Roanoke/New River Year-in-Review: 2024 was about laying groundwork

Not every year can be 2023.

That’s the verdict from economic development watchers in a wide stretch of Virginia, ranging from Lynchburg west through Roanoke and Salem to the New River Valley.

In 2023, this region experienced a burst of business announcements with a total investment of at least $387 million and expectations of thousands of new jobs. The annual report for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, a regional economic development organization was titled “The Biggest Year.”

John Hull, executive director of the partnership, thinks it’s unfair to measure last year against its predecessor, which he calls an outlier in the region’s development trends. “It’s more appropriate to compare 2024 to 2022.”

He ran through a list of large and small projects, including new locations and expansions, that landed in 2024 in the areas that the partnership represents: the counties of Alleghany, Botetourt, Franklin and Roanoke; the cities of Roanoke, Covington and Salem and the town of Vinton.

None matched the scope of 2023’s Wells Fargo expansion announcement in Roanoke County, which is projected to bring 1,100 jobs, although as of 2025, both the county and the bank declined to provide an update.

Last year did, however, have a healthy mix of activity that shows a continuing momentum, and a promise of more to come, according to Hull, who calls 2024 “a strong year for the region.”

Tommy Miller, economic development director for the City of Salem, describes last year as “a lot of progress supporting the success stories of the previous years.”

Farther southwest, Katie Boswell, executive director of Onward New River Valley, says 2024 was quieter there, with her office more focused on attracting new businesses and retaining existing ones.

For the region, the biggest project of 2024, in terms of jobs created, was one announced in December 2023. Lynchburg’s Framatome expansion, which commenced construction and hiring in 2024, aims to create a cadre of nuclear power plant technicians ready to service an expected wave of new Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs, that are proposed for locations across the country and around the globe.

Marjette Upshur, Lynchburg’s director of economic development, calls the $49.4 million expansion, which has already led to the hiring of 200 workers toward what is expected to be 515 jobs created, “transformational” for the city.

Before the expansion, the company already was the city’s largest commercial employer, Upshur says, with about 1,250 workers at two facilities in Lynchburg.

With nuclear fuel producer BWX Technologies also in and around Lynchburg, “we’re like the nuclear energy hub,” Upshur says.

Other projects announced in 2024 in the Roanoke and New River valleys include:

City of Roanoke

In January 2024, city officials announced that Amazon.com would open a last-mile delivery facility in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology. By year’s end, the new 125,000-square-foot building was up and running, supporting about 300 direct and indirect jobs, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

Marc Nelson, Roanoke’s economic development director, says the project stood out in several ways. For one thing, “it puts your city on the map” to have an Amazon facility of this type, according to Nelson.

The site Amazon chose was the former location for a much-ballyhooed Deschutes brewery that the beer company ultimately decided not to build. Nelson had received a phone call from Deschutes saying the company was stepping back from its construction plans — and then within hours he got a call from Amazon officials asking if there were any Roanoke locations that might suit the company’s needs.

So far in his career, this has been the only time when one big plan was dashed and another emerged so swiftly, Nelson says.

Outside of Amazon, 2024 was partly a year of preparation, according to Nelson.

The city received $7.5 million from the state in August 2024 and added $2.5 million of its own money to make the last large site in the Centre for Industry and Technology more attractive to potential tenants. The work involves extending utilities and constructing a pad for a building that’s between 300,000 and 400,000 square feet on the 82-acre site. That project will likely take a couple years, according to Nelson.

Also in 2024, the city continued working with Retail Strategies, an Alabama community development and urban planning firm, on examining corridors connecting Roanoke to Salem and to parts of Roanoke County, with an eye toward identifying areas that seem under-used or ready for new development. The multi-year effort should conclude in 2026, according to Nelson.

Montgomery County

In May, packaging company ESS Technologies announced plans to invest $1.6 million into closing operations at facilities in Pembroke and Blacksburg and consolidating them at a 40,000-square-foot Christiansburg facility, an expansion projected to create 27 jobs.

In January, employees moved into the new facility, according to Brian Hamilton, economic development director for Montgomery County. “The project is ongoing as far as buying equipment and hiring people.”

Hamilton welcomed the expansion news during a year when the county was seeking ways to spur future growth. He notes that Montgomery County is looking for opportunities to buy land for new developments or expansions as it builds out its existing industrial areas.

Like Roanoke with its Centre for Industry and Technology, Montgomery County worked in 2024 to ready the last site in the second phase of its Falling Branch Industrial Park. The county is installing a 20-acre pad on a 35-acre lot and running utilities to it.

Construction is underway, and the $2.81 million project should be completed by June, according to a spokesperson for the county. The preparation means that a new tenant could probably be up and running six to nine months after purchasing the property, according to Hamilton. “It definitely speeds up the process.”

City of Salem

Engaging with downtown businesses was a focus in 2024 for Miller, the city’s economic development director. The effort involved improving streetscapes, refreshing connections with long-time businesses and welcoming a new business spun off from other companies that have operated for years in Salem.

The new business is Shrewd Outdoors, owned by brothers Riley and Laven Newsom, who also operate Shrewd Archery in Salem and are officers of the Salem machine shop Damon Co., which is run by their father.

Located on Main Street, Shrewd Outdoors, which opened in September 2024, combines an archery pro shop and academy, an archery range in the basement and a planned café. It currently employs three full-time and two part-time workers, and the owners have plans to hire more in 2025.

“We’re ecstatic that they put this commitment right downtown, right in their hometown,” Miller says.