Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.

Robert Shircliff and John Rayl, who are developing the River Glen community, are trying to make it as environmentally sensitive as possible. None of the homes will be visible from River Road. More than half of the 220-acre site will stay undeveloped, with the homes being built on two-acre lots on the remaining land.

River Glen is about five miles from Fall Hill Avenue. Battlefield Homes is among the companies that will be building houses in the subdivision starting this fall.

An affiliate of CSG Partners and Ryan Development purchased the land in late 2007 for $8.35 million. The property consists of six separate parcels zoned light industrial.

The land is along Centreport Parkway near the airport entrance, which is where the auction is scheduled at 11 a.m. June 12. Tranzon Fox is scheduled to handle the auction.

The owners of the land didn’t personally guarantee the loan from M&T Bank, said Rich McDaniel, a senior vice president for CBRE who for several years has been looking for users interested in the land.

The owners don’t think the land is worth the amount they have on the loan and have therefore decided to let the property be sold at auction unless a last-minute deal can be worked out with the lender or a third-party buyer, McDaniel said.

Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.

Greg Hiebert helps run the local Chamber’s Leadership Fredericksburg program. He also works as a coach with Mary Washington Healthcare. SUZANNE CARR ROSSI / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

Though he’s lived in the Atlanta area for two decades, in many ways Fredericksburg feels like a second home to Greg Hiebert.

He’s greeted warmly by the staff at the downtown Courtyard by Marriott, where he stays when in town to help run the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Fredericksburg program and meet with Mary Washington Healthcare executives. When he goes out to dinner downtown, Hiebert knows more people than when he’s back home.

Given the role Hiebert has played in the local business community over the past decade, it’s hardly surprising that he is so well-known and well-liked. He estimates that he has worked with about 600 influential members of the local community during that time.

Hiebert’s connection with Fredericksburg dates back to 2003, a year after the U.S. Military Academy graduate started his Leadership Forward company in the Atlanta area.

That year, Fred Rankin was looking for someone to be his executive coach and help develop the leadership team at MediCorp Health System, which is now called Mary Washington Healthcare.

As CEO of MediCorp, Rankin found it hard to confide in anybody with whom he worked. He was looking for a confidant, and he wanted someone who could bring his senior leadership team together and help the organization develop future leaders.

Hiebert’s new firm was one of many that responded to MediCorp’s request for proposals to provide leadership consulting services. When Rankin first met with Hiebert in late 2003, the two quickly clicked and formed a close relationship that continues to this day.

Starting in 2004 and continuing for several years, Hiebert and his staff led frequent sessions to unify and strengthen MediCorp’s leadership team. He worked individually with Rankin to reinvigorate the CEO and help him understand his strengths and weaknesses. Hiebert still works with Rankin and Mary Washington Healthcare, though not as frequently as during the early years.

“It’s been a great relationship,” Rankin said. “He’s helped me immensely.”

While Hiebert was working with Rankin and his staff in the mid-2000s, the local Chamber was formulating a plan to launch Leadership Fredericksburg. MediCorp officials introduced Hiebert to Susan Spears, who was heading the Chamber’s efforts to start Leadership Fredericksburg.

Spears also clicked with Hiebert, whose firm was chosen to help the Chamber develop and run the nine-month leadership program.

Leadership Fredericksburg started in September 2007. Hiebert and Spears, who is now the Chamber’s president, are still running the program. The sixth class graduated Friday, and prospective members of the seventh class are now applying.

About 150 people have now completed the Leadership Fredericksburg program. Mary Washington Healthcare has been the title sponsor every year and will be again when the program starts for a seventh time in September, with Hiebert and Spears again at the helm.

Leadership Fredericksburg covers a variety of topics including team-building, generative listening and crucial conversations. Participants, all of whom are assigned mentors, also work on a service project for area nonprofits. Each participant’s leadership style and personality are analyzed and individually reviewed by Spears and Hiebert. Community leaders speak to the class at each session.

A tradition that has developed during one of the Friday Leadership Fredericksburg sessions is an all-day tour of the Chancellorsville battlefield, including a discussion of leadership lessons from the Civil War battle. That is a natural fit for Hiebert, who has transitioned from a military background into a successful career in leadership consulting.

Hiebert graduated from the U.S. Military Academy with a major in general engineering in 1981 before spending the next 12 years serving in the Army and teaching courses at West Point on leadership, ethics and organizational change. During that time he picked up a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

In 1993 he began a decade of work in Atlanta that included stints at McKinsey & Co., BellSouth Telecommunications, Struthers Martin Inc. and Egon Zehnder International.

Hiebert, who is married with four children, started Leadership Forward with business partner Paul Litten in 2002. Since then, Hiebert has coached 155 executives all over the country. Hiebert’s philosophy is grounded in the belief that leadership plays a crucial role in an organization’s success or failure.

“I wanted to play a part in helping build more effective, profound and positive leadership in organizations and communities,” Hiebert says.

Spears said Hiebert brings huge amounts of positive energy, empathy and knowledge to his role with Leadership Fredericksburg.

“He just has that special personality that you can’t bottle,” she said.

Hiebert has come to love Fredericksburg during his decade of encounters with it. He said the city “represents the best of America” and is happy to be part of the community’s efforts to develop a “critical mass” of local leadership through the Chamber program.

“My life has been so enriched by the opportunity,” Hiebert said.

One of Hiebert’s interests is singing, an endeavor that he practices publicly on occasion as a way to stretch his own comfort levels. Here is video of Hiebert singing at Friday’s Leadership Fredericksburg graduation ceremony.

Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.

Demolition work is under way at a former hotel and restaurant property in front of the Spotsylvania Towne Centre.

Buildings that formerly housed a hotel and restaurant in front of the Spotsylvania Towne Centre off State Route 3 are being demolished, and the land will eventually be redeveloped.

One of the Fredericksburg properties being demolished formerly held a Ramada Inn and America’s Best Value Inn. Another used to be home to Aunt Sarah’s Pancake House and the Tree House Lounge. There is also a house being taken down.

The demolition work should be finished by the end of the month, said Joe Bell, spokesman for the Cafaro Cos., which owns the Spotsylvania Towne Centre and the properties being demolished. Grass will then be planted, and the access road that cuts through to The Village at Spotsylvania Towne Centre will reopen.

Cafaro will look to redevelop the property with commercial uses, Bell said, but there are no specific plans yet. He said the company is open to suggestions for how to best use the property.

• The two 140,000-square-foot office buildings that Washington Real Estate Investment Trust owns at the Quantico Corporate Center in North Stafford have received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for their various energy conservation strategies.
• Local attorney Robert H. Deaderick has moved his law firm to the Mill Race North building at 725 Jackson St. in Fredericksburg. Deaderick’s office was previously at The Law Building on Princess Anne Street.
• Kings Dominion plans to hire about 400 seasonal employees before Memorial Day weekend to ramp up for the start of daily park operations. Applicants must be at least 15 and can apply on the Kings Dominion website.
• Dick Hammerstrom, a local news editor at The Free Lance-Star since 1997, has been selected as recipient of the 2013 George Mason Award by the Society of Professional Journalists, Virginia Pro Chapter. The award goes to an individual for outstanding contributions to Virginia journalism. Hammerstrom is an expert in the Freedom of Information Act and open government issues. He will be presented with the award June 18 at the University of Richmond.
• A second F.W. Sullivan’s location will open in Richmond, this one at 1001 Haxall Point along the James River. The restaurant and bar’s other Richmond location is on Main Street in the Fan District. There is also a F.W. Sullivan’s on William Street in Fredericksburg.
• Council #4034 of the Knights of Columbus is having an expo for home-based businesses July 27 at Holy Cross Academy in Stafford County. People who are interested in participating can contact Fred Nunez at 540/220-8124 or fnunez97@hotmail.com.

The brewery is at 18043 Jefferson Davis Highway in Caroline County. That used to be a Virginia Barbeque restaurant, which Spotsylvania County resident Rick Ivey owns with his wife.

Ivey and his son, Austin, will run the Rusty Beaver Brewery. The Iveys plan to brew five kinds of beer and serve a few menu items — probably including Virginia Barbecue sandwiches, chips and hot dogs — during hours that are open to the public.

The Iveys plan to start brewing this weekend and open to the public June 7. They will offer growler fills before the official opening date.

Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.