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Recent Articles from Tim Thornton
Health Wagon CEO’s pay gains attention
Once best known outside the region for its role in an annual Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic at the Wise County Fairgrounds, Southwest Virginia’s Health Wagon has gained new notoriety — and lost state funding — over executive pay. After Cardinal News reported in May that Health Wagon President and CEO Teresa Gardner Tyson makes […]
$550 million development planned for Pittsylvania’s Axton area
Plans for a $550 million mixed-use development in Pittsylvania County’s Axton area include a five-story, 150-room hotel and a 180,000-square-foot shopping center anchored by a grocery store, but it’s the project’s housing component that most interests the county’s economic development director, Matthew Rowe. “First and foremost,” he says, “it is addressing a major need … […]
Renovating Roanoke’s ‘Grand Old Lady’
The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, Curio Collection by Hilton plans a $14 million renovation this year, bringing new technology, new design and new, custom-made Hotel Roanoke-logoed furniture to every one of its 329 guest rooms. The hotel’s most recent renovation, completed in 2020, upgraded its Pine Room restaurant, created the 1882 lobby bar and […]
New IALR lab to feature ‘automagic’ manufacturing tech
Butch Kendrick once worked in a factory making plywood suitcase components. Each time he ran a strip of plywood through a planer, he heard a loud, screeching whine. “I would hear that noise in my head until I went to sleep,” Kendrick says. “And I’ve never forgot that. Anyone who works in manufacturing, if I […]
Accelerating the solar workforce
When local school systems decided to add solar arrays to their buildings, regional environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices and other members of the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia counted it as a victory in their six-year efforts to develop a renewable energy cluster in Virginia’s coalfield counties. In January, Southwest Virginia Community College and Mountain Empire […]
Southwest Va. builds outdoor rec centers
Southwest Virginia has two new centers welcoming outdoor adventurists and another on the way. With a grand opening set for August, the $1.5 million Back of the Dragon Welcome Center opened in Tazewell in May 2020. In Coeburn, Spearhead Trails opened a 22,000-square-foot activity center in its renovated Coeburn headquarters last year. And the $2.67 […]
Biotech industry seeks push forward
With more than $25 million, nearly all taxpayer money, a collaborative partnership of government, business and nonprofit organizations plans to build an accelerator for biotech startups in the Roanoke Valley. Supporters say the initiative will create 250 jobs through 25 new startups over five years, generating $20 million in annual salaries as 30,000 square feet […]
AeroFarms plants roots in Cane Creek Centre
AeroFarms won’t harvest the first crops at its new Cane Creek Centre facility until summer, but the company is already expanding. In December 2019, the Newark, New Jersey-based indoor agriculture company announced it would invest $42 million and create 92 jobs in the 136,000-square-foot facility building in the industrial park owned by Danville and Pittsylvania […]
Region hopes for jolt from batteries, electrification
Adam Wells is charged up about a plan to create a “battery and electrification economy” in Southwest Virginia. “This is the most exciting thing that I’m working on,” says Wells, Appalachian Voices’ Norton-based regional director of community and economic development. The environmental nonprofit led the effort that persuaded GO Virginia, the state-funded economic development initiative,[...]
Va. Tech researchers make Spot go
Spot can’t dance. Well, Spot could, but you’d have to pay extra for that. “Spot out of the box cannot do all those tricks,” says Virginia Tech doctoral student Srijeet Halder. Spot is Boston Robotics’ $74,500 four-legged walking platform, a star of viral dancing videos that also has the ability to navigate stairs, avoid obstacles […]
