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Photo above: After firefighters contained the three-alarm fire on April 5, the building that housed Noke Van Co. was reduced to rubble. Owners promise this is not the end of their business and their dreams.
Photos courtesy of Courtesy of Noke Van Co.
After Noke Van Co. suffered a devastating fire last month, owners vow to return to their business of helping people experience outdoor adventures.
When Justin vanBlaricom arrived at the edge of the complex known as Riverdale in the early morning hours of April 5, he saw flames shooting skyward and a battalion of firetrucks dousing the bricks and steel that held his livelihood and his dreams.
Noke Van Co. was a custom camper van building business that Justin, his wife Keri and their long-time friend Josh Yerton had created from scratch over the past two-and-a-half years. In a matter of hours, two dozen specially crafted vehicles, rooms of lumber and tools, a full headquarters’ worth of computers and office equipment were reduced to rubble. Every tire and bolt and windshield was gone.
“It was devastating,” Justin says. “But there was never a moment for me where this was the end.”
The Noke Van Co. owners have vowed to reopen. Their business — centered on helping people “live their adventure” — is so much more than the space that housed it, they say.
“There were pieces of people’s lives inside the building,” says Keri. When customers called, “you could just hear the heartbreak…. That’s exactly why we need to rebuild. There are so many more memories to be made.”
The inspiration for Noke Van Co. harks back to 2020, when the vanBlaricom family of five (like so many others during COVID shutdowns) bought an RV. They found they loved the idea of so-called “vanlife.” But their particular recreational vehicle? Not so much. They renovated more than they adventured. Their experience became their unconventional degree in an emerging travel trend.
As life normalized, the vanBlaricoms (both from Roanoke) knew they wanted to move home again. Justin, with a new MBA from UVA, started researching: Could he become a custom camper van maker? There wasn’t competition. Noke Van Co. is the only business of its kind in Virginia.
The more they looked, the more they saw opportunity. Keri says they thought: “Really, could we be a major source on the East Coast? Could we help grow the outdoor community here?”
They ran their idea by Yerton, a skilled craftsman with a background in engineering, who was working fulltime as a pastor at Restoration Church in Salem. Then the three of them created their first camper van, working nights and weekends, from a 2,500-square-foot space in the still rough-and-tumble former American Viscose rayon factory.
By 2023, the business was coming into focus. Customers were showing up from word-of-mouth: Vanlifers wanting repairs or upgrades. Seniors looking for a nontraditional retirement. Nonprofits and small businesses needing maintenance or repairs to their vehicles.
Early connections led to next steps. The clients who had first wanted van upgrades returned to order a custom-made van. The company moved into a wide-open 34,000-square-foot space in what was becoming an exciting mixed-use development re-christened as Riverdale. The future seemed to stretch before them like a scenic backcountry road.
The fire slammed all their momentum to a screeching halt. But rather than dwell on the tragedy, the vanBlaricoms and Yerton are focused on gratitude.
“We literally couldn’t do this without so many people in our lives that are around us and supporting us,” Keri says. “Our team of employees is like a family…
“It’s a really beautiful picture of what community looks like, when everybody comes in to be your hands and feet.”
A GoFundMe site has been established for Noke Van Co. Owners say raised money will be put toward paying salaries for their 20 employees.
The story above is from our May/June 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
