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Underserved Markets: Reaching the Region’s Untapped Markets
The City of Petersburg (click image to enlarge map) has long been a center of Virginia’s manufacturing and is now home to a growing cluster of IT and service consultants. INC. Magazine ranked the Richmond-Petersburg MSA as one of the top 25 metro areas in the United States for doing business in its May 2005 issue; in October 2005, national customer service company StarTek announced its plans to open a $5 million, 500-employee call center in the city.
Petersburg is also an ideal location for companies with strong markets throughout the South, such as North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Carl Zeiss, Boeringer Ingelheim Chemicals, Boar’s Head Products and Sealtech are among the national companies that have benefited from this advantage. The business opportunities in Petersburg abound as delineated by this Retail Market Place (RMP) Opportunity Gap chart.
For much of the last 30 years, the City of Hopewell (click map to enlarge image) has been a center for chemical engineering and production on the East Coast; that sector is currently as strong as ever, with Honeywell, Hercules Aqualon, and Degussa Goldschmidt operating out of Hopewell.
The city has a strong manufacturing base—25 percent of the city’s workforce currently works in manufacturing—with the aforementioned chemical companies and Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, which creates paper and containerboard. The business opportunities in Hopewell abound as delineated by this Retail Market Place Opportunity Gap chart.
Located north of Petersburg and southeast of Chesterfield County, the City of Colonial Heights (click image to enlarge map) serves as the commercial/retail center for the Gateway Region.
Colonial Heights has promoted commercial development both in its Southpark area, near Interstate 95, and along U.S. Route 1, and both major retailers and small companies have expanded into the city. The city has expanded its infrastructure to meet the growing demand: since 2004, three new major office complexes have opened along Route 1 in order to meet the growing business sector. The business opportunities in Colonial Heights abound as delineated by this Retail Market Place Opportunity Gap chart.