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MAY 2013 SERVING THE ROANOKE/BLACKSBURG//NEW RIVER VALLEY REGION

MAY 2013

From the Blue Ridge Marathon

to Hokie football, sports have been

good to the region

F h

Playing games for

fun and profit

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C O N T E N T SS E R V I N G T H E R O A N O K E / B L A C K S B U R G /

N E W R I V E R V A L L E Y R E G I O NS E R V I N G T H E R O A N O K E / B L A C K S B U R G /

N E W R I V E R V A L L E Y R E G I O N

D E P A R T M E N T S

S G O O / C S G /

26 INTERVIEW: GARY WALTON Spoon bread, peanut soup and

tea dances A manager’s two-year stay has lasted

nearly two decades. by Kevin Kittredge

28 LIFESTYLES Out for a good time Roanoke after dark means boots, blues and gumbo. by Rebekah Manley

31 ROANOKE NEXT Entrepreneur with a purpose Laura Godfrey does well by doing good.

by Jenny Kincaid Boone

32 FACTS & FIGURES

33 NEWS FROM THE CHAMBER

36 NEWS FROM THE PARTNERSHIP

F E A T U R E SCOVER STORY

6  Playing games for fun and profit

From the Blue Ridge Marathon to Hokie football, sports have been good to the region. by Jenny Kincaid Boone

BANKING

13  Squeezed by margins, regulations, expectationsBankers see consolidation and anticipate a ‘thinning of the herd.’ by Sandra Brown Kelly

SMALL BUSINESS

18  Continuing the legacy Longtime customer becomes new owner of an old business – and shows a knack for it. by Beth Jones

EDUCATION

23 Removing the barriers Tuition-free community college program brings hope and a better trained work force. by Sarah Cox

May 2013E A T U R ET

2313

18

6

2013

Ranked by Virginia Business Magazine, for the second straight year...One of the Top 10 Best Places to Work in Virginia.

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S E R V I N G T H E R O A N O K E / B L A C K S B U R G /N E W R I V E R V A L L E Y R E G I O N

VIRGINIA BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS LLC

A portfolio company of

Virginia Capital Partners LLC

Frederick L. Russell Jr., chairman

President & Publisher Bernard A. Niemeier Roanoke Business Editor Tim Thornton

Contributing Writers Jenny Kincaid Boone

Sarah Cox

Beth Jones

Sandra Brown Kelly

Kevin Kittredge

Rebekah Manley Art Director Adrienne R. Watson

Contributing Designer Elizabeth Coffey

Contributing Photographer Sam Dean

Production Manager Kevin L. Dick

Circulation Manager Karen Chenault

Accounting Manager Sunny Ogburn

Advertising Sales Lynn Williams

Hunter Bendall

CONTACT:EDITORIAL: (540) 520-2399

ADVERTISING: (540) 597-2499210 S. Jefferson Street, Roanoke, VA 24011-1702

We welcome your feedback.

Email Letters to the Editor to

Tim Thornton at tthornton@roanoke-business.com

Vol. 2 MAY 2013 No. 5

‘Don’t never throw no curves’by Tim Thornton

He was a round man without a lot of hair, loud in a friendly way. He smiled and wrote his name on my baseball and told me, “Always swing a big bat and don’t never throw no curves.”

His broadcasting career was done. He was promoting beer for a living and had come to town to do that and to throw out the first pitch at the old Salem ballpark.

The day my Little League self met Dizzy Dean is probably my fondest Roanoke Valley sports memory, but it’s certainly not my only one. I remember seeing Dave Parker play in that Salem ballpark – the one with the flagpole in center field. Parker hit a ball so far over the right field fence one night that in my memory it crossed the first row of houses outside the ballpark

and landed in a yard across the next street. Before Parker joined the Salem Pirates, I watched the Salem

Rebels play on that field. I watched the ice hockey version of the Salem Rebels skate and shoot and fight in what we used to call the Salem-Roanoke Valley Civic Center. Sports were all fun and games to me then. My concern about the economic impact they might have extended no further than the cost of a ticket, a hot dog and a fountain drink.

Sports have played a role in the local economy at least since the Roanoke Magicians started playing baseball in the Virginia League in 1894. Salem and Roanoke shared a baseball team from 1939 through 1946. Salem got its own team in 1955. There were other minor league baseball teams, too: the Radford Rockets, the Pulaski Counts, the New River Rebels. We’ve also had football (college, semi-pro and professional; indoor and outdoor); automobile racing (in Victory Stadium); basketball (the American Basketball Association and the NBA Development League) and lots of hockey. Professional cyclists rolled through with the Tour DuPont in the 1990s. There was even a sort of professional soccer team in Roanoke for a while.

Professional baseball continues in Salem and Pulaski, and Salem has made a habit of hosting NCAA Division III national and conference championships. The 30th annual Scott Robertson Memorial Golf Tournament will bring promising young golfers to the area this month. The Hokie football team draws a small city of fans to Lane Stadium on fall weekends.

All those competitions make their contributions to the area’s economy and to the area’s image. A lot of people like to live in a place where they can sit in the sunshine and have a beer or a soda while they watch professional athletes compete. But a lot of people like to do more than watch. The Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon is probably the most obvious example of the kind of sporting event that draws participants as well as spectators – more than 1,000 participants in the 2012 marathon. And a lot of those participants bring people with them. They eat. They drink. They buy gas. They book hotel rooms. But most of all, they get a good look at the place.

Like the area’s outdoor adventures, music and culture, the direct economic impact of sporting events is only part of what they can do for the region. The cliché says sports don’t develop character so much as they reveal it. Maybe sports can reveal this area’s long-term attractions to some folks who stop by to play.

on the coverSports in Roanoke

Blue Ridge Marathon and Virginia Tech Football

Photos courtesy Blue Ridge Marathon and Virginia Tech

FROM THE EDITOR

The partners of Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, LLP are pleased to announce the appointment of Monica Taylor Monday as our new managing partner. Monica is the third managing partner in the firm’s 90-year history, following Mike Pace and Bill Rakes.

Selected by her peers, 24 of whom have been designated as Best Lawyers in America, Monica will lead us forward with energy and grace, while continuing the firm’s strong tradition of community service and providing creative and effective solutions to our clients.

Hugh Fain, president of The Virginia Bar Association, agrees. ”The VBA congratulates Monica Monday on her new leadership role. It is no surprise to see Monica continuing and expanding her service to the legal profession through leadership of one of the truly great law firms in the Commonwealth, Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore.”

We are delighted to add that Monica was recently named an Influential Women of Virginia honoree for 2013 by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Congratulations, Monica. We are very proud to have you as our new leader.

Meet Gentry Locke’s New Managing Partner

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Monica chairs Gentry Locke’s Appellate practice group and is a frequent writer and speaker on appellate issues.

In addition to her appellate practice, she will lead strategic planning for the firm and will oversee its management. Fewer than 10% of the top 200 U.S. law firms have female managing partners.

Roanoke, Virginia office: 10 Franklin Road, S.E. | SunTrust Plaza540.983.9300 | Toll-free: 866.983.0866 | gentrylocke.com

6 MAY 2013

From the Blue Ridge Marathon to Hokie football, sports have been good to the regionby Jenny Kincaid Boone

Playing games for fun and profit

COVER STORY

Photo by Mark Rhodes

ROANOKE BUSINESS 7

The Blue Ridge Marathon takes less than eight hours for the slowest runner, but

the economic impact lingers as more than 1,000 runners rest in local hotels,

load up on carbs at local restaurants and buy gear and gifts at local stores.

Dave Hopkins says his annual trek to Roanoke to run in the April event wouldn’t be

complete without a stop at Frogurt, a frozen yogurt shop in downtown Roanoke on the

night of the marathon and another downtown eatery, Thelma’s Chicken & Waffles, for

breakfast on the Sunday after the race.

While he and several friends are in the Roanoke Valley for two nights and three days, Hopkins typically shells out about $100 for meals, $260 for lodging (split with a friend) and at least $80 to $100 each way on gas-oline for the five-hour drive from his Baltimore home to Roanoke and

back. Last month’s Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon was Hopkins’ third time running the 26.2-mile moun-tainous course that organizers dub the country’s toughest.

The Blue Ridge Marathon is just one of a host of sports and fitness events that generate business from

out-of-town spenders each year. In 2012, marathon-related spending on food, lodging and retail came to $377,198, according to a recent report by the Roanoke Valley-Al-leghany Regional Commission and the Roanoke Regional Partnership. That total represented an 11 per-

Fans come to LewisGale Field

to see the Red Sox play. They

also come to see each other and to take part in

promotions that include Tattoo Night and Star

Wars Night.

Photo courtesy Salem Red Sox

8 MAY 2013

cover story

cent boost over the overall economic impact of $339,079 in 2011. Plus, 69 percent of last year’s marathon and half-marathon runners lived out-side of Virginia, a major economic benefit, organizers say, because out-of-towners bring new discretionary dollars to a region.

(In light of attacks at the Boston Marathon on April 15, organizers of this year’s Blue Ridge Marathon planned to have more police offi-cers and emergency personnel along the route. Virginia State Police also were involved in the April 20 event for the first time. The marathon schedule included a moment of si-lence and other gestures to honor the Boston victims.)

As the spring and summer sports seasons pick up steam, hotels, res-taurants and retailers become ma-jor beneficiaries of spending that spills from minor league baseball, horse shows, and baseball and soft-ball tournaments held throughout

Southwest Virginia. For Daleville-based Dominion

Lodging, a company with four hotels in the region, sales from sports-relat-ed travel represent 20 to 30 percent of the company’s annual business. “They’re crucial to our survival,” Dave Andersen, the firm’s vice presi-dent, says of the teams, families and friends who book rooms for area tournaments.

Collegiate sports, especially Vir-ginia Tech football, are another rev-enue generator for the region. Hokie football boosts Montgomery County’s economy by about $17.2 million, ac-cording to the latest figures gathered in 2008 and 2009, says Larry Hinck-er, a spokesman for Virginia Tech.

When an event like Roanoke’s Blue Ridge Marathon is success-ful, there can be benefits beyond numbers.

While the marathon is profit-able, making money is not its prima-ry mission, according to Pete Eshel-

man, director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partner-ship, one of the event’s organizers. Eshelman, who would not reveal the cost of putting on the event, says, “Our reason for getting involved is to make people more aware of Ro-anoke and what we have to offer. That’s our return.”

As of last year, the marathon had donated a total of $42,500 to Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a nonprofit organization focused on preserving and promoting the park-way. In exchange, the nonprofit re-cruits and organizes volunteers for the marathon.

Marathon organizers want the event to put the Roanoke Valley on the map, with a claim that it is Amer-ica’s toughest road marathon. The course climbs two mountains and has an elevation change of 7,234 feet.

Far below those mountains, the Salem Civic Center hosts a slew of sports competitions each year, from National Collegiate Athletic Associa-tion basketball to high school tourna-ments, which generate $4 million to $6 million in spending at area busi-nesses, says Carey Harveycutter, the center’s director.

The Roanoke Valley Horse Show, held at the civic center in June, is a big attraction, he adds, with an es-timated economic impact of more than $10 million. For each horse, there are at least two people, and they may stay in the area a week or longer for the show. “That’s substan-tial,” Harveycutter says, adding that the show typically features 800 to 1,000 horses.

Next door at LewisGale Medical Center Field, Salem’s minor-league baseball team, the Red Sox, attracts crowds each year, although atten-dance dropped about 23 percent last year when compared with the 2011 season, says Todd Stephenson, the team’s vice president and gener-al manager. Home games averaged about 2,628 fans last year, down from 3,429 in 2011.www.salemchampionships.com

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ROANOKE BUSINESS 9

Weather, always a major factor in minor league baseball, was one reason for the season’s attendance decline, Stephenson says. He blames a late June derecho that knocked out power in much of the area for at least a week, affecting eight Red Sox home games.

Economic challenges also may have kept people away from the ball-park, where a family of four may spend about $50 for game tickets and food, Stephenson says. That’s still less than $61, the national av-erage in 2012 for a family of four to attend a minor league game, in-cluding parking, programs, beer and food, according to the Minor League Baseball organization. “I think peo-ple have restructured their enter-tainment dollar,” Stephenson says.

The Red Sox’s livelihood is im-portant to Salem, although the city does not have specific figures on the team’s economic impact in the area, says Salem City Manager Kev-in Boggess. The team pays city tax-es, including admissions and meals taxes, and its brand is recognizable, whether people love or hate the Red Sox, Boggess says.

Plus, the exposure that the Red Sox bring to Salem is key to attract-ing future business. “There’s a fan base that comes to the Salem Memo-rial Ball Park from Christiansburg and from other areas,” notes Bog-gess. “Even if they don’t have din-ner at a restaurant here, the next time they’re in town for something else, they may choose to eat here.”

Dominion Lodging houses the minor league baseball teams that compete against the Red Sox at home. Andersen says that business is only 2 to 3 percent of the compa-ny’s total business in a year.

Conversely, lodging demand for an Amateur Softball Associa-tion of America national champi-onship tournament in August — scheduled for Salem’s James I. Moyer Sports Complex — already caused at least two nearby hotels to sell out

of rooms, as of late February. That’s according to Kim O’Conner, sales manager for Comfort Suites hotels at Ridgewood Farm and in West Sa-lem and a Quality Inn in Salem. At

these three hotels, she says, sports travel is 40 percent of business.

Tournaments held at the Moy-er Sports Complex, Kiwanis Field and Spartan Field, all in Salem, had

Photo courtesy Roanoke Regional Partnership

COME FOR THE VIEW.

The Blue Ridge Marathon generates economic activity for the Roanoke Valley and tens of thousands of dollars for the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

10 MAY 2013

a direct economic impact of $13.3 million last year. That figure comes from John Shaner, director of the city’s parks and recreation depart-ment. The impact varies from year to year, he says, depending on the kinds of tournaments hosted by the complexes.

In August, for example, Shaner expects larger-than-typical crowds to stay in the area for at least seven days for the ASA’s national cham-pionship at Moyer. For that event alone, people likely will book 8,000 hotel room nights.

Area hotels receive referrals from the Roanoke Valley Conven-tion & Visitors Bureau (CVB), which helps large tournament organizers find lodging in the region. While it is difficult to track the exact num-ber of out-of-towners who visit the Roanoke Valley for sports-related events each year, it is a defining part of the bureau’s business, says Land-on Howard, president of the CVB.

It helps that some of the area’s sports facilities have received na-tional recognition. That includes the Botetourt Sports Complex in Troutville with its four champion-ship-level fields. It was named the 2012 Amateur Softball Association of America’s complex of the year. In 2011, the same association gave the Moyer Complex the same honor.

Not all sports have had long runs

in the Roanoke Valley. The Roanoke Steam, a minor-league arena football team hosted by the Roanoke Civic Center, had a three-season run, the same as the Buckskins, Roanoke’s minor-league football team. The Roanoke Dazzle, a National Basket-ball Association development league franchise, left in 2006 after five years when the NBA pulled out of some markets.

The Roanoke Valley has had sev-eral minor league ice hockey teams, beginning with the Salem Rebels in 1967 and ending with the Roanoke Valley Vipers in 2006. The string of teams included the Roanoke Ex-press, an East Coast Hockey League team with an 11-year run.

At the height of the Roanoke Express’ success, the Roanoke Civ-ic Center made approximately $200,000 to $250,000 a year, includ-ing concession sales and admissions, says Robyn Schon, the civic center’s general manager, who previously worked for the Detroit Red Wings, a National Hockey League team.

The Roanoke Express folded in 2004, after attendance dropped off, and team ownership and manage-ment were unstable in the last years, Schon says. Last year, she spoke with professional hockey league represen-tatives and a potential local owner about bringing a new team to Roa-noke. But the owner failed to find partners to start a team, ending dis-cussions.

Photo courtesy Virginia Tech

cover story

Six times this fall, Hokie football will fill Lane Stadium with crowds almost three times the population of Salem.

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ROANOKE BUSINESS 11

For hockey to be successful in Roanoke, the team must have lo-cal and involved owners with good business sense and enough capital that they can afford to lose money in the first few seasons as the team establishes itself, Schon says. The league also must be established with a proven track record and reason-able franchise fees.

In addition, ticket prices should be affordable — between $5 and $8 for kids 12 and younger —Schon says. “Parents don’t want kids’ tick-ets to cost more than what it would cost to take them to the movies or, in some cases, an amusement park.”

An ice hockey league in the Roa-noke Valley makes sense and has had the best past success, mostly because it’s a wintertime sport that doesn’t compete with Virginia Tech or Uni-versity of Virginia football seasons, Schon says. “Hockey is so fast paced, and it takes so many different skills. I always say it is the perfect combi-nation of an athlete.”

Still, the hockey league and team must be right for Roanoke before the civic center commits to it. “As much as the community wants hockey, we are never going to make a decision out of desperation,” Schon says.

There are a variety of factors that determine a sport or sporting event’s economic success. One important gauge is the ability to bring people back to the region at other times of the year. The Blue Ridge Marathon did

that for Hopkins. Since his first time running the marathon in 2011 and ex-periencing the region, the 44-year-old Baltimore resident has visited South-west Virginia several other times.

Last year, he biked the 124-mile Mountains of Misery double-metric century ride in Blacksburg. In 2011, he attended a conference about the Appalachian Trail in Emory. “I now feel comfortable with the area,” Hop-kins says.

cover story

Building strong communities, part by part.

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Sports are a long running part of the region’s economy.

Photo courtesy Roanoke Regional Partnership

RU salutes its spring 2013 graduates.

1,112 bachelor’s degrees awarded213 master’s and doctoral degrees awarded

29% of degrees awarded in STEM-H majors

Degree candidates represent

Congratulations to the Class of 2013!www.radford.edu

offers 69 degree programs in 39 disciplines and two certifi cates at the undergraduate level; 21 master’s programs in 16 disciplines and three doctoral programs at the graduate level; seven post-baccalaureate certifi cates and one post-master’s certifi cate. A Division I member of the NCAA, Radford participates in 19 varsity sports—11 for women and eight for men.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 13

It’s tough to be a bank these days. Customers want more from

banks even as lending institutions face a pinch on profits and

increasing expenses meeting new regulations. The result,

bankers say, could eventually mean fewer banks.

BANKING

Photo by Sam Dean

Squeezed by margins, regulations, expectationsBankers see consolidation and anticipate a ‘thinning of the herd.’

by Sandra Brown Kelly

“The consumer wants access to money wherever and whenever he wants it, and that means branches, ATMs, Internet, mobile,” says O.R.

(Ed) Barham Jr., president and CEO of StellarOne Corp. Stellar-One has the largest percentage of deposits in the New River Valley,

but market share is not necessarily a determinant of a bank’s effective-ness, Barham says.

He believes the greatest pres-sure on banks is the need to be more efficient as they respond to growing regulations. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act – better known as Dodd-Frank – has 400 provisions, but only a third of them have been finalized.

Even before Dodd-Frank, the cost of bank security pressured banks into greater efficiency, Bar-ham says. For example, hacking attempts have forced banks to pro-vide 24-hour surveillance against intrusion and provide for business continuity and backup systems in case a hacking attempt is success-ful.

Concerns about terrorism and money laundering mean banks have to daily track inflow and out-flow of cash and report their find-ings to the U.S. Treasury. “Failure to do so can be onerous, and the service does not add a dollar of profit,” he says.

In the past three years, addi-

14 MAY 2013

banking

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Based on FDIC listings of deposits as of June 2012, here are bank rankings in the New River and Roanoke Valley Metropolitan Statistical Areas:RoanokeWells Fargo ranks No. 1 with nearly 29 percent of deposits. Second is SunTrust Bank with 18.44 percent, then BB&T with 10.49 percent and Valley Bank, at 9.34 percent. Wells Fargo is headquartered in San Francisco; SunTrust in Atlanta and BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C. Valley Bank is local to Roanoke.

New River ValleyTwo Virginia banks hold the most deposits: StellarOne with 26.10 percent followed by The National Bank of Blacksburg (National Bankshares) with 21.46 percent. Wells Fargo is third with 13.30 percent.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 15

tional and incremental costs for compliance with new regulations added up to $1.5 million annually for StellarOne, Barham says.

“There comes a tipping point. Margins are shrinking and will never come back to where they were prerecession. In the current environment, the low cost of money also lowers a bank’s ability on what it can charge for loans and pay on deposits,” notes Barham who says interest rates are the lowest he has seen in his 33 years of banking.

Since StellarOne is a short-term lender, he explains, when loans made four or five years ago are re-paid, new loans of that money will need to be offered at an even lower rate.

Ellis Gutshall, CEO and presi-dent of Valley Financial Corp., parent of Valley Bank in Roanoke, shares the concern about profit margins.

“While new regulations are a concern, the shift in how businesses and individuals use credit is having more effect on bank performance,” Gutshall says. “Loan growth is slow, leading to slow asset growth and slow revenue growth. Banks earn their real money on the spread be-tween loan and deposit yields, and this spread has narrowed greatly in this prolonged low-interest-rate environment.

“There are too many banks chasing too few lending opportuni-ties, so there will be some thinning of the herd,” he added.

The level of economic recovery also will affect prospects for banks. That’s the opinion of David West, senior vice president in research at Davenport & Co., a Richmond-based investment firm. West says asset levels are still higher than they have been historically, and most banks have improved their as-set position. However, the loan en-vironment “is still pretty difficult.”

Susan Still, president of HomeTown Bank, says her company wants employees involved in the communities they serve.

Photo by Sam Dean

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June 2013Planning Calendar

Cover: Asheville vs Roanoke.

Health: Hot yoga. It’s hot. It’s yoga.

Airports: Roanoke Regional Airport.

Education: Hollins University’s writing program.

Lifestyle: Cooking classes.

Interview: Della Watkins, new director of the Taubman Museum of Art.

16 MAY 2013

There is fierce competition for good-quality loans. Some larger banks might even be wooing small customers and can offer fixed-rate loans for longer periods of time.

“I still think we are in a con-solidating industry,” West says. He notes that some banks are looking at branches for possible reductions.

“Branches, while still vital for es-tablishing a presence in the com-munity, are less important than they were 20 years ago.”

The analyst also points to stud-ies that indicate younger custom-ers have less need of branch banks, preferring to use mobile banking.

One study, released in April

2012 by Pew Research Center’s In-ternet and American Life Project and the Imaging Internet Center at Elon University, suggests the use of smartphones and tablets for on-line and in-store payments could largely replace cash and credit cards for all consumers within the next decade.

In response to this trend, even small banks have to be current with new technology, says Susan Still, president and CEO of HomeTown Bank. HomeTown had 3.76 per-cent of the Valley’s deposits, based on FDIC data as of June 30, 2012, but still has the same concerns as larger institutions, such as whether and where to grow, how to stay on top of technology, and how to cope with regulations.

“We want to grow moderately,” Still says. HomeTown Bank in De-cember broke ground for a new lo-cation of its New River branch and will add HomeTown Investments brokerage to its services this fall. The bank also provides the latest in mobile banking, Still says, not-ing that banks don’t see each other as competition, but rather compa-nies such as PayPal and Square Inc.

PayPal is the popular eBay com-pany that claims 123 million ac-tive accounts; Square, a newcomer from the creator of Twitter, makes mobile payment technology that al-lows transactions on iPhones, iPads and Google’s Android software.

Regarding the cost of regula-tions, Still points out that the risk management structure required by Dodd-Frank resulted in the bank hiring five additional staff members.

Along with providing financial services, philanthropy and com-munity involvement also are part of doing business. “We do expect employees to be involved, but they also want to,” says Still. HomeTown keeps its profile high through events such as the Heart Walk and

Photo by Sam Dean

banking

Ellis Gutshall, president of Valley Bank, says the way people use credit is affecting the banking business more than regulations are.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 17

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by sponsoring an annual pet cal-endar to raise money for the Roa-noke Valley SPCA. One hundred percent of the bank’s employees participate in the United Way, and the bank has teamed with Junior Achievement to increase financial knowledge in the high schools.

“Consumers expect business to be socially responsible,” says Anna Powell, mid-Atlantic community affairs manager for Wells Fargo. Powell meets with local banking teams who decide which nonprof-its to support.

The bank’s local involvement includes providing volunteers to help with Feeding America Sec-ond Harvest’s Quality Assurance Program; adopting “Angels” from the Boys & Girls Club to provide toys, clothing and other items at Christmas; and raising more than $3,500 for Junior Achievement with a Bowl-A-Thon.

Bank staffers, including those at Wells Fargo’s call center in Roa-noke, helped with a United Way survey last fall to determine wheth-er persons who do not have bank accounts have sufficient access to financial information. Wells Fargo

also provides Hands on Banking resources in schools, participates in Goodwill’s Reality Check program and will partner with Big Brothers and Big Sisters to provide Hands On Banking training.

Another truism in banking is that a community needs all sizes of institutions, says Nancy Agee, president and CEO of Carilion Clinic in Roanoke. Agee joined the HomeTown Bank board about 18

months ago, but the $1.5 billion company she runs must have access to national banks.

“Larger banks and community banks are in some ways competi-tive, but also complementary,” she says. “It seems we not so much judge banks by personal relation-ships as their involvement in the community and their ability and willingness to serve financial needs of the community.”

Another

truism in

banking is that

a community

needs all sizes

of institutions.

18 MAY 2013

Nancy Leggett decided to retire. She’d spent 26 years running her

Roanoke children’s clothing boutique, Toad’ly Kids, and she and her

husband wanted to travel. “He wanted us to go to China,” Leggett

says. “He wanted us to go to Africa.” Plans changed when Leggett’s

husband died in October 2011. “When he died, people said, ‘You don’t want to close your store. You suffered one loss, you don’t want another,’” Leggett recalls.

On the other hand, Leggett be-came keenly aware of life’s fleet-ing nature. She wanted to spend more time with her children and grandchildren who live in New York. She still longed to travel. “And I’d worked a long time,” Leggett says. “I’d worked since I was 16 years old.”

So she decided to close Toad’ly Kids rather than sell the business. She didn’t want to see someone change the store she’d spent so many years building.

Jennifer Thiers, mother of two, also found herself a widow in spring 2012. “When I lost my husband, I knew I needed to find something I could do that I love that will al-low me to take care of my family,” says Thiers, 37.

Thiers, who has a bachelor’s de-gree in nursing, already had decided the health field wasn’t for her. For several years, she’d worked as a chil-dren’s photographer, a business she described as a “hobby-job,” but that wasn’t bringing in enough to sup-port the family. “For a few months I didn’t know what the heck I was going to do. I really was worried,” Thiers says.

Then, Thiers heard Leggett planned to close Toad’ly Kids. She had been a longtime shopper at the boutique. “I had joked with her in the past that when she decided to retire to let me know,” Thiers says.

Thiers sent Leggett an email feeling her out about selling the business. “I was sort of discourag-ing to her,” Leggett recalls. “Num-ber one, I didn’t think she’d be able to get the money to buy the store. Banks don’t lend money like they used to. She didn’t have any expe-rience in retail.”

“She pretty much did her best

to talk me out of it,” Thiers agrees. “But, I’m really stubborn.”

Thiers decided not to bother trying to get a business loan. She planned to sell her house and sink the profits into Toad’ly Kids.

When Leggett heard Thiers’ plan, she thought to herself: “In your dreams.” Leggett had seen houses sit for sale for months without a nibble in the current economy. Thiers put her house on the market on Friday. By Sunday she had a contract.

After that, Leggett dropped her Negative Nancy routine. “It just seemed like it was meant to be,” she says.

Thiers estimated she spent about $80,000 between purchasing the business from Leggett, buying in-ventory and getting a shop up and running, complete with signage and shopping bags.

However, that wasn’t the last hurdle. Thiers had a month to move out of her house, and she had to find her family someplace to live. Leggett planned to close her business at the end of August. Thiers wanted to reopen the shop by the following winter. The Charlotte, N.C., market where retailers from this region buy spring clothing lines was scheduled for the following week. If Thiers

wanted to have clothes to sell, she had to get ready to buy — all while trying to get her family settled in a new location.

Leggett, who knew the market experience could be intimidating, offered to go with Thiers. “Nancy has become like my second moth-er,” Thiers says.

“I don’t tell my age,” Leggett says, “but I could be her mother.” Luckily, she’s a retail savvy mama. Thiers says Leggett told her how

much to buy and in which sizes. She advised on what lines did well in the past and what lines sat on the racks.

“Nancy knows. She has it down,” Thiers says. “I’m learning that from her.”

For her part, Leggett was blown away by Thiers’ natural instinct. “I was so impressed with her maturity,” Leggett says. “She made decisions on her feet. If you’ve never done it before, it’s hard.” One of the big decisions Thiers made was to by-pass some of the higher-end cloth-ing lines Toad’ly Kids had carried in the past.

“That’s just the reality right now,” Thiers says. “People want to have nice things, but they can’t necessarily pay a premium for them.”

Thiers spent about a fifth of her spring buying budget, which she es-timated to be about $50,000, on a line called Mayoral that Toad’ly Kids had never carried before. She liked that the clothing was well-made, easily coordinated without being too matchy-matchy and was reason-ably priced. It proved to be a smart decision. Thiers says she can’t keep Mayoral clothes in the store.

“I think in the past when people came to Toad’ly Kids they thought

they were getting a special occasion outfit,” Thiers says. “I really am try-ing to change that way of thinking. I want people to know they can come in here and get casual clothes, too, and not break the bank.”

Thiers, who has a 9-year-old daughter, also made a point to buy fashionable but tasteful merchan-dise for tween girls — an under-served market in Roanoke as far as she was concerned.

“I do not like going to the mall

SMALL BUSINESS

“I want people to know they can come in here

and get casual clothes, too, and not break the bank.”

ROANOKE BUSINESS 19

Continuing the legacy

Longtime customer becomes new owner

of an old business — and shows a knack

for it.by Beth Jones

Jennifer Thiers was trained as a nurse and worked as a photographer before taking over Toad’ly Kids.

Photo by Stefanie Weber/Toad’ly Kids Photography

20 MAY 2013

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and only finding sequins and off-the-shoulder tops and super, super tight everything,” Thiers says of clothing in shops geared toward her daugh-ter’s age. It doesn’t have to be that way, she says. “There’s so much out there for tweens that’s cool and fun but also appropriate.”

So a specially designated tween room in Toad’ly Kids is filled with colorful dresses in bold patterns and skinny jeans made by a company called Tractor. “They’re very diffi-cult to sell to because they want what their mothers don’t want,” Leggett says of tweens. “Jennifer has her fin-ger on what they like.”

Leggett sold clothes to this age market at her store, too, but she says “Jennifer has taken it to another level.”

When friends ask Thiers why she took over Toad’ly Kids instead of launching her own children’s cloth-ing shop, Thiers has a one-word an-swer: reputation.

“Nancy has had customers who shopped here forever,” Thiers ex-plains. “People my age whose parents shopped for them here when they

were kids. Carrying on that name was important because people re-late that name to a great business.”

Thiers was quick to put her own stamp on the boutique. She moved it from The Forum on Starkey Road to a retail space across from Towers Mall and opened in February. Up-stairs, customers can browse through children’s frocks for little people ranging from babies to tweens. Downstairs, Thiers set up Toad’ly Kids Photography and hired pho-tographer Stefanie Weber to shoot infant and kid photos.

Thiers plans to use the business-es to promote each other. Expectant moms who come in to create a baby registry, for instance, can register for merchandise from the store, in-cluding clothes and specialties like custom-designed crib sheets. They also can register for infant photog-raphy. “The opportunity for cross marketing is great,” Thiers says.

Thiers also is a devotee of so-cial media. She tries to post some-thing on the Toad’ly Kids Facebook page every day. “We’ve had a great

response from that,” she says. “Last week we put up a picture of really cute bow ties we have for babies, and the next day we sold five of them.”

Thiers also plans regular events to get customers in the store. “I have to say I love a party,” she says. In February, Thiers set up a Valentine party for tweens. About 20 girls and their parents stopped by for the fes-tivity, which included pizza and can-dy bars. The prepubescent guests posed with fun props in a downstairs photo booth. Oh, and they bought stuff, too.

“We did $1,700 in two hours and that’s unheard of,” Thiers says. While small businesses face grim survival rate statistics, Thiers is optimistic that Toad’ly Kids will make money. “If the past couple of weeks are any indication, then absolutely,” she says.

As for Leggett, she couldn’t be happier that someone is continuing her legacy. The fear she had about someone tinkering with the business she’d built? “It’s gone away,” she says. “I’m very happy Toad’ly Kids is go-ing to continue.”

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2012132

EDUCATION

Scott Bradford likes the money CCAP saved

him and the time it gave him to think.

College decisions can be daunting. Not only is higher education expensive,

but high school students frequently struggle with what to study. Remove those burdens and stu-

dents like Scott Bradford are more likely to continue their education. Bradford, 23, works as a recruiter trainee at ETS Dental in Roanoke. He was a senior at Salem High School when he learned about a new program that would let him attend Virginia Western Community Col-lege for free, provided he gradu-ated from Salem with a 2.5 average. “I was very interested when I first heard about it; I had it in my mind that I would go to a four-year uni-versity, but when I heard about the CCAP [The Community College Access Program] option, it brought Virginia Western back to the plate

again, and it worked out to be an awesome thing.”

Bradford says CCAP’s benefit was two-fold. The “lifting of the fi-nancial burden that comes with a four-year university” is an obvious benefit. Plus, the program bought him time to decide on a major. “A major university forces you to make that decision early on, but in CCAP, I got to take a larger variety of class-es in the general studies program. It gave me a little breathing period,” he says.

CCAP began as a public-private partnership in 2008 for Salem High School students who wanted to at-tend Virginia Western Community

College but could not afford to. The program grew from a conversation between the Virginia Western Edu-cational Foundation and Roanoke Valley business leaders who saw no “adequate pipeline to fill jobs that Roanoke had,” explains Erik Wil-liams, coordinator of resource de-velopment in Virginia Western’s Institutional Advancement office. “There was a sense that removing the barrier of financial cost would do so much, and out of that concept came CCAP.”

When classes begin this fall, stu-dents from Botetourt, Craig, Frank-lin and Roanoke counties as well as Roanoke will have access to CCAP.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 23Photo by Sam Dean

Removing the barriers Tuition-free community college program brings hope and a better trained work force by Sarah Cox

The program covers the full cost of tuition for two years at VWCC – provided students come out of high school with at least a 2.5 grade point average – 2.0 for Roanoke students – and maintain that average at Vir-ginia Western.

Roanoke School Board Chair-man David Carson says CCAP is “at or near the top of things we’ve been able to accomplish … holding out the promise of going to college has been one of the things that has been such a rousing success.”

Roanoke City School Super-intendent Rita Bishop agrees. “[CCAP] dramatically impacts high schoolers, as middle schoolers go in with hope and a plan,” she explains. “The college conversations are rich among kids. Particularly this year, kids know about CCAP and are ag-gressively pursuing it.” The goal, she adds, is to “grab them early, be-fore the bad habits set in.”

According to Bishop, the Roa-

noke school system’s technical educa-tion programs dovetail with Virginia Western’s, making the transition to college easier for students. That’s due to a partnership with Kathy Dun-can, principal of Roanoke’s Career and Technical Education program, working closely with Jim Poythress, Virginia Western’s dean of Business, Engineering and Technology. To-gether, they develop programs that feed directly into career-preparatory programs at the community college.

“Jim and I got together about four years ago and dumped every program that did not have an eco-nomic future for the kids,” says Bishop. These days, the science, technology, engineering and math programs at William Fleming and Patrick Henry high schools feed into the VWCC pre-engineering program. If CCAP students earn an engineering associate degree with at least a 3.0 GPA and at least a B in all their engineering classes, they

get special admissions consideration from Virginia Tech’s engineering program.

Other colleges also are working with Virginia Western’s graduates. For instance, Roanoke College offers a segue for CCAP graduates with two different financial packages. One is based on completion of an as-sociate degree with a 3.5 GPA. This financial incentive offers half tuition to complete their last two years at Roanoke College – a current value of over $33,500. The second, contin-gent upon completion of an associ-ate degree and a 3.0 GPA, is about $26,000 for two years.

Wayne Strickland, director of the Roanoke-Alleghany Region-al Commission, says the business community recognizes CCAP’s im-portance. “We do know that un-less you have a strong work force with good skills, you are not go-ing to be as competitive, and that is what has happened in a number of communities whose industries have migrated overseas.” He says today’s work force needs different skills; it’s not a matter of standing in front of a machine, but under-standing how that machine is cali-brated. “This is the kind of knowl-edge you pick up in mechatronics, or the blending of machines and electronics,” he explains.

Beth Doughty, executive direc-tor of Roanoke Regional Partner-ship, says talent is always an issue. “We looked at the supply line of students being trained and the de-mand for occupations, and there are some gaps in certain techni-cal areas. The needs of employers have changed over the last five to 10 years.”

She says workers have to be able to do a variety of jobs, must have critical thinking skills and must un-derstand computers and the related work. CCAP, she says, “is a great way of responding to those needs.

Photo by Sam Dean24 MAY 2013

education

Roanoke City Schools

Superintendent Rita Bishop says CCAP has had a

dramatic impact on Roanoke students.

It encourages and facilitates the work force of the future to be more skilled and meet the needs.”

Before attracting new com-panies, she says, “You’d better be meeting the needs of the companies that are here. It is easier to keep a current customer than to create a new one.”

Carolyn Payne, the CCAP li-aison for Virginia Western, says CCAP provides the opportunity for “students to begin thinking about higher education … It became a possibility and a reality for them,” she says, “and that opened doors to them pursuing careers that they hadn’t thought about.”

So far, 83 students have gradu-ated through the CCAP program. Virginia Western’s Williams terms CCAP “hope in action. It is the hope that if you do what we ask you to do, regardless of your parents’ ei-ther unwillingness to pay or inabil-

ity to pay, or your own inability, that someone has your back, and that someone is the collective Roanoke Valley.” He has taken the CCAP

model across the commonwealth and says the Virginia Community College System is looking at this as a model for resource development.

Virginia Western’s Carolyn Payne says CCAP has opened students’ eyes to careers they hadn’t considered before.

What is a person TRULY capable of?

The world needs people who want more than

business as usual. Solving our biggest problems requires it.

©2013 Roanoke College. All rights reserved. Roanoke College, Classic for Tomorrow, and associated logos are trademarks of Roanoke College.

www.roanoke.edu

What is a person TRULY capable of?

Photo by Sam Dean ROANOKE BUSINESS 25

26 MAY 2013

INTERVIEW: Gary Walton, general manager, The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center

Spoon bread, peanut soup and tea dances A manager’s two-year stay has lasted nearly two decades

by Kevin Kittredge

When veteran hotel man-ager Gary Walton came to Roanoke to manage the Star City’s fl agship hotel, he

knew he was stepping into a spotlight. After all, Hotel Roanoke, now The Hotel Roa-noke and Conference Center, was born the same year as Roanoke, way back in 1882.

Almost everyone in the Roanoke Valley and some far beyond it had memo-ries of the hotel, formerly owned by Nor-folk and Western Railway and then Nor-folk Southern Corp. – from fi rst dates to wedding parties, from dancing in the Re-gency Room to eating spoon bread and peanut soup.

When Walton arrived in 1994, the hotel was preparing to reopen under new ownership, after a long hiatus in which its survival had sometimes seemed in doubt. A $42 million restoration project was un-der way, which included not only renova-tions to the old hotel but construction of a new 53,000-square-feet conference cen-ter. Walton, a manager who had worked

in many cities, expected to guide the hotel through its reopening and then move on after a year or two.

Roanoke Business recently sat down with Walton in his lower-f loor off ice to fi nd out what it’s like to run a local legend, and why, after nearly two decades, he’s still around.

Roanoke Business: Where did you grow up, and how did you get into the hotel business?Gary Walton: I grew up in Northeast Ohio, Niles, up around the Youngstown and Warren area. I went to school in Co-lumbus at Ohio State University. I didn’t start out studying in the hospitality fi eld, but I started working in hospitality during one of my summer jobs and kind of got it in the blood, and it stayed with me. I end-ed up getting a degree in business admin-istration but worked every year after my freshman year in hotels, during the sum-mers and on spring breaks and Christmas breaks — any time I had a chance to do

it. I got out and went to work right away in a hotel. RB: What appealed to you about hotels?Walton: What I really liked about it, and it still holds true today, was that every day was kind of a new challenge. It was a lot of activity going on. There was check-ing people in at the front desk and get-ting involved in restaurants and cooking and kitchens, and dealing with the public, which generally has its high marks. Most of the time people are coming to a hotel to have a good time. And even if they’re on business, they’re typically in pretty good spirits. I generally fi nd that it’s a pretty re-warding day of work. RB: How did you wind up here?Walton: A long process. This was actu-ally my 11th city I’ve lived in and the 13th hotel that I’ve been involved in managing, all over the country. The longest we had been anywhere was three years. I told my wife we’d probably be here a couple years. Lo and behold, we’ve been here now 19 years.

RB: Why have you stayed here so much longer than those other places?Walton: One, the hotel itself is just mag-nifi cent. We had two young girls when we came here that were 1 and 3. So they’ve had the opportunity to grow up here, and the Roanoke area has just been a wonder-ful place to raise a family. The support that I’ve been given by our ownership group is absolutely tremendous. It’s just been a wonderful combination of support from the ownership, a great hotel and a great community.

RB: When you fi rst came, the ho-tel had not yet reopened. What was your assignment then?Walton: I was actually the second person on the staff. Our director of sales and mar-keting was already in place. The fi rst tasks were really assembling the team, putting the management team together, and kind of

Every day at The Hotel Roanoke and

Conference Center is a new challenge for

General Manager Gary Walton.

Photo by Sam Dean

ROANOKE BUSINESS 27

developing a program to support the sales effort. We were going to try and build as many pre-booked conferences and conven-tions as we could. There was new construc-tion there [on the convention center] and renovation of the existing hotel. I oversaw that process. We opened them up jointly on the same day, April 3,1995. Everybody really worked hard to make that happen.

RB: The hotel’s reopening was obvi-ously a huge thing for the commu-nity as well as for its owners. Did you feel an added weight on your shoul-ders because of that?Walton: We certainly knew and learned quickly when I fi rst came to town the pas-sion that this community had for this hotel. I’ve opened a lot of hotels in my career. And some you really just beg to capture attention and create awareness. You really didn’t have to do that here in Roanoke.

RB: Were there any unforeseen prob-lems or challenges when it reopened?Walton: I know I didn’t appreciate the overwhelming demand that we would have for the dining room. And we really weren’t ready when we opened it to meet that de-mand. Typically in a hotel you don’t have that much demand anyway when you’re f irst opening. But this was just slammed from day one.

RB: Did people want specifi c menu items?Walton: They were looking for the spoon bread. And the peanut soup and all that, which we had. The hotel had been closed for about fi ve years, so there was a pent up demand that we just didn’t really anticipate would be as strong as it was. But that’s les-sons learned.

RB: Can you talk a little bit about the hotel’s connection to Virginia Tech?Walton: I don’t know that people in our community necessarily recognize that not only does Virginia Tech own the hotel, but Tech remains very much one of our larg-est customer bases for group business. Not only do they own it but they’re supporting it. They put business in here through their continuing education program. So their in-vestment is not only in bricks and boards, but certainly to continue to support it. It’s not all the business that we get, certainly, but it’s a good percentage of our group business. And I think that’s important, to know that partnership with Virginia Tech is more than just renovating and keeping the building fresh.

RB: The hotel is actually owned by the Virginia Tech Foundation – is that correct?Walton: Correct. The foundation owns the physical hotel. And then there’s a con-ference center commission which owns the conference center. About half of it is the city of Roanoke, and the other half is Virginia Tech’s outreach and international affairs divi-sion. The hotel ownership has a board of di-rectors. The conference center has a board of directors. Then I’m actually – and all of our employees are actually – employed by Hilton Hotels. We have a contract with the hotel owners to manage the hotel, and we have a contract with the conference center owners to manage the conference center. So it gets at times a little confusing.

RB: You must feel that you’re getting confl icting directions on occasion.Walton: When I fi rst came here that was a bit of a concern, that if the two ownership groups ever didn’t see eye to eye, I could be caught right in the middle of that. But for-tunately the hotel owners understand that their success is dependent on having the [convention] space, and the conference cen-ter recognizes that their success is depen-dent on having the guest rooms in the hotel. And so it really makes our job a lot easier.

RB: How has the hotel changed since it reopened?Walton: On the room side, there’s been new product that’s come into the market-place, some new competition that chases after occupied rooms as much as we do. But not signifi cantly large numbers of new guest rooms in the valley. But the food and beverage side, when we fi rst opened the doors in ’95, I don’t know what the ex-act count was, but there were probably fi ve or six restaurants downtown, maybe a few more. Compared to where it is to-day – there are wonderful restaurants in the downtown market. It’s one of our best strengths when we sell to groups, the close walking distance to downtown and the various retail outlets and restaurants. On the same hand, we want all those guests to dine in our restaurants and not venture out of the building. So it is kind of a double-edged sword.

RB: Let’s talk about some of the ho-tel’s traditions and special events. What are “tea dances”? Walton: It’s something that started quite a few years ago. Years and years ago, we had a full orchestra come in and do it. Now once a quarter, usually on a Sunday, folks

come into one of the ballrooms and we have a DJ who plays a variety of dance mu-sic, and they’ll dance from 3 to 5.

RB: Do they drink tea?Walton: There may be some tea. I think we usually put a bar in there. Then they come up to the Regency Room for a buffet dinner, and then they go back and dance from 7 to 9. So it really becomes a full af-ternoon and evening for them. People have a great time.

RB: Are there other special events here? Walton: Our holidays have always been very, very popular. We do an Easter buffet; we do a Mother’s Day buffet. The Thanks-giving buffet is very popular. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are very popular. And then New Year’s Eve is kind of a staple. Those are big days. A lot of folks come out and bring families out. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a special time.

RB: What’s in store for the hotel in the future?Walton: Several years ago we looked at the potential of expanding the hotel. It’s not an active project right now, but it is something that’s out there. It was add-ing about 125 guest rooms. If we added 125 guest rooms, we’d have to expand the conference center, add about another 4,000 square feet of meeting space there. This past year, the changes in the Regency Room were a big project for us. We added a wall that divides the room almost in half. It really was a way to provide much more f lexibility in how we use the room. We wanted to maintain the ambience of the room and character of it, so people who remember the Regency Room of yester-day didn’t come in and say, “Oh, my Lord.” I think the architects and interior design people really did a great job.

RB: How many people stay at the hotel in an average year?Walton: We measure that in room nights. It probably averages about 90,000 a year. Approximately 45 percent of that is group related.

RB: The hotel is 131 years old this year. Do you think it will be around awhile longer?Walton: I do. I’m very, very fortunate to be involved in a hotel where the owners are committed to keeping it fresh, keeping it relevant with today’s world. I think it’s got a long and bright future.

28 MAY 2013

Not so long ago, Roanokers looking for music headed to Floyd. Dancing was hard to

come by. Late night dining meant a Cheesy Western (a cheeseburger with an egg on it) at the Texas Tav-ern. When the sun sets on Roa-noke these days, that big neon star on the mountain shines down on nightspots ranging from posh to honky-tonk.

Roanoke’s live music scene got a kick-start when Kirk Avenue Music Hall opened in October 2008. Set on the mock-cobbled road it’s named after, Kirk Avenue Music Hall offers a living room-like intimacy. Only 130 chairs line the narrow venue encompassed by unadorned walls. Local musician Sam Hensley, 36, recommends Kirk: “For those concertgoers who want an intimate setting, who would rather sit than stand, who would rather sip their drinks than spill them all over the dance floor, who want to see a quieter show

than a screaming throwdown, Kirk Avenue has provided. In Kirk Avenue Music Hall, smaller touring acts, and the fans that will pay to see them, have a place to find themselves together in Roa-noke and no longer have to travel to Floyd or Charlottesville for the same experience.”

Artist-focused experience re-mains the draw. There’s no food, but concertgoers can get a drink. All proceeds from the bar go to The Music Lab at Jefferson Cen-ter.

Kirk Avenue stays true to what its website promises: “No frills. No TVs. No fusion menus.” It’s about the music. This isn’t a nightclub, creative director Cory Camp-bell explains. “We are a listen-ing room.” Sometimes the room is very intimate. When Canadian singer-songwriter Melanie Dekker performed, the crowd was small, but she dedicated one of her first songs to the folks who booked her

and took care of her while she was in Roanoke. When the song was finished, someone called out, “Can each of us have our own song?” Dekker paused, counted the crowd and said, “Yes. Yes, you can.” For the rest of the show, she talked for a minute with each au-dience member, then sang a song that somehow related to them. Not every show is so quiet and in-timate. When Another Roadside Attraction or the Hackensaw Boys are on stage, things can get down-right raucous.

Food is available next door at Lucky – the equivalent of Kirk Avenue with its back parlor ambi-ance. Here the hungry can dine on dishes like roast marrow bone salad and duck leg confit.

Honky-tonk, hip hop, Ameri-cana, rock, jazz and blues filtering onto the quiet side street seems to fulfill the venue’s original intent, according to Campbell, “to take one open room and fill it with as much

Photos by Sam Dean

LIFESTYLES

Roanoke after dark means boots, blues and gumboby Rebekah Manley

k f d k

Out for a good time

Abbey Road performs at Kirk

Avenue Music Hall.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 29

life, art, music, film, dance, design and energy and see what happens.” The venue’s calendar is available online and tickets sell quickly.

A block and a half away, on the corner of Kirk and Second Street, Blue 5 Restaurant’s blue and white Christmas lights frame performers behind oversize windows. The glow matches the venue’s relaxed feel with live blues – sometimes blues/rock or jazz – four nights each week. Patrons leave stress on the street, and dancing breaks out be-tween tables. With 46 beers on tap, “It’s a craft beer lover’s paradise,” according to patron and 30-year-old budget analyst Steve Elliot.

When Bill Wharton, the Sauce Boss, comes to Blue 5, he cooks gumbo on stage in a mammoth pot. Wharton calls himself “the inventor of gastronomical boogie-woogie … a cross between Justin Wilson and Robert Johnson.” He takes breaks from stirring gumbo and playing guitar to dance on the main counter.

Sidewinders Steakhouse and Saloon is just a boot scoot away on Campbell Avenue. This authen-tic honky-tonk experience draws crowds with two bars to serve the thirsty. The region’s largest and only exclusive country music club draws impatient lines each Sat-urday. Folks who come early can snag a table and some dance les-sons. A male and female instruc-tor team is available from 7 to 11 p.m. for line dance and two-step-training. The band comes on at 9 p.m., and the full menu, including lava rock grilled steaks, is served until last call.

In addition to the weekend’s dance bands, the club hosts a week-night Sidewinders Concert Series. Artists range from up-and-coming country stars to current sensations such as Uncle Kracker and Jana Kramer.

Down the street, Metro! offers a big city contrast. Owner Andrew Schlosser sees Metro! as a Mercedes-level nightclub. “We are worth the price if you are in the market for

quality. Because we don’t charge a cover, sometimes people try us that may not be in the market for such quality.” Metro! patterns itself after the nightlife offerings of Montreal, New York and Washington.

Polished details include dark red couches and soft, under-the-bar lighting. Schlosser brings in DJs from D.C. He studies trends in music and clubs, always looking for what’s new. Getting to both bars can be a tight squeeze and the up-stairs dance floor is always packed. Amy Buckmaster, a 25-year-old strategic pricing analyst, says, “When I first moved to Roanoke after graduate school, I wasn’t sure how the transition would be from ‘college-nightlife’ to ‘young profes-sional-nightlife’ … Roanoke has several bars that turned out to be what I was looking for. Metro! is a favorite of mine – big city vibe and great dance music.”

Schlosser has a vision of where Roanoke is headed. “We are grow-ing a community for young adults that have been in the big city and have seen how much better the cost of living is here … there has to be culture here for them.” Schlosser explains how, 10 years ago, Corned Beef & Co., Frankie Rowland’s,

Metro! and a few others took chances to provide that culture and start to bring the big city trends to Roanoke. “We were the forerun-ners ... that put our heart and soul into it.”

After last call, people crowd into Benny Marconi’s, a little shop with big pizza. Owners and Virgin-ia Tech graduates Zach Toth and Chris Brown went on their own personal pizza tour, scouting the best pizza places in Manhattan and Brooklyn to see what made each of them special. They brought those recipes and techniques back to their business.

The folks behind the coun-ter pass out torso-size slices until midnight during the week, until 3 a.m. on weekends. “Benny’s is nice for that late night pizza fix,” says Bryan Soukup, a 26-year-old secu-rity analyst. After graduating from college, he moved from Richmond and remains impressed with the Valley’s night life. “I was surprised at the options Roanoke had to offer. Especially in the last two years with numerous restaurants and bars opening, it seems like Roanoke is catering to the young professional crowd that has seemingly soared in the last couple of years.”

David Anderson out with friends

at Blue 5 in downtown Roanoke.

With 8 million new cases of brain disorders in the United States each year creating a total economic impact of

$995 billion in direct and indirect costs, it’s no wonder that the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute is developing a

leading-edge brain research program. Institute scientists are inventing new strategies for preventing, diagnosing, treating,

and curing such challenges as autism, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and nicotine

addiction. In addition, they are conducting the Roanoke Brain Study, a first-of-its-kind initiative that explores how people’s

genetics, environment, and connections to others affect brain development. Through their work, these researchers

are discovering fundamental processes of life and solving major health issues facing people throughout Virginia and

the world. We call that impact. To learn more, visit www.thisisthefuture.com.

IMPAC .

The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. Impacting Virginia and the World.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 31

NextROANOKE

Photo courtesy Laura Godfrey

Laura Godfrey, owner, Claire V.

Entrepreneur with a purpose Laura Godfrey does well by doing good.

by Jenny Kincaid Boone

Texas-native Laura God-frey moved to Roanoke in 2002 as a young entre-

preneur with lofty goals. A year after graduating from Wellesley College, she launched Claire V., a handbag and accessories whole-saler with plans to contribute 10 percent of its proceeds to edu-cation and health programs for women and children in Asia.

Claire V. sends designs for its silk handbags to Cambodia, where they are crafted by vic-tims of land-mine injuries. Em-broidery is done in Vietnam.

The bags , which have surged in popularity, have been featured in women’s magazines, sold in boutiques nationwide and even appeared in an epi-sode of the former ABC televi-sion series Desperate House-wives.

Several years ago, Godfrey – who declined to discuss the fi nancing behind her ventures – took her business acumen in a new direction. She opened Pol-ished by Claire V., a nail salon in downtown Roanoke. Since then, she has added locations in Roanoke County and Blacks-burg, where she also opened a nail technician school.

Polished also has a distinct mission. It employs graduates of Bethany Hall, a Roanoke non-profi t that provides substance abuse treatment for women.

The two businesses have more than 35 employees. Godfrey plans to open one or two more Polished salons next year.

Now 36 with two young daughters, Godfrey has not slowed down. Last year, she and a partner founded a busi-ness consulting company, Left Brain Right Brain. They offer marketing and technology ser-vices to small and large compa-nies, which are both local and internationally based. With a background in math and tech-nology, Godfrey says she’s the company’s left brain.

Roanoke Business: How has Claire V. changed since you launched it?Laura Godfrey: After my fi rst daughter was born, I couldn’t travel the way that I had been. I was spending as much as six months out of town every year, doing every thing from sales travel to production travel in Southeast Asia. So, what we’ve done is we have slowed down the wholesale part of our busi-ness. We just keep our larger wholesale clients . At some point, we’ll ramp back up again and bring on more indepen-dent boutiques and gift stores. For the time being, we’ve just kept our bigger customers, like The Knot, which is a wedding website and magazine.

RB: What led you to open the fi rst Polished by Claire V. nail salon?Godfrey: We had a storefront that we had leased downtown, and we had another that had been built out for us, and it didn’t get fi nished in time. So we had this extra space that we were renting that we had a contract on and didn’t know what to do with it. We had started being interested in doing something a little bit more locally. I’ve been on the board of Bethany Hall for seven years now, and their grad-uates are wonderful women. They’ve worked really hard to get their life back on track, but a lot of times, even though they may have had professional ca-reers in the past, those careers are no longer open to them. In-stead, the things that are open to them sometimes are jobs that don’t pay enough to support a family and children. With those things in mind, that was kind of how Polished was born. This way, too, they have [skills] that they can take with them any-where, even if they don’t stay in Roanoke.

RB: How do you balance being a mother and an en-trepreneur?Godfrey: [Motherhood] has made me get much more fo-cused and organized, so that

when I’m at work, I really try to buckle down. I can’t work at home. I have to have my brain somewhere else. For the most par t, I ’m in the off ice every day. A lot of times, because I’m kind of a night owl, I’ll stay up and work late once it’s quiet at home. That’s when I get my best work done. Most times I stay up until 1, sometimes 2 a.m.

RB: Was starting a busi-ness in Roanoke a good move and, if so, why?Godfrey: The community sup-port has been incredible. Even though the majority of our busi-ness with Claire V. was not in Roanoke, just knowing that peo-ple knew us and wished us well was very encouraging. In terms of the logistics piece of it … a lot of our business was on the East Coast, between New York and Atlanta, and it was really easy to either fl y or drive for sales and trade shows. People complain about the [Roanoke] airport all of the time. I actually think it’s a wonderful airport. We’re able to get in and out quickly. I grew up in Houston, and I was in Bos-ton for a long time. Compared to that, where it’s an hour and half just to get to the airport and parking and all of that, Roanoke’s wonderful.

Laura Godfrey

32 MAY 2013

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Facts Facts && Figures Figures

Unemployment rate in 2012

Education attained

Median weekly earnings in 2012

2.5% Doctoral degree $1,551

2.4 Professional degree 1,665

3.6 Master’s degree 1,263

4.9 Bachelor’s degree 1,053

6.8 Associate degree 768

8.7 Some college, no 719

9.4 High-school diploma 638

14.1Less than a high school diploma

451

7.6 All workers 797

Note: Data are for persons age 25 and over. Earnings are for full-time wage and salary workers.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey.

Advanced Network Systems, a

leading IT systems integrator that

provides innovative technology

products and services, has an-

nounced that it has been recognized

by Cisco Systems as one of Cisco’s

Top Performing Channel Partners.

Cisco recognized Advanced Net-

work Systems’ outstanding, year-

over-year sales growth success.

AmRhein’s Wine Cellars re-

cently brought home three silver

medals from the Virginia Governor’s

Cup competition. The award-

winning wines were the winery’s

Chambourcin, Pinot Gris Reserve

and Vidal Blanc.

The Blue Ridge Chapter,

Public Relations Society of

America (PRSA) has announced

that three chapter members are also

involved in the PRSA national lead-

ership. Former chapter

p r e s i d e n t L a u r a

Nef f-Henderson,

Virginia Tech employee

communications man-

ager, was elected at the

PRSA International

Conference to be an

at-large delegate to the

2013 PRSA National

Leadership Assembly.

Chapter board member

Douglas Cannon, a Virginia Tech

Department of Communications

assistant professor, is serving

through 2015 on the Universal

Accreditation Board. Chamber

board member Don Egle, direc-

tor of public affairs and university

spokesman for James Madison

University, is serving as 2012-2014

national professional adviser to the

Public Relations Student Society

of America, the college branch

of PRSA.

Carilion Clinic has developed

a new website to support Doctors

Connected, the new Medicare

Shared Savings Program. Doc-

tors Connected is designed to

provide Medicare Fee-for-Service

beneficiaries with high-quality care,

while lowering the rate of growth

in Medicare expenditures through

improved care coordination, com-

munication and a focus on preven-

tive and wellness care, especially for

patients at risk for chronic illness.

The Doctors Connected website,

at www.doctorsconnected.org, will

provide information about the new

program.

Roanoke Fire-EMS received con-

firmation that the City of Roanoke

will retain its Class 2 ISO (Insur-

ance Service Organization) rating

for the next 10 years. ISO collects

and evaluates information from

communities in the United States

on their structure fire suppression

capabilities. Depar tments are

evaluated on water supply, receiving

and handling fire alarms, staffing,

apparatus, training and equipment.

Once the department is analyzed,

it is given a class rating on a scale

of 1 to 10. In the fall of 2012, peer

assessors visited the Roanoke

Fire-EMS Department to ensure

that it was meeting the standards

set forth by ISO.

Dixon Hughes Goodman, one

of Virginia’s leading accounting

firms, has announced several new

hires for its Roanoke office, includ-

ing: Adam Stevens, assurance

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT

CHAMBER CHAMPIONS

BB&T

Brown Edwards

Blue Ridge Copier

Cox Business

Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore

Grow Inc.

LifeWorks REHAB (Medical Facilities of America)

Lumos Networks

rev.net

Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC

Trane

Tread Corp.

Wells Fargo

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.

Roanoke Regional Chamber recognizes Chamber Champions and event sponsors

ROANOKE BUSINESS 33

Member newsMember news & recognitions & recognitions

Neff-Henderson

Cannon

EVENT SPONSORS

Career Focus Dinners

Ferrum College

Hollins University

Radford University

Roanoke College

Virginia Western Community College

Business Before Hours – March 28

Hope Tree Family Services

Doctors Express Roanoke

Legislative Wrap-Up – April 5

Cox

Appalachian Power

Lanford Brothers Co.

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce

associate; Emily Blevins, tax

associate; Amanda Dearing,

CPA, senior associate specializing

in taxes; Annet te Matheny,

CPA, seasonal tax preparer; Mary

Adkins, seasonal tax preparer; and

Charles “Tready” Gardner and

Christopher Nicholas have joined

the firm as interns for the spring

tax season.

HoneyTr ee E ar l y L ear n -

ing Centers recently hosted a

groundbreaking ceremony for its

new aquatics center, located in the

200 block of Hershberger Road.

The new center will feature a gym,

snack bar, classrooms and locker

rooms. The aquatics center and

pool is a privately owned facility for

HoneyTree Early Learning Centers

and is used during the summer for

its camp program. Upon completion,

HoneyTree plans to begin using the

facility year-round for a future af-

terschool program accommodating

nearby schools.

Chad McGhee has

b e en na m e d chie f

revenue of ficer and

Jerry Plunkett as

the director of financial

management for the

operating entities of

McLeod Enterprises

– HoneyTree Early

Learning Centers,

S t ar C i t y Sk a te

Center and Sylvan

Learning Centers

of Roanoke, Chris-

tiansburg and Charlot-

tesville. Megan Foust

has been named center

director of the Sylvan Christians-

burg facility.

National College, known since

1886 as a leader in career-focused

education, has announced that its

flagship Roanoke Valley Campus,

located in Salem with additional

facilities in Vienna, will be known as

American National University.

The Salem campus is the home

of the college’s administration. In

late 2012, the college opened a

higher education center in Tysons

Corner, in the Washington, D.C.

region, offering programs through

the college’s School of Professional

Development and English Language

Institute. National College’s other

29 campus locations, located in

six states, will continue to operate

under the National College name.

Project Access of the Roanoke

Valley has announced that Timo-

thy Fortuna, D.O., and Krista

Crawford-Mathis, PhD, SPHR,

have been elected to its board of

directors.

The Roanoke-Blacksburg Tech-

nology Council (RBTC) has a new

look with a new logo and website.

The logo, developed by a young

entrepreneur, Nick Giaganas, is

simple yet modern in contrasting

colors and black and bright green.

The website was redesigned and

donated to the RBTC by Interactive,

Design and Development.

R o a n o k e C o u n t y

Administrator Clay

Goodman recently an-

nounced the selection

of Richard Caywood

as the new assistant

county administrator. Caywood had

served as senior project manager

for Fielder’s Choice Enterprises, a

civil construction company based

in Charlottesville. He replaced for-

mer assistant county administrator

Diane Hyatt, who retired in August

2012 after 30 years of service with

Roanoke County.

Four elementary and three second-

ary schools in Roanoke County

have received grants from the

ExxonMobil Educational Alliance

to support science and math pro-

grams. These grants are part of

several available to schools across

the country served by Exxon or

Mobil stations. Roanoke County

schools receiving the grants are:

Burlington Elementary ($1,000

grant); Clearbrook Elementary

($500 grant); Herman L. Horn

Elementary ($500 grant); Hidden

Valley Middle School ($500

grant); Northside High School

($1,000 grant); Northside Middle

School ($1,000 grant); and Oak

Grove Elementary ($500 grant).

Five team members of SERVPRO

of Roanoke, Montgomery and

Pulaski Counties recently earned

cer tification as water damage

restoration technicians through the

Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and

Restoration Certification. LaSavior

“Nikki” Jones, Ariel Olson,

Holley Pence, Josh Bullock

and Stacie Smith are registrants

in good standing and bring the

number of total cer tified water

damage restoration technicians

with SERVPRO to 21.

S u nTr u s t B a n k ,

Western Virginia has

announced that Adam

Alexander has been

named business bank-

ing relationship man-

ager within the bank’s commercial

division. Alexander most recently

served as the branch manager of

the SunTrust Cave Spring office.

SunTrust Bank, Western Vir-

ginia has announced that James

Porter has been named assistant

vice president and business bank-

ing relationship manager within the

bank’s commercial division serving

commercial clients in Lynchburg,

Bedford and the Smith Mountain

Lake areas.

N. Ray Tuck Jr., D.C., president

of Tuck Chiropractic Clinics, has

announced that Craig Camidge,

D.C., and Logan Brooke, D.C.,

are full partners in the Tuck Chiro-

practic Clinic organization. Camidge

joined Tuck Chiropractic Clinic in

2008. Brooke joined the clinic in

June 2009.

The Virginia Museum of Trans-

portation has announced it is

studying the feasibility of returning

the iconic Norfolk & Western Class

J 611 steam locomotive to operating

condition. The study – called Fire Up

611! – will determine what it will take

to restore, maintain and operate the

locomotive. A committee of experts

has been formed to conduct the

study. The committee will consult

with specialists in steam locomo-

tive operations and restoration,

engineers and experts on Federal

Railroad Administration and safety.

Irving Coy Allen has

joined the Virginia-

Maryland Regional

C o l lege o f Ve t -

erinary Medicine at

Virginia Tech as an

assistant professor of inflammatory

disease in the Department of Bio-

medical Sciences and Pathobiology.

Maria V. Anderson,

Pamplin College of

Business alumna and

a recruiter at KPMG,

gave the Wells Fargo

Distinguished Lecture,

sponsored by the Pamplin College

at the Holtzman Alumni Center’s

Alumni Assembly Hall on March

7. Anderson joined KPMG after she

graduated from Virginia Tech with

a bachelor’s degree in business

information technology.

Lois Badey has been named the

senior director of development

for the Center for the Arts at

34 MAY 2013

Foust

McGhee

Alexander

Allen

Anderson

Caywood

Plunkett

Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce | SPONSORED CONTENT

Virginia Tech. In this

position she will be the

chief major-gift officer

for the center, which

is a lready running

programs and this fall

will occupy a 150,000-square-

foot complex currently under

construction.

Jonathan Boulter

has been named as-

socia te direc tor of

patron services for the

Center for the Arts at

Virginia Tech. Boulter

will oversee patron experiences

at the center, which include the

management of ticketing and front

of house operations.

Gardner Campbell,

director of professional

development and in-

novative initiatives for

Learn Technologies

and associate profes-

sor of English in the College of

Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

at Virginia Tech, has been named

one of the “Top 50 Innovators in

Education in 2012” by the Center

for Digital Education and Converge

Magazine.

Dr. Julie Cecere has

joined the Virginia-

Maryland Regional

C o l lege o f Ve t -

erinary Medicine

at Virginia Tech as

a clinical assistant professor of

theriogenology in the Department

of Large Animal Clinical Sciences.

Ian Farrell has been

appointed the assistant

vice president of devel-

opment for colleges at

Virginia Tech. Farrell

most recently served as

director of regional development at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Virginia Tech alumnus

Jerome Fowlkes

r e c e n t l y w a s t h e

keynote speaker at

the Diversity Confer-

ence organized by the

Pamplin Multicultural Diversity

Council. The conference was led by

representatives from The Hershey

Company, Target, Deloitte, Ernst &

Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers

and KPMG.

C h r i s t o p h e r R.

Fuller, the Samuel

Langley Distinguished

Professor of Engineer-

ing at Virginia Tech

and a resident at the

National Institute of Aerospace

in Hampton, presented his research

work as part of the Boeing Distin-

guished Researcher and Scholar

Seminar Series in February.

Don Leo, vice presi-

dent and executive di-

rector for Virginia Tech

National Capital Re-

gion, and Stan Hefta,

director of Strategic

Business Planning and

Development for the

Virginia Bioinformatics

Institute, have joined

the leadership team

of the newly established Virginia

Biosciences Health Research

Corp. Founded by Virginia Tech

and four other state universi-

ties — Eastern Virginia Medical

School, George Mason University,

University of Virginia and Virginia

Commonwealth University — the

corporation was formed to foster

collaborative scientific research

innovation and to provide a new

program for public/private partner-

ing with Virginia universities.

Leigh McCue-Weil, an associate

professor with Virginia Tech’s

Department of Aerospace and

Ocean Engineering, received

the Rosenblatt Young

Naval Engineer Award

from the American

S o c i e t y o f N a v a l

Engineers at its ASNE

Day in February.

Carol A. Mullen

has been named the

director of the School

o f Educ a t ion a t

Virginia Tech and

associa te dean for

professional education in the Col-

lege of Liberal Arts and Human

Sciences.

Virginia Tech’s De-

partment of Indus-

trial and Systems

Engineer ing has

received a five-year,

$470,703 grant from

the National Institute

o f O c c u p a t i o n a l

Safety and Health to

expand its graduate

education to address

construction-related

occupational safety and health.

The principal faculty members

leading the new initiative are Maury

Nussbaum, Industrial and Systems

Engineering, and Deborah Young-

Corbett, with the Myers-Lawson

School of Construction.

Pamplin College of Business

dean Richard E. Sorensen was

formally honored in the Virginia

State Capitol recently with a joint

resolution of commendation by the

Virginia General Assembly. When he

retires in July, Sorensen will have

served as a business dean for 40

years — 31 years at Virginia Tech

and nine years at Appalachian State

University in Boone, N.C.

Christopher Williams, an as-

sistant professor with Virginia

Tech’s College of Engineering,

will use a National

Science Foundation

Faculty Early Career

Development Award

to explore 3-D ink-jet

printing with copper

as a conductivity tool.

In his research, Williams will test the

use of copper oxide powders in an

ink-jetting 3-D printing process to

create small, complex copper parts.

The Association of

Collegiate Schools

of Architecture has

recognized Marie

Zawistowski and

Keith Zawistowski

with a 2012-2013

Design Build award.

The Zawistowskis,

both professors of

practice in the Vir-

ginia Tech School

of Archi tec ture +

Design, were among four individuals

and teams to be recognized for best

practices in design-build education.

Virginia Western Community

College has announced that it will

offer free dual enrollment (college

credit) courses at high schools

in its service region beginning

in the 2013-14 academic year.

Students at public high schools

in Botetourt, Craig, Franklin and

Roanoke counties, and the cities of

Roanoke and Salem, will be eligible

to enroll in these courses. Dual

enrollment classes are taught at

local high schools by teachers who

are credentialed to instruct at the

college level. If a student receives

a C-grade or better, he or she will

receive transferable college credits

for the class. Students may be able

to earn an associate degree at the

same time they earn a high school

diploma. The funding for students

taking dual enrollment courses will

be provided by Virginia Western.

ROANOKE BUSINESS 35

McCue-Weil

Mullen

Cecere

Farrell

Fowlkes

Fuller

Leo

Hefta

Williams

M. Zawistowski

K. Zawistowski

Badey

Boulter

Campbell

Young-Corbett

Nussbaum

SPONSORED CONTENT | Roanoke Regional Partnership

36 MAY 2013

News from the Roanoke Regional Partnership

Lots of media exposure for Roanoke Region

Since 2010, the number of media features and mentions about the Roanoke Region has doubled, and the region is popping up on an increasing number of best lists.

In 2012, the region was featured in national publications such as Garden & Gun, Smart Growth America, Fido Friendly, The Boston Globe and The New York Times. The region also was highlighted in regional publications such as Southern Business & Development.

Regional assets — from the outdoors to work force — have been named to prestigious lists. The Weather Channel named the Blue Ridge Marathon to its list of the world’s 15 toughest marathons. Blue Ridge Outdoors readers voted Roanoke Best Mid-Sized Mountain Town, and Roanoke was named the 36th best metro for a growing work force by Area Development Magazine.

The audience opting in for information about the Roanoke Region continues to grow as well. More people are connecting with the region through the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s websites — www.roanoke.org, www.roanokeoutside.com and www.roanokeentrepreneur.com — and interacting with related channels on social media. The partnership also distributes three email newsletters, Investor Insider, Horizon and Get Outside Weekend Update, which help keep people informed about news and happenings in the Roanoke Region. The number of people relying on partnership channels for information continues to grow steadily, especially in the area of social media where more people are turning for news and information.

Lowest cost of living The 2012 annual data are in, and figures show that Roanoke has the lowest cost of living of any metro in Virginia. With costs about 8.6 percent lower than the national average, Roanoke has a lower cost of living than more than 75 percent of metro regions across the nation.

The area’s strongest competitive advantages are in housing and health-care costs, though food costs and miscellaneous service costs are considerably lower than the national aver-age. The region’s cost of living is lower than many Southern competing metro areas including Asheville, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Clifton Forge amphitheater named American-Architects Building of the Year With its clean lines and modern look, the Masonic Amphitheatre in Clifton Forge has been selected as the American-Architects Building of the Year 2012.

The amphitheater, designed and constructed by the design/buildLAB at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design and featured in February’s Roanoke Business, was selected by 20 percent of voters who studied each of the 50 buildings of the week featured by American-Architects last year. The honor was announced on the American-Architects website Feb. 11.

“The exceptional Masonic Amphitheatre serves Clifton Forge, replacing a truck tire facility with a civic infrastructure. It is

the design/buildLAB’s second major project, following the Covington Farmer’s Market completed the previous year,” the article states. “The two projects are linked through the market’s use of salvaged materials from the warehouse that formerly occupied the site of the amphitheater, which subsequently used the warehouse’s slab as a stage.”

Building of the Year runners-up were the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center in Brooklyn, New York, and the Yin-Yang House in Venice, Calif. You can read more about all three win-ners and see photos of each building from American-Architects.

American-Architects is a subsidiary of World-Architects.com, a network of outstanding architects, landscape ar-chitects, engineers, interior designers, lighting consultants and architectural photographers bringing designers, clients and contractors together in the goal of advancing quality in architecture. The site was founded in 1994 by Zurich-based PSA Publishers and also features an e-magazine.

Several Roanoke employers among Best Places to Work Three companies headquartered in the Roanoke region of Virginia were included on a Virginia Business list of the Best Places to Work in Virginia. Generally, companies recognized as “best places” offer activities and unique benefits to create a sense of cohesiveness and community among their work force and typically excellent pay including unique incentives. Think Google, but on a smaller scale.

So, where are these great places to work? Here are just a few companies that showcase why the Roanoke Region is a great place to work, play and live.

Valley Bank Ranked: Eighth among midsize employers

Industry: Banking/Finance

Average Annual Salary: $78,996

Benefits: Employee stock options, 401(k), HMO, flex spending account health plan, tuition reimbursement

Corvesta Services Ranked: 10th among midsize employers

Industry: Health-care/Insurance Services

Average Annual Salary: $84,837

Benefits: Employee stock options, 401(k), flex spending ac-count health plan, free snacks or beverages, paid community service leave, telecommuting options, tuition reimbursement

Member One Federal Credit Union Ranked: 12th among midsize employers

Industry: Banking/Finance

Average Annual Salary: $68,556

Benefits: 401(k), HMO, flex spending account health plan, free snacks or beverages, tuition reimbursement

Other employers headquartered elsewhere but with locations in the Roanoke Valley include Edward Jones (ranked seventh on the large employers list), Davenport and Co. (eighth, large employer), Sheetz (21st, large employer) and Liberty Tax Service (12th, large employer).

Maybe you’ve found yourself stuck in your

search for a rewarding career. Maybe you

need to upgrade your skills to advance in your

current job, or perhaps you want to explore an

entirely new career. Maybe you are a business

manager who needs to find cost-effective

ways to train your team to stay current.

AND GET TO WORKdevelops

programs and training to address the

needs of employers and employees in

the Roanoke Valley. It gives students

opportunities to gain the real-world skills

they need to succeed in fields such

as science, technology, engineering,

mathematics and healthcare. Whether

you wish to be a nurse, a mechatronics

specialist or a software engineer,

Virginia Western will TAKE YOU THERE.

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