REGIONAL VIEW southern virginia


Roanoke developers set sights on River District by Veronica Garabelli


P


eople visiting downtown Danville will soon have a lodging option, thanks to a Roanoke-based devel-


opment group. For $350,000, Ed Walker


Walker and his team bought two vacant South Union Street buildings, which will be converted into a 42-room boutique hotel. The $6.2 million project has been dubbed


Honey Bee, a play on the name of one of the building’s for mer tenants, the Dan- ville Register & Bee. The hotel will be developed by Live


Oak LLC and managed by City Space LLC. The companies represent a part- nership between Walker and fellow Roanoke native Brent Cochran, who will lead the Danville project. The property will be the only hotel


in the River District, the downtown area that the city has been revitalizing since the decline of its tobacco and textile industries.


The hotel will help Danville make a


good first impression on visitors, includ- ing business prospects, says Telly Tucker, the city’s economic development director. “Now, these folks have somewhere


to stay in the River District where they can park their vehicle for the weekend,


FOR THE RECORD


Danville now has a land-bank entity that will acquire derelict and tax-delinquent properties in the city for reuse. The Danville Neighborhood Development Corp. a relatively new nonprofit, will administer this program. Officials hope the organization will take land — whether through purchase or donation — and try to build new homes on it or find other uses for those properties. Danville City Council voted unanimously to designate the organization as the city’s land-bank entity. The decision came after lengthy discussion in which councilmen asked ques- tions about the group’s role and whether the city would be per- manently saddled with paying for it. ( Danville Register & Bee)


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and they really don’t have to get back in until they leave because everything is within walking distance for the most part,” he says. “That’s kind of the culture and the vibe that we’ve been creating in our River District, and … that helps us accomplish our economic development goals.” The project is being partially


Tucker


financed through a $3 million loan from the city, which will be repaid within a year-and-a-half from the start of con- struction. The rest of the money is being borrowed from Roanoke-based Freedom First Credit Union. The developers plan to use historic tax credits, available for rehabbing historic properties, and pos- sibly, opportunity-zone tax benefits for investors working in certain areas. Walker is known for rehabbing buildings in smaller communities and Roanoke, his hometown. Walker and students at Washington and Lee Uni- versity’s law school, where he teaches, also are redeveloping a significant por- tion of downtown Buena Vista. Addi- tionally, he’s working on several projects in Salem with Cochran. Danville had been on Walker’s radar for a number of years, but he consid- ered investing in the community more


Churches in Danville could see increases in electricity charges paired with a lower overall consumption rate, but those changes would not take effect until next year if they are approved. The Danville Utility Commission unanimously voted to recommend the adjust- ments during its meeting in late February. But the decision also included delaying the changes for a year so utilities staff could reach out to churches and give those organizations time to reduce usage and take advantage of energy efficiency incentives offered by the city. “This is not an easy issue,” Utility Commission Chairman William Donohue Jr. said during the meeting, adding that everyone needed to be spurred toward energy efficiency. Recommen-


APRIL 2019


dation for the delay came after Fred Shanks, a city councilman serving as a non-voting com- mission member, asked that the changes be delayed until the next biennial rate study in two years. As a compromise, the commission voted for a delay of one year. If approved by Danville City Council, the changes would take effect July 1, 2020, instead of this coming July. (Danville Register & Bee)


Goodyear will lay off 60 hourly workers from its Danville manu- facturing facility, the company confirmed in late February. Com- pany spokeswoman Barbara Hatala wrote in an email: “The company continually adjusts staffing levels to operate as efficiently as possible so that we can best serve our customers by


seriously after meeting Ina Dixon. She is the former leader of History United, a project that uses history to encour- age investment in the Danville area, which includes Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C. Walker also was impressed with Tucker and Cor- rie Teague Bobe, the city’s assistant eco- nomic development director, whom he met two years ago at a craft beer confer- ence in Washington, D.C. “They are the best economic devel- opment team in the state of Virginia,” Walker says. He admires how they’ve fought an inaccurate stereotype that sug- gested there’s no opportunity in Dan- ville. That’s a perception that Walker says has plagued other cities impacted by deindustrialization, including Roanoke. After visiting Danville, Walker was


attracted to the city because of the local government’s efficiency; its low resi- dential-vacancy rate; food and beverage scene, and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, among other factors. He also has scoped out other buildings downtown and plans to develop additional properties there. “If you’re going to go into a new


market, it makes sense to go with enough scale to justify your presence, so we intend to do more projects there,” he says.


providing them with the quality tires they need, when and where they need them. This decision is part of that process.” (Danville Register & Bee)


The Halifax County Service Authority will seek to alleviate water shortages at Virginia International Raceway by drill- ing new wells there, a low-cost alternative to running water lines out to the Alton road racing course. HCSA board members agreed in February to seek a state planning grant to conduct a groundwater investigation around VIR to see if new wells can be the solution to the track’s ongoing water issues. The track is down to one working well due to contamination issues that have rendered other wells unusable. The study, which will


require the services of a firm specializing in groundwater development and geology, will cost an estimated $55,000, with the hoped-for state grant covering $30,000 of that sum. Laying pipe from successful wells and connecting it to exist- ing track infrastructure could cost anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000, according to Hurt & Proffitt, the engineering firm that is advising the HCSA on the matter. That’s significantly less than the estimated $3.8 million cost of laying water line infra- structure to VIR from Pittsylvania County and the city of Danville. (SoVaNow.com)


Despite the risk of thieves and the stigma concomitant with growing marijuana plants, interested people from across


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