The story below is from our May/June 2021 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Word has gotten out that the Roanoke Valley is a great place for young professionals and high-earning manufacturing workers to raise a family and live a high-quality life.
It’s been stated over and over in the past few years how the concentration on outdoor recreation has pushed the Roanoke Valley into the “player” category in economic development and industrial recruitment. This has been a culture change of considerable significance, even though the Valley has always been an outside village where natives and newcomers alike enjoyed the superb amenities that are almost abnormal in their excellence. But that wasn’t a marketing focus until the professional marketers made it so.
Roanoke had been a railroad town since its beginning in the late 19th century, but when the railroad all but left, there was an identification void. Much of that was filled by Carilion and Virginia Tech, but both of those institutions require young, highly-educated and skilled workers, as does the Valley’s high-tech component and much of its manufacturing base.
So, here comes Pete Eshelman, hired by now-retired Roanoke Regional Partnership Director Beth Doughty, who saw the writing on the mountainsides.
Roanoke has been all but static in its growth for a number of years (city population 99,411 and county 94,186 in 2020) with the city creeping up over 100,000 twice in recent years.
“In 2010 regional leadership recognized that one of our community’s greatest strengths is the beauty of where we live,” says Eshelman by way of history. “The region’s outdoor assets are truly extraordinary – Appalachian Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway, greenways, hundreds of miles of hiking trails, lakes, rivers and more. Yet these assets were being treated like wallpaper; nice to look at, taken for granted and not leveraged for economic growth in any way.”
So, the leveraging began.
Blair Kellison, CEO of Traditional Medicinals of California, decided to build an East Coast manufacturing and processing operation and after a wide search, chose Franklin County for the facility. “We just fell in love” with the Roanoke Valley, Kellison says. The company decided to invest nearly $30 million in an herbal tea manufacturing and processing plant with 56 employees.
“We found the Roanoke Valley community to be aligned with our values, especially around our culture of how we value our employees,” Kellison says. “We couldn’t be more excited to get started.”
When Mack Trucks (headquartered in Greensboro) announced it was building a new plant in Salem in 2020, President Martin Weissburg said the mid-sized truck to be built there is “a new product, it’s a new facility and it’s new jobs. We know this is the right place for this big investment.” The plant’s jobs goal is 250 workers.
Prominent in the Mack decision was the location on the I-81 corridor, which is heavily sprinkled with automotive manufacturers and vendors. The $13 million plant is 280,000 square feet, a fourth the size of a regional shopping mall. At the announcement, Gov. Ralph Northam said, “We have one of the most talented workforces” in Virginia.
Various initiatives are important in luring new companies and helping others expand. Cardinal Glass recently finished an $8 million, 26,000-square-foot expansion, adding 60 jobs to the workforce of 200. The Virginia Jobs Investment program offered Cardinal Glass $600 per net new job created, up to 60 jobs.
Roanoke’s medical and educational communities have benefitted strongly from its new-ish identity. The $50 million-plus Fralin Biomedical Research Institute has more than 30 research groups with 200 researchers and support staff, all well-paid and sophisticated. There are 25 colleges and universities within a stone’s throw of the Roanoke Valley and their staffs and students form a large segment. Recruiting physicians, researchers and teachers has become far easier in recent years.
And, Echelman insists, “Not all companies are interested in the quality of life a community offers, but more and more are, and when it is a deciding factor the livability and community narrative we’ve created becomes a competitive advantage; it’s something that distinguishes us from peer communities.”
That’s the baseline. But there’s plenty more in this effort to tie the Valley’s economy into its livability, its cost of doing business and its potential for growth.
“It’s not a railroad town anymore,” says Roanoke Economic Development Specialist Lisa Soltis. “The Virginia Tech/Carilion School of Medicine and Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, along with other higher education, help attract all types of businesses.”
Soltis tried to recruit Mast General Store for years without the outdoors brand and discovered that “without this component, we weren’t able to recruit Mast.” Once the big regional retailer was landed for a long-vacant downtown building, Soltis again discovered that if “you bring in one, another pops up. Mast, then Well Hung Vineyard right across the street. Then several others. One business is a stimulus that brings other businesses.”
People have moved downtown (estimated 2,200 of them) and Amtrak expanded its passenger service. “Soon as a [housing] development is complete, it seems to be full,” Soltis says.
So real estate is pulled along. Even the virus of the century has not had a huge negative effect.
Soltis says, “During COVID-19, we had a lot of calls from individuals interested in learning about development in Roanoke, maybe looking to get out of a larger city.” The problem? “Sites for large industry are disappearing.”
She notes that the Woodhaven site at the intersection of I-581 and I-81 has been developed by city/county and “some companies opened there during COVID.”
Working from home is a thing now. “There are a lot of young people working from home, not out spending money,” says Soltis. “We’d like them to move here.”
Tom Tanner of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Development Center has seen substantial change in the past few months and years.
“Several industries that were 100% face-to-face are 90% virtual now,” he says. The SBDC, in fact, has become much more an online service. “Workers have begun to believe that they don’t need to live where they work.”
Tanner says, “The attitude is that COVID-19 won’t last forever, so I’m not going to stop doing what I want to do. One of the big changes has been our clients moving from wholesale to retail where the profit margins are much larger and they’re not going back.”
Telemedicine, restaurants, business coaching and a whole litany of businesses have come to depend on the internet, rather than brick and mortar.
Roanoke County has jumped on to the job fair ship, including some of it done virtually, with success, says Economic Development Director Jill Loope. She notes that “During the pandemic … we have administered a $1.6 million Small Business Recovery grant to help small businesses.
“There have been radical shifts over the past 15 years in our work, particularly in the area of placemaking and infrastructure.”
“Roanoke County’s work on area plans such as 419, Hollins and Oak Grove are targeted efforts to revitalize key commercial corridors. Investments made in these areas are yielding results with nearly $30 million in transportation improvements recently approved and scheduled for the 419 area alone.”
Here’s why, she insists. “Community engagement and outreach have been more aggressive than ever before, and citizens are welcoming the changes. Greater density of development, sidewalks/walkable community, multi-modal transportation and community gathering places are all urban amenities that are being embraced and desired in targeted areas. This is a shift from where we were 15 years ago, as consumer preferences are changing.”
Manufacturing remains a primary target for the Valley, but broadband improvement is elementary, and it is getting plenty of attention.
“We have been building the plane while we’re flying it,” Soltis says. “There is no playbook, or a one-size-fits-all approach to our work. Economic development is a complex and collaborative effort that puts the puzzle together one piece at a time.”
Regional Partnership Director John Hull says the “holistic approach” is vital. “It’s exciting to see how [that approach] has taken economic development over the past 10 years.”
Hull says, “COVID-19 and the remote work revolution highlighted an opportunity to leverage the high level of livability, the tremendous level of outdoor amenities, our burgeoning outdoor culture and affordability/cost of living towards attracting remote workers. The RRP launched a digital remote worker campaign that garnered more than eight million impressions and over 100,000 clicks with the top age demographic being those between 25 and 34.”
“The outdoor industry is an often-overlooked economic generator,” Eshelman says. “It’s an $887 billion dollar industry that employs one out of 20 people in the U.S. What we’ve done is shed light on this, given a voice to the outdoors and taken our greatest strength from wallpaper to an economic growth tool.”
All of it is pulling together to create a new Roanoke Valley, one where smart, talented, young workers can make a good living and raise a family in a healthy atmosphere.
Gigging the Economy
The term “gig” has been around since musicians began charging to entertain. And “economy” dates to the first sale of an animal skin by one Neanderthal to another (on sale: two bones and a rock). Put them together and you have the hot new business concept, “gig economy.”
That, of course, refers to freelance workers and nearly everybody else trying to figure out how to handle it. Giggers are not employees. They are, in effect, small businesses, independent contractors who take on projects rather than being hired full-time.
Newly-minted PhD consultant Samantha Steidle of Roanoke, who has made a study of the gig economy, says there is no official definition, though she makes an attempt: “A single project or task for which a worker is hired, often through a digital marketplace, to work on demand.”
Gigging “is a tool for economic empowerment,” she says, “but the law [governing it] has not caught up, so it can exacerbate economic inequality. Laws simply don’t protect these workers.”
There’s also misperception, says Steidle. “People often associate the gig-economy with low income, but certain types of white-collar gig-work can actually be pretty lucrative.”
COVID-19, she says, “has made the playing field even less level” for giggers in many instances.
“Millions of people are out of work [because of COVID] and they don’t know where to go, don’t know their options.”
Gig work can help in both the short and long terms, she says.
“The laws protecting workers rights (particularly during COVID) and the lack of access to insurance pose huge barriers and some say perpetuate the inequalities already existing in society. It’s not that the gig-economy is inherently bad but when laws don’t keep up with the reality of our current workforce, that’s a problem.
“As with any career path, there are pros and cons. For example, the gig-economy can offer increased flexibility in hours and location, autonomy, creativity, variety and an opportunity to pursue one’s passion. On the other hand, the work can be inconsistent and obtaining health insurance can be a huge barrier.”
Gig work, she says, gives workers the opportunity “to reconsider their value, to fill a need.” The idea is to “figure where your skills match what is needed. What may be a necessity now can become an option in the future. People need to understand how to diversify, how to get their feet back on the ground.
“The gig-economy offers the opportunity to earn money without having to officially apply for a job. In addition, there is substantial money that can be made in the consulting-side of the gig-economy. This can be the engine of recovery.”
The story above is from our May/June 2021 issue. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!