Virginia Business spoke with Charles G. McDaniel, 61, a Fredericksburg native and president and CEO of Hilldrup Moving and Storage, one of the city’s most successful businesses. It was founded in 1903 by R.G. Hilldrup. McDaniel’s father, Charles, bought it in 1940. Today the company has 600 employees at nine locations scattered across the Southeast.

McDaniel has been a leader in political and business circles for many years. He is a a member of the board of directors of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance and a member of the state Board of Game and Inland Fisheries. He is also a member of several community boards, including the Secretary of the Commonwealth Advisory Committee and the Medicorp board of directors. McDaniel holds a degree in business administration from the University of Richmond.

The Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, a private economic development group that gets some public funding, is beginning a $3 million campaign to attract new companies. The goal is to bring in 4,000 new jobs and $120 million in new capital investment during the next four years. Why does the region need this campaign?

Once you get on the growth curve, there are only two things you can do. Grow or don’t grow, and nobody wants [no growth]. What you want is balanced growth. That’s the whole effort of the alliance. The only way you solve the financial problems of the counties is with economic growth, not with more houses. You’ve got to get the new jobs here, for the balance and for the economic base. You’d much rather have a warehouse paying taxes than 10 residential homes.

The region has had cooperative economic development initiatives before — through the local chamber of commerce, for example. What’s different about this one?

The most important thing you have is having the major players at the table, both public and private, working together. When you have that mix of major employers, educators, a major developer working with local governments, to me that is the news. Nobody’s against economic development, but the hard job has been getting everybody to work cooperatively. One of the most significant and subtle things that’s happened is people are willing to market one name, and that’s the Fredericksburg area.

What difference does the name make to the marketing program?

People [from outside the region] still have a strong association with the Civil War in this area. People will remember "Fredericksburg." It’s the best chance to market the region. Look at the success of Richmond [and the] Greater Richmond Economic Development Partnership. It’s the same principle here. Every locality has its strong pluses and minuses, but the only way you can market anything is to market a consistent and recognizable name.

Unemployment in the region is close to 2 percent. And nearly two-thirds of the region’s work force commute to jobs outside the region. What kind of new jobs does the alliance want, and who is going to fill them?

One of the things we want to do is to stop the people from traveling up the interstate and get the people to stay home. Once you get the jobs here, then it provides jobs for the people to stay here. And it keeps more of the money here.

We have an increasing labor pool [through population increases]. We have increasing educational facilities here to upgrade the work force for better jobs. And we have the ability to attract commuters back to their hometown. So you get workers from three different sources. And you want a good mixture of jobs. You can’t have all high-tech jobs, although you want some.

Local businesses are providing about 60 percent of the $3 million for the new campaign, and they have more than twice the representation on the alliance board of directors. Does it work better when the private sector is in control?

It’s not so much a domination by either side, it’s just having all the players reasonably represented at the table. Before, the economic development activity was controlled by the governments.

It’s smoother when a public-private partnership has a little bit more of the private sector. Then it doesn’t come under all of the rules of government. You can move quicker, you can do things, you can make decisions. That’s why the state government went to a public-private partnership. That’s why Richmond went to a public-private partnership and that’s why we ought to. You get it out of the realm of government control. [When] you have to go back and ask the [county] supervisors, so much of it gets to be political, when the emphasis now ought to be on results.

The biggest and most controversial development being proposed in the region is the Celebrate Virginia project. The Fredericksburg-based Silver Cos. is proposing a 2,100-acre development with new retail development, up to 4,000 hotel rooms, five golf courses and a major office park. Some critics of the project worry about its scale. What do you think of the project?

That project has the potential to put us on the map and to give this area a much stronger economic base. One of the things you have to look at, it’s not whether you like Celebrate Virginia, it’s whether you like any other alternative. [We] do nothing, and the land sits vacant. Or the next alternative, and most likely one, would be more homes. And that doesn’t do anything for you. The other alternative is a commercial development. Hotels, golf courses, those kind of attractions, I think are a better alternative [to housing].

The only thing better would be some high-tech company putting in a facility here. But everybody wishes for that. Silver can realistically put together a development that would do a lot of good for the area, in jobs, tax revenue, and broadening the economy. The only question is, how high a quality project will it be? And that’s unfolding.

The region has four major Civil War battlefields and a number of Colonial-era historic sites, such as Ferry Farm, George Washington’s boyhood home. The Celebrate Virginia project includes a "state-of-the-art" visitors center that will be part of the state’s network of centers. How big a part will tourism play in the region’s economy?

Gettysburg, Pa., lives on tourism. Myrtle Beach, S.C., lives on tourism. We want the tourism plus the industrial and commercial development. And we have the ability to do that now, with all the things that are going on, if we are smart enough to work together. What we’re trying to do is protect the [region’s] historic character, which we can do, and have it has a tourist destination, have it as a recreation destination, and have it as a commercial and industrial location. Put all that together and you have a diverse, strong local economy.

Roads in the Fredericksburg region are getting crowded — especially on State Route 3 near I-95, through the region’s main retail area. VDOT is proposing to build a $120 million bypass to the west of the region through largely rural areas. Critics say that will encourage sprawl. What’s the answer to the transportation problem?

Doing nothing is not an answer. The answer is some combination of rail and all the things connected to rail, [such as] commuter lots, improvements to existing roads and other new roads. It’s a combination of all of those things. That’s one of the big challenges of the area is to solve the transportation problems. I think we’re going to have to have some improvement in the roads or we’ll strangle the area.

[The outer connector] will have a limited number of interchanges. Then you have to have the right zoning by the local government of the land around it. Just because you build a road doesn’t mean you have all kinds of development.

What kind of work force training does this region have?

The two biggest and best examples are what’s going on at Mary Washington College’s James Monroe Center for Graduate and Professional Studies, and at Germanna Community College. Both those institutions are doing a lot in training workers for today’s jobs. They’re trying to accommodate the training needs of businesses and to provide whatever courses or training that businesses need. That’s one of the key components. There’s no thriving area that doesn’t have the educational component.

This interview has been edited for length and readability. Robert Burke conducted the interview for this report, and Lisa K. Garcia collected the data.