The City’s Office of Minority Business Development (OMBD) is proud to offer technical assistance and training activities on a variety of topics, as well as networking opportunities for minority and emerging small businesses. As contracting and development opportunities in Richmond increase, OMBD remains committed to providing maximum opportunities for minority, disadvantaged and emerging businesses. It is the agency’s mission to help these businesses participate in the full array of contracting opportunities that the city of Richmond has to offer. “We remain committed to having an inclusive environment that can lead to an increase in the number of minority-owned and emerging businesses that participate in city projects,” said Mayor Dwight C. Jones. While OMBD's programming encourages minorities to start new businesses, the agency is equally focused on ensuring that existing minority and emerging businesses take the necessary steps to achieve substantive growth. Programs are geared ...

Mayor Dwight C. Jones joined developers Mike Glass and Ron Hunt, managing partners of 214 East Grace Street, LLC, in celebrating the start of an adaptive rehabilitation construction project at 213 East Broad Street and 214 East Grace Street today. As a symbolic mark to the beginning of the construction, the three joined other project stakeholders in knocking down a wall with sledgehammers within the Grace Street property. “Both of these properties will provide affordable live-work spaces that can accommodate cultural enterprises along our Broad Street corridor and Arts District,” said Mayor Jones. “I commend the efforts of the developers, Mike Glass and Ron Hunt, as they begin the process of bringing life back into these properties.” The $3.6 million project is a public/private partnership that will feature more than 3,000 square feet of commercial/retail space and 21 affordable rental units once completed. Virginia Community Capital is the primary project lender and will provid...

On Tuesday, November 1, the City of Richmond's Department of Economic and Community Development rolled out the Shockoe Revitalization Strategy for the Shockoe Bottom to guide the area's future growth. The Strategy will build upon previous planning efforts and include up-to-date demographic and economic profiles, a retail gap analysis, and existing and future market competition. The Strategy will provide guidance toward effectively implementing the vision. Click on the top two images in the link below to see the presentation from yesterday's meeting and the full Shockoe Revitalization Strategy. Shockoe Bottom Economic Revitalization Strategy

Mayor Dwight C. Jones introduced the Healthy Richmond Campaign today during the City’s Employee Health and Safety Fair at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The Healthy Richmond Campaign is a new City initiative designed to promote the improved health of City employees and residents by addressing the disparities affecting access to health care and health resources in the city of Richmond. Mayor Jones stated that, “Launching the Healthy Richmond Campaign internally during the City’s Employee Health and Safety Fair presented an excellent opportunity to promote this initiative which includes a comprehensive workplace health promotion program. A public kick-off event is currently being scheduled for next spring. The goal of the Healthy Richmond Campaign is to promote healthier lifestyles and behaviors that will improve individual health and help prevent many of the chronic diseases and illnesses that affect far too many youth and adults in our city.” The Healthy Richmond Campaig...

~City to receive $62.3 million repayment~ Mayor Dwight C. Jones today applauded the Richmond Metropolitan Authority (RMA) for voting 11-0 to repay approximately $62.3 million owed to the City of Richmond. “I am pleased that the RMA has taken this action as it was the right thing for the City and also benefits the RMA. There are many things this administration has been working to set right for the City of Richmond. Where our financial picture is concerned, our paramount goal has been to move us toward AAA bond rating. We have taken several important steps, like changing to twice a year tax collections, which saves $1-3 million per year and eliminating the Broad Street CDA, which saved the City approximately $12 million. Securing this repayment of outstanding debt is a critical piece of our effort to position the City to obtain the desired bond rating. "As I have said throughout this process, this is a sound financial decision and is in the best interest of the City. The RMA Boa...

Project Rebuild to Help Stabilize Richmond Home Prices The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones toured the 800 block of North 27 th Street in the Church Hill neighborhood to demonstrate how President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act and Project Rebuild can help stabilize home prices, revitalize neighborhoods, create jobs, and support local economies throughout the City of Richmond. “Project Rebuild is fundamentally an investment not just in hard hit communities, but also in the hardworking families of Church Hill who have watched their home values plummet on average by $5,000-to-$10,000 simply because they live on a block with a foreclosure sign. The Project Rebuild investment will not only help stabilize individual home prices on the block, but it sends neighbors a hopeful message – we believe in you, we are investing in you, stay here and raise your family,” said Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Depa...

Mayor Dwight C. Jones joined City Council Vice-President Ellen Robertson, Fifth Street Baptist Church Pastor F. Todd Gray, and Workforce Investment Board Chair Deborah Wickham, in a ribbon cutting ceremony today to celebrate the opening of the One Stop Resource & Missions Center at Fifth Street Baptist Church, 2800 Third Avenue. The new share site is the first joint Workforce Development Center in the City of Richmond and will offer services and resources to City residents to better prepare and search for jobs. The center will partner with RESOURCE, the Capital Region Workforce Investment Board, to teach classes on résumé writing, interview skills, and networking. Trained volunteers will staff the center and serve as career agents and job coaches for interested residents looking for work. “We know that many Richmonders are struggling, and it is important for the City to partner with the community to be able to provide centers like this,” said Mayor Jones. “In our region, the...