Local owners couldn’t be happier to build their businesses and networks in the supportive Vinton community.
Courtesy of Vinton Chamber of Commerce
Rosie’s Gaming Emporium will add 18,000 square feet, as well as a 250-space parking deck.
The business community in Vinton has impressed Roanoke architect David Hill.
“There’s hardly a place to go in Vinton where they haven’t knocked it out of the park,” he insists.
Hill and his long-time friend, restaurant owner and former Roanoke Vice Mayor David Trinkle, plan to convert the old Gish’s Mill (the former Holdren’s Country Store) into a multi-purpose use. The mill, which is one of the oldest structures in the Roanoke Valley and adorns the Vinton Town Seal, is tentatively scheduled to become a restaurant with a deck overlooking Glade Creek, speakeasy in the flood-prone basement, lodging rooms in the silos and a small market.
Hill has become an ardent fan of Vinton because of “good leadership from the administration and Town Council. In Vinton, progress is not about huge leaps, it’s baby steps, but when you look at years of baby steps it becomes impressive. Other communities are looking into what Vinton has done.
“They present interesting ideas, figure out how to accomplish them and stick to the plan. It is a model for places we work with. We came with a plan and there was a can-do spirit from the leadership.”
Vinton native Kat Pascal, who with her husband owns FarmBurguesa, the popular hamburger eatery says, “Vinton is an amazing place to start a business. The resources you have at your hands allow you to feel supported from day one.
“Expanding in Vinton is a dream come true, since our location is merely 800 square feet. The creative ideas we’ve presented to the town on expanding were quickly entertained and now we are moving forward with the plans. I recommend people to give Vinton an opportunity.”
The business community, for a long time less than impressive, has burgeoned in recent years. Town Manager Pete Peters dates the resurgence to the opening of the new Roanoke County Library across from the municipal building five years ago.
That was followed by Annette Patterson founding the Advancement Foundation (now the Business Incubation Center) and the Innovation Mill, which led to the wildly popular business startup competition The Gauntlet.
Debbie Custer has found the front wave of a big national business surge with the Hemp Mill on Pollard Street, which is pushing its third year of operation. The idea is to help create a hemp economy from a plant that was once illegal to produce. Now it is grown in the store under grow lights, just down the street from the Vinton Police Department.
Custer believes hemp is poised to become a $22 billion industry and that “about 85% of everything in a home—including the home itself—will be made of hemp.” It could, says, Custer, replace plastic in many of its uses. Custer knows her stuff. She was one of the leaders in promoting the Virginia water industry in the 1980s and helped bring Quibel sparkling water to national prominence.
As businesses expanded and moved to town, housing became an issue and apartments were created from the old William Byrd Middle School (now Billy Byrd Apartments) and Roland E. Cook Elementary, a total of 115 units downtown.
In recent months the following has been planned or begun:
FarmBurguesa is leasing an open area between its tiny building and the municipal building in order to have outdoor dining in warm weather and it is adding new equipment and space for storage to the building it occupies.
The iconic Dogwood Restaurant is planning to expand into the space next door and also adding outdoor seating.
The former Vinton Motors has undergone a major renovation and is now Vinyard Station, which will have a restaurant, coffee shop and space for boutiques. It also has a significant parking lot in the back and pedestrian access to connect to other downtown businesses.
The River Park Shopping Center is under renovation with Big Lots moving to this location to more than double its size from the original location. Tractor Supply will be moving into the space vacated by Big Lots at Lake Drive Shopping Center.
Rosie’s Gaming Emporium, a horse race wagering and gaming center, will add 18,000 square feet and an additional 500 Historic Horse Wagering Machines, and add a 250-space parking deck in anticipation of increased business.
The LancerLot has been remodeled and repurposed to a degree. Though it retains its popular workout facility, it has gone back to its roots with an ice rink and become a focal point for youth, adult and college hockey and a practice facility for Roanoke’s Railyard Dogs. “Renovation activity there has been really robust,” says Peters.
Elsewhere, Precision Fabrics Group, for many years Vinton’s largest employer, recently expanded to add new equipment and an additional 30 employees. Other major employers in Vinton include Cardinal Glass, Berkshire Health & Rehab, Aramark Uniform Services, Roanoke County Schools and Kroger.
“People in Roanoke, Botetourt County, Bedford and from the Blue Ridge Parkway are taking advantage of the unique restaurants in Vinton,” says Peters. “There is a lot of commuter traffic and traffic to the lake. We have developed a few new retail opportunities over the last several years that are attractive, and have given more people a reason to stop on their way through.”
Peters points out that most of the businesses in Vinton are locally-owned, including Macado’s, which has a large number of restaurants in the region, but was founded in Roanoke. “We always try to stress local ownership,” he says.