About VCEDA
Helping create jobs in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region
Southwest Virginia’s e-Region is marketed by the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority also known as VCEDA.
VCEDA is a regional economic development authority created by Virginia’s General Assembly in 1988 to enhance and diversify the economic base of the seven-county, one-city, coal-producing region in southwestern Virginia. VCEDA is the organization officially created by the General Assembly to promote the economic development of this region.
VCEDA works very closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), which is the state’s economic development agency. VCEDA also works very closely with the local industrial/economic development authorities in the region.
Since its creation in 1988, VCEDA has helped bring tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in approved funding for hundreds of projects throughout the coalfield region. Studies have shown that VCEDA has also significantly reduced the region’s unemployment rate and improved the diversification of the region’s economy.
The region includes Lee, Wise, Scott, Buchanan, Russell, Tazewell and Dickenson counties and the City of Norton. It is an emerging East Coast center for key areas for business – electronic information technology, energy, education, emerging technologies and entrepreneurs.
A trendsetter in broadband and wireless access in rural America, Southwest Virginia’s e-Region has low costs of doing business, the workforce, tailored training, available buildings, ready-to-go sites in new technology and business parks, and a way of life that makes employers and their employee families very happy.
To encourage diversification and create new jobs, VCEDA manages unique financing programs funded by taxes paid by the coal and natural gas industries in the region.
Financing is based in part upon the number of new jobs created, wage rates and amount of private investment. To find out more about VCEDA’s financing programs, Click Here.
If you are interested in locating, expanding, or starting a business in Southwest Virginia’s e-Region, please contact us at 1-800-735-9999 or by Email.
“ Our company had restructured our manufacturing and physical layout and was still experiencing bottlenecks and inefficiencies that were costing us money. VCEDA met with us and proposed a solution that will improve our manufacturing efficiency, streamline our logistics, and provide redundancies for utility services. In addition, our company will expand into two locations to better serve our current customers and a new market division.”
Todd Elswick
President , Paul’s Fan Company
” With our recent expansion into Southwest Virginia, we have discovered an untapped talent pool as well as professional and motivated organizations such as VCEDA that will ensure our continued success. In VCEDA we have a partner that is committed to developing and maximizing Southwest Virginia’s greatest resource, its people. Perhaps the greatest endorsement of this partnership is SAIC’s commitment to seek expansion opportunities within the region.”
Rob Beavers
Service Delivery Manager, VITA Program, SAIC
Unique incentive and financing programs to encourage job creation and economic diversification.
*Financial support for:
- Purchase of real estate
- Site grading
- Building construction
- Equipment and machinery
- Industrial parks
- Direct loans to private, for-profit employers & industrial development authorities
* Financing is based in part upon the number of new jobs created, wage rates and amount of private investment.