the location will open.
‘The goal is long-term sustainable employment’: Nonprofit CEO discusses Good Foods Grocery deal
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
After years of offering other sorts of support services for people with autism, Commonwealth Autism decided it was time for a program expansion with the introduction of workforce training.
Naturally, the Henrico-based nonprofit needed a workplace to do that.
Tyler Hart, the organization’s CEO, said it had been on the hunt for such a venue and looked at different types of businesses in the area, before it stumbled upon the right fit in South Richmond.
The 28-year-old nonprofit has struck a deal to purchase Good Foods Grocery, a longtime independent local grocery store at Stony Point Village shopping center that was looking for a buyer ahead of the retirement of founder Donnie Caffery.
Rivers Edge Coffee Co. eyes regional expansion as new Hanover locations prepare to open
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
A Mechanicsville coffee shop is branching out in its home county of Hanover ahead of plans to expand more broadly around the region through a franchise model.
Rivers Edge Coffee Co., formerly known as Little Bean Coffee Co., expects to open new outposts in Montpelier and near the county’s airport by early October.
Those will add to its original shop at 7032 Mechanicsville Turnpike, which opened in 2019.
The upcoming Montpelier location will be a coffee trailer stationed at the Edward Jones branch at 16644 Mountain Road.
City EDA ponders disposition of Intermediate Terminal building, other properties
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
After a few staid years, the fate of the Intermediate Terminal building along the riverfront is once again being weighed.
The Richmond Economic Development Authority, which owns the old, stilted warehouse at 3101 E. Main St., held a committee meeting last week at which it discussed in closed session the disposition of the property, as well as a 3-acre EDA-owned site across the street at 4303 and 4319 E. Main St.
While the EDA wouldn’t say explicitly what was discussed regarding the building at last week’s meeting, Sledge said after the meeting that the group is in the early stages of exploring its options for the terminal property and the acreage across the street.
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