The story below is from our March/April 2020 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
The acreage and buildings that used to host some 5,500 rayon workers have been reborn, to the extent that the remaining 56 acres are now home to some 127 tenant businesses, with total employment approaching 2,000. We sent a photographer to bring back a look.
It was a national-class economic asset for Roanoke in the 1920s and ‘30s. In fact, from 1917 until 1958 the “Silk Mill” provided stable and relatively lucrative employment for a variety of Roanokers, many of them young women. About 5,500 people worked at the American Viscose Company in 1928, but by the time it closed in 1958, employment was down to 2,000—still substantial—and both the company and nation had changed.
These days, The Viscose, as later workers called it, is humming along as the Roanoke Industrial Center, a mish-mash of small companies jammed into a million square feet of space under roof and another million below ground that consists primarily of indoor highways linking the buildings. Those corridors once housed a substantial mushroom farm and a nice haul of marijuana plants that Roanoke police discovered back in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s.
The American Viscose Company’s original 212 acres is down to a compact 56 (not counting a couple of large adjacent parcels). Its 127 tenants range from artists and door manufacturers to a gym and soccer fields (indoor and outdoor), a ballet studio, a burial vault manufacturer, considerable storage space, a travel trailer customizer, a sports medicine facility and a chair manufacturer, among many others.
It has become, by definition, “a mixed-use community,” says Will Trinkle of C.W. Francis, who runs the center. Trinkle estimates employment at the center to be “near 2,000,” making it one of the Roanoke Valley’s largest composite employers.
The former Viscose property is poised for another phase of rebirth, this one including residences in a four-story industrial building that was bought by developer Ed Walker a few years ago. The center received historic district status this past summer, paving the way for tax credits, which Walker has used in the past to renovate old buildings into desirable living spaces in Roanoke.
Creating this type of village at a cluttered, busy site in the flood plain of the Roanoke River will be quite the challenge, according to Trinkle, citing the flow of materials in and out of the center as a concern.
“We have significantly cleaned up the open lots and have installed green screening,” he says. “We clean up and add security lighting as we go, as improvements to buildings with new tenants. You will continue to see improvement as we work our way around the park.
Walker’s plans are applauded by another area developer, John Garland.
“His building would be terrific for this former industrial area and for Southeast Roanoke in general,” says Garland. “It could be transformative, as it would bring in potentially young educated professionals and creatives.”
Beginning yet another new life for old property.
THEN
- 1910: British manufacturer Courtaulds determines to build rayon plants in the U.S.
- July 17, 1917: Production of rayon yarn launched in Roanoke by American Viscose
- 1920s: Dormitory built for young single women workers
- 1928: Viscose at its peak with 5,500 employees
- 1958: Viscose closes plant because of competition from more modern plants, eliminating 2,000 jobs
- 1961: Group of Roanoke business owners invests in the abandoned factory, creating an industrial park
NOW
- 18 industrial buildings
- 1 million square feet total space under roof, another 1 million underground
- 127 tenants (92 in the park for more than five years)
- 2,000 employees (estimated)
- 56 acres, total industrial park area
- 95% occupancy at the end of 2019
… for more from our March/April 2020 issue, Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
