The story below is from our November/December 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photo above: Julianne Rainone / Roanoke Public Library, Virginia Room
A string of department stores once anchored this busy retail center in Roanoke County.
A large department store once anchored a busy retail center in Southwest Roanoke County.
In 1970, W.T. Grant or Grants, a former U.S. chain, filled the space of today’s Kroger at Cave Spring Corners on Brambleton Avenue, as seen in this photo.
The retail center was built in 1969 as Grant Plaza, and it was one of the first multi-retail developments in the Roanoke Valley, according to “A History of Back Creek: Bent Mountain, Poages Mill, Cave Spring, and Starkey” by Nelson Harris. In 1970, nearby Virginia 419 opened to traffic, likely adding to Grant Plaza’s traffic and appeal.
Grants closed its Roanoke store when the chain went bankrupt in the mid 1970s, and Hills, another department store chain, moved in. Hills stayed there through the early 1990s, before it was acquired by Ames, another retailer that moved into the Roanoke space.
But in 2005, Kroger, which at the time had a smaller store at the opposite south end of Cave Spring Corners, decided to shift its location. It renovated and expanded the former Ames store to about 60,000 square feet and moved over.
The next year, in keeping with the retail center’s department store history, Hamrick’s, a retail chain based in South Carolina, opened in Kroger’s former space at the south end of Cave Spring Corners.
Today, the 147,133-square-foot center remains a bustling retail enterprise, housing at least 12 businesses, from service establishments to Dollar General. Kroger, which renovated its store in 2018, draws an average of 24,000 customers a week, according to Brixmor, a company that manages and leases Cave Spring Corners.
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