CapCenter set up a drive-up loan closing table in March as a social distancing work-around at its current home up the street. (BizSense file)
It doesn’t feel right to call this a “best of” list, given how crappy of a year it was for so many businesses.
But it was a year unlike any other, resulting in some fascinating stories about local companies trying to survive a tricky situation. And many of them are worth a recap and re-read.
Here’s a rundown of how the pandemic touched different industries in Richmond in different ways, and all the creative measures businesses put into place on the fly. Let’s hope this is the one and only year we have to do a COVID recap.
No industry was immune
The pandemic left no stone unturned when disrupting the flow of normal business. Every industry imaginable has had to adjust and BizSense documented many examples:
Field hospitals
The Greater Richmond Convention Center.
Things got downright bleak in the spring when discussions of the need for field hospitals began. With event venues and hotels sitting unused, many were floated as possible locations for such a hospital if one was needed. The massive Richmond Convention Center was given the nod, but fortunately that dire threshold has yet to be reached. Hotel rooms also found alternate uses.
Layoffs
The early days of the pandemic hit specific industries particularly hard, leading to layoffs and furloughs in architecture, video production and even local government.
Housing heats up
While the number of new home listings rose across the region in the early weeks of the pandemic, there also was a steep number of homes that were taken off the market as its effects began to be felt.
Despite those early stats, the region’s housing market rebounded and has continued to defy the economic slowdown, with a surge in sales activity at levels not reached in years.
With all those home sales came the need to keep the mortgage pipeline flowing and a local lender got extra creative to maximize social distancing at the closing table.
The booze must flow
(BizSense graphic)
When taprooms closed in March, local breweries immediately dove into the delivery business, sometimes with brewery owners themselves out making deliveries. The process for beer delivery was expedited in part by the Virginia ABC, which sped up its review process for licenses.
The downside to the heavy reliance on packaged sales was a shortage of cans.
Those in the hard liquor business also got help from the ABC. The state agency loosened regulations on things like delivering and shipping liquor, which had a major effect on local distilleries.
Those new rules, along with pandemic stockpiling, led a spike in liquor sales in Richmond.
Deals squashed by COVID
Jim Gottier’s pool hall in the John Marshall building downtown has closed. (BizSense file photo)
The pandemic killed at least two deals that had been in the works to sell local businesses, including Citizen restaurant and downtown pool hall Greenleaf’s. Both businesses ultimately were forced to shut down.
But there were also some bold openings of new businesses despite the pandemic. An indoor golf simulator was ready to open for business just as the pandemic came ashore and its owners were forced to decide how to proceed. And the Charlottesville edition of Richmond’s Quirk Hotel opened its doors at an inopportune time, but still opened nevertheless.
PPP
There was once a time when PPP wasn’t part of our everyday vernacular. Those days are gone. Here’s a recap of all the local companies that were approved for a PPP loan in the first stimulus bill this summer.
Pandemic pivots
Shantelle Brown, owner and operator of Hope Pharmacy in Church Hill.
The pandemic pivot became a popular phrase over the last 10 months, and for good reason. Here are some of the most interesting pivots made locally:
Pandemic hurts Ledbury’s dress shirt sales but its face mask business is booming
Phish’s chef rolls out frozen burrito delivery venture in Richmond
Church Hill pharmacy turns to pet meds, door-to-door marketing
BizSense Assembly
Pulling our own pandemic pivot, COVID forced BizSense to quickly shift from its usual brand of live in-person events to live virtual gatherings.
Almost as soon as coronavirus came ashore in earnest in March, we launched the BizSense Assembly, a weekly series of live Zoom-based panel discussions focused on how segments of the local economy were combating a world turned suddenly upside down.
Hard Hat Happy Hours go virtual
We also successfully virtualized our popular Hard Hat Happy Hour event series, minus the happy hour. The result is a monthly series of video tours of the most noteworthy new real estate developments in town. Check out our YouTube channel to see each episode.
CapCenter set up a drive-up loan closing table in March as a social distancing work-around at its current home up the street. (BizSense file)
It doesn’t feel right to call this a “best of” list, given how crappy of a year it was for so many businesses.
But it was a year unlike any other, resulting in some fascinating stories about local companies trying to survive a tricky situation. And many of them are worth a recap and re-read.
Here’s a rundown of how the pandemic touched different industries in Richmond in different ways, and all the creative measures businesses put into place on the fly. Let’s hope this is the one and only year we have to do a COVID recap.
No industry was immune
The pandemic left no stone unturned when disrupting the flow of normal business. Every industry imaginable has had to adjust and BizSense documented many examples:
Field hospitals
The Greater Richmond Convention Center.
Things got downright bleak in the spring when discussions of the need for field hospitals began. With event venues and hotels sitting unused, many were floated as possible locations for such a hospital if one was needed. The massive Richmond Convention Center was given the nod, but fortunately that dire threshold has yet to be reached. Hotel rooms also found alternate uses.
Layoffs
The early days of the pandemic hit specific industries particularly hard, leading to layoffs and furloughs in architecture, video production and even local government.
Housing heats up
While the number of new home listings rose across the region in the early weeks of the pandemic, there also was a steep number of homes that were taken off the market as its effects began to be felt.
Despite those early stats, the region’s housing market rebounded and has continued to defy the economic slowdown, with a surge in sales activity at levels not reached in years.
With all those home sales came the need to keep the mortgage pipeline flowing and a local lender got extra creative to maximize social distancing at the closing table.
The booze must flow
(BizSense graphic)
When taprooms closed in March, local breweries immediately dove into the delivery business, sometimes with brewery owners themselves out making deliveries. The process for beer delivery was expedited in part by the Virginia ABC, which sped up its review process for licenses.
The downside to the heavy reliance on packaged sales was a shortage of cans.
Those in the hard liquor business also got help from the ABC. The state agency loosened regulations on things like delivering and shipping liquor, which had a major effect on local distilleries.
Those new rules, along with pandemic stockpiling, led a spike in liquor sales in Richmond.
Deals squashed by COVID
Jim Gottier’s pool hall in the John Marshall building downtown has closed. (BizSense file photo)
The pandemic killed at least two deals that had been in the works to sell local businesses, including Citizen restaurant and downtown pool hall Greenleaf’s. Both businesses ultimately were forced to shut down.
But there were also some bold openings of new businesses despite the pandemic. An indoor golf simulator was ready to open for business just as the pandemic came ashore and its owners were forced to decide how to proceed. And the Charlottesville edition of Richmond’s Quirk Hotel opened its doors at an inopportune time, but still opened nevertheless.
PPP
There was once a time when PPP wasn’t part of our everyday vernacular. Those days are gone. Here’s a recap of all the local companies that were approved for a PPP loan in the first stimulus bill this summer.
Pandemic pivots
Shantelle Brown, owner and operator of Hope Pharmacy in Church Hill.
The pandemic pivot became a popular phrase over the last 10 months, and for good reason. Here are some of the most interesting pivots made locally:
Pandemic hurts Ledbury’s dress shirt sales but its face mask business is booming
Phish’s chef rolls out frozen burrito delivery venture in Richmond
Church Hill pharmacy turns to pet meds, door-to-door marketing
BizSense Assembly
Pulling our own pandemic pivot, COVID forced BizSense to quickly shift from its usual brand of live in-person events to live virtual gatherings.
Almost as soon as coronavirus came ashore in earnest in March, we launched the BizSense Assembly, a weekly series of live Zoom-based panel discussions focused on how segments of the local economy were combating a world turned suddenly upside down.
Hard Hat Happy Hours go virtual
We also successfully virtualized our popular Hard Hat Happy Hour event series, minus the happy hour. The result is a monthly series of video tours of the most noteworthy new real estate developments in town. Check out our YouTube channel to see each episode.