REGIONAL VIEW: THE YEAR IN REVIEW Roanoke/new river valley


Healthy and wealthy Carilion, manufacturing industries step up operations


Carilion Clinic is building a children’s outpatient center in the former JCPenney space at Roanoke County’s Tanglewood Mall.


by Tim Thornton R


oanoke County’s main street — Electric Road (state Route 419) — is


getting a big boost from the region’s largest employer. Car- ilion Clinic announced in Sep- tember it had leased 150,000 square feet at Tanglewood Mall to accommodate Carilion’s growing children’s outpatient practices. Carilion, the Roanoke


nonprofit that operates nine hospitals and more than 200 practice sites from the Shenan- doah Valley to Galax, plans to spend about $30 million and 18 months preparing the space. “We’re going to assimilate


all of the childr en’s outpatient services there,” says Nancy Agee, Carilion’s president and CEO. “We really want it to be technologically advanced and be a cool place for kids to come,


22 | MARCH 2020


really paying attention to what motivates children and moms and dads to have their children there. “What we’re going to do


is step back [and] design this for children, bring all of these services together. Especially for sick children or children with chronic needs, you don’t want them to have to go to multiple places.”


The new center will occupy the space that used to house JCPenney and Miller Motte Technical College. “That whole end [of the mall],” Agee says, “is pretty shuttered.” Tanglewood began as a popular shopping area, an attraction that drew people to the edge of Roanoke County. But, like many malls across the country, the mall has hit hard times in the era of online


shopping, losing anchor stores and searching for ways to attract customers. Jill Loope, Roanoke County’s economic development director, says the Carilion project, an eco- nomic boon on its own, will also help draw customers to Tanglewood’s remaining retail businesses. Agee agrees. “What we expect, and what the owners of Tanglewood expect, and what the county is excited about as well, is that other businesses then will grow around it,” Agee says, citing Carilion’s Institute for Ortho- paedics and Neurosciences in Roanoke city as an example. Where an abandoned grocery store once stood, there’s now a health care center with four restaurants for neighbors and a need for more parking spaces.


“I think at Tanglewood


you’re going to see that same kind of synergy,” Agee says. The Tanglewood project


will have 200 to 300 employees and generate 500 to 600 patient trips per day. “That’s a lot of new infusion of activity along the [Route] 419 corridor,” Loope says. “This will be a catalyst for more to come.” The county plans about $30 million in transportation projects along Electric Road/ Route 419. The road will be widened and an improved diver- gent diamond interchange will replace its existing intersection with U.S. 220, adjacent to the mall. It’s part of the 419 Town Center Plan to revitalize about 390 acres, including Tanglewood Mall, along the road.


All this is going on just a short drive from Carilion Roa- Photo by Don Petersen


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