The story below is from our May/June 2020 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
In Botetourt County, the growth of the Daleville Town Center has everyone talking and a lot of people, businesses and even the government moving.
In just a few years, the visionary Botetourt Town Center has grown from a large and popular apple orchard owned by the Layman family to a full-blown town, popping up like microbuses at a Grateful Dead rally.
What was an expanse of well-pruned fruit trees less than 20 years ago is now dotted with new buildings, most of them multi-story, for both commercial and residential use. There remains plenty of space for significant additions as Botetourt County’s population and business base continue to grow.
Most of this area of Botetourt, a few miles north of Roanoke on U.S. 220, is feeling the surge. While County Administrator Gary Larrowe admits “there is no census data for Daleville” because its borders are “arbitrary,” towncharts.com lists Daleville’s population at 3,261, a 27.5% jump between 2010 and 2018. Daleville continues steady growth, so those numbers are not current.
County Seat Fincastle remains at about 350 population, but much of the government is moving to the Botetourt Center at Greenfield about a mile north of the Daleville Town Center. The late Bob Layman sold 1,000 acres of his Layman Orchard to Botetourt County in 1995, paving the way for Daleville development. That sale resulted in Botetourt Center at Greenfield and eventually more of the Layman orchard was sold, leading to further development along U.S. 220.
A large educational center was included at Greenfield at state expense. The center was so spacious that it has been able to accommodate offices for many of the county’s services. Courts, law enforcement, recreation and fire/EMS remain in Fincastle, while human resources, economic development, planning, the treasurer, the county administrator and the commissioner of revenue are at Greenfield.
Developer and Realtor Karen Waldron introduced the first single family model home at the Town Center in 2007. It was an Earth Craft Home, a trendy ecology-friendly home that was relatively expensive. Waldron talked at the time of building not only a number of these homes, but of developing a community and a town around it and including more affordable housing.
Then the economy tanked in 2008, recalls Fralin & Waldron President Andy Kelderhouse, and it looked like curtains for this dream. “We survived it because of Karen,” he says, pointing out her strong belief in the plan and willingness to do what it took to make it work.
“The investment was a tremendous amount of money,” says Kelderhouse.
Three years ago, Lesli Hudgins and her husband moved to Daleville Town Center from California to be closer to their grandchildren and in that time, the center has filled out and matured. “We were looking for a four-square in Roanoke, but found one here that wasn’t 100 years old,” she says. The community has been welcoming in every sense and that sense of community has been a major draw.
Stephanie Rogol owned restaurants in Blacksburg and Radford and was looking to expand. “I didn’t even know where Daleville was,” she laughs now. But she instantly liked the idea of “creating a conscious community,” one that paralleled her business philosophy (“A traditional capitalist focuses on the bottom line. That’s stupid. You must have a deeper purpose”).
She opened the Town Center Taphouse and “felt like we needed another restaurant of a different type to complement it,” so up went Tizzone Wood-Fired Kitchen and Wine Bar, next door. Since opening, she has purchased a nearby hydroponic farm for her restaurant’s vegetables, and she buys meats locally. “We want quality of life here,” she says. That often means giving back to the community. Mondays, 10% of sales goes to a local charity.
Hudgins and Rogol have ideas about what would fit in the 60% of space left for commercial development at Daleville Town Center: a movie theater, bowling alley, roller rink, arcade, drop-in babysitting business, flower shop, high-end clothing boutique, Whole Foods …
The Town Center has meant growth all around. The Botetourt County budget went from $92 million at the start of the Town Center to a recent $108 million, “without a tax increase,” emphasizes Larrowe. Commercial lots go for about $800,000 (Member One Federal Credit Union recently bought 1.4 acres for $1.2 million). There are about 50 occupied single-family homes and 130 occupied rental units, fluctuating slightly.
F&W built “the first eight or nine” single family homes, says Kelderhouse. There is discussion right now about a new 20,000-square-foot office and retail building by year’s end and a new hotel is being talked about. Another 30 residential lots are in the planning stages, Kelderhouse says. He says commercial space is “40 to 50% filled” and residential housing is but 25% of capacity.
The business mix forms a solid base for a town: a LewisGale clinic, a farmers market in warm months, large YMCA, a bank, an elder care facility, several restaurants, a coffee house and an outdoor entertainment facility. Proceeds from the summer concert series go to local charities, says Kelderhouse, who sponsors them. That contribution has been about $140,000 in the past three years, he says.
Across U.S. 220, on former Layman property, there is also a good bit of construction, but it is separate from the Daleville Town Center. It includes a grocery store, a pharmacy, a Carilion Clinic and a new storage facility among other businesses.
The convenience of the Town Center is one of its major appeals, says Kelderhouse. “You can walk everywhere and there is a good mix of retail and service providers. The YMCA has child care that includes handicapped children.”
That walkability is what Roanoke County is looking to accomplish in its new 419/Tanglewood Mall plan, something of a national trend.
Botetourt County has been quietly leading that trend for more than a decade and it appears the changes will keep on coming.
To read more from our May/June 2020 issue, Subscribe Today. Thank you for supporting local journalism!
