Roanoke Business- July 2013 by Virginia Business

JULY 2013

Advance Auto isn't ‘chasing a picture of the past’ Advance Auto Parts CEO Darren Jackson

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

Seeking ‘moments of acceleration’

TO G E T H E R W I T H V I R G I N I A’ S B U S I N E S S E S

Businesses are always looking for ways to run more efficiently. We do the same at Appalachian Power. And though improving energy efficiency may reduce costs and stretch dollars, having an adequate power supply remains essential. That’s why Appalachian Power is working hard to cost-effectively meet our customers’ energy needs. We’re retiring older, less-efficient plants, adding more clean natural gas generation, and increasing our generating capacity – to ensure that you have the electricity you need today and in the future.

W E ’ R E BUILDING

A POW E R F U L FUTU R E A P PA L AC H I A N P O W E R .C O M

CONTENTS SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

July 2013

F E AT U R E S COVER STORY

Building a business and making a difference Roanoke region’s only Fortune 500 still looking for ‘moments of acceleration.’

by Cara Ellen Modisett

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE A better view Region’s commercial real estate market starting to see more activity.

by Jenny Kincaid Boone

TECHNOLOGY Park here A new mobile app leads drivers to Roanoke parking garages and lots.

by Rich Ellis

EDUCATION The other medical school Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine takes different approach to training and service.

by Donna Alvis-Banks

D 24

INTERVIEW: SHAWN HASH

M 31

Fishing for a living

22 E

ROANOKE NEXT

Living the dream

Farriers still needed in 21st century.

Building a business from one truck, two canoes and four bicycles.

by Shawna Morrison

by Shay Barnhart

LIFESTYLES

Dancing to a new tune Mountain Lake begins to refill while resort rebrands as an outdoor adventure mecca. by Michael Abraham

JULY 2013

33 36

NEWS FROM THE CHAMBER NEWS FROM THE PARTNERSHIP

Banking services and products that rival the biggest. Personal customer care that surpasses all.

AreYouWithValley Yet? Ranked by Virginia Business Magazine, for the second straight year... One of the Top 10 Best Places to Work in Virginia. 2013 Best of Roanoke PLATINUM AWARD WINNER for "Best Local Bank." 3 201

Member FDIC

EQUAL HOUSING

LENDER

FROM THE EDITOR Knowledge of the past offers lessons for today by Tim Thornton

“T

he past is never dead,” according to one of William Faulkner’s most famous lines. “It’s not even past.” I was reminded of that, and of how it may not be an altogether bad thing, as I traveled to three events just days apart. At the first, I heard architect David Bandy talk about the renovation of Center in the Square being “a great labor of love.” Bandy worked on the first renovation that turned a downtown Roanoke warehouse into a sort of temple of knowledge and culture. His contribution the first time around was a good deal smaller than it was this time. “I was third row, fifth desk,” he said. “Now I’m first desk, first row.” The presentation that won Spectrum Design the Center in the Square job was built around the 1985 movie Back to the Future. The project’s goal, Bandy said, was to be respectful of the past but focused on the future. A few days later, Thelma Drake, director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, talked about what seems like the inevitable return of regularly scheduled passenger trains to Roanoke, a city that owes its development, if not its existence, to decades of railroad work and railroad money. Next, Alison Blanton, president of the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, explained why a house older than Big Lick should be saved. It’s one of a very few houses in Roanoke, she said, that predate the Civil War “and remind us of how this area was before the railroad came through. It tells us that other layer of our history, before the city as we know it today.” A fire two years ago did serious damage to the building, Compton-Bateman House, but Blanton and other preservationists believe it can be saved. Beginning as a private home, then serving as the Villa Heights Recreation Center, the building has already had two lives. Perhaps it can have a third. Center in the Square is already on its third life, recently reborn as a new and improved version of its former self, which was a new and improved use of a building that has stood on the corner of Roanoke’s Market Square since Woodrow Wilson was president. W.E. McGuire’s Farmers’ Supply Co. was the original occupant, but demand for the buggies and wagons the company used to sell isn’t what it used to be, so the building’s current use — home and organizing center for museums, music and theater — seems much more suited to the region’s needs. Center’s first renovation began about the time passenger trains finally stopped coming to Roanoke. The latest renovation finished just as it became apparent that those trains are headed back this way. I don’t mean to sound nostalgic for a time that’s even older than me, or to argue that things need to stay just as they are. But I do think that history and sense of place are important, that there are many useful lessons and tools available in the past, and we make our lives much harder if we don’t take advantage of them. “The past is never dead,” Faulkner wrote. “It’s not even past.” Let’s hope it never is.

JULY 2013

SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION Vol. 2

JULY 2013

President & Publisher Roanoke Business Editor Contributing Writers

Art Director Contributing Designer Contributing Photographers

Production Manager Circulation Manager Accounting Manager Advertising Sales

No. 7

Bernard A. Niemeier Tim Thornton Cara Ellen Modisett Jenny Kincaid Boone Rich Ellis Donna Alvis-Banks Shay Barnhart Michael Abraham Shawna Morrison Adrienne R. Watson Elizabeth Coffey Sam Dean Alisa Moody Jeff Greenough Kevin L. Dick Karen Chenault Sunny Ogburn Lynn Williams Hunter Bendall

CONTACT: EDITORIAL: (540) 520-2399 ADVERTISING: (540) 597-2499 210 S. Jefferson St., Roanoke, VA 24011-1702 We welcome your feedback. Email Letters to the Editor to Tim Thornton at tthornton@roanoke-business.com

VIRGINIA BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS LLC A portfolio company of Virginia Capital Partners LLC Frederick L. Russell Jr., chairman

on the cover Darren Jackson CEO, Advance Auto Parts Photo by Sam Dean with background image courtesy Advance Auto Parts

Celebrating great accomplishments. Looking forward to the next ones. Since beginning his career with Gentry Locke in 1984, Mike Pace has accomplished great things. As the Managing Partner of our Firm and through top leadership positions with bar associations and economic development organizations, our clients and our communities have beneﬁted from his dedication. Mike’s passion for education led to his creation of the VLF/VBA Rule of Law Project, and the founding of The Center for Teaching the Rule of Law. We congratulate Mike as he becomes General Counsel to Roanoke College on July 1st. Mike will still be actively serving the needs of his business clients in an Of Counsel role at Gentry Locke. We are proud to support Mike as he continues his path of service here at the Firm. Please join us in congratulating Mike on his accomplishments and his ongoing success.

Mike will continue to represent Gentry Locke clients as Of Counsel to the Firm.

Roanoke, Virginia ofﬁce: 10 Franklin Road, S.E. | SunTrust Plaza 540.983.9300 | Toll-free: 866.983.0866 | gentrylocke.com

COVER STORY

Building a business and making a difference

Advance Auto Parts renovated Crossroads Mall into a corporate campus.

Roanoke region’s only Fortune 500 still looking for ‘moments of acceleration’ by Cara Ellen Modisett

alk through Advance Auto Parts’ Roanoke headquarters, and you’ll see evidence of the company’s future and its past. The region’s only Fortune 500 company isn’t located in some glitzy high-rise office tower, but in the former Crossroads Mall. Spaces once occupied by Babies R Us and Jo-Ann Fabric in Virginia’s first enclosed mall have been transformed into a modern, collaborative campus.

W 6

JULY 2013

Photo by Sam Dean

This ability to adapt – Advance recently opened a new commercial credit department in the large mall space – has served the company well as it has grown from a small business into an industry leader. Yet despite the building’s video conference stations and other modern amenities, there’s no escaping the company’s past. Displayed prominently in one of the main halls is a portrait of Arthur Taubman, who founded the company in 1932. Today the company that started with three stores — which Taubman purchased during the Great Depression by pawning his Masonic ring and his wife’s wedding band – is a leading supplier of automotive parts and accessories and employs more than 54,000 people, including 1,600 in the Roanoke region. In 2012, Advance’s more than 3,000 stores racked up $6 billion in sales, making it the country’s No. 2 retailer of automotive aftermarket parts, behind AutoZone.

hard-working.” That’s how Nick Taubman, Arthur’s son, describes his father. Nick started working at Advance as a 16-year-old in the summer. He remembers his father talking to a roomful of workers sitting on orange crates — “‘you ought to come along and hitch your wagon to our star,’” his father would say. “And they did.” Smith remembers Taubman saying, over and over: “We’re going to make sure that we treat our employees with respect, like family; and we’re going to serve our customers better than anyone else,” and then – third – “we’re going to hopefully make enough money to do numbers one and two. And it always worked out.” “People” meant not only the

employees, but the community surrounding the company as well. “In the early years,” Smith says, “…Arthur Taubman was a big supporter of many causes, and I used to hear the stories from some of the early employees about the things he did.” That included supporting the country’s first lifesaving crew, which started in Roanoke, and supporting the beginnings of arts organizations that are Roanoke institutions today – the Roanoke Symphony and the museum now known as the Taubman Museum of Art. Arthur Taubman had been in business maybe eight or nine years, and Nick was about as old as that, when Nick remembers the FBI visiting his father at his office. The

The early years The son of Austro-Hungarian emigrants, Arthur Taubman was born in 1901 in Queens, N.Y. He grew up in New York City, dropped out of high school, joined the U.S. Navy at 15, and then worked in the auto supply business with his brother. “He was so charismatic,” remembers Garnett Smith, Advance’s former president and CEO. “I can remember him standing up at meetings and just holding the audience in the palm of his hand, without any notes.” Smith’s own story is a mirror of Taubman’s. Smith started as a salesman in the Pulaski store in 1959. He moved up to assistant manager, manager, then joined the Roanoke office in 1966 as an assistant buyer. In 1997 he became president and CEO. “Outgoing, fun, ambitious, Photo by Sam Dean

The offices and common spaces at what used to be an enclosed mall were designed to foster collaboration.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

cover story reason: his father had, apparently, hundreds of first cousins. The two agents questioned his father. How do you have so many first cousins? “Any Jew in trouble is my first cousin,” Arthur answered. The agents asked no more questions. They left and didn’t come back. The Jews in trouble were in Europe; it was World War II. “[Arthur] was aware of what was going on in Europe from the moment Hitler was made chancellor,” recalls Nick. “He knew terrible things were happening there.” In Vichy, France, still independent of Nazi Germany, Jews were watching what was happening outside, the deportations, the concentration camps, and they knew they wouldn’t be protected forever. The only way of getting out was with a visa, and the support of someone outside the country. “Arthur had to sign an affidavit of support that if anyone he brought over went on government assistance, he would have to reimburse the government.” Arthur signed about 500 affidavits, bring-

Advance Auto Parts at a glance Headquarters: Roanoke Ticker symbol: NYSE: AAP CEO: Darren Jackson Annual sales revenue 2012: $6.2 billion Total number of stores: 3,969 in 39 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Employees: 54,280 ing 500, “more or less,” Jews to the United States, claiming they were first cousins. “Not a single one of them went on the dole,” says Nick. During World War II, the car parts industry lagged because of the war, so Taubman diversified. Advance Stores, as the company was known then, expanded its

inventory to include lawn mowers, bicycles, fishing tackle, toys at Christmas, lawn and garden tools. Advance Auto sold tires and had its own garages. The stores employed women while the men were away at war, and the company continued to be profitable. By 1969, three stores had grown to 54, and Arthur retired. Nick stepped in to take over the company and gradually began to make changes.

A new vision Lawn mowers, bicycles and fishing tackle were all well and good, but Nick saw the need to focus the company’s inventory and its identity. He began to move forward on that, with Arthur’s “full knowledge.” “We never agreed at all times,” he remembers, but “we sat down and worked it out.” Sometimes Nick would go with his father’s ideas – after all, there was good reason for his success. But “more often than not, he’d say, ‘I’m going to Florida – you do it!’ ”

Timeline graphic by Adrienne R. Watson

JULY 2013

So Nick did it. “We got out of more businesses than we stayed in,” he says, but “we didn’t disappoint our customers.” Was there trepidation? “Oh, yeah,” says Smith. “I remember clearly – it was in 1972 – what we called our managers’ meeting, at the Hotel Roanoke.” Nick made the announcement that he wanted to change focus, “get much, much deeper into automotives.” Tell your managers “you’re going to phase things out that were 50, 60 percent of your sales – there’s going to be some concern about that.” The transition took about five years – the changes were gradual and carefully made. “Every major merchandise category we phased out, we didn’t lose any sales,” says Smith. “His vision was right.” In 1974, Advance Stores became Advance Auto; in 1985, Advance Auto Parts. Garnett Smith became president and Nick Taubman served as CEO. In 1989, the chain had 156 stores; by 1993, the year before Arthur died, 352 stores. By 1996, it was up to 649 stores with $808 million

in annual revenues. Jim Wade came on board in 1994 from S.H. Heironimus, where he was vice president of finance and operations. He has filled a number of roles at Advance, including CFO, executive vice president and customer development officer. He served as president from 1999 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2011 and, while retired, continues to serve on the board of directors. He recalls that when Nick first called him, “What started out as an hour meeting turned into about three hours.” Wade took the job. Why? “The vision [Nick] had for what the company could be, and how we could get there, which was through people and customers. It was such a clear story.” Before he started, he asked Nick what he wanted him to do. “He said, ‘We’ll figure that out when you get here.’” Wade’s work included “supply chain logistics, inventory,” building additional distribution centers – “we wore a lot of different hats for about four years.” Eventually, Wade became in-

strumental in acquisitions, the biggest of which occurred just after another major transition – selling the company.

Family-owned to publicly owned Nick Taubm a n’s ch i ldren weren’t interested in running the business, and Nick was ready to retire – “I had been in it 42 years, and I wanted a new challenge.” (Those new challenges have included an ambassadorship in Romania and board work with the Metropolitan Opera and the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.) The company was sold in 1998. The Los Angeles-based investment firm Freeman Spogli & Co. bought 86 percent of the company’s stock, and the rest remained with the Taubman family. “I had [an] offer to sell” for 40 percent more than what Freeman Spogli & Co. offered, says Nick. “I left that on the table, because the company [Advance] would have gone away. I didn’t want that to happen.” The company stayed, and

ROANOKE BUSINESS

cover story stayed in Roanoke, and Taubman’s fears that the company might fail were relieved. “I was afraid they were going to run it into the ground,” Taubman admits. Why? Company managers, he says, “grab for the goodies. They take all the cream off the top and don’t let it [the cream] sink to the bottom.” Freeman Spogli & Co. didn’t. “They listened to Garnett and me.” Taubman says the company “reacted and they reacted fast and smart.” Later that same year, Advance made a giant acquisition, buying Western Auto from Sears for $175 million; Sears became a 40 percent owner in the combined company, which was essentially twice as large as Advance had been before the merger. Advance Auto closed 98 of the new stores, accounting for the first loss in the company’s history. By 2000, the company was back in the black. Advance chose acquisitions

didn’t become a company of acquisitions – it became one company.” The company went public three years later. By 2003 it made the Fortune 500 list with 2,500 stores and sales of $3.3 billion. During the next decade, the company continued to grow. From 2008 through fiscal 2012, sales rose from just over $5 billion to $6.2 billion, and the number of stores rose from 3,368 to 3,794. Advance is looking at opening 170 to 190 stores this year. Tammy Finley, senior vice president of human resources for Advance Auto Parts, says stores are the lifeblood of the company.

carefully – most important was finding companies with a similar corporate culture (focusing on people, customer service and community). As a result, says Taubman, “it

˒ NsĶsEǋ ǼÞŘ¶ ŸȖǋ ˢ˟ǼÌ ɴs ǋ ˒ NŸŎŎsǋOÞ Ķ Ř_ ƼsǋǣŸŘ Ķ ÞŘǣȖǋ ŘOs ˒ ˡŘ_ ¶sŘsǋ ǼÞŸŘ ¯ ŎÞĶɴ EȖǣÞŘsǣǣ ˒ ĵŸO ĶĶɴ ŸɠŘs_ Ř_ ŸƼsǋ Ǽs_ 3224 Peters Creek Road, Roanoke VA 24019 (540) 366-8264 www.broganinsurance.com

eprints R

O Our C Custom t PPublished bli h Reprints can extend the effectiveness of your ad or article that appears in Roanoke Business magazine, and they make excellent marketing pieces. Articles can be reﬂowed without surrounding ads. If space allows, we can place your company contact information and logo. The cost will depend on the size of the reprint.

Would you like to know more about reprints? Please contact: Kevin Dick - (804) 225-0433 10

JULY 2013

The future “Our stores are the lifeblood of our company,” says Tammy Finley, the new senior vice president of human resources for Advance. A lawyer, she’s been with the company since 1998 and was promoted during a series of leadership changes in April. Moving forward, the company is looking at how to develop leadership and strengthen that corporate culture – the “people” key that has been at the core of its success. That means focusing not only on leadership in corporate headquarters, Finley says, but the leadership “in a store in the middle of Nebraska.” Since 2008, Advance has increased its focus on commercial customers. That’s meant the addition of a new sales staff of several hundred. Finley says problemsolving – for the customer, for the employee – has always been a vital part of the company’s mission. “How do we help them run their business in a better way?” The business of auto parts has some staying power, just as it did during the Great Depression and the Second World War, and for some of the same reasons: “When the economy is contracting or growing at a slow pace, people tend to hold onto their cars longer,” says Christine Chmura, president and chief economist with Richmond, Va.-based Chmura Economics and Analytics. “That is good news Photo by Sam Dean

for stores that sell auto parts. With the economy expected to grow at a modest pace and the unemployment rate remaining elevated, I would expect companies like Advance Auto to continue to see good growth over the next two years.” CEO Darren Jackson came to Advance Auto in January 2008 after serving as CFO at Minneapolisbased consumer electronics retailer Best Buy. For the past two years, he’s been serving as president and CEO. However, that changed in April when Advance hired George Sherman, the man who headed up Best Buy’s Geek Squad, as president, resulting in a division of responsibilities between the two. Sherman also has worked for Target and Home Depot. The change means Jackson, who has continued to live in Minnesota and commute to Roanoke, will be able to focus more on strategic and leadership development. Sherman, who will execute strategic initiatives and concentrate more on the day-to-day running of the company, plans to reside in Roanoke. For the past five years, the company has focused on logistics. “There were things we had to get better at,” Jackson says. Those things included the website, distribution facilities, merchandising practices and investing in technology. Now the company is looking forward to what Jackson calls “moments of acceleration.” Identifying those moments is a work in progress: “They show up in different ways,” often in dealing with customers. “Could be in the complexity of the car, could be in industry consolidation.” The automotive auto parts industry is mature and competitive. Advance shares space in the market with the giant AutoZone, which has more than 4,000 stores and had annual revenue of more than $8 billion in 2012. Other competitors include O’Reilly Automotive and Pep Boys. Photo by Sam Dean

Reid Nicholson, Chris Webb and Carrie Garett meet in a common area at Advance Auto Parts’ corporate headquarters.

The company can’t stand still, says Jackson. “Very rarely do businesses die from a silver bullet,” he points out. Usually, it’s “slow, arduous atrophy, and it usually is chasing

a picture of the past.” Sales, number of stores and share earnings have continued to grow, according to Advance’s 2012 annual report: Since 2008, sales have

Poe & Cronk The Region’s Leader

In Commercial and Industrial Real Estate Our success is built by working in partnership with our valued clients and focusing on their success. This is reŇected in repeat referrals from those with whom we are privileged to serve. We are proud to welcome “Roanoke Business” to our Region. Please visit our oĸces at The Tower in downtown Roanoke.

10 South Jeīerson Street, Roanoke, VA • www.poecronk.com

Individual Memberships

ROANOKE BUSINESS

cover story grown from $5 billion to $6.2 billion; the number of stores has increased from 3,368 to 3,794; diluted earnings per share are up from $2.64 to $5.22. Financial results from the first quarter of 2013 showed a 7.8 percent decrease in diluted earnings per share ($1.65, down from $1.79 during the same period in 2012). Total sales, however, increased 3 percent to $2 billion, driven by the acquisition of BWP, which gave the company 163 new stores over the past 12 months. Comparable store sales saw a 3.2 percent drop; they had a 2.1 percent increase during the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Jackson said in a statement that unseasonably warm weather in key markets, which deferred vehicle maintenance, was partially to blame. “Turning to 2013, we are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for our industry and our business,” said Jackson in a letter to stockholders in the company’s most recent annual report. “Our optimism is supported by the fact that we have a significant opportunity to grow through our developing capabilities such as our HUB [store] expansions, new stores and new Electronic Parts Catalog.”

Advance Auto Parts CEO Darren Jackson speaks at the annual shareholders meeting in Roanoke, May 22.

JULY 2013

Advance Auto as corporate citizen From its early years and on to the present, Advance Auto has given back to the community and, in the process, has reaped the benefits of generosity. “Advance has been a huge beneficiary,” says Jackson. There’s a company-wide sense that it’s important to give back to the community – a community made up of customers and employees both.

of the community, beginning with the people who work for you.” Advance focuses on volunteering and giving in four areas: health, arts and education, disaster relief and serving the underserved. The company has adopted a three-word mission: Inspire, Serve, Grow. Beneficiaries include the United Way and Building Homes for Heroes (an organization building homes for wounded and in-need Iraq and Afghanistan veterans). The focus on people

Advance focuses on volunteering and giving in four areas: health, arts and education, disaster relief and serving the underserved. “You don’t have to do the charity work,” says Nick Taubman, “but when you do that, you live in a better community. It becomes a prosperous community. You’re not just selling spark plugs – you’re working to make your business a part

started with Arthur Taubman, and the company’s commitment to service and outreach was cemented by Garnett Smith. Every time a new store has opened since 2011, Advance has donated $1,000 to a local charity. At the corporate level, there are partnerships such as one with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which has raised $35 million in the past two decades through events including a golf tournament. Advance and JDRF are celebrating the 20th anniversary of that partnership this year. Community outreach efforts are vital for lots of reasons, says Jackson, but “the one that resonates the most with me is – they help give a company purpose.” Certainly, Arthur Taubman would agree. On the wall next to his portrait are his words: “Growing a company takes time, but when you do it with integrity, it takes a little longer. We didn’t mind the wait.” Photo by Sam Dean

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE The new condos at Roanoke’s South Peak.

A better view

Region’s commercial real estate market starting to see more activity. by Jenny Kincaid Boone

small cluster of condos, 32 to be exact, sits at one of the busiest intersections in the Roanoke Valley. Nearly a decade after Roanoke developer Jim Smith announced his mixed-use South Peak project, a threestory condo building is the first to rise.

The 60-plus-acre site sits on a hillside at the intersection of Electric Road and U.S. 220 in Southwest Roanoke County. Amenities include patio doors that open to panoramic views of the Roanoke Valley and a blue mountain backdrop. Hillside clearing began in 2004 for this retail, housing and hotel project, initially called Slate Hill. However, the site sat vacant for years, Photo by Sam Dean

as the national economy slumped. While economic challenges remain, the view is getting better for South Peak and other commercial real estate projects. Area real estate brokers and developers say leasing and buying activity is picking up. Stalled projects like South Peak are moving forward, and the region recently attracted a new employer to an industrial park in

Pulaski County. “There is a rising confidence level that the bottom is kind of behind us,” says Matt Huff, an associate broker with Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group in Roanoke. At South Peak, buyers had reserved about 14 condos by late April. Condo prices range from about $199,000 for an 810-square-foot space to $627,900 for the largest ROANOKE BUSINESS

commercial real estate unit at 2,342 square feet. Smith says the one- to three-bedroom spaces may appeal to young professionals or empty nesters seeking to downsize. Eventually, Smith wants to build four more condo buildings. Other plans include a 117-room Hilton Garden Inn, retail space, office buildings and 23 single-family homes. Whether there will be strong demand for South Peak’s condos is unclear. Condo buying has slumped locally and nationally in the past few years because of tight consumer lending. Locally, some developers turned housing projects – originally intended for condos – into rental spaces. For instance, apartments and town homes are planned at Midtown Village, a housing, retail and hotel development proposed on the 20-acre former Blacksburg Middle School site in downtown Blacksburg. The developer, Fiddler’s Green Partners, is going with rental units, because “financing is strong for the rental market, but not for [the] forsale product,” says Anne McClung, director of planning and building for the Town of Blacksburg. The units may convert to condos in the future, she says. Meanwhile, at Smith Mountain Lake, a planned 90-acre commercial development won’t move forward unless it lands an anchor tenant, likely a grocery store. Yet grocery stores won’t come to this

Jason VickersSmith, left, a principal with the development firm of WVS Cos. in Richmond, and Aaron Ewert, project manager for The Bridges, attended a groundbreaking ceremony in May.

Southlake Towne Center, off U.S. 40 in Union Hall, if nearby houses and condos sit empty, says Lee Willard, vice president of corporate holdings for the Willard Cos. “The real estate market affects the interest of a grocery store,” he says. The lake’s housing market was hit hard by the national real estate crash, forcing some lake developers and related companies to go out of business. Now real estate agents are trying to fill an oversupply of

Roanoke region market at a glance Total office inventory

13.3 million square feet

Overall vacancy rate

11.5 percent

YTD (year-to-date) leasing activity

17,709 square feet

Rental rate (all classes)

$13.68 per square foot

YTD overall absorption

(-35,001 square feet)

Source: First quarter 2013 market report, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. Note: Absorption refers to the rate at which rentable space is filled.

JULY 2013

condominiums the market. d i i lleft ft on th k t Once the market improves, the Willard Cos. want to construct a second 48-unit condo building beside Hales Ford Bridge on the lake’s Franklin County side. A midrise condo building, called Bridgewater Pointe, already stands at this site. The units were sold at a lottery sale in 2010 after sitting vacant for several years. Another area project that will include apartment housing as opposed to condos is The Bridges, a one-million-square-foot, mixed-use project that got underway in June. The first phase of the 22-acre project, across from the Virginia Tech-Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute in downtown Roanoke, will include 157 apartments. The $150 million development along South Jefferson Street, formerly known as Riverside Station, also has plans for restaurants, office, retail, a public river walk and kayak launch. The 10- to 15-year project is expected to meet housing demand for students and employees at the medical school, while creating a new public destinaPhoto courtesy Jennifer Smith

With Tanglewood shopping center at left, development continues at Roanoke’s South Peak.

tion downtown. The school’s enrollment is about 168 students, and the institute employs about 150 people with plans to grow, says Paula Byron, a spokeswoman for VTC. Meanwhile, Roanoke Valley commercial real estate brokers are eyeing plans for new Class A office spaces at projects like South Peak and The Bridges. “We have had people who have looked in Roanoke before who perhaps settled somewhere else because of a lack of top-notch product,” says Jake Copty, a commercial leasing broker with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. The office vacancy rate in the Roanoke market rose to 11.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013, up from a rate of 9.6 percent in 2012. It will take some time to fill inventory, according to a recent market report by Thalhimer. Copty notes that businesses mostly are seeking small spaces – 10,000 square feet or less. Morgan Stanley, a financial services firm, fits that category. It is consolidating its Roanoke County and downtown Roanoke offices into a 9,917-square-foot space at the Wells Fargo Tower downtown. Top photo by Sam Dean, bottom photo by Alisa Moody

The picture is similar in the New River Valley. Ray Alcorn, president and CEO of Park Commercial Real Estate in Blacksburg, says he is leasing and selling more office space to local companies, including some new to the region this year, compared with last year. A big bright spot was a March announcement by JemD Farms. The producer of hydroponic vegetables, based in Ontario, Cana-

da, plans to invest $30 million to establish its first U.S. location in Pulaski County. The company will grow organic vegetables under its Red Sun label in climate-controlled greenhouses on 42 acres at the New River Valley Commerce Park. It’s the first tenant to take space in the 1,000-acre industrial park since it was developed 10 years ago. JemD Farms says it will hire 205 employees in five years to work at

Sears, one of the New River Valley Mall’s oldest tenants, is closing its store there this month.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

commercial real estate

Keeping you DRY since 1999

MRIMOUNTAIN ROOFING INC 501 Shenandoah Ave., Roanoke, VA

540-342-9901

NEW CONSTRUCTION, REROOFING, REPAIRS TPO, EPDM, Metal, Slate, Shake, Shingle, Copper

www.mtnroof.com 20 Jubal Early Highway, SE Wirtz

LEA R O

Intersection of Routes 116 and 122 Corner lot 2,873 square feet 1.25 acres

SAL R FO

se Lea

S i li i iin unique Specializing i • solutions to meet ing z i s n your needs! Dow ng

di pan

•

Ex 16

JULY 2013

Bac

ase rch u P g• llin e S • sing a e Contact Tom Branch L ip • h s or Mike Branch ner Ow

Ph: (540) 774-1208 Fax: (540) 774-1359 Email: bmc@branchmgt.com Web:www.branchmgt.com

its greenhouses. While the park was built a decade ago, it didn’t get water and sewer access and power capacity until 2012, says Aric Bopp, executive director of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance. Bopp hopes Red Sun’s presence will attract other businesses. While some commercial developments are progressing, many retail centers in the region have lost tenants or failed to gain them, due to the struggling economy. Sears, one of the oldest tenants at the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg, is closing its store in mid-July. That will leave a vacancy of 57,200 square feet. The store did not renew its lease as part of Sears’ nationwide efforts to reduce expenses. Retail leasing remains challenging, Alcorn says, because consumer spending is unpredictable. In the past few years, some regional shopping centers have had to lower rental rates to attract tenants. That’s true at Keagy Village in Southwest Roanoke County, although its fortunes may be changing. Last year, Ry Winston, a partner in a North Carolina commercial real estate services firm, purchased the 15-acre retail center on Virginia 419. It opened in 2008, but the recession forced several national retailers to back out of plans there. Keagy Village never landed an anchor retailer. It houses a Dunkin Donuts, Firehouse Subs, Patina, a formal wear shop, and an Americans for Prosperity office. Pure Barre, a fitness franchise, plans to lease a 1,500-square-foot space at Keagy, says Huff, of Poe & Cronk, who is marketing the center. Huff also is talking with a national grocery chain. Additionally, he received an offer in midMay from an undisclosed upscale restaurant chain to build across from Roanoke’s Valley View Mall, at Huff Lane Park. All good signs, he says, of better things to come.

The Center of Attention Westlake Towne Center

Office, Retail, Restaurant Suites and Out Parcels Available At Smith Mountain Lake, life just keeps getting better and Westlake Towne Center is at the center of it all. If your company is looking to make a splash at Smith Mountain Lake, Westlake Towne Center is the only place to be. Good things are happening here. Your company can be a part of it.

Professional Park Westlake Professional Park combines a sense of community with advanced technology for key medical, legal and professional services to support our growing area. Anchored by facilities for Carilion Clinic and Smith Mountain Lake Retirement Village, Westlake Professional Park is a 24,454 square-foot complex with spaces available from 685 to 2,736 sq. ft.

Four Square The Four Square is a flexible space designed for service-oriented companies featuring 20 office locations that make up the 40,000-square-foot complex that is connected by optional fiber-optic technology. Spaces available range from 102 to 5,000 sq. ft.

Retail Shopping Center The retail center offers a variety of inspired options. Anchored by Kroger and Westlake Cinema, the 50,000-square-foot retail shopping facility offers spaces ranging from 1,326 to 1,710 sq. ft. Out parcels are also occupied by banking interests, national food chain, and Sunken City Brewery.

WESTLAKE TOWNE CENTER

The Willard Companies 75 Builders Pride Drive, Suite 200 Hardy, VA 24101 Phone: 540-721-5288 www.westlaketownecenter.com For leasing information, contact: Lee Willard, VP Corporate Holdings

Scan with your smartphone

TECHNOLOGY

Park here A new mobile app leads drivers to Roanoke parking garages and lots by Rich Ellis

ou arrive in downtown Roanoke with time to spare — or so you think — before an important business meeting, only to realize you can’t find parking. Anywhere.

Now your demeanor of “relaxed and punctual” is spiraling downward into “frazzled and late” as precious minutes tick by while you circle the block, praying to the parking gods for an on-street spot to open. When one doesn’t, the search begins anew, this time

JULY 2013

looking for the nearest parking garage or surface lot. Finding parking is a challenge for drivers in nearly every metropolitan area across the country, including Roanoke. But the challenge of finding a parking spot might be surmounted with the introduction of

a free mobile application that guides people to the nearest parking options and provides parking-related information. PARK Noke is an app that uses a driver’s GPS locations to steer them toward the closest public parking garage or surface lot. The app lists Photo by Sam Dean

cific parking garage, lot or space is full. The app is designed for Apple iOS 6.x and iphone 3Gs, iPad, iPhone 4/4s/5 and later devices, with future versions possibly being designed to also work on devices other than those produced by Apple. Ed Dixon, a local technology expert and app developer, created the app in cooperation with Downtown Roanoke Inc. (DRI), Park Roanoke (the city’s parking

later, PARK Noke was born. Gutshall says the app has received positive feedback — it had been downloaded more than 270 times by the first week of May. City representatives, he says, use it regularly to show visitors how much parking is available downtown — 8,000 spaces to be exact, not counting on-street parking spots. “It’s kind of an app that you see in a lot of large metropolitan areas, so it has some really big success,”

PARK Noke is an app that uses a drivers’ GPS locations to steer them toward the closest public parking garage or surface lot.

Downtown Roanoke has about 8,000 parking spaces.

and sorts parking areas by distance from the user and provides turn-byturn, real-time directions. Additional app features include the parking lot’s name and address; picture (if available); rates based on time of day, length of stay, and, in some cases, day of the week. The app does not provide location information for on-street parking, nor does it offer real-time information about whether a spe-

administration), Waldvogel Commercial Properties, CarPark Inc. Towne Park and other local businesses and city offices. PARK Noke’s official introduction and availability date was April 4, and it came about quite by accident. “There’s been a lot of talk about how to make finding parking downtown easier,” explains Price Gutshall, an economic development specialist for DRI. “There’s long been a perception that parking’s difficult downtown. During an unrelated meeting, IOS app developer Ed Dixon approached me and said he could help with the way finding [the process by which people define their location and navigate from place to place] and that he would be able to develop an app that would provide information about different parking garages and surface lot parking.” Approximately four months

Gutshall adds. Nearly 5,000 apps appear when “parking” is entered as the subject in an iPhone 4’s app search field — everything from a game named Parking Mania, to an app called BestParking that promises to “steer drivers to the cheapest and most convenient parking garages and lots in 85 cities and 115 airports throughout North America.” Roanoke doesn’t appear on either the city or airport list. Roanoke does appear, however, on ParkMe — a parking app similar to PARK Noke that was recently profiled in USA Today. ParkMe functions in much the same way as PARK Noke, using a driver’s GPS location to indicate the nearest parking lot while providing costs based on the time and day. In select cities, ParkMe also provides real time data to show if parking in a particular location is readily available or if the lot is approach-

ROANOKE BUSINESS

technology

A new app helps Roanokers find area parking.

ing capacity. Gutshall says he’d love to see Roanoke’s app offer information about on-street parking and realtime availability. Those features and the technology, however, usually are tied to lots and spaces with parking meters, something downtown Roanoke doesn’t have. While metered parking isn’t necessarily being looked at as an option for Roanoke, Gutshall says a lot of ideas are being considered to improve downtown parking. “It [the app] is not itself a solution, but it is part of the overall solution to try to make it easier for people to park downtown,” says Gutshall. Other parts of the solution include additional parking along Kirk Avenue and near the Market with a lot provided by the 20

JULY 2013

city of Roanoke. The longer-term vision to improve parking calls for increased and improved downtown signage that helps direct drivers to area parking. Mobile apps with a local focus that make life easier for drivers aren’t limited to downtown parking. The Blue Ridge Parkway Travel Planner Mobile App was developed by Blacksburg-based NewCity in conjunction with the Blue Ridge Parkway Association. It provides information on each of the parkway’s four major regions and lists features by region, proximity or activity. The Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau also offers an app that helps visitors locate restaurants and lodging as well as events and attractions based on

the user’s location. A similar travel app, albeit one focused on a broader scale, is geared toward the entire commonwealth — the “Virginia is for Lovers” app lists thousands of activities and attractions based on users’ locations. These travel-related apps are win-wins for sponsors and users alike. Supporters say they can help increase business by making it easier for visitors and residents to navigate a region and to learn what an area has to offer. While cities will always face parking challenges, apps like PARK Noke are lightening the load for drivers. Now if someone would invent an app that successfully parallel parks the car in a tight, on-street spot, we’d really be onto something. Photo by Sam Dean

Service. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in our DNA.

Visit your local store or shop online at AdvanceAutoParts.com

EDUCATION

Scottie Hurley wants to take what he’s learned at VCOM back to his Buchanan County home.

The other medical school Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine takes different approach to training and service by Donna Alvis-Banks

cottie Hurley set his sights on medicine when he was in the sixth grade. His mother was to give birth when she suffered complications from an enlarged heart. She and his baby sister died, changing his childhood suddenly and profoundly. The 23-yearold believes that both lives could have been saved if his family had lived within 10 minutes of a hospital.

Hurley is from Hurley, a Buchanan County community named for his distant relatives. The town of just more than 3,100 people, where his father started working at 18 and continues working in the coal mines of the rugged Appalachians, is an hour from the nearest Wal-Mart. The closest cardiac 22

JULY 2013

thoracic surgeon is three hours away in Pikeville, Ky. Hurley plans to graduate from the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg and to continue his education by specializing in cardiothoracic surgery. Then he will return home. “Most of us came from underserved ar-

eas,” he says of his classmates at the school, known by the acronym VCOM. “I don’t need to have the big money. I want to go back to my hometown and provide care to people I grew up with.” Hurley says VCOM is the perfect school for him. VCOM officials say Hurley is a perfect representaPhoto by Alisa Moody

tion of its mission statement – “to recruit and graduate students who will address health-care disparities, including those related to rural locations, minority populations, poverty status and primary care.” “This is an organization with a mission statement that not only drives our school but is really something we live by,” says Bill King, associate vice president for student services. King, who came to the school when it began in 2002, is admissions chairman for the Blacksburg campus and the Spartanburg, S.C., campus that opened in 2010. A third school is slated for completion in Auburn, Ala., the home of Auburn University, in 2015. Last year VCOM received 5,040 applications for 350 slots at the two campuses. Recruitment averages 60 to 65 percent from rural and medically underserved areas, and the ratio of male to female students is nearly equal. Students like Hurley, who just completed his first year of studies, are highly desirable for their expressed commitment to VCOM’s mission. “Our students are in this because they care, and they really want to work with people who need health care,” King says. “The osteopathic philosophy focuses on treating the person as a whole.” Virginian Andrew Taylor Still pioneered osteopathic medicine a century ago. The field stresses that: • the human body’s structure is directly related to its function, • the body has an amazing ability to heal, given optimum conditions, and • a person’s health encompasses body, mind and spirit. Doctors of osteopathic medicine — or D.O.s — are like their M.D. counterparts in many respects. They prescribe medicine, perform surgery and diagnose diseases. Osteopathic physicians, however, also are trained in osteopathic manipulation (OMT). This goes back to the old idea of “healing touch” with doctors manipu-

lating muscles and joints to diagnose, treat and prevent a variety of ailments — from sinus problems to migraines to carpal tunnel syndrome. The American Osteopathic Association says that OMT can complement and even replace drugs or surgery, giving doctors more medical options. For aspiring healers like Hurley and 23-year-old Chase King of Wytheville, those options made VCOM an attractive choice. Most osteopathic physicians “are not the

“Our students are in this because they care, and they really want to work with people who need health care.” first to whip out the prescription pad,” King explains. “They look for the root of the problem first. I think that’s the way it should be.” Bill King says VCOM wants tomorrow’s doctors to look at patients as individuals. “If you’re going to become a specialist, we want you to become a generalist first,” he says, noting the school’s pride in a recent U.S. News & World Report that ranked VCOM ninth in the nation for number of graduates going into primary-care residencies. With four buildings on a 13acre tract at Blacksburg’s Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, VCOM is a nonprofit organization that partners with Tech on research, sports medicine and other projects. VCOM students use Tech resources, “facilitating the best of both worlds,” King says. VCOM was named for Edward Via, the son of Roanoker Marion Bradley, who created charitable foundations and dreamed of seeing a medical school in Southwest Virginia. After her death, Via honored his mother by helping make VCOM a reality. VCOM is equipped with a ca-

daver lab where students dissect and study the body. There are simulation labs where they work with mechanical patients that can bleed, sweat and even give birth, and exam rooms where they meet “standardized” patients – actors who are given scripts to mimic reallife medical situations. Students are filmed as they analyze and treat patients and then critiqued on everything from diagnostic skills to bedside manner. Dr. Megan Thomas, a VCOM graduate who serves as the school’s assistant chair of internal medicine, says VCOM is unusual in that second-year students have early clinical experience, shadowing licensed physicians at free clinics and other facilities. In their third year, students begin monthlong rotations in hospitals with regional physicians where they gain experience in general surgery, psychology, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics and rural or underserved care. A global health program also offers rotations at clinics in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. About half of the students go on international trips. Dr. Bhaba Misra, who graduated in VCOM’s first class (2007) and now practices at Salem’s LewisGale Medical Center, says VCOM led him to do exactly what he wanted to do. As an undergraduate, he organized a relief mission for Hurricane Katrina victims. “I wanted to help people (using my hands). I wanted to lay hands on people. It creates a bond,” he explains, noting that he still is able to do that in his hospital work. Scottie Hurley looks forward to the day when he can do the same thing in his community. “Southwest Virginians get the rap of being slow and dumb,” he laments. “I’m not as smart as half of the people here at school, but no one can match my passion. No one. … I’ll be the first doctor from Hurley.” ROANOKE BUSINESS

INTERVIEW: SHAWN HASH, owner of Tangent Outfitters, Pembroke

Fishing for a living Building a business from one truck, two canoes and four bicycles ever ybody considers it busy because you’re just doing lots of people. Then the fishing levels out. Then it’s canoeing and tubing and kayaking, and then the fishing picks up. Then into hunting into September and into October. And then we pass out in November.

Shawn Hash’s business offers guided hunting and fishing trips among other outdoor activities.

Photo by Jeff Greenough

by Shay Barnhart

hawn Hash should be tired. The owner and lead guide of Pembroke-based Tangent Outfitters has spent six of the past seven days guiding fishing trips along the New River and making a downand-back drive to Abingdon for a speaking engagement. This day is dedicated to work, too. A 4 a.m. turkey hunt. A dozen other tasks. Hash’s to-do list never ends. He rolls his eyes at his new smartphone, on which he’s just received his first text message ever. But he isn’t tired. He’s smiling. Energetic. Ready for the next wave. Hash and his brother, Tyrell, started Tangent Outfitters in 1992. Their first office was under a tree in Radford’s Bisset Park. They had a truck, four bicycles, two canoes and a flawed idea. Tyrell Hash moved on in the late 1990s. But Shawn Hash kept at it. He refined the plan, brought on business partner Steve Phlegar in 2005 and grew the company into a sprawling store, café and gas station in Pembroke with a second,

JULY 2013

smaller location in Radford. Today, Tangent offers guided fishing and hunting, canoeing, kayaking, standup paddle boarding, tubing and mountain biking. In an interview with Roanoke Business, Hash discussed what it takes to make it as a small business and why he still loves fishing. Roanoke Business: When is the last time you had a day off? Shawn Hash: With small businesses, there’s no such thing as a day off. Surely you jest. RB: When does the busy season start? Hash: It’s levels of busy. Busy is relative to how many people you have up to speed, you know? I can be busy with two employees. But it goes through stages. We start fishing in March. It gets busy – fishing-wise, which is not huge numbers of people – in April. … Then tubing is added by the middle to the end of May. Then that’s where

RB: Tell me the history of the business. You started in 1992? Hash: My brother, Tyrell, and I star ted the business. We were both at [Virginia] Tech and sat down at the infamous Steve’s Hot Dog Stand [on College Avenue] in Blacksburg. We made the business plan. … We really thought we would do bike trips, biking-canoeing combination trips, but that was the fallacy in our plan. We didn’t realize yet that anybody can borrow a bike or transport a bike. And then we learn. By year two we both realized, okay, it’s got to be more of a water-focused thing because people don’t travel with that. By – I guess it was ’94 – we got a concession in the park in Radford and started under a tree. We had our couple of canoes and just grew it from there. RB: Do you still offer services in Radford? Hash: Yes. In fact, we were at the old driving range building [on Berkley Williams Drive], but now they’ve moved us this year, and they’re going to put us back in the middle of the park. RB: What was your expectation when you started and how has that changed as the business has taken off? Hash: We thought we’d be retired by 40. That’s maladjusted youth there. RB: And how old are you now? Hash: I’m 44. I missed my retirement date. I think it’s really cool. I never thought we would have a store. Our model was just ver y common sense. We star ted backwards. We got the clients and got the business before we got brick and mortar.

And how the brick and mortar came was like, what do we need? We need gas. We need food. We need a place to meet clients. RB: How big is this building? Hash: Probably 3,500 square feet. RB: What does it take to create repeat customers in this business? Hash: Just a good attitude and a smiling face. And some good food. And some good conversation. That’s really what brings people back. Fishermen know that fishing is fishing. It’s not necessarily catching, though we do pretty good in that depar tment. But it’s like seeing old friends. Each of my guides gets repeat clients and gets thankyou notes and things sent to them. … We have a very, very high client retention. It’s in the high 90s, 90 percent. … Anybody that specifically comes for the canoeing or the small-mouth, they’re either going to be back every year or a couple times a year or at the very least every other year, depending on how far away they live. RB: How far out do you go? Hash: We go to the West Virginia line. I mean, I used to drive further when gas prices were lower, but I’ve learned that the further you get away from base camp, the more the opportunity for more things to go wrong. So we try to weigh that out with where we want to fish. … Getting more than an hour away on day-to-day things is about the max of what we kind of like to do. RB: Where do you go from here? What’s next? Hash: What’s next? I don’t know. We’re always dreaming. … As this area grows, it’s becoming more of a destination. Instead of getting people for a day, we need to get people for two, three, four, five days or the week trip. And that’s what we’re seeing. We’re having to develop longer trips, the multiday trips. We’ve added hunting and bird hunting. So now you can come this time of year and do turkey hunting and fishing. During the wintertime we have a bird preserve license so you can do quail and pheasant and fishing. In fall and September you can do goose hunting and fishing. And that’s at the same time. That’s floating down the river, and that’s just incredible. So we’re adding things like that. But we

really want to add just more activities that keep people here. RB: How do you do that? Hash: Like Shaena [Muldoon] at the Palisades [Restaurant in Eggleston] and I spoke at a conference and it’s like, the more I do, it helps her. And the more she does, it helps me. And the more we send people back and forth, it helps the county, you know, because it’s keeping people here. I can do the best job in the world, but there are lots of different people who do what I do. But there are very few places you can come and get the New River, Tangent Outfitters, the Palisades – you see what I’m saying? The more variables you add to that, the more complex the dish is. And you can’t get that dish everywhere. You might say, “I can go f loat the James.” But you’re not going to get the service you get from us, and you’re not going to get the food of the Palisades or the Riviera [Mexican Grill in Pembroke]. You see what I’m saying? These different things make it unique. So we really spend a lot of time helping other businesses, like the Mexican restaurant over there. We help them tons because we know if someone rolls off the river after floating with us and gets a margarita and burrito and is sitting outside – you don’t get that everywhere. We’re trying to create experiences. Not just a float trip, but a whole adventure. RB: Are you still with the Virginia Tourism Corp.? Hash: I have ser ved my state, and I’m done. I got the thank you. I learned a lot. That was cool. And to be perfectly honest, you get frustrated a lot when you’re looking at how our system really works because I don’t function like that. We make decisions every day that affect our business, and we implement them, and we get it done. And that governmental world doesn’t work like that. I wish it would, but it doesn’t. But it was a cool experience. In the state, we’re blessed. We’re so blessed in all that we have. And what we’ve been preaching for the last couple years, and I think we’re moving in the direction where the state is doing a better job of really educating people in what we have. We have a good mix. Beautiful mountains. Beaches. The James. The New [River]. The Chesapeake Bay. I mean, it’s pretty amazing, our resource inventory.

And there’s really nothing that can touch it, you know, in my opinion, and I’ve traveled a whole lot. RB: Do you still fish in your spare time? Hash: Oh, yeah. RB: How do you not get burned out? Hash: You can’t. That would be like being on a diet and watching food every day as your job. And then on your day off, you don’t have to be on the diet. You see what I’m saying? I see it. I’m there. It would be like watching TV of activities and seeing it every day and wanting to do it. We get satisfaction. We fish the boat. You have a client cast over here, and then you’re trying to work the boat to help them, you know? So you’re actively kind of doing it. But like Sunday, there were so many big fish, I mean huge monster small-mouth. I was like, “I want to go tomorrow.” RB: Does your family fish, too? Hash: Oh, yeah. That’s one thing that I think is so cool about fishing. You can load your whole family up, like I had a chocolate Lab and four kids, including an infant, and my wife in a raft floating down and catching fish. You’ve got to monitor things, you know. You’ve got an 8-year-old throwing a line. But my 8-year-old daughter caught an 18½-inch small-mouth. There are men here who have fished the New River who have never caught one that big. And that’s just the best. And we talk about that. We actively try to do that. That’s my thing. I want to be able to look back and go, “You remember when we did that? Do you remember when we did that?” I mean, they don’t have to actively do boats, but I want them to know how to do all this stuff, be familiar with it all. RB: What would your advice be to your younger self? Hash: Probably – and it sounds wrong – not take it so seriously. I mean you want to be professional and do everything. But not take it so seriously. It’s going to get done. The weather happens. I’m pretty intense, and I try everything I can, and that’s what I guess makes you have good customer service. But to realize it’s all going to work out. ROANOKE BUSINESS

LIFESTYLES

Mountain Lake’s accommodations include more than the grand old hotel.

ust about everybody who’s been in Southwest Virginia for long has a memory of Mountain Lake and its resort hotel. Situated at a 3,900-foot elevation in Giles County, the 50-acre, 100-foot-deep lake — formerly known as Salt Pond — and the hotel have been a treasured part of the local tourism industry for more than 150 years. Sadly, in recent years, the lake had diminished to a mere puddle. As for the hotel, in the words of new General Manager Jeffery Burrell, it had become “tired.” 26

JULY 2013

Work is under way to restore the lake, and the resort just completed a multimillion dollar renovation. “It seemed to me that it had seen its heyday a long time ago,”

Burrell says. “The staff felt tired, the buildings felt tired, and it seemed way overdue for some love and attention. And innovation.” Burrell entered the hotel busi-

Dancing to a new tune Mountain Lake begins to refill while resort rebrands as an outdoor adventure mecca. by Michael Abraham

ness after college in 1998, with stints at Disney World, the Hard Rock chain, and finally to the Westin in Beaver Creek, Colo. He was recruited to manage Mountain Lake when its longtime manager, Buzz Scanland, retired last year. “Once I got here and saw how pretty the property was, I was sold,” Burrell says. “You can see the vision the owners had when they first built it, and the heritage behind it; that really rings for me.” Photo by Alisa Moody

Burrell acknowledges Mountain Lake’s ties to the movie “Dirty Dancing,” much of which was filmed at the hotel more than 25 years ago. “‘Dirty Dancing’ is a part of our history that needs to be respected and cherished — and no offense to the ‘Dirty Dancing’ fans — but we hung our hat on it too long. We have 150 years of other history. “When we looked at our current guests, we saw many of the same people coming again and

again, with not enough new ones … and they were getting older.” Burrell gives credit to Bob Donovan, who consulted on the refurbishment. “Donovan took me outside and put his arm around my shoulder and said to me, ‘Jeff, here’s an opportunity for a young guy like yourself to make your career,’” Burrell says. “In the hotel industry, it is rare to find something like this. It is a huge challenge. We have to respect ROANOKE BUSINESS

lifestyles the history and the people who love this place for what it was, but at the same time, we have to harvest a new group of guests.” The foundation that owns Mountain Lake, The Mary Moody Northen Endowment, hired the Urban Land Institute more than a year and a half ago to conduct a study recommending ways to make the hotel profitable. Donovan, president of Mountain Lake LLC, was on a panel of five that studied the situation. “There was an incredible excitement about this place that had gone dormant over the years,” he recalls. “Everybody loves the place. My initial impression was that the endowment should shut it down.” Yet every group the panel spoke with had positive things to

say about the property. So Donovan changed his mind. “We needed to put a plan together to save it. It was obvious the hotel had to be completely renovated, with new paint, carpet, furniture; the works. But in order to put heads in beds, there has to be something to make people want to come here. We also needed outdoor amenities.”

to seal. “We plugged four primary holes,” Burrell says. “There are still others, but we reduced the outflow by about 90 percent. It is already filling, and is higher than when I arrived in November. We expect it to be full again in 12 to 18 months, depending upon precipitation.” The endowment has invested several hundred thousand dollars

“We don’t want to be a luxury hotel. We want to be accessible to everyone.” The hotel’s first order of business was refilling the lake. Workers had to drain it, using huge diesel pumps the size of school buses, and then prepare the lakebed and add dehydrated clay to get the bottom

in this effort. Once the lake fully fills, it will reach its natural spillway and stabilize. “Task number two is repositioning the hotel,” Burrell says. “It will now be called Mountain Lake

The resort has new paint, new furniture and a new approach.

JULY 2013

Photo by Alisa Moody

Lodge. It conveys the repositioning of the hotel as more of an adventure property. It is taking advantage of our natural surroundings. It is layering in new types of activities, including a ropes course and an aerial adventure course, with climbing walls, rope bridges, zip lines, and those sorts of things. This will be a huge part of our new identity, getting people out of doors in new ways. Hiking. Bouldering. Rock climbing. “We’ll be repositioning our restaurant, away from standard hotel fare and more towards featuring the region’s agricultural and cultural food heritage. We hired a new chef who will be focused on locally sourced, simply prepared good food.” Affordability is key to the redo. “We don’t want to be a luxury hotel. We want to be accessible to everyone,” says Burrell. “Entrѐes at

Mountain Lake Lodge is emphasizing the natural wonder that surrounds the old hotel. Photo by Alisa Moody

the restaurant will vary from $10 to $30. Our rooms will start at under $100 per night. We have only 101 rooms, but we have 25 different types of accommodations.” The resort has a 16-unit wooden lodge, historic cabins, cottages,

cabins linked into multi-unit facilities, houses grouped in a villagelike setting, a boat house turned into a two-story, four-bedroom cottage and, of course, the iconic stone hotel. “We want to bring the buzz

THE HEART OF MEDICAL EDUCATION

he first medical school in southwest Virginia, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) is located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg. The four-year, fully accredited college has a mission to prepare globally-minded, community-focused physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations and promote research to improve human health.

By collaborating with hospitals, physicians and researchers at other universities and healthcare facilities, VCOM students are trained to provide the highest quality of patient centered care. The heart of education for our students is medical curriculum, clinical skills and experiences, and outreach within the local community and beyond…all of which prepares our graduates to become better physicians.

At VCOM, patient centered care is the heart of medical education. 2265 Kraft Drive t Blacksburg, VA 24060 t 540-231-4000

ROANOKE BUSINESS

lifestyles back to the place that it had in its heyday.” Donovan says. “It will come back, grander than it has ever been. The phone lines are already lighting up. “I heard so many stories. I spoke with a guy from Maryland who went to [Virginia] Tech. He proposed to his wife here. He said, ‘We went all the time; it was our favorite place.’ I heard story after story.” Burrell plans to feature local music, local cuisine, local artists and local craftspeople. “The music [in this area] is amazing! The talent is so rich. We will celebrate it,” he says. “There is a connection to this place that is beyond anything I have ever seen. I have met ladies in their eighties and nineties who have been coming here every year since their childhoods. It’s a lot bigger than ‘Dirty Dancing.’”

Many of the old pastimes are still there, but Mountain Lake is expanding its entertainment offerings.

Photo by Alisa Moody

to our advertisers for a great first year! Advance Auto Parts Appalachian Power Blacksburg Partnership Branch Management, Inc. Brogan Insurance Brown Edwards Certified Public Accountants Carilion Clinic Carilion/Aetna Cityworks (x)po Cox Business Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer Downtown Roanoke, Inc. Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine Ferrum College

First Bank of Virginia Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore Glenn Feldman Darby & Goodlatte Goodwill Commercial Services Hollingsworth & Vose HomeTown Bank Kroger Landmark Aviation LeClair Ryan MB Contractors Mountain Rooﬁng, Inc. Poe and Cronk Real Estate Group Principal Financial Group Radford University Richﬁeld Living

Roanoke College Roanoke Regional Airport Rutherfoord Salem Civic Center Salem Red Sox Scott Insurance Spectrum Design Taubman Museum of Art The Willard Companies Valley Bank Virginia Tech Virginia Western Community College VMDO Architects Woods Rogers

www. ww www w.rro oan ano ok kee-b bu usi sin ine ness ss..c com om 30

JULY 2013

Travis Burns, chief of farrier services, VMRCVM

Next ROANOKE

Living the dream

Travis Burns

Farriers still needed in 21st century.

by Shawna Morrison

hen Tr avis B ur ns was a boy, his family ran a riding stable in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He would watch, mesmerized, as his dad and uncle would shoe the 30 to 50 horses they kept. It was there, as a teenager, that Burns realized he wanted to be a farrier, whose job is to trim a horse’s foot to be maintained barefoot or shod. Now 29, the Waynesville, N.C., native has gone beyond that dream. After conducting a national search, the VirginiaMaryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech hired him in February 2010 as its first staff farrier. Burns serves as a lecturer and chief of farrier services, working in the Equine Podiatry Unit. Not one to shy away from a challenge, he has earned a therapeutic endorsement from the American Farriers Association and recently reached another personal goal when he was inducted, after an intense threeday exam in Missouri, into the Worshipful Company of Farriers, a London-based group that is growing in popularity in America. Roanoke Business recently talked with Burns about why he chose his occupation and why he thinks there will always be a need for a good farrier. Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech

Roanoke Business: Tell me about what you do. Burns: In its simplest form, farriers are responsible for the hoof care of most equids — that means horses, donkeys, mules. I spend the majority of my time working with horses, occasionally helping some of the other faculty with cases involving pigs, goats and cows. A farrier can trim a foot to go barefoot or trim a foot for the application of a horseshoe. Plus, I have some teaching responsibilities here at the university, and we also have a farrier intern here that I’m responsible for training or teaching as well. RB: What kind of teaching responsibilities do you have? Burns: At the VMRCVM, we offer an equine podiatry course, which is taught spring semester of a vet student’s third year. I aid in teaching that course with an associate professor here, Dr. Scott Pleasant, as well as clinical instruction for fourth-year veterinary students. RB: What is it that you like so much about this profession? Burns: I just like being around the horses. I like being outside. When it comes to actually being a farrier, it’s not just simply slap-

ping on a shoe. There’s a lot of science behind it and a lot of art as well. You have the art of the actual blacksmithing skills from forging horseshoes . . . and then when you think about a horseshoe, you can actually affect the horse’s gait a great deal; you can affect the horse’s comfort. There’s quite a bit of science that goes along with the application of a horseshoe. And so I really like that. No two horses are the same. Ultimately, when you really think about it, no two feet are the same. It’s constant thought; it’s constant variation. And particularly being here at the referral hospital, you get to see a wide variety of cases, from normal horses to horses that need therapeutic or corrective measures. RB: What drew you to the Virginia Tech vet school? Burns: I’ve always wanted to be at an academic institution or essentially a vet school. I like being in an academic environment, I like being around very intelligent people, I like research, I like people who want to know the why to everything. It really forces you to think about everything you’re doing when you surround yourself with those people. You’re constantly pushing yourself and everyone else to do a better job. And to get

to work here at a university with great vets, particularly Dr. Scott Pleasant, is absolutely one of the reasons I wanted to come. He’s a nationally recognized vet. RB: Is it common practice for a college or university to have its own farrier? Burns: No. To my knowledge, there are two that have farriers as faculty members, which would be us and Cornell University. A couple will have staff farriers, or farriers on staff that they employ. But most have farriers that they just use when needed, as a contract basis. RB: This profession has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. How does such an ancient profession fare in the modern world? Burns: I think it fares pretty well. It’s changed some, as horses have moved from a worktype animal to more of a pettype animal or an equine athlete . . . like show horses and things of that nature. So I doubt there are as many farriers as there once were, when horses were the main source of transportation. I think it’s a profession that will stand the test of time, for sure. I think there will always be a need for a competent, qualified, professional farrier.

ROANOKE BUSINESS

aassseng seeng ger er rai ail se serv serv r icce be bega bega g n in n Roaano no oke kee deccad k ades e befforre an a yyo one ne cal alle leed it i Roa oano oano nokee. Th he Vi Virg rrg giin nia aan nd Tenn Tenn Te nnes nes essee see Ra se R illro oad came am me to to tow wn in in 185 8 2, 2 and it wa wass a simp siimp pllee thi hing n to cca atc atc tch h a tr t ai ain n in n Biig Li Lick k fro om th hen en unt ntil il 1971. 97 71. 1 Pas asseng asse seng se nger err serrviice c was as an off-and d-on n thiing ng thrrou ough ough gh mo osst of of the he 1 70 19 70s. 70s. s. It wa was tu turn urned rn ned d off ff com mplet plleetteelly in n 197 979 9.. Siincce th Sinc hen en, th en, he on o lyy passsse eng nger er rai aill sseerv viicce ce in Roa o no noke has a been eeen an an occ ccasional ex xcu curs rssio rs io on trrai ain, n usu ually al lly l a ste teaam am lo occom omo ottive iv ve ch chug hug ggi ging ging g down ow wn th thee Sh Sheen nan andoah do oah h Val alle lle ey orr off f to ow war ard d Bristol be b fo fore re turni re urn ur niin ng g arrou ound nd and nd nd hea eeaading ding di ng bac a k th the w wa aayy it cam ame. e. Ent nter erta er tain ta inin in nin ing, ng, g but ut not ot verry pr p acti accti tica cal. ca Tw T wo ye year ars ag ar go, o, the he Sm ma art Wayy Con onne nect ect ctor beg egan an n car arry rry ryin ing in g pe p op o llee from rom Ro ro Roan oan anok oke to the Amtrak ok k sttat stat atio tio io on n in n Lyn nch c burg bu urrg g, so o peo e pl plee can can ki ca kind d of ca catc attcch a ttrrai ain in Roa ano n ke e now ow,, on o llyy it’’s a bu buss that th hat will take th hem em to a ttrrai ain n. Thee id n. deea wa waass to o dem emon mon onst onst strate ra ate int nter eres er estt in es in tra rain serrviice in th this hiiss paarrt o off the e wo orrld d. It I see eems t hav to a e wo work r ed d. Ac A cord co orrd din ing g tto o the he Vir irgi g in gi niia Deepa part rtme rt m nt n of Raail i and Pub ubli lcT li Trraan nsp nsp por o ta tati tion on, un u le less ss sso ome methin thin th i gg go oes hor orriiblly w wrron ong pas ong, asse sseeng ger er tra ain ins will ins will be st wi s op oppi ping pi ng g in Ro Roaan nok okee ag gai a n by 201 017. 7 The heyy wi w ll co on nn neecct wi nec with t the sta ate t -spo pons po n or ored e tra rain n th ha at rru uns ns frro om Ly Lync Lync ncchb hbu hb urrg tto o the e nat atio ion’ io n s ca n’ capi pitta all.. Accco orrdi rdi ding ng to ng a re r p po ort rt fro om tth he Broo Brookiing Br ngs In ngs Inst sttit itu uttio tiio on, n th haat ro rout u e wa was as on ne o off fou ur Am Amtr mttrrak ak lin ineess tha at ma made de a pro rofi fit it in 20 2 012 12, clea cleaari cl ring n $3. 3 3 mi mill l ion n affte t r co ove eri ring ng g $6. 6.9 mi 6.9 millio lllio ion in ion in exp peen nse nse es. s. Here He ere e are re som me ot othe h r numb he mb m ber erss re rela late la late ted d to to pas a sseeng nger ger e raaiil se serv rvic icee al alon o g th on thee Roan Roan Ro anok nok oke to o Lynch yn nch chbu burg burg g to o Was ashi h ng ngto ton, D.C C. co orrid rrrid i or. •

Peop Pe Peop ople e get etti ttiing n on n or o off fff a train in Lyynchb ncchb burrg in in fi fisscca al ye y ar 201 012: 2: 86,500*

•

Pe Peop eop ople le e get et ti tin ing ng on or o off a train ra aiin n in Ch Cha ha arrlo lott ttes tt te essvi v lllle e in n fi fissca cal yye earr 2012: 01 12: 2: 12 127, 7,50 7, 00*

•

Ride Ri ershi rsshi hip on n the e Virgi gn niiaa spon on nso ored Ly Lyncchb hbur urrg to Was ashi hing ng gtto on,, D.C .C., C., route ou ute te in fi fisc scal sc all yea ear 20 012 1 : 18 84, 4 90 07

•

Sm S mar art r t Wa W yC Co on nn necto to or ride ershiip in n fiscal ye year earr 2012 012: 12 01 12,7 ,761 61

•

Sm mar ar t Wa Way Co Connec nnec nn e tor tor ridersshi h p in n the e first nin ine mo m ntthss of fi fisc sccal al ye ea ar a 20 2012 12:: 8, 8,94 947 947 94

•

Sm ma arrt r t Wa Wayy Co Con nn n nec e to t r ride dershi hip p in the fi firrst s nine e mo ont n hs hs of fi fisc scal sc a yea ear 20 2013 13 1 3: 10 10,5 0,5 528 28

•

Incr In ce ea ase e in ri r de d rs rshiip in n the first st thr h ee qu uart rte ers of fi fissca c l ye year arr 201 0 3: 3 1, 1,58 581, 58 81,

mo orre th ha an n 17 pe perc rccen rc en nt

*T The hesee figgur hese ures eess in ncclu luddee all ll tra ain i s thatt run on thhe cor coorridor, n noot ju j stt thhee staatee-sspo pons nssor ored train ra ain in.. S ource: Sour Source: ce e Virg Virginia i inia Departm Dep artment artm ent off Raili and Publ Pub ub ic c Trans Transsport portatio ation atio ation

JULY 2013

Ro Roanoke oanok anoke R Regional egi e gio onal nal C Chamber ha amb mbe err o off C Commerce ommerce o mmerce | SPONSORED SPONSORED CONTENT CONTENT

Roanoke Regional Chamber recognizes Chamber Champions and event sponsors 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 SPONSORS 2013 Business & Technology Expo 2.0 Gold Sponsors Clear Channel Media WSLS 10

Business After Hours Sponsor Spilman Thomas & Battle Ovations Catering

Silver Sponsors Blue Ridge Copier The Homestead Magic City Ford nTelos Roanoke Civic Center The Roanoke Times TPS Displays Valley Bank VEDP International Trade

Policymakers Luncheon with Thelma Drake Appalachian Power Lanford Brothers Co.

Bronze Sponsors Advance Auto Parts Cox Business Downtown Roanoke Inc. Electronic Systems Inc. First Team Inc. MFX – Roanoke Rockydale Quarries Corp.

Economic Summit X Appalachian Power BB&T LeClairRyan Roanoke Regional Airport Commission Roanoke Valley – Alleghany Regional Commission Wells Fargo Woods Rogers PLC

Member news & recognitions Created by Access Advertising & Public Relations, the Virginia Tech “I Invent” campaign has been recognized with a special merit award in the category of communications and marketing branding/identity program or campaign by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District III 2012-2013 advancement awards program. The “I Invent” campaign helped reinvigorate Virginia Tech’s brand with internal audiences by reintroducing them to the university’s brand tagline, “Invent the Future,” as part of their daily lives. Previously Access’ work for Marshall University and Roanoke College has been recognized with CASE awards.

American National University held graduation for the Roanoke Valley campus on May 3 at the Salem Civic Center. Jane Powell, an internationally recognized jazz vocalist who began her singing career in Roanoke, was the guest speaker at the graduation ceremonies.

Todd Marcum, president of Access Advertising & Public Relations and a 1983 graduate of Marshall University, was recognized with the 2013 Marshall University Alumni Distinction Award for the Marcum W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Marcum was one of 20 Marshall alumni honored at the university’s annual alumni awards banquet held in April.

Eric Rothgery has joined American National University as program director for the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at the Roanoke Valley Campus. Rothgery is TESOL certified and has a docRothgery torate in religion and culture in Asia from the University of Iowa. He was previously an instructor for the university’s ESL program.

Advance Auto Parts has announced the

MillerCoors President Tom Long and Chief Sup-

promotion of Rachel Geiersbach to vice president, legal. She will be responsible for all corporate governance and securities law for Advance Auto and has assumed responsibility for employment law and other claims oversight. Geiersbach joined Advance in 2005 as a senior attorney and was promoted to director of securities law and corporate governance in March 2010.

ply Chain Officer Fernando Palacios recently awarded local beer distributor Blue Ridge Beverage the “Bill Coors Quality Award” in front of some 2,000 fellow distributors from across the country. The award was presented at the annual MillerCoors Distributor Convention and was accepted by Regine Archer, chairman of Blue Ridge Beverage. The Bill Coors Quality Award honors the distributor in the MillerCoors national distribution system which excels against the company’s exacting quality measures. The award is named in honor of Bill Coors, the trailblazing engineer who spearheaded numerous brewing innovations and is known to this day for his dedication to brewing quality. After more than four decades of service to Carilion Clinic and Virginia health care, Donald E. Lorton is retiring. Lorton began his career with Carilion in 1972 Lorton when he became the assistant controller. He has served as chief financial officer (CFO) and treasurer since 1986. He was named executive vice president in 1993. After accepting Lorton’s retirement, the Carilion ROANOKE BUSINESS

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce Clinic Board of Directors appointed Donald B. Halliwill as CFO. He joined Carilion in 1997 and has served as director of finance for the New River Valley Region, chief executive officer for Carilion New Halliwill River Valley Medical Center and chief financial officer for the organization’s hospital division. Betsy Whitney has been hired as the annual giving officer for the Carilion Clinic Foundation. The foundation’s focus is to establish and maintain relationships that generate philanthropic support Whitney for Carilion Clinic as it continues to grow as a regional and academic health science leader. The Carilion Clinic Foundation also welcomes four new members to its board of directors. They are: Abney S. Boxley, III, Nicholas C. Conte, H.E. “Buddy” Derrick and Cynthia Lawrence. They join the following existing board members: Chairman Warner Dalhouse, Nancy Howell Agee, Robert G. Bennett, George B. Cartledge, Jr., Robert Fralin, James A. Hartley, David Herrick, Shirley Holland, Bill Kingery, Vernice Law, Minnis E. Ridenour, and J. David Wine. Cox Communications recently named Kim Stanley as market vice president, Roanoke Operations for Cox Virginia. In her new role, Stanley is responsible for Cox’s day-to-day operations in the Roanoke Valley, leading 150 employees. The Roanoke market represents 111,000 of Cox Virginia’s 1.5 million video, Internet and phone subscriptions. Stanley had served as vice president of Cox Business Virginia. Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer has announced that Barry L. Ward has joined the firm as vice president in its Roanoke office. Ward specializes in marketing properties for retail and Ward office uses and is recognized as one of the top retail brokers in the Southwest Virginia market. Beginning May 1, F. Geoffrey LTD, formerly Frank L. Moose, Jeweler, is open by appointment only. Geoff Jennings, owner and certified gemologist, is meeting personally with customers. Appointments can be made by calling (540) 345-8881 or via e-mail at info@fgeoffreyltd. com. F. Geoffrey LTD will continue to specialize in estate and fine jewelry, special orders, custom design and repairs. Amanda E. Shaw has joined Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, LLP as an associate attorney in the law firm’s medical malpractice group. She joined the firm’s plaintiff’s group in March. For 34

JULY 2013

the past 17 years, Shaw has tried cases at every level of state court in Virginia and in the federal court in the Western District of Virginia. HomeTown Bank recently launched a wholly owned subsidiary, HomeTown Investments Services, which will offer customers the same great service they’re used to from HomeTown Bank for financial planning and brokerage services. Heading up HomeTown Investments is Justin vanBlaricom.

Shaw

HoneyTree Early Learning Centers has announced the following personnel changes: Kimberly Kennedy has been named office manager for HoneyTree Early Learning Centers;

Kennedy

Rutschman

Stinson

Jason Rutschman has been named community relations manager for McLeod Enterprises Operating Entities – HoneyTree Early Learning Centers, Star City Skate Center, and Sylvan Learning Centers for Roanoke, Christiansburg and Charlottesville; and Lindsay Stinson has been named director of Sylvan Learning Center of Charlottesville. LewisGale Regional Health System has announced the promotion of Charlotte Tyson, R.N., MBA, to the role of chief nurse executive. Tyson brings nearly 30 years of healthcare leadership experience Tyson to this newly created position, most recently as the chief operating officer for LewisGale Medical Center in Salem. The City of Roanoke celebrated National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week April 14-20 to honor the men and women who serve as public safety telecommunicators. The city recognized its dispatchers with a mid-week meal and a week-long celebration of appreciation. The E-911 Center selected Jennifer Creighton as dispatcher of the year. The City of Roanoke’s PARK Roanoke program is now offering a merchant validation program. Validation programs allow Roanoke businesses an excellent way to reward customers and encourage business. These programs allow merchants to provide free parking to their customers who park in PARK Roanoke garages which offer daily parking. Customers who park in a PARK Roanoke garage simply present their parking garage tickets to a participating merchant, who will validate the ticket. Garage tickets will only be validated for customers who patronize

the participating merchant. Merchants sign up by completing an application form and may choose which validation option best meets their business needs. Detailed information is available on the program at www.roanokeva.gov/parking or by calling (540) 343-0585. In support of continued efforts to make Roanoke more bicycle friendly, the Transportation Division has installed the city’s first bike corral at the intersection of Market Street and Campbell Avenue. A bike corral is an in-street space dedicated to bicycle parking. This installation, immediately adjacent to the Market Building, will accommodate up to eight bicycles and increases the availability of bicycle parking in the Market Area. The corral was installed in the street between the pedestrian crosswalk and the nearest parking space on Market Street. This location did not require the removal of any on-street parking nor does it consume any of the valuable sidewalk space around the Market Building. Dr. Rita D. Bishop, superintendent of Roanoke City Schools, was named Virginia’s Superintendent of the Year at the Virginia Association of School Superintendents annual conference held Bishop in May. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the leaders of five Virginia education organizations selected her from among eight regional superintendents of the year. Bishop has provided inspirational leadership in the development of Roanoke City Schools as a model for urban public education. Chief among her accomplishments is the improvement of the district’s graduation rate from 59 to 77 percent over the last five years, which was a significant achievement for an economically challenged school system where 75 percent of the students are on free and/or reduced lunch programs. She will represent the state in the National Superintendent of the Year competition in February 2014. Roanoke County has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for 15 consecutive years, in honor of its commitment to effective urban forest management. Roanoke County is one of only three counties in Virginia to hold the title, traditionally held by more urban localities. As part of the Tree City USA designation, Roanoke County celebrated Arbor Day with a ceremonial tree planting at Glen Cove Elementary School. Doctors and staff members from Tuck Chiropractic Clinic collected 1,107 cans of food and built an Etch A Sketch featuring the Can Do! slogan during the Can Do! food collection drive held in Blacksburg in April. The Tuck Chiropractic team won the awards for most cans collected, most nutritious, people’s champion, and jury’s champion. Local teams are encouraged to design

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT and build structures using canned and boxed food items. The annual event benefits area food pantries in need of supplies. Virginia Tech’s Office of Energy and Sustainability was recently honored with a 2013 Gold Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award at the 24th annual Environment Virginia Symposium hosted by the Virginia Military Institute. The award recognizes environmental and conservation leadership in sustainability and land conservation. Award recipients were selected on the basis of environmental benefit, stakeholder involvement, public outreach, transferability and innovation. John Burns, the T.W. Hatcher Professor of Mathematics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been selected as one of 33 new Fellows in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Burns Burns was selected for fellowship for his contributions to control and approximation of partial differential equations. His research work included applied and computational control, partial differential equations, distributed parameter systems, fluid/structural controls systems, smart materials, and modeling and control of high performance buildings. Karen DeBord has been appointed family and human development specialist for Virginia Cooperative Extension. Her position is housed in the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. In this position, DeBord will provide extenDeBord sion agents with research-based information about family and human development topics that agents can pass on to members of the communities they serve. George Mason University law professor Michael S. Greve gave the BB&T Distinguished Lecture, “Our Colossal Federal Debt Versus the Constitution” on April 24 at the Inn at Virginia Tech’s Alumni Assembly Hall. The talk was hosted by the Greve Pamplin College of Business and was part of its BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series on Capitalism. Janine Hiller, professor of finance, insurance and business law in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, has been named the Richard E. Sorensen Professor of Finance by the Virginia Tech Hiller Board of Visitors. The professorship was created in 2005 through a gift from SunTrust Banks. It is given to recognize teaching and research excellence. Hiller has been a member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 1981. She has served as the associate

dean of the Pamplin College from 1997 to 1998 and as the Fulbright-Lund Distinguished Chair of Public International Law at Lund University (Sweden) in 2010. Greg Jenkins, professor of accounting and information systems and William S. Gay Fellow in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, was recently named the Curling Faculty Fellow in AccountJenkins ing and Information Systems by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. Established in 2008 through a gift from Virginia Tech graduate Doug C. Curling, the accounting fellowship is intended to help the college recruit and retain outstanding scholars. Mahendra Singh, the Preston Wade Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech, has received a two-year, extendable distinguished visiting professorship at the Indian Institute Singh of Technology at Roorkee, India. In making the award, Pradipta Banerji, director of the institute, said the honor was “in recognition of pioneering academic and research contributions.” Singh has been a member of the Virginia Tech engineering faculty since 1977. Christopher Zobel, professor of business information technology in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, was recently named the R.B. Pamplin Professor of Business Information TechnolZobel ogy by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. Established in 1994, the R.B. Pamplin Professorship is one of several named professorships established with part of the $10-million gift presented to the college by the Robert B. Pamplin family. The professorship supports excellence in management science and information technology education.

Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. The scholarships were awarded to 73 of the nation’s best community college students who seek to complete their bachelor’s Narmour degrees at selective four-year colleges and universities. The scholarship program provides up to $30,000 per year for up to three years to community college students who are nominated by their schools based on a number of factors including academic excellence and financial need. Narmour was one of only two recipients from Virginia and the first ever from Virginia Western. She plans to attend Hollins University to pursue her bachelor’s degree. The Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust has earned the 2013 Chancellor’s Award for Leadership in Philanthropy for its support of Virginia Western Community College. The trust was nominated for the award by the college. The trust, established in the name of the late Horace G. Fralin, committed $5 million over five years to Virginia Western. On the request of W. Heywood Fralin and his son William H. Fralin, Jr., co-trustees, at least 75 percent of the funding will be used for scholarships in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and healthcare (STEM-H). The Chancellor’s Award is hosted by the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education to honor the leading philanthropists from each of Virginia’s 23 community colleges as well as the statewide foundation. The Willard Companies, owners of The Waterfront Country Club, a private golf and country club at Smith Mountain Lake, recently unveiled future club expansion and long term renovation plans at a vision meeting with its membership in conjunction with a new membership campaign. The Willard Companies partnered with Richard Mandell Golf Architecture to develop a proposed land plan for the clubhouse and hired architect Antonio Veloso to design a new fitness center and pool building.

The Virginia Western Community College Educational Foundation Board of Directors recently added four new members including: David Dantzler, district manager for Kroger; Byron Hall Heather Hale, a paralegal at Randolph “Randy” Foley, Woods Rogers PLC, has been chief operating officer for Nicus Software; Jeff installed as 2013-14 president of Marks, president and general manager of WDBJ the Virginia Legal Professionals OrTelevision; and Robert Tector, president and ganization. The organization, with chief operating officer of Richfield Retirement more than 200 members at 11 loCommunity. Edwin “Ed” C. Hall, chairman Hale of Hall Associates, serves as president of the cal associations across Virginia, enhances the Virginia Western Educational Foundation Board competencies and contributions of members in of Directors and Katherine “Kandy” Elliott the legal services profession. Hale joined Woods serves as vice president. Rogers in 1996 as a member of the Danville office. Virginia Western Community College student She worked in the Charlottesville office before Lindsey Narmour has been awarded a 2013 joining the Roanoke home office. ROANOKE BUSINESS

3 35 5

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Partnership

News from the Roanoke Regional Partnership Blue Ridge Marathon exceeds expectations

Marathon is much more than just running

This year’s Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon was the biggest and best yet.

The marathon touches people other than runners. More than 400 volunteers help make the race a success, from handing out race packets, to manning water stations, to cheering on racers along the course.

T h e ra c e, w h i c h i s managed by the Roanoke Regional Partnership, included more than 1,600 participants, appearances by three running legends, and was featured by a host of national media. Downtown Roanoke was flooded with spectators who came out for a day of activities starting with the race and flowing into the Down by Downtown music festival, an arts festival, and plenty of food and drink.

By the numbers The fourth annual Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon saw a spike in participation up 76.9 percent over 2012, with 1,684 runners participating in America’s Toughest Road Marathon. Here’s the 2013 breakdown by runner group: ·

Full marathon: 532

Team relay: 240

Half marathon: 912

Runners hailed from five countries (United States, Canada, England, Germany, and Ethiopia) and 38 states.

Race featured by ESPN, Runner’s World and others In addition to coverage by local media, the Blue Ridge Marathon was also featured on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, and covered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Runner’s World. “It means a lot for our area to have national exposure and for others to experience and celebrate our region’s great outdoors,” says Pete Eshelman, Roanoke Regional Partnership director of outdoor branding and marathon race chair.

The Blue Ridge Marathon also gives back to the community. Proceeds from the race go to support Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a non-profit, volunteer organization that is dedicated to preserving and protecting the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Roanoke Regional Partnership is already looking forward to the next Blue Ridge Marathon, scheduled for April 26, 2014. We hope to see you there.

Humpback Bridge Will Promote Virginia Love Campaign The Virginia Tourism Corporation has chosen Humpback Bridge as one of 16 sites across the state for a giant LOVE sign. Humpback Bridge will join with 20 other existing LOVEwork sculptures found across the state featured as part of the Virginia is for Lovers tourism marketing campaign. Construction began in April.

Roanoke Region Top Metro for Business, Life The Roanoke Region is a fantastic value for residents and businesses alike. Two respected national groups recently reaffirmed that Roanoke is a great location for doing business and overall quality of life. Moody’s and the ACCRA Cost of Living show that Roanoke stacks up well against other metros across the country. The ACCRA Cost of Living program recently released data showing that Roanoke’s costs are lower than 91 percent of metros across the country and the lowest in the state of Virginia. The cost of living in the Roanoke Region, which includes the costs of housing, groceries, health care, utilities, transportation, and other essentials, is estimated to be 11.3 percent lower than the national average.

Roanoke’s WDBJ-7 broadcast the race live on-air and online, a first for the Blue Ridge Marathon. In addition, the station put together a time lapse video of the starting line and has an expansive gallery of video and images from the event.

Moody’s Analytics recently lowered the index value representing the cost of doing business in the Roanoke Region. Moody’s Analytics now estimates that the cost of doing business is 17 percent lower than the national average. The cost of doing business index takes into account labor, energy, taxes, and other business costs.

Heading into the April 20 race, the world was already buzzing about the marathon. It was highlighted by The Weather Channel as one of the “World’s 15 Toughest Marathons,” USA Today’s “10 Best Places to Enter a Running Event in April,” and Wenger’s “7 Hardest Marathons in the World” rankings.

As the fourth largest metro in Virginia both in terms of population and in terms of Gross Metropolitan Product, there are plenty of dining, shopping, and entertainment options, as well as a vibrant economy in the area. One would be hard-pressed to find a better bang for the buck in the Southeastern United States.

JULY 2013

K R O W o t T GE and

=PYNPUPH >LZ[LYU Âˇ ;OL 9VHUVRL =HSSL`ÂťZ /VTL MVY /LHS[OJHYL ,K\JH[PVU /LHS[O 7YVMLZZPVUZ 7YVNYHTZ Computed Tomography Imaging (New!) Dental Hygiene Magnetic Resonance Imaging* Nursing (RN) Practical Nursing (LPN) LPN to RN Transition Program*

Phlebotomy Radiation Oncology Radiography Surgical Technology Veterinary Technology *Coming in 2014

/LHS[OJHYL 3PJLUZ\YL, Credentialing and Intensive Training CertiďŹ ed Nursing Aide Medication Aide Medical Records/Coding

Personal Care Aide (PCA) Pharmacy Technician

To begin a strong career in healthcare, visit us online or call

/LHS[O 7YVMLZZPVUZ 7YVNYHTZ

/LHS[OJHYL 3PJLUZ\YL *YLKLU[PHSPUN HUK 0U[LUZP]L ;YHPUPUN

HERE FOR THE

up, around, and unstoppable

Getting you on the mend and keeping you on the move. Carilion Clinic is committed to helping you be your healthiest and stay that way. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re here, and it guides everything we do to keep our community well and our region strong. From moment one.

$BSJMJPO$MJOJD PSH t