Community Profile: Bristol
since trains began carrying people to and from Roanoke regularly last fall. That’s about 150 miles away by rail or interstate. “It’s looking more and more
The annual Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion brings about 45,000 people and more than $16 million to the region each year.
plausible,” Bishop says. “It just makes sense. It’s just going to be more money for the state and our community. We’re hoping that it’s sooner than later, though.” Championing train travel
Lost State won’t be a bar,
either, Bianchi says, but it will offer cocktails and live music in its 4,000-square-foot tasting room. It’s across the tracks from the Bristol Train Station, a 116-year- old train depot-turned-event-cen- ter that’s on the National Register of Historic Places.
Seeking Amtrak service While Lost State and
Rhythm and Roots may attract people downtown, the region is working toward getting Amtrak to literally bring people downtown. Long a goal of many in the region, restoration of passenger service has seemed tantalizingly close
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum celebrates the historic recording sessions in 1927.
and renovating hundred-year-old buildings may give the impres- sion Bristol is looking to its past for economic salvation. While selectively and strategically leveraging its history, however, the region isn’t bound to the past. An economy once tied to coal and railroads has a much broader focus. There’s The Pinnacle, a mil- lion-square-foot retail center on the Tennessee side, whose first big tenant, Bass Pro Shops, opened the same month as the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The Falls, on the Virginia
side, features outdoor outfitter Cabela’s and discount grocer Aldi’s and is about to get a Hobby Lobby. The former Ball can factory,
which employed more than 200 people when it closed in 2015, is scheduled to begin producing towels for a Chinese company called American Merchant by January, eventually providing more than 400 jobs. Even Bristol Motor Speedway
(BMS), a steady contributor to the regional economy since it hosted its first NASCAR race in 1961, is looking to adjust and innovate. NASCAR attendance is down. (Admission revenue for Speedway Motorsports Inc., BMS’ parent company, was down $3.7 million, 4.1 percent, last year, “due primarily to lower overall admissions revenue at certain NASCAR racing events” at its eight racetracks, according to the company’s annual report.) BMS hosted two collegiate
football games in 2016, most notably the Battle at Bristol
64 JUNE 2018 Photos by Tim Cox
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