Bacon's Rebellion

Reinventing Roanoke as Virginia’s Outdoor Capital

Feb 8, 2021

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by James A. Bacon The Roanoke Valley doesn’t have any natural amenities more special than those of other communities along Virginia’s magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains. What it does have, at a very propitious time when the COVID-19 epidemic is scrambling the traditional calculus of where businesses and individuals decide where to locate, is an organizational infrastructure to the promote assets it does have. Founded as a Norfolk & Western railroad town in the late 1800s, the City of Roanoke has been traumatized by the loss of N&W industrial and headquarters facilities over the past two decades. Reinventing the economy hasn’t been easy. The dynamics of the Knowledge Economy have long favored large metropolitan areas with deep labor markets, and with a population of about 220,000, the Roanoke Valley (Roanoke City, Roanoke County, and Salem) lack critical mass. The main exceptions to the “urban agglomeration” trend were towns with research universities, such as Virginia Tech. But Tech, separated by a mountain range and 45 minutes travel time, was almost in another world. The Roanoke Regional Partnership (RRP), the local economic development organization, recognized years ago that it needed to rebrand the region. What did the region have that other small metro areas did not? Among other assets, it has the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and, nearby, Virginia’s second largest lake, Smith Mountain Lake.  “We’ve had these assets,” said Beth Doughty, RRP director. “We treated them like wallpaper instead of an economic sector.” But under Doughty’s leadership, that thinking changed. The latest edition of the <a href="https://issuu.com/vedpvirginia/docs/vedp_q42020_issuu?fr=sNDRiMDE3MDE3MTA">Virginia Economic Review</a>, a quarterly publication of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, describes how Roanokers have worked diligently in recent years to reinvent the region as a community for outdoor lovers. The tangible economic payoff has been limited to date. But Roanoke may now find itself in the right place at the right time as the COVID epidemic has forced businesses and people to rethink their commitment to big-metro living and acceptance of technologies like Zoom makes it easier for them to work remotely. Rebranding a community as an outdoors-friendly community takes time. The first step is inventorying what you’ve got. In 2009, RRP hired a director of outdoor branding, who then began cataloguing the region’s outdoor offering — from where to put in a kayak on the James River to how to get to McAfee Knob. Then the Roanoke Outdoor Foundation (ROF) organized a marathon. The country has lots of marathons. What makes this one different? The course runs through the mountains. The following year ROF launched the Roanoke GO Outside Festival, an event that has grown to 35,000 visitors.<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0; clear: both;'> <div id="ld-7288-8825"></div><script>(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:19200391255058844,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7288-8825"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");</script></div> It also takes years to mobilize government and community resources to build on those natural amenities — zoning for the green space, acquiring land for parks, creating the kayak landings, opening mountain-bike trails, building the overlooks, and the myriad of little things that eventually add up to a big thing. The biggest economic-development coup occurred in January 2020 when California-based Traditional Medicinals committed to invest $29.7 million to establish an herbal tea manufacturing and processing operations in Franklin County just south of Roanoke. “It was incredibly important that we found a location which embodied our company values,” said the company CEO in announcing the expansion. Reinventing Roanoke as an outdoor town more likely will prove to be a lure for attracting talent. Only part of the population puts outdoor lifestyles at the top of their list of priorities when deciding where to live, and, let’s face it, America’s western states clobber the eastern states for “outdoorsy” lifestyles. But for those who, for reasons of career or family prefer to live on the East Coast, Roanoke enjoys a competitive advantage. That branding makes it easier for an entity such as the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion to recruit physicians and researchers. Insofar as corporations invest in communities where they can recruit employees with the skills and talents they need, Roanoke’s ability to attract human capital may lead to more corporate investment down the road. But the process takes time and commitment. The Roanoke region’s marketing materials (see video above) don’t hesitate to lay claim to outdoor assets outside of the Roanoke Valley itself. If communities up and down the Interstate 81 corridor pursue similar strategies — organizing outdoors events, investing in outdoor amenities — the effect could be synergistic. There’s no magic wand for reinventing an economy. There’s no guarantee that Roanoke’s bet on the outdoors will work. But it makes a heckuva lot more sense than doubling down on the old manufacturing-recruitment strategy of decades past. Roanoke’s approach is far more in sync with the times. As someone who lived there a half-lifetime ago and loved the people and loved the place, I’m betting that the strategy will pay off.

James A. Bacon

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22 responses to “Reinventing Roanoke as Virginia’s Outdoor Capital”

idiocracy

February 8, 2021

Ahhh, Roanoke…where I saw I guy standing on the street corner with a sign that said, “NOT GONNA LIE. NEED BEER MONEY”.

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1. Nancy_Naive
  
  February 8, 2021
  
  I saw the same guy! Only he was shedding himself of the beer at the time.
  
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LarrytheG

February 8, 2021

Roanoke has all the necessary outdoor pieces and parts from whitewater to mountain biking and skiing… and likely affordable housing and a decent quality of life.

I’d put it with Asheville or Bend, Oregon or Butte in terms of an outdoor lifestyle.

Bend and Butte are PRIMO , Roanoke is down a notch but well within the range of east coast kids growing up.

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1. idiocracy
  
  February 8, 2021
  
  Yes, and Roanoke has plenty of jobs such as, for example, the corporate HQ of Advance Autoparts…
  
  …oops, nevermind. Looks like they moved to Raleigh, NC and laid 94 people off in Roanoke.
  
  https://www.vec.virginia.gov/warn-notice-detail/12027
  
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  1. LarrytheG
    
    February 8, 2021
    
    It’s a little bit of chicken/egg… what in the world would any tech company want to locate in Bend, Ore or Butte, Montana?
    
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    1. novalad
      
      February 8, 2021
      
      As far as Bend/Prineville/Redmond go, it’s cheap hydropower and even cheaper land. Prineville and Redmond are chock-a-block with data centers, Facebook being the most notable.
      
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      1. LarrytheG
        
        February 8, 2021
        
        the land of Subaru and Yakima racks… 😉
      2. novalad
        
        February 8, 2021
        
        You could say the same about Asheville! It’s been funny to see Appalachian cities (such as they are) remix PNW affectations into their own modes of living and self-expression. The Scots-Irish couldn’t abandon the flannel for long; it’s practically in their blood.
        
        I was at a bar in Harrisonburg recently. The clientele were mainly JMU grad students and local professionals, but if you shut the blinds and sipped the beer (inevitably an IPA), your first guess as to the location would be Salem OR, not Salem VA.
      3. LarrytheG
        
        February 8, 2021
        
        Harrisonburg is poultry and Amish also, no? And 33 west to whitewater.
      4. novalad
        
        February 8, 2021
        
        Moreso dairy and Mennonites, but tomato tomahto. Most of the development there is around JMU or meeting the Valley’s commercial demand — it’s the biggest consumer hub on 81 between Roanoke and Winchester.
        
        Rosetta Stone actually has an office there — the company’s founders were locals. Not much other activity on the corporate front, I’m afraid.
      5. LarrytheG
        
        February 8, 2021
        
        You’re right.. it’s Mennonites.. not Amish… and the roads in their areas are generally pretty clean and tidy.
      6. novalad
        
        February 8, 2021
        
        That they are.
        
        If you want a *real* weird look at the Shenandoah, drive from WASP-central New Market to the Mennonite conurbations around Dayton and Bridgewater , and then break east to the post-Soviet immigrant community in Port Republic and Grottoes. Anecdotally, much of I-81 trucking is done by Russian Baptists who immigrated to that area in the 1990s and 2000s.
    2. idiocracy
      
      February 8, 2021
      
      Perhaps their crime rate is a bit lower than Roanoke’s:
      
      https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/va/roanoke/crime#:~:text=With%20a%20crime%20rate%20of,here%20is%20one%20in%2021.
      
      “Safer than 5% of U.S. Cities”
      
      “With a crime rate of 48 per one thousand residents, Roanoke has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 21.”
      
      And since we knows what goes along with a high crime rate…
      
      “Roanoke struggles with a 20.6 percent poverty rate that’s well above the Virginia average of 13.0 percent”
      
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JL

February 8, 2021

Mr. Larry, if you are talking about Butte MT for its outdoor lifestyle, there are many places in Montana that are much better than Butte. Try Missoula or any place south of Missoula along the Bitterroot River. Alternatively, try up north in Whitefish, Columbia Falls or Kalispell around Flathead lake. I lived in Montana for 25 years and at no time did anybody say, “Butte is the place to go for an Outdoor lifestyle.”

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1. LarrytheG
  
  February 8, 2021
  
  I may have got my Montana places mixed up.. (I know Butte is about mining). All the places you name are also places the young and active covet if they can get a decent job there.
  
  What do you think about Boise? It’s got tech for sure and it’s centrally located for outdoor living but I found it to be lacking except for their river park!
  
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  1. novalad
    
    February 8, 2021
    
    Just before leaving school I interviewed with a Portland-based consultancy that had decided to go all-remote. Didn’t get the job, but I was interested to hear that of their younger employees, one had moved to Kalispell, one to Medford, and at least one to Sante Fe. The West is so loaded with opportunities like this that it really makes me wonder if East Coast economic development strategists are, as in Roanoke’s case, possibly getting in over their head.
    
    There are only so many Asheville-comparable East Coast cities, and if your target buyer persona is eminently young, active, and mobile (now more so after COVID), there’s increasingly little that the East Coast offers over the West except for proximity to family. $400,000 will get you a nice single family home in Salem, or a nice SFH + detached garage + meaningful acreage in much of the West. That is, until the Californians snatch it up.
    
    I’ll sing the praises of Boise all day — it’s from where my dad’s kin hails — but in terms of active lifestyles it’s more suitable for folks with boats and 4x4s than Lululemon joggers and hipster mountain bikers. There are a great deal of reservoirs, offroad parks, and overlanding opportunities, but outdoor activities within an easy bike/drive of downtown are hard to come by. If we’re still talking Idaho, the Spokane-Coeur D’Alene corridor up north is more of a direct Asheville comparison.
    
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djrippert

February 8, 2021

Two of my sons went to Clemson and I’ve watched with great interest how Clemson University and the town of Greenville have come together to revive that area. Clemson is about 30 miles from Greenville so the comparison to VT and Roanoke seems apt. Like Roanoke, Greenville fell on hard times but (working with Clemson) revived itself. In 1960 the city of Greenville had 66,000 people. By 2010 it was down to 58,000. However, in the 9 years between 2010 and 2019 Greenville grew by 20.9% – reaching an all time high of just over 70,000 people at last count.

None of this happened by accident. It was not mere “re-branding”. That never works.

The airport was significantly upgraded.
A sports arena was built (where you can watch the Swamp Rabbits play professional hockey).
A performing arts center was constructed.
Clemson moved some of its graduate programs to Greenville.
Clemson built the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) in Greenville.
BMW opened a major manufacturing plant in nearby Greer, SC.

Meanwhile, Clemson’s enrollment is up 3.3% this fall in contrast with other universities.

It’s a 4 1/2 hour drive from Roanoke to Greenville. I’d strongly suggest that Roanoke’s economic development crew get in their cars and head south. They might learn something.

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1. Nancy_Naive
  
  February 8, 2021
  
  First time in Greenville was the late 70s. Depressing.
  Last time was three years ago. It’s a nice place.
  
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  1. LarrytheG
    
    February 8, 2021
    
    yep Greenville is on a roll and is ascending!
    
    Western NC if you’re into whitewater paddling… Mecca !
    
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2. WayneS
  
  February 8, 2021
  
  I just looked up the Swamp Rabbits. I love their logo/ jersey design. I think I’m going to have to order one.
  
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Nancy_Naive

February 8, 2021

Don’t forget Dixie Caverns…

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James Wyatt Whitehead V

February 8, 2021

Geography will forever be the great barrier between Roanoke and the New River Valley. That stretch of 81 near Ironto was designed so that only Racer X could safely navigate. Roanoke has seen so much over the years. I remember locals would complain about the missed opportunity of a major airport hub that went to Charlotte instead.
https://tedsvintageart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/1512-1.jpg

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