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Assembled with care

Manufacturing industry grows in Roanoke, New River regions

//April 29, 2024//

Advanced manufacturing methods in use across the Roanoke and New River valleys such as additive manufacturing, robotics and nanotechnology are “not your grandfather’s manufacturing,” says Roanoke Regional Partnership Executive Director John Hull. Photo by Don Petersen

Advanced manufacturing methods in use across the Roanoke and New River valleys such as additive manufacturing, robotics and nanotechnology are “not your grandfather’s manufacturing,” says Roanoke Regional Partnership Executive Director John Hull. Photo by Don Petersen

Assembled with care

Manufacturing industry grows in Roanoke, New River regions

// April 29, 2024//

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If you’re trying to visualize what powers manufacturing growth around Roanoke these days, picture 3D-printed helicopter blades and robotics, not old-style grommets.

Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing produces objects by creating a series of consecutive layers, as opposed to “subtractive” manufacturing, which removes material to carve out an object. Advanced manufacturing companies also use artificial intelligence, robotics, laser-beam machining and nanotechnology — and they’re all part of the growing manufacturing sector in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

With all these advancements, “there’s a spectrum of opportunities. It’s not your grandfather’s manufacturing,” says John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. Both the Roanoke and New River valleys are finding ways to benefit significantly from the opportunities, he notes.

The Roanoke metropolitan statistical area — which includes the city of Roanoke and the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt, Franklin and Craig — is outpacing other Virginia regions in terms of manufacturing growth, accounting for about 50% of the sector’s expansion in Virginia from 2019 to 2023, and 1% of manufacturing employment growth nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That works out to about 1,500 more manufacturing jobs added over those four years, and 11.7% of all manufacturing jobs statewide are in the Roanoke region, according to BLS data.

A manufacturing consortium covering the New River Valley and Southern Virginia, led by the New River Valley Regional Commission, received a $500,000 Tech Hubs Strategic Development Grant last fall from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Only 29 applicants won grants, out of more than 400 applications.

The New River Valley proposal includes experts from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Advanced Manufacturing Team, and Christiansburg-based Meld Manufacturing, which makes large-scale, metal industrial 3D printers. Radford University, New River Community College, Volvo Trucks and the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center are all part of the consortium as well, and the participants expect to expand their research and work with the federal funding jolt.

Workforce development is a critical component in attracting regional economic development, says Ken Fadyen, Botetourt County’s economic development director. Photo by Don Petersen

‘To the next step’

The Roanoke and New River valleys are well-established centers of vehicle manufacturing, with Volvo Trucks’ largest truck manufacturing facility in the world situated in Dublin. In 2022, Volvo Truck’s 1.6 million-square-foot New River Valley assembly plant rolled out its first electric truck.

Kevin Byrd, executive director of the New River Valley Regional Commission, says that the federal Tech Hubs Strategic Development Grant will provide more professional opportunities in the region beyond vehicle manufacturing, especially in the burgeoning 3D printing industry. “It allows us to really dive deep, to take it to the next step. It’s allowing us to establish ourselves on the global map.

“In our backyard we have a lot of transportation industries that use additive manufacturing. They are taking materials and using 3D printers to make products,” he says. “These are primarily large-format products, such as parts for aircraft, helicopter blades and heavy truck components.”

But the consortium is not just for the most advanced manufacturing companies, according to Byrd. “We want to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers adopt and implement these new technologies, grow their business and create jobs at all skill levels.”

To do that, he says, the consortium will create a hub “to bring traditional and nontraditional partners together to learn from each other. We want to foster cross-sector relationships and make sure there is alignment.”

Katie Boswell, executive director of Onward New River Valley, a public-private economic development organization, sees the region as “highly collaborative.”

That was a big factor in winning the grant, she says: “We were meeting consistently, having leader summits and networking opportunities to talk through what would be a good fit [and] what technologies our region could focus on globally. We have a lot of industry partners that are doing a lot of work in this space.”

Workforce development has been a critical factor in attracting manufacturing to the Roanoke and New River valleys, says Ken McFadyen, Botetourt County’s director of economic development. “You could have the greatest sites, but if you don’t have a skilled workforce, it’s like you’ve got a car but no energy to fuel the car.”

The Roanoke Valley especially benefits from the workforce development efforts of Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, which has “demonstrated an eagerness to partner with industry,” says Hull. “With automation more common, workforce skills are in demand,” and VWCC can help companies “with industry-specific [workforce] training and with general skills training in areas such as math,” he says.

Amy S. White, VWCC’s dean of STEM and workforce solutions, finds that manufacturing companies in the region want soft as well as hard skills.

“They want not only technical skills, but the ability to work collaboratively. They want critical thinking skills, communications skills,” White says. “However you catalog it, they want us to create a flexible student who can adapt” to constantly changing workplaces.

But it is “customized training that we pride ourselves on” and that manufacturers are particularly interested in, White says. “We can go to a corporation and do training on the floor.”

At the college, she adds, “all of our classes are hands-on. We’re fortunate to have a lot of great equipment. We have a lab dedicated to robotics. We have hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical.” She’s especially proud of VWCC’s mechatronics program, which focuses on the integration of mechanical systems with electronics and software.

With advanced manufacturing, “technology changes at a crazy pace,” she says, and “usually academics doesn’t move at [the] speed of industry. That’s where partnerships come in.”

Transportation hub

Transportation-related manufacturing has been a mainstay of the Roanoke Valley for years, Hull notes, with long-standing clusters that serve the freight rail, heavy truck and passenger markets.

The manufacturing industry benefits from a large, diverse workforce in the Roanoke Valley, and its workforce development system is strong, according to Hull.

The Roanoke Valley is well-positioned to be a manufacturing hub, Hull says, with Interstate 81 running through its heart, while New River Valley has easy access to interstates 77 and 64, as well as I-81. Roanoke County’s Wood Haven Technology Park, an industrial park located at the intersection of interstates 81 and 581, is the region’s primary site for high-tech manufacturing. Last year, the county was awarded a $820,000 federal grant to improve Wood Haven.

Additionally, companies in the region are keeping up with technological trends and expanding to meet future needs, Hull adds: “They’ve done things to prepare for the EV [electric vehicle] industry. They’re looking at the technologies of the future.”

For example, Mack Trucks, a division of Sweden-based Volvo Group, is investing $14.5 million and adding more than 50 jobs and 72,000 square feet to expand its manufacturing operation in Roanoke County to include “an emerging medium-duty electric truck line,” the company announced in February.

Roanoke County-based Virginia Transformer Corp. is also getting into the electric vehicles market by launching a division to create components for commercial EV power chargers.

Meanwhile, in Roanoke city, manufacturing has long been a “stalwart” sector of the economy, says Marc Nelson, the city’s economic development director. “It’s one of the sectors we can always rely on. Wages are excellent. It’s been very steady over time.”

Now, he says, “we’re in a space crunch” for land for major economic development projects like the 123,000-square-foot distribution center that Amazon.com announced last year that could employ hundreds of workers at the city’s 440-acre Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology. “A lot of land is occupied. The city is 97% built out.”

To solve the problem, the city is seeking funds from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program, a state-funded initiative administered by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. “We received a small [$85,000] grant from the program last year to conduct engineering and design work” on another tract of land at the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology, Nelson says. “The additional funds would put us closer to developing the site, which would create additional capacity within the park.”

Growth in Salem, Botetourt

Transportation-related manufacturing has been a boon for Salem, says Tommy Miller, the city’s director of economic development. “We’ve benefited greatly with the existing and new Volvo manufacturing. We’ve got good momentum.”

In Salem, STS Group AG, a supplier for Volvo, is a new entrant. Last year, it announced it would invest $32 million to establish its North American headquarters and a manufacturing operation in Salem’s former General Electric factory, with plans to create 119 jobs. Improvements to the site are nearly complete, Miller says.

Salem also is home to Wabtec Graham-White, which produces products for the freight rail industry. Last summer, the company announced plans to invest $2.7 million to expand its existing facility to relocate its manufacturing lines for pneumatically controlled braking systems.

Miller wants to keep existing companies happy and maintain current industries while “diversifying our manufacturing base” to include even more advanced manufacturing. The goal, he says, is to “continue to have a healthy, growing ecosystem.”

In nearby Botetourt County, manufacturing accounts for 1 out of 5 jobs, and the county’s Botetourt Center at Greenfield is home to five manufacturing companies. Like Salem, the county prioritizes strong relationships with its existing manufacturers while also attracting new companies. Botetourt is succeeding at both, says McFadyen, its economic development director.

Since 2016, the county has made 11 economic development announcements; six have been expansions of existing manufacturing operations, while five are new.

Among the county’s growing companies is Universal Logistics Holdings, which announced in January that it would invest approximately $50 million to expand into a new facility for its heavy truck division. Similarly, Altec Industries, in Daleville, announced last year that it would invest $1.4 million to expand its construction equipment product line.

Beyond the Botetourt Center, McFadyen says, “We are always looking to the next large site we can develop. That may involve property acquisition. We’re constantly exploring.

“It’s important to understand the economic impact that manufacturing has in local communities. They attract dollars from outside the community. They create tax revenue. They create jobs that inject payroll into the communities,” he says. “If manufacturing doesn’t come, the economy is circular.” 


Roanoke/New River valleys at a glance

Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke Photo courtesy Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge

The Roanoke Valley region, in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains, includes Alleghany, Botetourt, Franklin and Roanoke counties, the cities of Covington, Roanoke and Salem and the town of Vinton. Located along its namesake river, the New River Valley includes Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties, as well as the city of Radford and the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The combined region is home to Virginia Tech, Hollins University, Roanoke College, Ferrum College and Radford University

Population

Roanoke Valley: 315,251

New River Valley: 182,813 

Roanoke Valley major employers

  • Carilion Clinic
  • Wells Fargo Bank
  • HCA Virginia Health System
  • Kroger

New River Valley major employers

  • Virginia Tech
  • Volvo Trucks North America
  • Montgomery County School Board 
  • Radford University
  • Carilion New River Valley Medical Center
  • HCA Virginia Health System
  • Moog

Major attractions

The largest city along the Appalachian Trail, Roanoke is convenient to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The neon-lit Roanoke Star turns 75 years old this November. You can also visit the Taubman Museum or Center in the Square, which is home to museums, an aquarium and Mill Mountain Theatre. Also, you can catch a Salem Red Sox game or
take a boat around Smith Mountain Lake. After tailgating at Virginia Tech, you can
make time for an event at the Moss Arts Center or a movie at Blacksburg’s 1930s-era Lyric Theatre. FloydFest 2024 takes place July 24-28 at its new location in Check.

Top convention hotels

The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center

63,670 square feet of event space, 300 guest rooms

The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton
Conference Center

23,705 square feet of flexible meeting space, 147 guest rooms 

Boutique/luxury hotels

The Liberty Trust (Roanoke): 54 rooms

Fire Station One Boutique Hotel (Roanoke): seven rooms

Jackson Park Inn, Ascend Hotel Collection (Pulaski): 32 rooms

The Highlander Hotel (Radford): 124 rooms

Notable restaurants

Six & Sky Rooftop Grille (Roanoke)

Seafood, steaks

Bloom Restaurant & Wine Bar (Roanoke)

Tapas, wine bar

Gina’s “Food with Flavor” (Salem)

Comfort food

The Palisades Restaurant (Eggleston)

American cuisine

Chateau Morrisette (Floyd)

Winery, Southern cuisine

Brick House Pizza (Radford)

Pizza and wings

The Farmhouse (Christiansburg)

American cuisine, steaks

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