Tired of bad news? Here's some good news.

It may go down as the year of lost jobs, but good things also happened in Hampton Roads’ economy in 2009. Forget about the layoffs and plant closings for today. As the nation suffered in the recession, Hampton Roads hurt less.

First-time homebuyers lifted the housing market thanks to a tax credit from Uncle Sam. Trader Joe’s opened at Hilltop, and penny-pinching shoppers flocked to Dollar Trees everywhere. It cost less to fill up your gas tank, and the air got clearer at your local eateries and watering holes. 

And it turned out that those big cranes down on the waterfront may be worth hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars to the state. Here’s a look at what The Pilot’s business news team thinks are the top “good news” stories of 2009:

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Our economy is among the strongest

Facing the worst downturn in more than a half-century, some Hampton Roads businesses scrapped or postponed projects. Some laid off employees.

The region, however, has weathered the recession better than many parts of the country did. In a series of reports on economic activity in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. , said the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News region ranked among the top 20 areas in performance.

Hampton Roads was one of only a half-dozen where the output of goods and services surpassed their pre-recession peak by the summer of 2009, noted Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program in a report for the July-through-September period. The Brookings program evaluates the strength of metro areas according to changes in their employment and jobless rates, output of goods and services, and home prices. Full story

–  Tom Shean, The Pilot

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Boost from first-time homebuyers tax credit

During the early months of 2009, the housing market in Hampton Roads looked to be on life support as the recession and credit crunch gripped would-be homebuyers.

Following dismal sales figures in late 2008, home sales plummeted in January to the lowest point since 2005, enough to put even the most optimistic real estate agents in a dour mood.

But Congress soon threw a life preserver by including an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers in the stimulus bill signed by the president in mid-February.

The tax credit was available to first-time homebuyers or any buyer who hadn’t owned a principal residence for three years. First-time homebuyers were able to use the credit on either their 2008 or 2009 income taxes.

It received a lukewarm reception from the housing industry, which had lobbied for a $15,000 credit for all buyers. In the months that followed it appeared to have little impact as home sales continued their steady year-over-year declines.

But by June, sales activity began to turn. In South Hampton Roads, 1,238 homes sold that month, up 9.3 percent over June 2008, according to the local multiple listing service.  Full story.

–  Josh Brown, The Pilot

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Trader Joe's opens in Virginia Beach

Some grocery shoppers in South Hampton Roads waited more than three years, but they finally got one of their most fervent wishes: a Trader Joe’s store.

The popular gourmet grocery chain opened its first location on this side of the water May 8 at 503 Hilltop Plaza on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach.

On opening day, Trader Joe’s fans flocked to the 13,000-square-foot store, which quickly reached capacity. A line of expectant customers stretched down the sidewalk outside, while shoppers inside waited as long as 45 minutes to check out.

Locals began clamoring for a closer store after Trader Joe’s opened in Newport News in December 2005. Two Virginia Beach businesswomen launched an e-mail campaign, imploring city officials and Trader Joe’s executives in Monrovia, Calif., to bring a store to the city. They collected more than 1,300 signatures.

– Carolyn Shapiro, The Pilot

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Cash for clunkers fuels auto sales

The federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program turned out to be the fuel that local auto dealers needed to rev up car buying after more than six months of sputtering sales.

The program paid drivers as much as $4,500 if they traded in older, less-efficient vehicles for those with better fuel economy. The program started with $1 billion and officially launched July 1 but took three more weeks to get set up.

Within a week, so many clunker-laden consumers had come to claim the cash that the program looked close to running out of money. Dealers complained of back ups in the government’s electronic system, which processed transactions for approval. Congress added $2 billion more to the program in early August.

Old pickups and SUVs stacked up in clunker piles on dealers’ lots, as buyers snapped up more efficient vehicles. By the end of August, the funds ran out and Cash for Clunkers came to a close.

– CS

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Restaurant smoking ban takes effect

Many people are able to breathe easy after a statewide smoking ban took effect in Virginia’s 17,500 restaurants and bars in December. The ban, enacted by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, prohibits lighting up in restaurants that are open to the public unless the establishment has a patio or separate ventilated room.

Some Hampton Roads restaurant and bar owners interviewed last month say the law was long-awaited. Now, they don’t have to go home with an ashtray stench on their clothes or continue to damage their lungs by inhaling second hand smoke. It also may spur more dining out, many restaurateurs hoped.

Others, though, worry about the effect the ban will have on business, especially during happy hour, when some customers seek to relieve stress with a cocktail and a cigarette.

Regardless of the effect on business, the public health benefit of reducing secondhand smoke is obvious.

– Jaedda Armstrong, The Pilot

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Dollar Tree's sales soar in downturn

Tough times for consumers proved a golden ticket for Dollar Tree Inc., which saw sales soar in 2009.

Dollar Tree customers began doing more everyday shopping for groceries, household cleaning supplies and beauty products at the stores. Dollar Tree, based in Chesapeake, obliged by increasing those “consumable” offerings on its shelves.

All year, the retailer posted consistent sales increases in comparable stores – as high as 9 percent in one quarter. Comparable stores are those open at least 12 months, providing the best look at year-over-year performance.

With a drop in expenses, including lower fuel and transportation costs, Dollar Tree’s profit jumped 58 percent in the third quarter, which ended Oct. 31.

In April, Dollar Tree made the Fortune 500 list for the first time, squeaking in at No. 499 with 2008 sales of $4.64 billion.

– CS

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Energy prices stay low

It cost less to gas up the car, turn on the lights, and heat and cool the house in 2009.

Down from the peak of $4 a gallon in July 2008, gasoline prices remained much lower than they were last year.

A year ago, gas prices fell as low as $1.46 a gallon, according to AAA. They subsequently climbed, rising as high as $2.55 a gallon Nov. 1.

Falling fuel costs also lowered consumers’ utility bills.

Since July 1, Dominion Virginia Power received approval to drop its “fuel factor” rate three times, which brought bills down a combined $9.66 from where they were a year ago for customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month.

The fuel factor, just one portion of the supply charges on Dominion’s monthly bill, covers the utility’s wholesale costs to buy fuel to run plants and is passed through to customers with no markup.

Virginia Natural Gas and Columbia Gas of Virginia typically file quarterly to adjust their fuel rates to reflect wholesale energy prices. The gas companies’ rates crept up late this year heading into the heavy-demand winter season but remain well below levels a year ago.

VNG’s residential customers who use the average amount of natural gas this month – 146 Ccf (hundred cubic feet) – will pay about $40 less, or about 20 percent, than they did in January 2009.

With Columbia Gas’ latest fuel rate, which went into effect in December, residential customers with average usage of 100 Ccf are seeing bills about 12 percent, or $19, lower than they were during the same period last year.

– JA

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Private bids raise profile of region's ports

CenterPoint Properties Trust turned a lot of heads in March when it offered to lease the Virginia Port Authority’s terminals for 60 years in a deal it said was worth $3.5 billion.

The surprise offer kicked off the state’s public-private partnership process, requiring it to seek other bids.

Two more – from The Carlyle Group and a partnership of Carrix Inc. and Goldman Sachs – came in by the late-July deadline.

Any money such deals pay could help ease the state’s budget woes or go to much-needed transportation projects.

Adding another wrinkle to the bidding, it emerged in August that the port authority was talking with APM Terminals about leasing its big, new terminal in Portsmouth.

No matter how they fare once the state gets around to reviewing them further, the three proposals by well-respected firms raised the port’s profile.

– Robert McCabe, The Pilot

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Sparta Inc. heads to Suffolk

In March, state officials announced San Diego-based Sparta Inc. would bring a major operation to Suffolk and hire 198 workers, with salaries averaging about $43,000, by 2014.

Eight months later, Sparta leased 73,500 square feet of industrial space at a warehouse on Harbour View Boulevard.

Sparta is the parent of Cobham Composite Products, formerly known as Sparta Composite Products, which makes parts for major weapons systems.

Kaine originally announced that Sparta would build a $13.2 million manufacturing plant in the Northgate Commerce Park, but that deal appeared to fall apart in the summer.

In October, the Suffolk Economic Development Authority revealed it would give $824,400 in public money to help land the contractor somewhere else in the city – good news for the region’s work force.

– JB

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Low interest rates mean lower payments

It was a tough year for savers, especially those who rely on bank certificates of deposit for income. But low interest rates enabled homebuyers, car buyers and other borrowers to slash their monthly payments.

While the federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers helped generate business for local mortgage lenders, the low interest rates also spurred refinancing activity. Though many lenders made their loan-underwriting standards more stringent, some borrowers were able to qualify simply because the rates were lower.

All year the Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates at record lows to stimulate lending and boost the economy.

However, the benefits of low rates have yet to show up in bank lending, especially in lending to businesses, said Dennis Gartman, a Suffolk resident whose daily newsletter tracks the financial markets for investors and traders.

“The Fed is giving money away,” Gartman said, but many bankers remain wary of making new loans and seem content to buy low-yielding Treasury securities instead, he said.

– TS