Developer Bob Fetzer met with dozens of his friends, colleagues, customers, suppliers and employees Thursday evening at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke to celebrate his 50 years in business in Roanoke.
Fetzer joined the Roanoker’s Richard Wells this week in 50th anniversary in business celebrations.
The Tennessee native has had a deep and vital impact on Roanoke’s housing stock and the renovation of apparently done-for buildings that he rebuilt and made useful again, including his own offices. He is one of several Roanoke developers—some of whom were at his celebration—responsible for downtown’s renaissance in the past couple of decades.
He is a former Roanoke Citizen of the Year and has served on boards including Downtown Roanoke Inc. (chairman), Council of Community Services, Total Action for Progress, Better Business Bureau of Western Virginia and Valley Beautiful. He is past president of the Roanoke Regional Home Builders Association and is a founding member of Roanoke Valley Greenways and Pathfinders for Greenways.
Residential Design and Build Magazine selected his Building Specialists Inc. as Builder of the Year; Downtown Roanoke Inc. has presented the company with three Golden Trowel Awards; BSI was the contractor on ABC TV’s Extreme Makeover show. BSI’s renovation of the Trinity United Methodist in Old Southwest is important as is his involvement as one of the first developers to buy land in a blighted downtown neighborhood and renovate its buildings for offices and affordable housing.
Fetzer was one of the city’s first developers to show interest in re-developing a downtown Roanoke that appeared to be dead in the water 35 years ago. He helped create apartments for wealthy and middle-income people in the heart of Roanoke, taking that downtown population from about 100 to more than 2,000 today.
Fetzer grew up in Elizabethton, TN, as part of a family deeply invested in the city. His dad, a commercial iron worker, served on city council for 16 years and was chairman of the Democratic Party for a good while. He was also on the school board. His mother died recently at 105 and his father died at 95. Fetzer is 73.
