REGIONAL VIEW Roanoke/new river valley


Tech talent, incentives lure Advance headquarters to Raleigh by Tim Thornton


is moving its headquarters to Raleigh, N.C.


A Moving may be too


strong a word. Company spokesman Darryl Carr says the change will mean virtually nothing to the 650 people working in the former Crossroads Shopping Center, Advance’s headquarters in Roanoke. “There will be no layoffs


or job shifts, and the Roanoke office is not closing,” Carr says. “In fact, we just signed a multiyear lease renewal for the Roanoke office.” Advance began in 1932


when Arthur Taubman purchased Advance Stores Co., the owner of two stores in Roanoke and one in Lynchburg. Only three blocks separated the Roanoke stores, so Taubman quickly closed one of them. From that beginning


Advance evolved into a major auto parts retailer. It opened


FOR THE RECORD


A $350,000 study that intends to determine what improvements are needed to bring Amtrak ser- vice to the New River Valley has been placed on indefinite hold. Officials with the Virginia Depart- ment of Rail and Public Trans- portation said in December that Norfolk Southern has halted its involvement in the study due to the company wanting to priori- tize other matters related to its rail network. The railroad recently announced plans to move its headquarters to Atlanta. Although the NRV study doesn’t solely depend on Norfolk Southern, the railroad’s cooperation is needed because one major element being examined is some tracks near the Christiansburg Aquatic Center that belong to the Norfolk-


Photo by Don Petersen its 100th store in 1987. Nine


years later, the company opened more than 100 stores in a year. Advance now has nearly


5,000 company-operated stores, another 1,500 associ- ated outlets and more than 71,000 employees. The com- pany’s sales last year totaled nearly $9.4 billion. Advance was Roanoke’s


only Fortune 500 company. It now will be the only Raleigh- based company on the list. Most of Advance’s exec-


utives — and a lot of other


based company, DRPT officials said. (The Roanoke Times)


Deschutes Brewery will not break ground on its Roa- noke plant in 2019 as originally planned, its president said. The Oregon-based craft beer brewer had planned a June 2019 start on construction since its 2016 announcement that it would expand to the East Coast on a site in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology. But ear- lier this year President Michael Lalonde said a slowing of growth in the craft beer market had caused the company to re-eval- uate the scale and timing of its expansion. (The Roanoke Times)


The Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust and Heywood and Cynthia Fralin will donate a record $50 million to Virginia Tech to support


fter calling Roanoke home for 86 years, Advance Auto Parts


area over five years. In turn, North Carolina has promised Advance a $10 million incen- tive package. Carr calls the incentives


Advance Auto Parts was Roanoke’s only Fortune 500 company.


employees, including those in technology and marketing wings — have been based in Raleigh since 2014 when the company acquired General Parts International. That situation has led some people to suggest Advance’s headquarters haven’t really been in Roa- noke for some time. But the new designation


will matter. According to a news release from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Advance will add as many as 435 jobs in the Raleigh


research at the newly renamed Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in the evolving Virginia Tech Carilion Academic Health Center in Roanoke. Construction of a $90 million, 139,000-gross- square-foot Biomedical Research Addition building at the VTC Health Sciences and Technology Campus is expected to finish in spring 2020. The Fralin Biomedi- cal Research Institute and the VTC School of Medicine are also located on the campus. The cam- pus’ economic impact in Virginia was $214 million in 2017 and is projected to more than double, approaching half-a-billion dollars per year, by 2026. (News release)


An upswing in market demand has allowed Harris Corp. to add nearly 50 new jobs to its Roanoke County site since the beginning


www.VirginiaBusiness.com


“an important factor in the decision-making process.” Virginia, he says, “put forth a competitive offer,” but the company chose North Carolina because of the incentives and “a deep bench of information technology and software development talent that


exists in North Carolina’s [Research] Triangle.” Moving Advance for-


ward, Carr says, “will require enhancing skills and building new capabilities in the areas of technology, digital market- ing and eCommerce to sup- port our plans to become a technology and omnichannel leader.”


Company leaders feel


Advance can do that best, Carr says, “with the available talent pool in North Carolina and its combined incentives package.”


of this year, county officials said. The facility, which employs a little over 500 people, makes night- vision technology. The new hires were primarily for production jobs with some positions for supervi- sors, technicians and engineers as well, said Erik Fox, a vice pres- ident and general manager with Harris. (The Roanoke Times)


The Wilkinson Group is team- ing up with the Vinyard family to bring new life to the old Vinton Motors Co. property in Vinton. Details are being finalized, offi- cials said, but the concept plans envision an updated look for the site with space for a taproom- style restaurant and other des- tinations. The redevelopment, which will be named Vinyard Station, is aiming for a late 2019 or early 2020 opening. Vinton


Motors Co., a family-owned car dealership, was a community sta- ple for 77 years before it closed in 2008. The property, which spans 1.4 acres, is currently dor- mant. Last year, the town started working with owner Billy Vinyard to court proposals for redevelop- ment. (The Roanoke Times)


PEOPLE


Sue Ranson, co-founder of Good Samaritan Hospice, the first stand-alone hospice agency in Roanoke, is retiring after 26 years. She plans to retire Dec. 31. Good Sam’s board has named Aaron Housh as her successor. Housh has worked in hospice in Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia. (The Roanoke Times)


VIRGINIA BUSINESS | 17


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