Roanoke Business- Jan. 2014

JANUARY JANUAR AR A RY 20 2 2014 01 14 4

SERVING SE S E RVING THE SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW NEW RIVER RIVER VALLEY VALLEY REGION REGION

City Manager David Ridpath

Starring role

Finding a regional brand that works for tourism and industry

Roanoke’s star was erected in 1949.

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CONTENTS

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SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

January 2014 F E AT U R E S COVER STORY

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The power of branding From Magic City to Star City to Virginia’s Blue Ridge – region searches for a destination brand.

by Beth Jones

HOSPITALS Rating health care

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Hospitals in the Roanoke and New River valleys get good grades from their patients. by Shawna Morrison

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE Looking up

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Commercial real estate developers expect progress in 2014. by Jenny Kincaid Boone

GENERAL ASEMBLY Follow the money

23 While governor’s race got attention,

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General Assembly candidates got business support. by Mason Adams

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INTERVIEW: RITA BISHOP

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COMMUNITY PROFILE

Preparing for success

Roanoke County’s ABCs

Virginia’s superintendent of the year wants higher graduation rates and more college degrees. by Shawna Morrison

The region touts schools, natural beauty and low cost of living. by Rich Ellis

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NEWS FROM THE CHAMBER

Banking services and products that rival the biggest of them.

Personal customer care that surpasses all of them.

Member FDIC

EQUAL HOUSING

LENDER

AreYouWithValley Yet?

FROM THE EDITOR Election shows how demographics are changing the face of politics

M

y family has been in Virginia since at least 1805. The records get sketchy before that.

In the Virginia I grew up in, that didn’t make us particularly old as Virginia families go.

In 2014, with a growing percentage of Virginia’s population coming from other states and other countries, the family roots seem fairly ancient — and increasingly irrelevant. Talk of Virginia traditions and Virginia values doesn’t have the weight it used to.

At the Virginia Business Political Roundtable, held a little more than a week after November’s gubernatorial election, panelists agreed that Virginia is changing quickly and that’s having a significant effect on the commonwealth’s politics.

Political power is shifting, according to Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington. “The Democrats can win by standing in place,” Farnsworth says, because Virginia’s population is growing among groups and in places that tend to favor Democrats. “There really is a fundamental challenge here for the Republicans,” Farnsworth said. “They will lose ground if they stay in place, demographically as well as geographically ... Republicans have to figure out a way to deal with that.”

Jeff Schapiro, a political reporter and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, seems to think Republicans may be the biggest impediments to their own progress. “Until the apparatus is in the hands of a more diverse group, if you will,” he says, “the Republican problems will persist.”

Whitt Clement, a partner at Hunton and Williams who served 14 years in the House of Delegates before becoming secretary of transportation under Gov. Mark Warner, says Virginia’s GOP is holding on to its base, but changing demographics mean the base isn’t broad enough to support a successful party. “The Republicans did very well with the voters one would expect them to do well with,” Clement says.

“I think the Republicans need to think about how they can stick to their principles but in a more appealing way.”

Perhaps. But the value of Clement’s advice may depend upon how the party defines “principles.” If every disagreement is cast as a clash of principles, there’s no room for compromise and little hope for effective government. At least since Grover Norquist declared he wanted to make government small enough that he and his friends could drown it in a bathtub, there has been a cadre in the GOP that seemed much less interested in governance than in gumming up the works.

Even if that kind of partisanship isn’t the party’s driving force, Clement’s advice isn’t likely to be effective if it’s taken to mean the GOP simply needs to put its old ideas into new and improved packages.

State Sen. Mark Obenshain, the party’s nominee for attorney general, wouldn’t disagree with Ken Cuccinelli, the party’s nominee for governor, on many policy issues, but he hasn’t been as caustic in his support of those policies. Obenshain seems to have chosen the “more appealing way.” Obenshain did much better with voters than Cuccinelli, but as I write this, he’s still 165 votes behind state Sen. Mark Herring and awaiting a formal vote recount.

That’s awfully close, but that panel of experts says demographic shifts are transforming Virginia’s electorate in a way that favors Democrats and disadvantages Republicans. If those folks are right, a more appealing pitch for the same old ideas won’t be enough.

If consumers aren’t buying your product, better advertising can improve sales. But if your customers really don’t like what you’re selling, more appealing pitches won’t improve sales for long.

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION Vol. 3

JANUARY 2014

President & Publisher Roanoke Business Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Writers

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on the cover Roanoke Star Cover photo by Sam Dean

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No. 1

Bernard A. Niemeier Tim Thornton Paula C. Squires Mason Adams Jenny Kincaid Boone Rich Ellis Beth Jones Shawna Morrison

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COVER STORY

The power of

branding From Magic City to Star City to Virginia’s Blue Ridge – region searches for a destination brand.

Triathlete Nancy Hans during a morning bike ride in Salem.

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Photo by Sam Dean

by Beth Jones

R

oanoke’s most famous landmark began as a promotion for the 1949 holiday shopping season. Merchants wanted to draw attention to downtown stores by doing something big. So the Roanoke Merchants Association erected the world’s largest standing illuminated star: an 88.5-foot-tall structure lit by 2,000 feet of neon tubing.

Meant to be a temporary structure, the star turned 64 on Nov. 23, making it the area’s oldest and arguably its most successful marketing campaign. Former Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris noted that newspapers in major U.S. cities and even Australia chronicled the assembly of the star, which cost $28,000 to build.

Roanoke had become the Star City of the South.

“The Star City brand has held over time because of its uniqueness and because it’s so beloved as a symbol,” says Harris, who recently released the book “Hidden History of Roanoke.” “It’s seen by everyone, every night.”

Those star-struck merchants weren’t the only Southwest Virginians who wanted to draw attention to this corner of the world. A long list of strategies for marketing the region to tourists and businesses have been employed over the years by civic and business leaders with varying degrees of success.

Before Roanoke became the Star City, some called it Magic City. The trouble with that brand, according to Harris, was that Kingsport, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., went by the same nickname. The communities called themselves the magic city, he says, because they underwent tremendous population booms in short periods of time.

“Acorn to Oak” was an early Roanoke tagline, referring to how fast the community’s population grew after becoming a railroad crossroads in 1882. That catchphrase never gathered much steam, according to Harris. “It was Magic City that

Photo by Sam Dean

Former Mayor Nelson Harris knows Roanoke’s many monikers.

stayed with Roanoke all the way up to the star and that’s when Roanoke transitioned to the Star City of Roanoke,” he says.

A destination brand with staying power?

Flash forward to 2013. Landon Howard, president of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, wants the region to be known by another moniker: Virginia’s Blue Ridge. A Nashville consulting group, North Star Destination Strategies, crafted the new “destination brand” and logo in spring 2012 after a year of research. The CVB paid $75,000 for the new brand, with help from a $25,000 grant from the Virginia Tourism Corp., according to Catherine Fox, director of public relations and tourism for the CVB. Through that process, Howard found that while a family in Florida

may know next to nothing about the city of Roanoke, family members likely had heard of the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“Virginia’s Blue Ridge gives you an image,” says Fox. “It’s an image of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which everyone has really positive beliefs about, and thoughts of the Blue Ridge Mountains and how pretty they are. Then you think of Virginia. Then you think of the largest metropolitan area along the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

In the past, the CVB referred to the area as the Roanoke Valley.

Howard believes this language might not have worked to the region’s advantage. “When people are going on vacation, they typically go to the beach, they go to a big city, or they go to the mountains,” Howard says.

“It’s very rare when anybody in the country will say, ‘Well, we’re going to the valley on vacation.’”

Although Botetourt, Franklin and Roanoke counties and the cities of Salem and Roanoke represent the main local governments working with the CVB, the map the organization gives to tourists stretches from Lexington to the New River Valley to Martinsville. Howard wants visitors to see the best the area has to offer, even if it’s outside the greater Roanoke Valley.

“What we’re here to do is to partner and make friends with our neighbors, and when they’re successful, we’ll be successful and vice versa,” Howard says.

Talk with Howard or Fox very long and you’re bound to hear the ROANOKE BUSINESS

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cover story Beth Deel thinks people are too smart for marketing.

“Five years ago if you raced plastic Big Wheels down a parking garage on Church Avenue, the police were looking for you. If you do the same thing [today] the city is behind it.” carefully constructed phrase “metromountain mix.” They believe the area’s mix of urban flavors and mountain fun is the recipe for attracting visitors.

Fox tells of travelers who spend the day boating on Smith Mountain Lake and the evening visiting a downtown Roanoke restaurant.

Howard recalls a travel journalist who floated the James River in the morning and attended Opera Roanoke in the evening. “The fact is that everything is so incredibly convenient as a metro-mountain mix,” Howard says, “It makes sense to market it 8

JANUARY 2014

that way.”

Howard Feiertag, hospitality and tourism management instructor at Virginia Tech, gave a thumbs up to CVB’s plan to put greater emphasis on the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Getting people to come is the first step.

“Then it’s up to the people who work in this community to make the people who have traveled here to feel good about being here and be happy when they leave and want to come back and want to tell everybody else what a wonderful place they visited,” he says.

Guerrilla marketing Beth Deel doubts a destination brand alone will draw today’s savvy tourists. After all, Virginia’s Blue Ridge isn’t the only community employing the skills of branding consultants “I think people are a lot more savvy,” Deel says. “I think people know when they’re seeing marketing.”

Deel, who has built a reputation as a sort of punk rock cheerleader for Roanoke, says cool things to do and one-of-a-kind products will draw people. She began planning events in 2001 when she returned to Roanoke after attending Kansas City Art Institute and found her hometown didn’t offer the same innovative events she’d enjoyed at school.

As Deel organized art shows and aerial ballet performances in Roanoke, she noticed the same people tended to come to every activity. To make sure the word got out about the interesting things to do in town, Deel, along with a business partner, began working on a calendar of events.

“Doing a calendar for Roanoke showed us where the gaps were,” Deel explains. “We could see all these events lining up, and we could see where there wasn’t so much going on.

That’s where we inserted stuff like pillow fights and water fights and Easter Sunday Big Wheel races and some of those wackier events because it made our calendar look exciting, and it was stuff we wanted to do.”

Deel began to see a change in the city. “Five years ago if you raced plastic Big Wheels down a parking garage on Church Avenue, the police were looking for you. If you do the same thing [today] the city is behind it,” Deel says. “They see that fun is one of the important aspects of building community.”

Through her work, Deel also began to understand how a morehappening Roanoke might draw tourists or make out-of-towners want to move here.

“I thought, ‘Wow, we’re like an arm of economic development except Photo by Sam Dean

we’re not paid,’” Deel says. “That’s just the way it’s always been. There are doers and there are administrators.”

While Howard’s job is easier when the city has a robust schedule of things for tourists to do and see, he points to numbers as proof that CVB’s branding efforts are making a difference. Tourism spending increased by 3.8 percent in Virginia’s Blue Ridge in 2012, according to the Virginia Tourism Corp. “As the end of 2013 approached, CVB expected spending to set a new record,” Howard says.

The CVB isn’t in “the event creation business,” he adds. “Our job is to promote all the wonderful things we already have here.”

Quality of life draws talent The staff at Roanoke Regional Partnership recognizes the importance of events. Pete Eshelman, director of outdoor branding, organizes the annual Blue Ridge Marathon and the Roanoke GO Outside Festival.

The latter is an event celebrating outdoor recreation that attracted 12,000 visitors last year. In addition, he works on practical ways to improve the outdoors scene in the valley, by advocating for things like bike lanes. “We are focused on making the region a better place to work, live and play,” Eshelman says.

For the last 25 years, the partnership has been attracting new business and encouraging existing businesses to expand. About five years ago, that changed, says Beth Doughty, the partnership’s longtime executive director.

“The modern challenge in business growth is talent,” she explains.

In the ’90s, baby boomers weren’t beginning to retire as they are now.

“There were plenty of people, so talent wasn’t the precious resource that it has become now,” she says.

Doughty remembers giving speeches about how an area’s quality of life didn’t help economic development. “There were lots of places you could live that were good, and Photos by Sam Dean

Landon Howard wants everyone to know this is Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

people didn’t place that much emphasis on it,” she says. Now, Doughty stands firmly behind the partnership’s effort to market Roanoke as an outdoors nirvana because she sees that as key to recruiting the best and brightest minds.

“If you stop 10 people on the street and ask them, ‘What’s so great about the Roanoke region?’ Nine of

Pete Eshelman promotes the region as an outdoors nirvana.

them will tell you, ‘The mountains.

It’s so pretty. There’s so much to do outdoors,’” explains Doughty. “If 90 percent of the people give you that answer, that is a pretty good reason to make that the foundation of your community narrative.”

To get the word out, the partnership built roanokeoutside.com. “Before there was that website, I always

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cover story used to say you needed the secret password to access the outdoors,” Doughty says. “That was one way we made the experience more consumable by putting all the information in one place.”

The outdoors marketing campaign has given Roanokers an identity. “The message has really taken off,” says Doughty. “I’m surprised it took as short of period of time relatively to change a community narrative, and I don’t think that would have been possible if we were trying to say something that wasn’t true.”

A lot of the efforts, both to improve the area’s outdoor scene and to market it as an outdoor haven, are collaborative. The CVB, Howard points out, brings in travel writers to cover both the GO Fest! and the marathon. The CVB’s site, visitroanokeva.com, links to roanokeoutside. com. The staff at the Roanoke ValleyAlleghany Regional Commission is drawing up maps of blue ways, formal trails down a body of water, on the Roanoke River. “We’re going to outline places. Explain where you can go,” explains Wayne Strickland, executive director of the commission.

The key, he says, is for his agency, the CVB and the Regional Partnership to make it easy for tourists to access the best outdoors adventures in the area. “What we’re trying to do is to make it easier for someone to find what makes this place great,” he says.

Regional marketing approaches Since coming to work at what is now the regional commission in 1979, Strickland has watched plenty of marking strategies come and go.

Strickland is a longtime believer in joining forces with other regions to market an area to tourists and businesses. In the 1990s, Strickland worked with a council that hoped to unify a large area of Virginia dubbed the New Century Region, which stretched from Covington to Roanoke to Wythe County. “A lot of folks picked up the name and then it lost momentum,” Strickland recalls.

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130 years of branding 1882: A name change transformed Big Lick to Roanoke.

1891: Roanoke widely known as the “Magic City” due to population growth.

1910: The slogan “Acorn to Oak, Watch Roanoke” appeared in a publication called “Busy Facts for the Busy Man about the Busy ‘Magic City,’ Roanoke, Va., U.S.A.”

1949: Roanoke star lit for the first time.

1993: Formation of the New Century Council, which worked to unify a large area of Virginia, dubbed the New Century Region.

It stretched from Covington to Roanoke to Wythe County.

2004: The Fifth Planning District Regional Alliance voted to use NewVA as the regional brand for the Roanoke and New River valleys and the Alleghany Highlands.

2012: The Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau announced a new regional brand: Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

2012: Official rollout of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Blueprint, an effort to create new companies and wealth in the area.

Organizers plan to boost image of region as a place for technological innovation.

“You have to really put money and time and resources into branding.”

A decade later, another group, with help from a San Francisco brand consultant firm, created a brand for the Alleghany Highlands, the Roanoke Valley and the New River Val-

ley. It settled on the name NewVa. “The idea of NewVa came about as a New Virginia, a new kind of thinking,” Strickland says. “What we needed to do was to look at ourselves as this new emerging region in the new global economy — the new economy that has to do with technology and all those kind of things.”

Then the group ran out of money. “We had the marketing firm, we had the name, we had no money left to roll it out,” Strickland says.

NewVa died around 2005, according to Strickland, although the effort’s website is still active. “You just can do the best you can do,” he says. “We tried it and we promoted it with the resources and the time that we had.”

The most recent effort to market the Roanoke and New River valleys as a single region came in spring 2012 with the official rollout of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Innovation Blueprint, an effort driven by business leaders, particularly from the technology field.

In the fall, Innovation Blueprint used the Internet site crowdtilt to raise $100,000. Organizers plan to use the money to hire a permanent director and to eventually attract 100 new startup companies. It’s estimated that those companies would create 1,500 jobs and raise between $50 million and $75 million in venture capital over the next three years.

To sway local “big thinkers” into donating, the group created a video featuring Nathan Latka, a 2011 Virginia Tech graduate and chief executive officer of Heyo, an Internet marketing company for businesses. Think Mark Zuckerberg, only younger and better groomed, selling to smart, tech-savvy folks in the BlacksburgRoanoke region. In the video, he says the Roanoke-Blacksburg region has the “highest concentrations of U.S. universities per capita in the entire county,” top-tier research facilities, a growing tech community, great outdoor recreation and an affordable cost of living.

Pat Scruggs, a Charlotte-based consultant who’s working as the organization’s interim director, says the group sells the Roanoke-Blacksburg region as a hotbed for innovation because its members want to attract talent and potential companies.

“Think of Austin’s reputation as an innovation center,” she says.

“It came not just from its assets, but from their marketing to talent, investors and companies to create a perfect storm.”

Aric Bopp, executive director of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, points out his organization has long marketed the area regionally to entrepreneurs and businesses. “I think we need to make sure credit is given where credit is due,” he says.

The alliance partnered with the Shenandoah Partnership and the Roanoke Regional Partnership to market the region as Virginia’s I-81 Corridor Group. “We just try to sell the Roanoke region. We try not to divide it up into localities or boundaries,” Doughty says. “Virginia Tech is absolutely a part of the message and it’s been part of the message for a very long time. That isn’t anything new.”

When site selectors consider moving to an area, Doughty explains, they don’t get wrapped up in geographic boundaries. “They’d say we don’t care about the individual pieces of your region,” she explained.

“They say we care about an area of economic interaction.”

Both Bopp and Dougthy expressed support for the efforts of Innovation Blueprint. A member of the alliance’s board of directors also sits on the board of Innovation Blueprint, Bopp points out. According to Doughty, the Roanoke Regional Partnership worked with the marketing committee for Innovation Blueprint.

John Provo, director of Virginia Tech’s Office of Economic Development and a member of the Innovation Blueprint group, says the plan stands out among other efforts at regional marketing because it is largely driven Photo by Sam Dean

Marketers are calling the area a metro-mountain mix — the kind of place where a person can spend the day fl y fishing and go to the symphony that night.

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HOSPITALS

Rating health care

Hospitals in the Roanoke and New River valleys get good grades from their patients.

by Shawna Morrison

I

f you want to be happy with your hospital, go to Giles County.

At Carilion Giles Community Hospital — a Pearisburg facility with only 25 licensed, or inpatient, beds — 77 percent of patients surveyed rated their satisfaction with the hospital at 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale, and 80 percent said they would definitely recommend the hospital.

In fact, most hospitals in Southwest Virginia are on par with hospitals state- and nationwide in terms of patient satisfaction, according to a set of reports released in late November and based on patient information from October 2011 to September 2012. The Giles hospital, however, 12

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received significantly higher patient satisfaction ratings than any other facility in the Roanoke/New River Valley area.

Virginia Health Information, a Richmond-based organization whose mission is, in part, to create and disseminate health-care information to

promote informed decision-making, has been publishing annual service reports for more than 10 years. VHI publishes Virginia hospitals’ results from the national Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. A random sample of recently discharged paPhoto courtesy Carilion Clinic

At 77 percent, Carilion Giles Community Hospital had the highest patient satisfaction rate in the Roanoke/New River Valley area.

tients quantifies patients’ perspectives on their hospital experience.

The goal is to survey at least 300 patients from each hospital, to get a representative sample of those experiences.

The VHI also prepares what it calls a service line report. It shows how many patients were treated in dozens of areas, or services lines, at each hospital in the state and what percentage of the regional total that number makes up. The information

comes from electronic hospital discharge billing records received from all Virginia hospitals, says Michael Lundberg, executive director of VHI. “The report was designed for comparing hospitals,” he explains.

Most results for Roanoke/New River Valley hospitals varied by only a few percentage points. Of Carilion Medical Center patients who were surveyed, 68 percent gave the hospital an overall rating of 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, while 6 per-

cent gave it a rating of 6 or below.

Carilion Medical Center includes Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital, which is Carilion’s inpatient rehabilitation unit. Of LewisGale Medical Center patients, 71 percent rated the hospital 9 or 10 and 7 percent rated it 6 or below.

The statewide average of patients who rated hospitals at a 9 or 10 was 68 percent; the nationwide average was 70 percent.

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hospitals LewisGale Medical Center had a 71 percent satisfaction rate among patients in 2012.

About three-quarters of those surveyed at both hospitals — 74 percent at Carilion and 75 percent at LewisGale — said they “definitely” would recommend the hospital to friends and family. That’s well above

the 69 percent of patients who gave the same answer about hospitals statewide. The nationwide average is 71 percent.

“Our goal is to be the most trusted and respected health-care sys-

Richard Mastalski, senior director of operations at Carilion Giles Community Hospital, says the staff focuses on working with families.

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tem in Virginia,” LewisGale spokeswoman Nancy May said. “While we’re pleased that the percentage of patients who gave LewisGale high ratings is higher than the state and national averages, we still have work to do. Our goal is for 100 percent of our patients to give us high ratings on every aspect of their care.”

The Giles hospital received high marks in every aspect of the patient survey, including comfort and communication. Ninety-one percent of patients surveyed said doctors there always communicated well with patients, 10 percent above the state and national averages. Of those surveyed, 79 percent said they always received help as soon as they wanted it, compared with Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, which received the next highest rating in that category with 71 percent, Carilion Medical Center at 67 percent, and LewisGale Medical Center at 58 percent.

Jim McCroskey of Rich Creek said he wasn’t surprised by the high Top photo by Natalee Waters, bottom photo by Alisa Moody

ratings received by the Giles hospital.

He and his father both have received treatment there and were pleased, he said.

“It’s a small hospital in a small community where you pretty much know the doctors and the nurses that are there,” McCroskey said. He said he calls most of the doctors there by their first names. “It makes it more personable.”

Richard Mastalski, senior director of operations at Carilion Giles Community Hospital, said staff members there focus on “just really getting down to the patient at their bedside . . . and working with them and their families. It is a small community and there are certain expectations that may not be in place” at larger facilities, he said.

Carilion Medical Center treated many more patients than other hospital in VHI’s Southwest region in nearly every service line, including trauma, obstetrics/delivery, neonatology, neurology and oncology surgery.

Most of the numbers likely are attributable in part to Carilion’s size. It has 737 licensed beds, 34 of which are at Community, compared with 506 at LewisGale Medical Center. Carilion Medical Center had 36,041 admissions in its fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2011, and ended Sept. 30, 2012.

LewisGale Medical Center took in fewer than half that number, with 15,398 admissions between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012. VHI’s Southwest region includes not only the Roanoke area and the New River Valley but also other parts of Southwest Virginia plus Lynchburg, Danville and Martinsville.

There were 1,028 trauma patients treated at Carilion Medical Center in 2012, accounting for nearly 59 percent of the regional total, compared with 108 patients, or just over 6 percent of the regional total, at LewisGale Medical Center.

Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart noted that Carilion had Virgin-

ia’s first medical helicopter, launched the region’s first heart surgery program and became the region’s first and only Level 1 Trauma Center.

Carilion’s trauma service just celebrated its 30th anniversary as a Level 1 provider, he said.

“As the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region, the majority of serious trauma cases come to CRMH,” Earnhart said.

Carilion Medical Center delivered

more than twice as many babies as LewisGale Medical Center in 2012. In obstetrics/delivery; there were 3,201 cases at Carilion Medical Center (26.7 percent of the regional total); 901 cases at LewisGale (7.52 percent) and 1,277 at Carilion New River Valley Medical Center (10.6 percent).

Earnhart said the high percentage of patients treated in the varying service lines reflect “Carilion’s longstanding commitment to provide

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hospitals Carilion Medical Center includes Carilion Roanoke Memorial and Carilion Community hospitals.

advanced medical care services here in our region, so patients can have quick and convenient access to care, particularly critical life-saving care.”

“Our goal,” he said, “is to deliver critical medical services here at home, so people in Southwest Virginia don’t have to leave this region to receive the care they need. It is one of our commitments as a notfor-profit-organization, to meet the needs of the communities we serve.”

In spite of the size difference between the two facilities, LewisGale Medical Center treated more patients or nearly as many as Carilion Medical Center in a couple of service lines.

LewisGale had 575 rehabilitation cases last year, accounting for 23.2 percent of the regional total, while Carilion Medical Center had 479 cases, or 19.3 percent. LewisGale had 2,471 psychiatry cases (19.93 percent of the regional total), while Carilion Medical Center had 2,488 (20 percent).

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“LewisGale Medical Center serves as a tertiary referral center for both of these services,” May said.

Carilion Medical Center treated many more patients than other hospitals in nearly every service line, including trauma, obstetrics/delivery, neonatology, neurology and oncology surgery.

“We’re known for our expertise in both of these areas and receive patient referrals from several hospitals and physicians throughout the area.”

Carilion has the region’s only neonatal intensive care unit and “a very large, comprehensive obstetric/ delivery program at CRMH, which contributes to the high percentage of obstetric and neonatal patients,” Earnhart said.

Several mothers in the Roanoke Valley told Roanoke Business they chose to deliver their babies at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital because it has a neonatal intensive care unit, something they wanted close by just in case it was needed.

“I chose Roanoke Memorial because of them having an NICU and specializing in high risk” pregnancies, said Meredith Burrow of Roanoke County, who had a high risk pregnancy with her daughter, Meg. “I feel that it is important to have that kind of care available.”

NICU staff members were on hand when Meg was born in August, Burrow said. “Once she was born, they said she was fine,” she said.

Photo by Natalee Waters

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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Looking up Commercial real estate developers expect progress in 2014.

by Jenny Kincaid Boone

D

irt is moving, buildings are rising and businesses are opening at some retail and housing projects in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

The activity is a welcome sign for some commercial real estate developers who waited through a period of construction drought, caused by the Great Recession, to move forward on projects. Still, not all planned commercial developments are progressing. Land and spaces continue to remain empty at some sites.

Roanoke Business updates the status of several projects and looks ahead to see how the region’s commercial real estate market will fare in 2014.

Daleville Town Center New apartments, 120 to be exact, are the latest signs of life at Daleville Town Center in Botetourt County. As early as 2005, real estate development company Fralin & Waldron began laying the ground-

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work for this 117-acre community on U.S. 220, which would include 300 houses and apartments along with retail and office space. The company envisioned the center as an example of new urbanism, a village concept that incorporates walkable areas and a variety of residential styles.

After grading and site preparations, an office building and a Lewis Gale medical facility went up. That was in 2008, at the start of the recession. After that, Fralin & Waldron was forced to wait out a slow period for building and development. In the past year, activity at Daleville Town Center has picked up. Two retailers, Land of A Thousand Hills Coffee Co. and Town Center Tap House, opened in a building near the center’s entrance. They joined WillowPod Provisions & Gifts and Photo by Don Peterson

Things are happening again at Daleville Town Center, Botetourt County’s outpost of new urbanism.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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commercial real estate Property manager Aaron Garland says the growing gaggle of shops at 16 West Marketplace is helping revitalize downtown Roanoke.

Fralin & Waldron’s offices.

There are six houses at the center, but leasing apartments is the focus because of strong demand for rental housing, says Steve Claytor, a Fralin & Waldron vice president. The one- to three-bedroom apartments, housed in four buildings, range in size from 528 to 1,212 square feet.

Rents start at $849 and go as high as $1,249.

The center also has an outdoor pavilion for events. Claytor hopes businesses and developers – including a grocery retailer – will build stores and offices in the development, where about $35 million has been invested so far. Claytor would Blacksburg’s First and Main seems poised for a revival.

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JANUARY 2014

not give a timeline when the center would be complete. “What the past five years have told us – we’re here for the long term.”

16 West Marketplace The former 1950s-era S&W Cafeteria on Church Avenue in downtown Roanoke has been transformed into a retail and restaurant marketplace.

Extensive renovations began in 2010 to revive the building and create a place that serves a variety of people, from city employees to residents of downtown’s growing clusters of condos and apartments.

The marketplace has largely filled up with locally owned retailers and food businesses on its first floor.

A fitness center, the RAC Xpress, made its home on the second level, and eight apartments (all leased as of early November) are on the top floor.

Retailers include Sacred Beauty

Top photo by Don Peterson, bottom photo by Alisa Moody

Boutique, S&W Market, Little Green Hive, a coffee and smoothie shop, and eatery Cork & Crust. Several new businesses plan openings in the coming months, including furniture store Compact Footprint, and a shop specializing in crepes ´ and tacos that operates as food vendor Noke Truck.

Property manager Aaron Garland says he’d like to add small kiosks in the building.

As for the pace of retail leasing, “I think it’s been a matter of us establishing some foot traffic, so those small businesses felt comfortable taking a risk,” Garland says, adding that 16 West Marketplace is contributing to the “revitalization” of downtown Roanoke.

Keagy Village A year after Ry Winston, a partner in a North Carolina commercial real estate firm, bought the troubled Keagy Village shopping center on Virginia 419 in Southwest Roanoke County, the 15-acre development looks much the same. The more than $13 million village center houses a handful of retailers, and a majority of shell spaces remain empty. A recent newcomer is Pure Barre, a fitness franchise that uses a ballet barre for workouts.

Keagy Village also lacks an anchor store. Winston continues to hunt for retailers and an anchor grocery store. As of early November, there were negotiations with several businesses, such as a restaurant chain and a medical services provider. In the next 18 to 24 months, Winston says, he expects the majority of the center’s spaces to be filled. “The challenge for retailers and restaurateurs in general, they need to have the confidence to expand and the capital to expand,” he says.

First and Main First and Main, an outdoor shop-

“The challenge for retailers and restaurateurs in general, they need to have the confidence to expand and the capital to expand.” ping center in Blacksburg, appears poised for a revival of sorts, with the expected May opening of Cinebowl & Grille, which will include a movie theater with an IMAX screen, a restaurant and a bowling alley.

This 130,000-square-foot center opened in 2008 with a host of national retailers and restaurants, including Ann Taylor Loft and Coldwater Creek. However, in the past few years, many retailers moved out of the center. In October, owners Blacksburg APF Partners announced the hiring of KNLB retail, a Vienna, Va.-based commercial real estate firm, to help attract regional and

national tenants to First and Main, according to its website. Still, news of the theater’s coming should help increase First and Main’s allure, says Nate Kiser, property manager.

South Peak Upscale condominiums are for sale, and a 117-room Hilton Garden Inn will open this summer. South Peak, a 60-acre retail, office and housing development planned for a hillside on Route 220 in Southwest Roanoke County, is taking shape, but a spokesman says the market will determine how fast the $200 million project grows.

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commercial real estate Poe and Cronk leasing agent Matt Huff is working to fill Roanoke County’s Keagy Village.

There’s also room at South Peak for up to seven office buildings, including an office for Smith/Packett, the project’s developer. “We feel like the market’s coming back,” Barbic says. “We want to be in a position that we have inventory ready.”

The Bridges Construction began in May 2013 for The Bridges, a retail, apartment and office project that sits beside the Roanoke River, just outside of downtown Roanoke. The 22-acre South Jefferson Street site formerly was a mill and scrap yard, but developer WVS Cos. of Richmond now is

As of early November, 12 of the development’s 32 condos were sold or under contract, says Jeff Barbic, South Peaks’ director of sales and marketing. Four other condo buildings are planned, for a 176-unit total, but 50 percent of the condos must sell in one building before the next is built, Barbic says. Condos range

in price from $299,000 to $616,900.

Meanwhile, six home sites are reserved at the Estates, a planned 23-house community at South Peak.

As for businesses, Barbic expects the Hilton’s progress to attract an upscale national restaurant or a local eatery to the site. He would not name specific restaurant prospects.

Years after the Roanoke County development began, South Peak is beginning to take shape.

Construction began in May 2013 for The Bridges, a retail, apartment and office project that sits beside the Roanoke River, just outside of downtown Roanoke. priming it for 157 apartments, a restaurant, 66,500 square feet of office space, a kayak launch and more for its first phase, according to Cushman & Wakefield|Thalhimer, the company marketing the development.

Partners in the project say the site’s position makes it ideal for drawing apartment residents and commercial business. It’s across the road from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, which is bringing new staff and students to the Roanoke area.

The Bridges, which could have 1 million square feet of commercial and housing space, at total build out, is being designed as a connector to downtown Roanoke.

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JANUARY 2014

Top photo by Don Peterson, bottom photo by Sam Dean

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

While Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli fought over the governor’s mansion, the region’s businesses were focused on other races.

Follow the money While governor’s race got attention, General Assembly candidates got business support

by Mason Adams

ational media descended on Virginia last fall to cover the race for governor, partly because of the commonwealth’s rising status as a bellwether and partly because it was one of only two states in the country with a gubernatorial election in 2013.

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AP Photo by Steve Helber

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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general assembly

Harry Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy & Opinion Research at Roanoke College, says contributors to big campaigns “get a thanks and a pre-printed Christmas card.” Contributors to smaller campaigns can have an impact.

Yet while the spotlight focused on the race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Libertarian Robert Sarvis, businesses were more concerned with the smaller, less competitive races for seats in the Virginia House of Delegates.

The House, after all, is one of two chambers in the General Assembly that actually writes laws and makes policy for the commonwealth.

It’s where the rubber hits the road 24

JANUARY 2014

— literally in the case of the two transportation committees.

“We’re much more engaged on that level,” says Jeffrey Southard, executive vice president of the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance, which represents 350 businesses around the state. “If you think about it, that’s where the laws originate, where the laws get considered and debated and ultimately pass or fail. That’s where these businesspeople are constituents and have

business relationships.”

The alliance also maintains a political action committee (PAC) that receives contributions from members and funnels donations to candidates.

PAC members include Roanoke County’s James River Equipment, which contributed $4,275 in 2013, Botetourt County’s San-Mar-CO, $3,000; Roanoke’s Branch & Associates, $5,474; Adams Construction, $5,500; and Rockydale Quarries Corp., $3,440.

Photo by Sam Dean

The Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance redistributes that money to candidates it supports, based on voting records, policy stances and endorsement interviews. Through mid-October, the PAC had contributed nearly $80,000 in 2013, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Richmond that tracks political donations.

About 64 percent of the money went to Republicans and 32 percent went to Democrats. “We have for a long time been advocates of sustainable funding for transportation,� Southard says. “We’re looking out for the business interests of our members. We’re dedicated to the planning, design and delivery of these transportation projects. Frankly, our folks know how to do that better than anybody else, and so legislators look to us because we have that expertise.�

The group did endorse one statewide candidate — governor-elect McAuliffe — because he backed the comprehensive transportation-funding package passed by the General Assembly in 2013, while Cuccinelli did not.

Most of the group’s contributions went to House candidates. Some member companies, such as Branch & Associates and Adams Construction, donated to the campaigns of House candidates as well.

It’s a pattern repeated across campaign reports. Search for the top donors by locality on VPAP’s website: You’ll see a few high-profile donors who help float the big-name campaigns, but most of the companies that turn up give to candidates

for the General Assembly much more than the statewide candidates at the top of the ticket.

Southard’s explanation makes

floor fights, but the vast majority of legislation that affects businesses is hammered out by committees and passed with little fanfare.

For all the power wielded by the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, most of the policy work is done in the committees of the General Assembly. sense: For all the power wielded by the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, most of the policy work is done in the committees of the General Assembly. The majority of bills approved by committees become law. The media, and therefore the public, tend to focus on controversial bills and dramatic

Companies say there are other advantages to donating to General Assembly candidates. Those races tend to be largely uncompetitive so it’s easier to choose and contribute to a clear winner. Only 44 of the state’s 100 House seats were contested this year (even fewer than in 2011); in 32 of those 44, the victor won by at least

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general assembly

Heywood Fralin, chairman of Medical Facilities of America, contributed to Bob McDonnell’s run for governor, but not Ken Cuccinelli’s.

10 percentage points.

Plus, General Assembly races have a smaller pool of donors and contributors than statewide races, so those donations are more likely to be noticed by the candidate. So he or she may be more likely to listen or ask for policy advice. “You give money to Terry McAuliffe, it’s you and everyone else on the planet,” says Harry Wilson, a political science professor and director of the Insti26

JANUARY 2014

tute for Policy & Opinion Research at Roanoke College. “You essentially get nothing for that. You get a thanks and a pre-printed Christmas card. If it’s a smaller race, you can actually have some impact then.”

Take, for example, Roanoke’s Branch & Associates. Since 1997 the highway contracting firm has given more than $25,000 directly to political candidates. The majority of the money has gone to General

Assembly candidates. Indeed, the list of candidates who have received contributions reads like a who’s who of influential General Assembly members from western Virginia the last 20 years.

Still, more than $27,000 — a full 50 percent of Branch & Associates’ political contributions — went not to candidates, but to third-party groups like the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance.

The VTCA is far from the only business advocacy group that draws funding from Roanoke and New River Valley businesses. Salem’s LewisGale Medical Center gave the entirety of its $33,940 in campaign contributions to Hospital Corporation of America’s PAC. The PAC gave 32 percent to Republicans, 17 percent to Democrats and 50 percent to other organizations — mostly to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, another advocacy group that funnels campaign cash.

Some advocacy groups do give fairly heavily to statewide candidates. Three medical-related donors in Roanoke County — American Healthcare LLC, Medical Facilities of America and Commonwealth Care LLC — gave to gubernatorial candidates. In fact, all three donated to both Cuccinelli and McAuliffe.

American Healthcare LLC gave $10,000 to McAuliffe and $2,500 to Cuccinelli. Medical Facilities of America gave $1,000 to each, and Commonwealth Care LLC gave $2,500 to each. There’s no influence gained by backing a losing candidate so why not hedge bets?

An ongoing narrative this year Photo by Alisa Moody

concerned donors who contributed to GOP nominee Bob McDonnell in 2009 but withheld contributions from Ken Cuccinelli. For instance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent $973,000 for McDonnell, sat out this year’s race, giving nothing to Cuccinelli.

Roanoke’s Nicholas Taubman, former CEO of Advance Auto Parts, has a long history of contributing to Republicans who want to be governor. Taubman gave $10,000 to McDonnell in 2009; $40,325 to Jerry

After contributing to the four previous Republican campaigns for governor, former Advance Auto Parts CEO Nicholas Taubman stayed out of last year’s race.

An ongoing narrative this year concerned donors who contributed to GOP nominee Bob McDonnell in 2009 but withheld contributions from Ken Cuccinelli.

Kilgore in 2005; $10,000 to Mark Earley in 2001 and $25,000 to Jim Gilmore in 1997. In the most recent campaign, Taubman gave nothing to Cuccinelli but contributed $5,000 to Cuccinelli’s ticketmate, attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain.

Heywood Fralin, chairman of Medical Facilities of America, gave $10,000 to McDonnell in 2009 and $8,185 to Republican Gilmore in 1997. In 2013, he contributed $25,000 to Democrat McAuliffe.

Photo by Sam Dean

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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INTERVIEW: RITA BISHOP, superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools

Preparing for success Virginia’s superintendent of the year wants higher graduation rates and more college degrees.

Rita Bishop has been an educator for more than 40 years.

has to develop people who can assume a rightful place in the country and support its economy. The future of this town depends on these kids getting an education, and I take that very seriously. When I said it’s about the American way, it’s also about the American economy. America has been based upon entrepreneurs and people who contribute to the society. I want our kids, and everyone else’s for that matter, not to turn to the streets but to turn to corporate America. To turn to a profession, and that’s what’s critically important to me. We can no longer rest with intergenerational poverty.

RB: How do schools prepare people for the work world?

by Shawna Morrison

R

ita Bishop knows schools. An educator since 1969, she worked her way up through the San Jose, Calif., school system before becoming an assistant superintendent. Then in 1994, she became assistant superintendent for instruction for Roanoke City Public Schools, a job she kept 10 years before leaving to become superintendent of the district in Lancaster, Pa. In 2007, she returned to Roanoke to serve as the city’s superintendent. Since then, she has initiated programs to boost the graduation rate from 59 percent to 77 percent — and believes it will “go well beyond” 80 percent in 2014.

In May of last year at the Virginia Association of School Superintendents Annual Conference, Bishop was named Virginia’s Superintendent of the Year. In 2013, she also received the Eighth Annual VH1 Save the Music Foundation Award for Distinguished Support of Music.

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In a district where 74 percent of students receive free or reduced lunches, the rise in the graduation rate at the city’s two high schools is significant. Bishop wants to see students become not only firstgeneration high school graduates, but first-generation college graduates.

She sat down in her office with Roanoke Business to talk about her goals for students, her beliefs about the importance of public education and her need for old laptop computers.

Roanoke Business: What do you think is the purpose of public education?

Bishop: I think its biggest purpose is to protect the American ideals. The students need to know a great deal about what’s made America great, what will continue to make America great, and to really understand the functioning of this country. And then a close second is public education

Bishop: In many ways. The easy answer is to say we’ve got a great Roanoke technical education program. And each year that program has grown so that if you have a certificate in whatever field, you are very employable … I always hope that, even if you have a certificate, you will go over to Virginia Western [Community College] and really hone your skills. But that’s very obvious. Now what is not so obvious is we send students to some of the finest colleges in the country. We hold our own, and we exceed many other districts in terms of students going off to fine colleges. We’ve got numbers of students who go into pre-med ... lots of pre-engineering students who will go ahead and pursue careers in engineering, and many students who are actively engaged in the sciences, and they will go to very fine schools to pursue every level of mathematics and science. So that’s clearly workforce, but it’s not directly from high school to workforce. I’m very, very proud of those students, and we just get all kinds of letters, particularly from mathematics and science students, who tell us how well they’re doing. Despite the lack of demand, lots of kids go into pre-law and go ahead and attend law Photo by Sam Dean

school. So I consider all of those to be very much work-related. It’s difficult to follow them all the way but I certainly hear great reports of their successes.

Another thing for us is that a lot of our students do go into the military and they do quite well; they go into various kinds of training and so on, which certainly is a very productive career.

RB: What about the way public schools, including Roanoke schools, are coordinating with community colleges and universities? How is that helping prepare students?

Bishop: One of the biggest things right now … is that we have fought very hard to begin our school year when Virginia Western begins its school year. We have over 600 students right now enrolled in dual enrollment, where they’re taking college classes at the high schools. It’s our aim to make certain that we have students who are able to take a lot of college classes in high school. It’s called “the hook.” Once you know you can do college-level work, you just might decide that it wasn’t all that bad after all. Because of the way Dr. [Bobby] Sandel [president of Virginia Western Community College] has helped us with dual enrollment, our students do dual enrollment, and they don’t have to experience the financial barrier they did this time last year. They can now take a dual enrollment class at no cost; it’s new this year. … I’ve worked very hard to produce a first generation of high school graduates; now I want a first generation of college graduates, and that’s where we’re going. We have an improved graduation rate and that’s the first generation of high school graduates, and I’ve got to get those kids into postsecondary. And we want to be able to offer an AS [Associate of Science] degree concurrently with a high school diploma.

RB: Is that doable? For students to be able to earn an associate degree upon graduation from high school?

Bishop:Yes, it’s very doable. It’s also the law. There’s a law that says you must try to make that happen. But laws, whatever, it’s the right thing to do. The other thing

is if I can take a kid who’s bright, may have some financial problems, and get them through — I’m not talking about rushing them through — but get them through while they’re really productive and hopefully have some safety nets that we provide, I just might be able to get them into that four-year college.

Now, turning to the economy, we’ve made some improvements in the district which are significant. You’re going to hear that we got hit very hard on accreditation with this reading and writing thing, but I can fix that. If this community wanted to do one thing to help me, they would get me some laptops to get into the hands of kids who don’t have them. Now that I know how dependent we are on those, we have a number of community members who have rallied, but I need used laptops, and I pretty much don’t care how old they are. What we can prove is that kids who failed ... didn’t have access at home. … I didn’t like this backslide that happened with accreditation, but you can’t give kids who’ve never practiced and played with a computer at home complete online tests. Tests are online now unless you have an IEP – individualized education plan. So the importance of some limited technology in the home is critical. It got really big this year with reading and writing; reading and writing had always been paper and pencil.

RB: There is a huge focus these days on science, technology, engineering and math education in schools.

How important is STEM education and how are Roanoke schools focusing on those areas?

Bishop:Well, if you take a look at science, science has changed certainly since I was in school. Think just about one thing; think about DNA, just that one area. So science education – ranging from the environment to its contribution to health – it’s huge, and so science is simply taught differently.

Technology ... it changes minutely or faster … Engineering, all kinds of engineering, ranging from genetic engineering and everything else that we’ve ever known, mechanical, developing of systems and everything we need to survive, huge. And mathematics. You know what you’ll do

very much in your life is determined by a single course in math and that’s Algebra II. They call it the queen of the sciences. So new ways of approaching mathematics, younger and younger. My grandchildren are doing equations and they’re 4 and 6. For me, the acronym STEM needs to have a hyphen and health needs to be after it. All the health professions, with the aging baby boomers, with all the wonderful innovations in medicine, I think a real focus in health and health careers ranging from being a doctor or a nurse to hospital administration and all of the lab stuff in between. There are jobs in hospitals that kids haven’t heard of and so I think that STEM-health is important. They all are hugely important.

RB: You were named the state superintendent of the year. Why do you think you were chosen?

Bishop: I think it was largely because I’m such a spokesman for urban kids. I’ve always, my whole life, believed that just with a little help that urban kids could assume their rightful place in this society.

The other thing, I think, was the district’s work on student safety. We were using Ken Trump – the national safety expert – for years, and I think that we’re pretty well positioned, God forbid, to keep kids safe. We have a number of security measures that are pretty innovative. It can happen anywhere, but I really believe that we’re pretty safe. I go to bed at night knowing I’ve done everything I can do to keep kids safe. I also think that some of it could have been that I never ever sell out for things politically. Never. It’s always about these kids; they’re always first. And I think probably my passion for the arts, maybe. It’s pretty unheard of that an orchestra goes to Carnegie Hall, is up against fine arts high schools, and sounds better than all of them. The [marching] band at PH [Patrick Henry High School] has been invited to Pearl Harbor and the orchestra is going to Chicago. We have music and art in every one of our schools.

One of my nightmares is I’ve got Pablo or Rembrandt or somebody floating around these schools without any training. We’re going to find them; we’re going to develop their skills.

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COMMUNITY PROFILE | ROANOKE COUNTY

Roanoke County’s ABCs The region touts schools, natural beauty and low cost of living.

Roanoke County’s school system is one of the community’s biggest strengths.

by Rich Ellis

early 94 percent of Roanoke County’s high school students graduate on time, a figure well above the statewide rate of 88 percent. A strong public school system is one of the strengths the county promotes as it seeks to attract new businesses, along with its natural beauty and a lower-than-average cost of living.

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Apparently, businesses are buying, based on several recent announcements for the county. In fact, one has only to look up, literally, to see a symbol of the area’s growth.

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Towering over the busiest intersection in Roanoke County is South Peak. After being stalled for years as a result of the recession, the project broke ground this summer

on a $15 million, 80,000-square-foot Hilton Garden Inn as part of a community that includes condominiums, homesites and planned retail and office space.

Photo by Natalee Waters

“The addition of the Hilton Garden Inn – a major brand – is the next chapter in the vision for South Peak,” said Hunter Smith, president of Smith/Packett, South Peak’s developers. “We’ve been encouraged by the community’s support for this hotel and the surrounding developments and look forward to further developing Roanoke County’s newest place to live, work and play.”

Roanoke County Administrator Clay Goodman is excited about the changing business landscape, and what it signals for Roanoke County’s future.

“There are many attributes in Roanoke County that are attractive and make it a great place to live and work,” he says. “The first thing is the natural surroundings with the mountains and rivers and opportunities for outdoor activities. In regard to economic activity, we have a good economic base here that supports our community and gives people an opportunity for employment, and our cost of living is reasonable. And the third thing is very strong support for Roanoke County schools.

People can come here … and feel very comfortable knowing that their children will get a great education in the Roanoke Valley.”

Roanoke County got its start in 1838 from land that was originally part of Botetourt County. It expanded again in 1849 with land from Montgomery County. Today, the county’s population is approaching 93,000 spread across more than 250 square miles.

Work Health care accounts for 18 percent of the county’s jobs, followed by retail at 14 percent. Manufacturing is the third largest employment category, with 12 percent of the county’s jobs, but manufacturing brought the county’s biggest economic news last year. In August, two global manuPhoto by Natalee Waters

Community relations specialist Chuck Lionberger sees a cultural change in Roanoke County’s schools.

facturers announced new facilities in Roanoke County. The first, Ardagh Group, is a Luxembourg-based global manufacturer of containers for the food and beverage industry. The company’s new metal can manufacturing facility at the former Hanover Direct facility on Hollins Road, a $93.5 million investment in real estate and equipment, is the largest single manufacturing investment in county history. A week later, Canline Systems announced a new 10,500-square-foot facility and the creation of 25 jobs – an expansion fueled by the company’s desire to be closer to its customers, including Ardagh Group.

“We found the Roanoke area to be a fine area in which to do business and were also attracted by the beauty of the environment, the friendly people and the historical importance of Virginia in American history,” says Frans Augustijn, owner and CEO of Canline Companies.

“Also, the minimum time difference with Europe and the small distance to a big part of the American population and potential customers was of influence. Virginia is, for us, an employer-friendly state and attractive with regard to an available, skilled workforce.”

Augustijn said that after first consulting with representatives in Richmond, he was put in contact with the Roanoke Regional Partnership.

“They have guided us and advised on how to set up business in the U.S. We were able to set our own priorities, and every question was taken very seriously,” he explains. “We respect their support, and this influenced our final decision. The county as well has given full support.”

Roanoke County’s largest employers, in addition to local government and public schools, include Wells Fargo Operations Center, ITT Exelis, Allstate Insurance Co., Kroger and Home Shopping Network.

The county’s unemployment rate in October was 6.7 percent, lower than the nation’s 7.3 percent but higher than the state’s 5.6 percent. The county’s cost of living index composite score is 90.2 on a scale that puts the national average at 100. “People can thrive and succeed here in the Roanoke Valley, even in tough economic times,” Goodman says.

Education In addition to the county’s impressive on-time high school graduation rate of 93.8 percent, more than 90 percent of the graduates pursued some type of post-secondary education.

The Roanoke County Public Schools (RCPS) employs about 2,100 staff members. They instruct 14,000 students annually at 16 county elementary schools, five middle schools, five high schools and one specialty center – The Burton Center for Arts and Technology.

Chuck Lionberger, the community relations specialist for the schools, says there is a cultural change underway. Schools are examining what’s needed to move students forward to learn and develop 21st-century skills ROANOKE BUSINESS

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community profile that will prepare them for college or the workplace.

One example of this commitment begins next year when a new elective course designed to teach students entrepreneurial skills debuts at the high school level.

Roanoke County schools and Dell Inc. recently hosted national education leaders for a conference on “Innovation in Teaching and Learning Think Tank.” It looked at best practices and new ways to empower students with access to digital tools and resources. County schools had earlier announced a partnership with Dell to provide Latitude laptops to all of the school district’s 6,000 high school students.

“We are committed to empowering our students through technology and the 21st-century skills of collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking,” said RCPS Superintendent Dr. Lorraine Lange.

The county’s school facilities

Salem resident Ed Oliver and his dog Bungee take advantage of some of the county’s 1,000 acres of parks.

recently underwent more than $5 million in security improvements. In 2013, RCPS also established a safety and security task force that reviews plans and procedures and coordinates with Roanoke County’s police, fire and rescue departments. The

county also opened the new Cave Spring Middle School for the 201213 school year and saw Mason’s Cove Elementary School awarded a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification) by the U.S. Green Building Council for its green initiatives, making it the only school in Western Virginia to receive the designation.

Play The county’s natural beauty and geography include miles of hiking trails and Greenway paths, as well as recreation programs, summer camps, after-school programs and numerous parks and other facilities that fall under the supervision of Roanoke County’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department.

The county has more than 1,000 acres of parks that hold athletic fields, courts, playgrounds and picnic pavilions. Green Ridge Recreation Center is a 76,000-square-foot facility with an outdoor water park, indoor pool, wellness center and the area’s longest indoor track. The county’s recreation offerings should continue to expand with the Board of Supervisors’ recent approval of a 99-year lease of Explore Park from the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority.

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Photo by Natalee Waters

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT

Roanoke Regional Chamber recognizes Chamber Champions CHAMBER CHAMPIONS BB&T Brown Edwards Blue Ridge Copier Cox Business

Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore LifeWorks REHAB (Medical Facilities of America) MB Contractors rev.net

Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC Trane Woods Rogers Attorneys at Law Pepsi Bottling Group

Note: Chamber Champions are members who support the Roanoke Regional Chamber through year-round sponsorships in exchange for year-round recognition.

EVENT SPONSORSHIP 2013 State of the County Address

Business After Hours – Oct. 28

Business Before Hours – Nov. 12

Appalachian Power Carilion Clinic Cox First Citizens Bank Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore Hall Associates Inc. RGC Resources

Spilman Thomas & Battle The Grapevine Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint Center In The Square Policymakers Breakfast with Congressman Bob Goodlatte Appalachian Power

Verizon Wireless Doctors Express

Member news & recognitions Advance Auto Parts, the Roanoke-based leading provider of automotive aftermarket parts, accessories, batteries and maintenance items, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire General Parts International, a leading privately held distributor and supplier of original equipment and aftermarket replacement products for commercial markets operating under the Carquest and Worldpac brands, in an all-cash transaction with an enterprise value of $2.04 billion. The transaction creates the largest automotive aftermarket parts provider in North America.

Advance Auto Parts has rebranded the company’s eServices product portfolio. Advance eServices is now known as Motoshop Technology Tools. The brand change highlights Advance’s commitment to providing an innovative and shop-friendly customer experience through continued investment in product development, new technologies and customer service.

Advance Logic Industries has been selected for the 2013 Virginia Excellence Award among all its peers and competitors by the Small Business Institute for Excellence in Commerce (SBIEC). Each year the SBIEC conducts business surveys and industry research to identify companies that have achieved demonstrable success in their local business environment and industry category.

Brown Edwards, a full-service regional accounting firm, has announced that Mark Woolwine is moving to the firm’s New River Valley office. Woolwine is a partner in the firm and Woolwine has more than 20 years of experience in accounting and tax services.

American National University and National College graduates are wellequipped to successfully manage their student loan debt, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Education. The report’s listing of two-year and three-year cohort default rates ranks American National University, National College of Kentucky and National College of Business & Technology of Tennessee among the lowest student loan default rates in the six states where their campuses are located.

Carilion Clinic has named Bill Flattery vice president of the Western Region. Flattery will lead Carilion Clinic operations west of Roanoke, including Carilion New River Valley Flattery Medical Center, Carilion Giles Community Hospital and Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

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SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce

Member news & recognitions, cont’d.

Donna Littlep age, Carilion Clinic’s senior vice president for transformation and finance, has been awarded the Founders Medal of Honor by the Littlepage Virginia-Washington, D.C., chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. The Founders Medal is the association’s highest award and recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the industry.

Johnson, Ayers & Matthews has announced its Tier 1 ranking in the 2014 edition of the U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” in the practice areas of eminent domain and condemnation law, personal injury litigation – defendants, and railroad law for the Roanoke metropolitan areas.

KPMG LLP has announced the following recent personnel changes in the Roanoke office:

Bliss

Burgess

Pettigrew

Robert Jennings has been promoted to senior audit manager; Zuzana Majcikova has been promoted to audit manager; Aaron Kees and Benjamin S u t to n have b e en promoted to senior associates; and Kelsie Davenpor t and Jessica East have joined KPMG’s professional staff.

Jennings

Three LewisGale Regional Health System hospitals were named among the nation’s Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by the Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health-care organizations in America. LewisGale Medical Center, LewisGale Hospital Alleghany and LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, were

Majcikova

Garbee

Rottenborn

Hill

Schlegel

JDRF Greater Blue Ridge Chapter recently held its annual meeting and elected seven new board members: Marie Bliss, Advance Auto Parts; Todd Burgess, Quik-E Foods; Linda Garbee, Alice in Paperland; Jason Hill, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality; Tom Pettigrew, Reinhart Foodservice; Ben Rottenborn, Woods Rogers; and Beverly Schlegel. Additionally, the following committee chairs will serve the board: Julie Kiser, Outreach Committee; Craig Turner, Nominating Committee; Steve Grieco, Government Relations/Advocacy; Bruce Wood, Strategic Planning; and Shelly Whitaker, Communications Committee.

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among 1,099 U.S. hospitals that achieved this exemplary level of performance based on 2012 for the following medical conditions and procedures: LewisGale Medical Center – heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; LewisGale Hospital Alleghany – pneumonia, surgical care; and LewisGale Hospital Montgomery – heart attack, pneumonia and surgical care.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insura n c e C o m p a ny (MassMutual) has opened a new office at the La Premiere Office Building on Electric Road in Roanoke. Mary Winks Winks, district office sales manager, brings more than 40 years of financial services experience to the Roanoke area.

After completing a formal proposal process, the city of Roanoke has awarded a new five-year agreement with Global Spectrum to continue management and operation of the Roanoke Civic Center. Since Global Spectrum began managing the venue in 2009, the Roanoke Civic Center has been attracting bigger, better and more diverse events to the Roanoke Valley.

For the 13th consecutive year, the Center for Digital Government’s Digital Cities Survey has named the city of Roanoke as a Top Digital City. Roanoke ranked ninth in the nation for 2013 among the cities in the 75,000 to 124,999 population category.

On Nov. 5, Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, Salem Mayor Randy Foley and Roanoke County Vice-Chair Charlotte Moore accepted the 2013 Southeast Tourism Society’s Governmental Tourism Leadership Shining Example Award in Jacksonville, Fla. This award honors an elected official whose support or influence greatly enhances the tourism industry. This is the first time a joint jurisdictional nomination has been recognized.

All three governments banded together in support of the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau (RVCVB) by signing off on a regional tourism agreement investing three percentage

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT points of the local lodging tax to the RVCVB, adding more than one million dollars dedicated to marketing Virginia’s Blue Ridge. Due to the increased marketing support from these local governments, the RVCVB will be able to expand its marketing reach to potential visitors through a campaign designed to attract target markets in Virginia and North Carolina to Virginia’s Blue Ridge. In 2012 tourism in Virginia’s Blue Ridge region generated $730 million in revenue, providing $52 million in state and local taxes and supporting more than 7,200 jobs. Botetourt and Franklin Counties also have stepped up to increase their level of funding commitment as well. Because of the increase in local funding, the RVCVB is converting from a membershipbased to a consumer-based organization. All hospitality and tourism industry businesses within the supporting jurisdictions will be given the opportunity to sign up as a partner free.

The Science Festival Alliance, based in Cambridge, Mass., has awarded the Science Museum of Western Virginia a $10,000 grant to provide seed money to launch a regional science festival in 2014. Partners on the museum’s festival team include Carilion Clinic, Virginia Tech, Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council and the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Eleven team members of SERVPRO of Roanoke, Montgomery and Pulaski Counties recently received certification as water damage restoration technicians, bringing the company’s total certified water damage restoration technicians to 31. Jimmy Williams, Kayla Mongan, Morgan Wilburn, Christian Crawford, Jordan Reeves, Brenda Giles, William Bogan, Rigo Vargas, Clark Goodman, Samantha Lucado and Mason Walker are registrants in good standing with the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification.

Tony Terry of SERVPRO of Roanoke, Montgomery and Pulaski Counties passed the NADCA examination and was awarded the title of “Certified Ventilation System Inspector.” The designation recognizes comprehensive knowledge in the field of HVAC inspection process. Shane Stoll passed the NADCA examination and is now

certified as an air systems cleaning specialist.

Spilman Thomas & Battle announced that the firm was ranked as a Tier 1 Metropolitan “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News – Best Lawyers in 27 areas of law across four of its office locations – Charleston and Morgantown, W.Va., Pittsburgh and Roanoke. The rankings are based on a rigorous assessment process that involved the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys and review of additional information provided by law firms.

Spilman’s Tier 1 Metropolitan rankings in the Roanoke office are in bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganizational law, financial services regulation law, public finance law, and trusts and estates law.

The law firm Spilman Thomas & Battle announced that it was named a 2014 Go-To Law Firm by 14 of its Fortune 500 clients.

The firm received recognition for many areas of practice including labor litigation, contracts litigation, torts litigation, patent prosecution, and labor and employment law. The list of the Top 500 Companies is compiled annually by ALM, publisher of multiple legal industry magazines and websites. Spilman was named as a Go-To Law Firm by the following clients: Kroger, Wells Fargo, American International Group, Lockheed Martin, DuPont, Aetna, Baker Hughes, Coventry Health Care, Marriott International, BB&T Corp., Family Dollar Stores, Mutual of Omaha Insurance, SLM and Allergan.

Brenda Blackburn, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools, named Tuck Chiropractic Clinic to the Virginia School Boards Association 2013 Business Honor Roll Program. The Montgomery County School Board expressed its appreciation for Tuck Chiropractic Clinic’s ongoing support of the community’s public schools.

CBL & Associates Properties has launched new websites at seven CBL Malls, including Valley View Mall in partnership with PlaceWise Media, the industry leader in digital shopping center marketing. The new website includes an engaging new site design with feature sets that connect retailers and shoppers. For more information, visit www.ValleyViewMall.com.

Harold E. Burkhart, University Distinguished Professor and the Thomas M. Brooks Professor of Forestry in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Burkhart Tech, was named forest champion of the year by the Forest Landowners Association. The honor is bestowed upon individuals who have made a significant contribution to the private forest landowner community through research, legislative or regulatory efforts at the local or national level.

Thomas R. Fox, professor of forest soils and silviculture in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech, received the Society of American Fox Forester’s Barrington Moore Award in Biological Science, which recognizes outstanding achievement in biological research leading to the advancement of forestry.

The award is named in honor of Barrington Moore, a prominent member of the first generation of professional foresters in the United States, who joined the society in 1911.

Mark Helms, director of facilities operations at Virginia Tech, has been appointed the university’s interim associate vice president and chief facilities officer.

Helms

James McClure, computational scientist with Advanced Research Computing at Virginia Tech, has been selected as one of six XSEDE Campus Champions for 2013-14. XSEDE is the McClure Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, a program funded by the National Science Foundation to facilitate national-scale supercomputing.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

35

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce Robert B. Moore, professor of chemistry in the College of Science and associate director for research and scholarship for the Institute of Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech, Moore has been named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He was honored in the organization’s fifth class of fellows in recognition of his accomplishments in polymer chemistry and his leadership positions with the American Chemical Society.

J.P. Morgan, professor of statistics and the associate dean for graduate studies and strategic initiatives in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been selected as the college’s Morgan first director of the new Academy of Integrated Science.

Jennifer Sparrow, senior director of networked knowledge ventures and emerging technologies within Information Technology at Virginia Tech, has been named a 2013 recipient Sparrow of the EDUCAUSE Rising Star award. EDUCAUSE is the leading organization for leaders and managers of information technology in higher education.

Stephens

R o b e r t P. S t e p h e ns, associate professor of history at Virginia Tech, has been named associate dean for undergraduate academic affairs in the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Virginia Tech was among 56 colleges and universities honored with a 2013 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

Two Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies faculty members are being recognized for making major impact on their students and 36 6

JANUARY 2014

M. Zawistowski

K. Zawistowski

Sandel

Virginia communities.

The Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects has presented Marie Zawistowski with society honors and Keith Zawistowski with the award for distinguished achievement.

The Roanoke City Council has named Dr. Robert H. Sandel, president of Virginia Western Community College, as its Citizen of the Year for 2013. Mayor David A. Bowers and the City Council officially awarded the honor to Sandel at a ceremony during the grand reopening of Elmwood Park. Sandel follows the Rev. Carl T. Tinsley Sr. as the Citizen of the Year, an award given by the council an-

who often struggle to meet financial and family care goals. She helps her clients enroll in classes and workshops at area colleges and centers to help them more easily enter the workforce. The city of Covington, Parks and Recreation, Cedar Hill Cemetery was named Business of the Year. The organization has worked with Goodwill Industries of the Valley to assist with providing local VIA participants work opportunities that foster skills necessary for professional and academic success.

Virginia Western Community College, CNA was named Training Provider of the Year.

Health care is an emerging industry and there is a huge need for qualified, certified employees. This training provider works jointly with Generation Solutions to bring the Certified Nursing Assistant Program to the Franklin Center. Annette Lewis has been honored as Professional of the Year. She is the senior vice president and director of the education and workforce component with Total Action Against Poverty, This Valley Works.

nually since 1981.

Virginia Western Community College dedicated the Horace G. and Ann H. Fralin Center for Science and Health Professions on Oct. 23 at an on-campus ceremony. In August 2012, the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust committed $5 million over five years to create an endowment at the college for scholarships, primarily dedicated to the areas of science, technology, mathematics, engineering and health care (STEM-H). The Fralin Center, which opened for classes in August, is the new home to the Virginia Western healthcare and science programs.

Five area individuals, professionals and organizations have been recognized by the Virginia Workforce Development Board for outstanding contributions to workforce development in the region. Those honored included: Renee Smith, Workforce Program Participant of the Year. Smith entered the youth program facing significant obstacles and barriers to success, but with perseverance she completed her training as a certified nurse aide and then enrolled in the 2013 health-care cohort and worked at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. She now works full time at Carilion as a nurse’s aide. Subrenna Ross, Community Advocate of the Year, works diligently with clients

Simons

B r o o ke S im o ns has joined Woods Rogers PLC as an associate in the firm’s litigation practice. She earned her law degree from William & Mary School of Law and began her career as a summer associate at

Woods Rogers.

Eleven Woods Rogers PLC attorneys have been named Virginia “Super Lawyers” for 2014. Super Lawyers magazine is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The Woods Rogers attorneys are: Thomas Bagby, employment – employment and labor; Victor Cardwell, employment – employment and labor; Agnis Chakravorty, employment – employment and labor; Chip Casola, litigation – business litigation; Nicholas Conte, business and transactions – business/corporate; Frank Friedman, litigation – appellate; James Jennings, litigation – civil litigation defense; Richard Maxwell, business and transactions – bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights; Elizabeth Perrow, litigation – personal injury defense, medical malpractice; Paul Thomson, construction, RE and environmental – environmental litigation; and Thomas Winn, employment – employment and labor.

GET K R O W O T T E G D N A Maybe Mayb yb be yo yyou’ve ou’’ve v fou found ound nd d yyourself ours ou rsel elff stuck stuc st tuc uckk in u i yyour ou our u search sear se a ch ar forr a reward fo rewarding ding ca career. are reer. Maybe you need tto o up upgrade pgr grade ade your skills to advance in your current job, or perhaps you want to explore an entirely new career.

You need Virginia Western Community College.

VA W VA WESTERN WE WES EESST ST TER TE EER RN C COMM OMM M CO C COLLEGE OLLE LEGE GE FUL FFU FULL ULLL P U PAGE AGE AG A G

Virginia Western gives students opportunities to gain the real-world skills they need to succeed in fields such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics and healthcare. Whether you wish to be a nurse, a mechatronics specialist or a software engineer, Virginia Western will

take you there.

Planning for a road trip.

Feeling short of breath and more tired than usual.

Diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

Implemented lifestyle changes, including cardiac rehabilitation.

Began seeing improvements every week.

Living with heart disease is doable.

Now instead of planning a road trip, the trip is booked.

So grateful Carilion is here.

Rema Martin, 62, Wirtz, Va.

FOR

hearts

MADE HEALTHIER, AND LIVES MADE

happier.

When it comes to matters of the heart, eart, we’re here to care for you and your condition. As the region’s leading heart care team, with trained experts to treat and manage congestive heart failure, we’re helping improve the lives of patients. And with clinics in Roanoke, Lexington, Franklin County, and the New River Valley, patients are able to receive treatment close to their homes.

To watch Rema’s story, visit CarilionClinic.org/heart.

CarilionClinic.org/heart • 800-422-8482