A top 50 Hottest City ranking, a top 30 Most Livable City ranking, a cost of living index that is more than 8 percentage points lower than the national average – these are just a few of the reasons why the valley is the place to be for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
The Roanoke Valley may still be an undiscovered jewel to many, but national trade groups and magazines are taking notice. Witness Expansion Management magazine’s Top 50 Hottest Cities designation, the sixth time in seven years that Roanoke has been honored. The Star City is on the same list as such trendy places as Austin, Texas and much bigger metropolitan areas including Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and San Antonio.
A Top-30 award for being one of America’s Most Livable cities also came from Partners for Livable Communities, a national non-profit organization which bills itself as “working to restore and renew America’s communities.” The group calls Roanoke “an intriguing mix of ‘big city’ and urban village.” It touts the region as a crossroads of commerce, featuring a revitalized downtown core “with an impressive array of arts, recreation and cultural amenities, as well as an aggressive economic strategy.”
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| The construction of the new Art Museum of Western Virginia (left) and the recent revival of the H&C coffee and Dr. Pepper signs are driving city design forward.
PHOTO BY DAVID HUNGATE |
On a broader scale, the commonwealth at large is continuing to garner national recognition as well. In November Site Selection magazine ranked Virginia fourth in its State Business Climates for 2007, up from 12th in 2006. Likewise, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council in Washington picked Virginia ninth in its rankings, up from 14th in 2006.
It’s endorsements like these that provide more ammunition when agencies like the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership takes its turn at the plate, trying to convince a company to relocate or expand here.
“I would tell a client, ‘I am paid to tell you good things about the area,’” says Phil Sparks, executive director of the RVEDP, “‘however, this is what other people are saying about us.’”
Forbes and Parenting magazines have also given Roanoke favorable reviews as being both business and family friendly.
“It does help us,” says Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris. “It gives us a lot of free publicity we frankly couldn’t go out and buy.”
Cities Ranked and Rated recently ranked Roanoke 6th out of 402 North American metropolitan areas for availability of quality health care. According to the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association (ACCRA), the Roanoke region’s cost of living ranks consistently lower than the national average – 91.8 percent to be precise. The ACCRA cost of living index compares groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services for over 300 areas.
There are 20 colleges and universities within a 60-mile radius of Roanoke. Carilion Clinic, the area’s largest employer with more than 10,000 hires, is growing more than five times faster than the overall job market, with 23 percent of the area’s new hires in the past year. According to the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, Carilion is followed as an employer by Wal-Mart (3,700), Kroger (3,400), Food Lion (2,800), Lewis-Gale Medical Center (2,200), Advance Auto Parts (2,000), Wachovia (1,900), Norfolk Southern (1,400), Allstate Insurance (1,350) and GE Energy (1,300). Per capita income in the Roanoke MSA (metropolitan statistical area) was $32,587 in the latest assessment.
Expansion Management also gave the valley a 4-star ranking in 2006 for its “logistics quotient,” joining dozens of MSAs like Dayton, Ohio, Fort Wayne, Ind., and San Jose, Calif. as places where transportation and a centralized location make them ideal for business.
Sparks would like to see the proposed east-west Trans Dominion railway built, calling it a “huge asset to the area. I-73 would be a huge help [also].” That roadway would connect Interstates 81, 40 and 85, providing a faster route to North Carolina.
Via mailings and other marketing efforts, site consultants know all about Roanoke’s selection as a Top 50 Hottest City, which is based on qualities such as livability, education levels, the cost of doing business and how friendly the local government is.
“We have been very fortunate to be in that top 50,” says Sparks, noting that more than 300 MSAs are surveyed by Expansion Management annually for that list. “People need to see and hear that.”
You can get there from here: with commutes in some of America’s largest and most traffic choked cities now topping 30 minutes each way – and that’s on a good day in some cases – Phil Sparks believes that “its huge” that many Roanokers don’t even have time to warm their car up fully in the winter when they arrive at work after a short jaunt. He recalls a company they were courting for Franklin County from Long Island, New York, amazed that two hours of highway driving locally usually means more than a hundred miles – not an endless series of bridges, tunnels and bumper-to-bumper traffic on older, poorly designed roads. Compared to many metropolitan areas, “distance and time are reversed [here],” says Sparks.
C2C: THE "GREEN" SEED PLANTED BEGINS TO GROW
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Roanoke’s fist C2C house (above) took longer to design and build than hoped for, but the lessons learned promise to yield ongoing results in the future.
PHOTO BY PAUL NARET |
The competition revolved around a simple concept: design, then build a house that was more environmentally friendly than typical, using “greener” materials that could eventually be recycled. Inspired by Charlottesville green architect guru William McDonough, C2C – that stands for cradle-to-cradle – debuted locally with a competition managed by Gregg Lewis, a Harvard-trained architect himself. Stephen Feather and Richard Rife designed the award-winning modular home for a parcel on Gilmer Avenue in Gainsboro. When non-profit Blue Ridge Housing Development Corporation, the general contractor, and others cut the ribbon last fall it was the first new home on Gilmer in more than 100 years. It is affordable too – in the neighborhood of $100,000, something else that was factored into the design equation.
Lewis, who runs Salem’s SmithLewis Architecture with his wife Jennifer, says the first C2C home took longer to design and build then he had hoped for, but it was a learning experience.
“The real challenge was finding a way for all of these groups that had no track record of working together to [do that],” Lewis says.
Southern Heritage Homes did the actual construction work on a project that was new to all parties involved.
“It made it more challenging, perhaps,” says Lewis, noting that Southern Heritage had never used many green materials. Meanwhile they all had to toe the line and meet Roanoke City neighborhood design guidelines for Historic Gainsboro. With federal grant money involved there were strings attached as well.
“What really took a while is navigating new relationships … organizations trying to find a way through doing something different than they’ve done in the past,” says Lewis.
Blue Ridge Housing Development was in charge of selling the house to someone that met certain income limits. Already Lewis says there is interest in picking up the C2C ball to build greener commercial and residential developments elsewhere.
“[This] is the future of sustainability,” he adds. “Green building is coming … the question is, where is it going?”
The culinary school on Henry Street, the recently announced Salem Museum addition and at least one downtown Roanoke apartment development will be LEED projects – as in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a designation from the Green Building Council.
“That’s the program on the national level defining what green building is today,” notes Lewis, who sees “tremendous momentum and enthusiasm.” Cradle-to Cradle has now been brought under that LEED umbrella, with special credits available for those using green products liked the ones specified in Roanoke.
Now building codes must be refined and local planning commissions enlightened to require recyclable materials far less likely to wind up in a landfill. Meanwhile a modest, working class house in Gainsboro that drew international attention during the C2C competition is helping to set the pace locally. The revolution is taking shape at a slower pace than Lewis would like to see, “but it’s extremely exciting from my point of view. We’re not quite there in southwest Virginia yet – but we’re making remarkable strides.” —GM
VISION 2001-2020: HOW ARE WE DOING?
Renovating and revitalizing the Star City, adding amenities like the Roanoke River greenway – it’s not exactly a new idea. In fact landscape architect and planner John Nolen put together one of the country’s first comprehensive plans, Remodeling Roanoke, in 1907. Assembled during Ralph Smith’s tenure as Roanoke City mayor, Vision 2001-2020 sought to lay out a blueprint for the future, a look ahead at where we would like to be.
So how is Roanoke City doing so far with the plan’s core components?
Housing and Neighborhoods: A balanced, sustainable population, local village centers and a diversity of housing choices were all called for in the plan. The remodeling of homes on Day Avenue downtown, the new C2C house on Gilmer Avenue and a mini-explosion of apartment/condo construction downtown lends credence to the belief that the city is moving forward in this phase. Redeveloping Roanoke’s older housing stock and turning brown fields – old industrial sites – into a developments that pay taxes “are critical,” according to Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris.
He cites the Ivy Market/Ukrops and the Carilion Biomedical Institute as examples of turning brown into green – literally.
Habitat for Humanity has built more than 100 homes for lower-income people in Roanoke and traditional public housing projects like Lincoln Terrace have been transformed into true neighborhoods. The Roanoke River Greenway should elevate property values along the pathway.
Environmental and Cultural Resources: It’s here that the city may be making the greatest strides. The Roanoke River greenway now stretches for almost five miles, save for a quarter-mile stretch near Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. On both sides of that paved urban trail there’s still work to be done to the Salem and Vinton borders. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control project to widen the river has helped moved the greenway along. Eventually, if the money is there and easements can be secured the Roanoke River greenway will be the spine of a system with other trails connecting to it, allowing people to run, walk or bike from home to village centers, schools, etc.
“We’ve spent over $200,000 each year and have made a $10 million commitment [to finishing the greenways],” Harris says. “The city has probably made the greatest strides in terms of implementing the greenway system.”
Harris also expects to spend money to help build more athletic fields and parks, since there is “a greater awareness and appreciation for outdoor amenities and recreation.”
Business leaders now tell him that finishing the greenway system and adding other outdoor facilities will help them attract younger, more educated workers.
Where the arts are concerned, Roanoke is probably ahead of the curve for a city its size: Witness the new Art Museum of Western Virginia being built downtown, Center in the Square, Jefferson Center, a growing number of private art galleries and the Roanoke Arts Festival for starters.
Economic Development: Brownfield development of a 100-acre tract on South Jefferson that is becoming the Riverside Centre for Research and Technology is well under way. Carilion Biomedical Institute will anchor that development. The Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, recognizing that a “brain drain” of young professionals won’t help bring employers here, recently completed a $6.5 million Partnership for Prosperity capital campaign, largely donations from member companies that will support marketing efforts designed to keep people in the valley and attract more young professionals. Private groups such as Valley Forward have also weighed in recently, looking for ways to make Roanoke a cooler place to work, play and live. Vision 2001-2020 called for developing a brand identity, training the workforce and redeveloping underutilized industrial sites. Evidence suggests those goals are all being addressed.
People and Human Development: The city school system replaced embattled superintendent Marvin Thompson with Dr. Rita Bishop last year. Remodeled Patrick Henry High School and the William Fleming makeover about two years away are bright spots. Elsewhere successful training programs at the Roanoke Higher Education Center, Virginia Western Community College and the Greenfield Center in Botetourt County have been tailored to meet the needs of local employers. Plans for a revamped library system remain largely unimplemented but will mirror efforts undertaken elsewhere to make libraries more relevant community centers, with amenities like coffee bars, youth rooms and high-tech assets.
City Design: What does Roanoke look like to the average visitor? “Increasing the beauty of gateways and streetscapes” is called for as part of the 2001-2020 plan. What’s been done? The new art museum certainly will make a statement, viewed from Salem Avenue or I-581, as does the renovated neon signage in the same area. Efforts to increase the city’s tree canopy and the promotion of bicycle and pedestrian systems have a ways to go. One private entrepreneur plans to rent bikes at certain venues in the city, where they can just be dropped off at other stations – a la similar programs elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe. An ambitious public art program that will include newly commissioned works at the Roanoke Civic Center and both high schools will increase the eye-candy quotient. Still a ways to go here but the small steps have been taken.
—GM
