Southern Virginia Rewrites Its Economic Story

Microsoft's Investments in Boydton and South Boston and its Regional Partnerships are Positioning the Region as a Tech Destination

A century ago, South Boston was a tobacco-producing stalwart. In 1927 alone, the town accounted for more than 20 million pounds in tobacco sales.

The Great Depression came and went. Tobacco still helped fuel the local economy, but it was never the same. South Boston had the same problem as so many other small towns across the country: It needed an economic spark.

Then Microsoft arrived in Southern Virginia in 2010. The Washington-based technology company has been a neighbor for nearly a decade, building a massive data center in nearby Boydton. The company’s latest community partnership has provided the needed spark to South Boston.

Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, South Boston

 

The town has cleared the remnants of a tobacco warehouse to construct the 15,000-square-foot SOVA Innovation Hub, the first new building in downtown South Boston in more than 40 years. The project, which will bring everything from a coworking space to electric car chargers to town, is the result of a partnership between Microsoft and local economic developers.

For Microsoft, it represents a bigger platform for its TechSpark initiative, a civic program to foster greater economic opportunity and job creation throughout the region. In 2017, Southern Virginia became one of six regions in the country selected for TechSpark. The program focuses on promoting skills and employability, increasing access to broadband, and helping local organizations thrive through digital transformation.

“We believe technology is a force for good, but we must ensure that everyone has access to the benefits it provides,” Virginia TechSpark Manager Jeremy Satterfield said. “Our goal is to make the opportunities of our rapidly evolving digital economy accessible to all people.”

South Boston-based Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC) played a major role in first bringing Microsoft to Southern Virginia a decade ago. MBC President Tad Deriso believes another symbol will hammer that point home: the iconic Microsoft logo emblazoned on the side of the building upon completion of construction in 2020.

South Boston, Halifax County

MBC has since partnered with Microsoft on its Airband Initiative to bring broadband access to rural communities using unclaimed TV bandwidth. So when Deriso learned that Microsoft was considering Southern Virginia for its TechSpark program, he knew his backyard was uniquely suited to benefit from the initiative.

The Virginia TechSpark win set the stage for the SOVA Innovation Hub collaboration.

“We said, ‘We need your brand, we need your smarts, and we need your passion and creativity,’” Deriso explained. “Microsoft is massive. But what we’ve found from their leadership — from the top all the way down — is that once they see an idea and the vision behind it, and say ‘Yeah, we can get behind this,’ then they’re behind it all the way.”

MBC is covering the $5 million price tag for the SOVA Innovation Hub. The building will only help expand the scope of the engagement Microsoft has already undertaken, including:

• Providing free community Wi-Fi throughout Boydton, thanks to a partnership with the local data center and Lake Country Internet.
• Launching the Microsoft Technology Education and Literacy in Schools computer science education program, which is now in every high school in the TechSpark region.
• Supporting IT training delivered by Southside Virginia Community College and the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center through curriculum assistance, hardware donations for IT labs, student scholarships, mentorship from Microsoft employees, and internships at the Microsoft data center, helping to create a highly skilled technical workforce in the region.
• Partnering with Halifax County Public Schools’ Mentor Role Model program to launch the region’s first Girls Who Code club, which gives students in grades 3–12 the opportunity to learn about STEM careers. 

Looking Ahead

As the partnerships and wins add up across Southern Virginia’s towns and counties, they’re not confined to those localities. Rather, they’re projected onto the greater region and, in some cases, the entire Commonwealth.

Carter believes Microsoft won’t be the last company to see the value of partnering with the region.

“We can use this same template for other projects so they can move this through the system quickly,” he said. “Speed to delivery — that’s what everyone is working toward.”

As for MBC’s Deriso, he’s already envisioned what success looks like inside and outside the SOVA Innovation Hub.

“I would love to see the coworking space crowded, and the parking lot packed,” he said. “And then someone is going to have to construct a new building.”

That’s more than a spark. That’s a tech-inspired economic revitalization.