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Tag: Roanoke County

Assembled with care

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

Franklin County names economic development director

Roanoke County’s assistant director for economic development, Danielle Poe, will start her new job as director of economic development for Franklin County on April 15. 

Since joining Roanoke County in 2022, Poe has been responsible for real estate development, business retention and expansion and key community partnerships, Franklin County said in a statement. She succeeds Beth Simms, who left the Franklin County post in October 2023 after more than two years to become Patrick County’s administrator. 

“Franklin County has made key public investments that position the county for growth,” Poe said. “I’m excited to put my passion for economic development to work helping the county take advantage of the opportunities ahead.”

Poe previously worked as a business manager for Roanoke Regional Airport and as an economic development specialist for Downtown Roanoke Inc. She also worked in real estate and property management. 

“Dani is the experienced leader needed at a critical juncture in Franklin County’s progress,” Franklin County Administrator Christopher Whitlow said. “It was clear during the interview process that she understands the county’s value proposition and knows how to leverage the county’s advantages to create jobs and investment, develop its workforce and continue to enhance livability.”

Poe is the 2024 chair of Leadership Roanoke Valley and graduated from Radford University, where she studied sports and fitness administration and management, according to her LinkedIn page. Next month, Poe will graduate from the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute program. 

Located about 10 miles south of Roanoke, Franklin County was estimated to have 55,549 residents as of 2023, according to the U.S. Census.

Roanoke/New River Valley Big Deal: Banking on Roanoke

When Roanoke County economic development officials pitched Wells Fargo on expanding its customer support center operation in the county, they emphasized how well they’d taken care of the nation’s fourth-largest bank previously and how they would continue to do so.

The pitch worked. Now the bank’s $87 million expansion will be the largest commercial office investment in the county’s history, making the San Francisco-based banking company the county’s largest employer, surpassing the local public school system, which has around 2,500 employees.

“One of the things that I emphasized was, ‘We really took good care of you before you said you wanted to grow, and we will continue to take great care of you as you expand, and here’s how we can demonstrate that,’” says Roanoke County Administrator Richard Caywood, citing past efforts such as transportation improvements to serve the company and neighboring businesses.

The expansion will modernize the bank’s 436,685-square-foot customer support center on Plantation Road, allowing room for about 1,100 jobs to be added to the bank’s local workforce of more than 1,650 current employees over the next four years. (As of early February, Wells Fargo had not released information about when hiring would begin.) Construction will commence in March and will be conducted in three phases, to be completed by the end of 2025.

John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, says the regional economic development organi-
zation worked collaboratively with Roanoke County and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to land the project.

Roanoke was identified through a site consultant and stands as the largest office capital investment project and the most substantial single project in Virginia for 2023, Hull says, tied only with Amazon.com’s project in Virginia Beach. (See related story, Page 23).

“It’s encouraging to see an office project of this size, this number of jobs [and] its level of investment,” he adds, “particularly in the post-pandemic environment, where there’s a lot of question about the future course of office tenancy.”

Caywood says the Wells Fargo announcement was crucial for Roanoke County because the banking customer support center on Plantation Road was already the largest site where county residents went to work every day. The site was originally operated by Dominion Bankshares, which was acquired in 1993 by First Union, which in turn was later bought by Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

“There’s a lot of changes in the national banking industry with a lot of consolidation, so it was critical for us to keep that [center], and the only way to do that was through that expansion and reinvestment occurring,” he says.

Brian Corde of Atlas Insight, the site selection consultant for the project, predicts in a blog post on the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s website that the Roanoke market will continue to be appealing for talent attraction. He says the region will continue to see growth, adding that it has “great outdoor activity, great weather and a stable political environment, a reasonable one … [and] a good tax structure. Most importantly, you have places where people can actually live for reasonable amounts of money.”

Based on an economic impact analysis, Hull projects the Wells Fargo expansion will have a $322 million annual economic impact once the project is fully operational in 2025, with positive effects on housing demand and the health care and restaurant industries. The infusion of jobs will have a ripple effect throughout the local economy, he adds.

“When you think of what a household spends and how they spend their money, every one of those consumer sectors will be impacted in a positive way,” Hull says.

The expansion also helps the region not just by adding 1,100 jobs but by retaining Wells Fargo’s 1,650 existing staff members, Caywood says. “It’s a big deal for us,” he says. “There’s nothing but universal excitement about this project in the community.” 

Mack Trucks will expand Roanoke County facility

North Carolina-based Mack Trucks, a division of Sweden-based Volvo Group, will invest $14.5 million to expand its Roanoke County manufacturing operation, a project expected to create 51 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.

Mack Trucks, a medium- and heavy-duty trucks producer, will add 72,000 square feet to its current facility to increase capacity for its medium-duty truck line and “an emerging medium-duty electric truck line,” according to a news release.

In January 2020, then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced the company would invest $13 million to establish a Roanoke County facility to build medium-duty trucks, creating 250 jobs. Mack Trucks started building medium-duty trucks in the 280,900-square-foot facility on Sept. 1, 2020.

In 2021, an Argentinian private equity partnership purchased a 280,900-square-foot manufacturing facility in Salem for $12.7 million, the same address listed in Friday’s announcement

“Mack Trucks’ expansion further strengthens Virginia’s manufacturing industry ecosystem, which is a core focus of the commonwealth’s economic development strategy,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We are proud that Mack Trucks’ initial investment in a new Roanoke County operation four years ago has yielded a second major investment. This is truly another vote of confidence in Virginia by a global industry leader.”

Mack trucks are sold and serviced in more than 45 countries. Mack trucks, diesel engines and transmissions sold in North America are assembled in the United States, according to a news release. The Volvo Group was founded in 1927 and has about 104,000 employees.

“Mack is committed to making the industrial and product investments we need to be a North American market leader,” Stephen Roy, global president of Mack Trucks, said in a statement. “The expansion of the Roanoke Valley operations plant will help us grow in a strategic market segment and support our sustainability goals.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Roanoke County and the Roanoke Regional Partnership to secure the project for Virginia. Youngkin approved a $255,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the county. VEDP will support Mack Trucks through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides consulting and funding to companies adding jobs to support employee recruitment and training activities. The company is eligible to receive state benefits from the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for full-time jobs created.

Wells Fargo to launch $87M expansion in Roanoke County

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo will spend $87 million to modernize and expand its Roanoke County customer support center, adding 1,100 jobs in a deal that will make the bank the county’s largest employer.

The deal is also the largest project employment announcement in the county’s history, as well as its largest commercial office investment, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a news release announcing the deal Tuesday.  Wells Fargo already employs 1,650 people at the county’s customer service center. With the addition of 1,100 workers, the bank will surpass the county’s public school system, which employs between 2,000 and 2,500 people, Megan Baker, the county’s economic development director, told Virginia Business in an email.

“Wells Fargo’s historic investment and new job creation has far-reaching benefits for Roanoke County, the region and the commonwealth,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Virginia has established a strong foothold in the fast-growing financial services industry, and we have developed an innovative framework to focus on nurturing and expanding opportunities in this high-growth sector.”

Wells Fargo is the nation’s fourth largest U.S. bank, with about $1.9 trillion in total assets. The bank generated $82.86 billion in revenue for 2022, reporting $13.2 billion in net income and $7 billion in operating losses.

John W. Delaney, Wells Fargo’s head of consumer operations, said in a statement that investments in the Roanoke space will include expanded amenities in food and health as well as expanded collaboration spaces and technology upgrades. The company will be eligible for a custom major employment and investment performance grant of $15 million, subject to approval by the General Assembly. Additional details about the terns of that grant were not immediately available Tuesday.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Roanoke County, the Roanoke Regional Partnership, and the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission to secure the project for Virginia. VEDP will support Wells Fargo’s job creation through either the Virginia Jobs Investment Program or the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program.

Rail equipment manufacturer to expand in Salem

Wabtec Corp. is investing $2.7 million to expand its existing facility in Salem, adding 38 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Wabtec provides equipment, systems, digital solutions and other services for freight and transit rail globally. The expansion will accommodate the relocation of its pneumatically controlled braking systems manufacturing lines within its Graham-White manufacturing facility in Salem.

Virginia competed with Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Mexico for the project.

“Wabtec Corp.’s expansion of its Salem facility fuels the resurgence of high-quality manufacturing jobs in Virginia, and we thank the company for its long-term commitment to the commonwealth as a valued employer,” Youngkin said in a statement. “The Roanoke region offers the skilled workforce and custom solutions to support Wabtec’s continued growth, and we are confident they will thrive for the next 100 years in Virginia.”

Wabtec’s Salem facility employs more than 200 people in Salem and manufactures air dryers, valves, gages/flowmeters and braking equipment for the rail freight, rail transit, truck and bus industries.

“As a leading global provider of transportation solutions, we are proud of our long history of manufacturing excellence in Salem and delighted to be expanding our operations there,” said Mike Fetsko, president of Wabtec’s freight and industrial components business, in a statement. “Wabtec’s collaborative relationship with the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the business-friendly approach from state and local agencies, provided us with the confidence to make this significant investment. With new products and additional high-quality manufacturing jobs, our expansion in Salem represents our continued commitment to the community and its key role in supporting Wabtec’s future growth.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Salem and the Roanoke Regional Partnership to secure the project for Virginia and will support job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), which provides consulting services and funding to companies creating jobs to support employee recruitment and training activities. Salem, the Roanoke Regional Partnership, the Greater Roanoke Workforce Development Board and Center for Manufacturing Excellence in Southwest Virginia will provide custom programs to support the company’s expansion, including talent recruitment, marketing assistance and workforce training.

LewisGale receives Level 2 trauma center status

Salem-based LewisGale Medical Center has been designated as a Level 2 trauma center by the Virginia Department of Health, the hospital system announced Wednesday.

The designation makes LewisGale the eighth Level 2 center in the state and the first in the region, according to the state health department.

One level below the top Level 1 designation, Level 2 trauma centers include “24-hour immediate coverage by general surgeons, as well as coverage by the specialties of orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology and critical care,” according to the Falls Church-based American Trauma Society. However, it may need to transfer a patient to a Level 1 center to address more complex cases. Specialty requirements may be fulfilled by on call staff.

In a news release, LewisGale Medical Center said it pursued the status in response to the area’s need for enhanced comprehensive emergency health care service, adding that it benefits local and outlying areas and serves as a backup center for rural and community hospitals. Its sister facility, Blacksburg-based LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, is a Level 3 trauma center (lower on the scale than Level II) and has maintained the accreditation for 31 years.

“Recovery is greatly increased when a severely injured patient receives care at a designated trauma center within the first hour of injury,” Dr. Jaromir Kohout, trauma medical director at LewisGale Medical Center, said in a statement. “Achieving this Level 2 trauma center status is another example of how we are always striving to serve the residents of Southwest Virginia.”

The hospital’s trauma program is staffed 24 hours a day by board-certified trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, critical care physicians and trauma-trained nurses.

LewisGale Medical Center and HCA Virginia invested more than $7 million over the past decade to become eligible to apply for the Level 2 Trauma designation, according to spokesperson Chris Finley. That includes building two new trauma bays in the emergency department, a rooftop helipad with direct access to the emergency department and operating rooms which speed the delivery of lifesaving care to the most critically ill patients when minutes matter most.”

“Earning these designations is a reflection of the tremendous dedication that our physicians, nurses, and healthcare staff have shown as we developed the trauma program,” Alan Fabian, LewisGale Medical Center CEO, said in a statement. “Their efforts are already resulting in more lives being saved, and we are proud to provide our community with quality trauma care in both the Roanoke and New River valleys.”

Owned by Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare and part of the larger HCA Virginia Health System, LewisGale Medical Center is one of four hospitals in the LewisGale Regional Health System, which also includes LewisGale hospitals in Allegheny and Montgomery counties and the town of Pulaski.

Familiar territory

When it came time to select a new home for its corporate headquarters and distribution center, Würth Revcar Fasteners Inc., a company with Star City roots dating back to 1969, stuck with the Roanoke Valley.

Owned by the Würth Group, an industrial distributor headquartered in Germany, and consisting of more than 400 companies across more than 80 countries, Würth Revcar Fasteners is investing $11 million to renovate the 387,558-square-foot former Home Shopping Network distribution center it’s leasing in Roanoke County into its new headquarters and primary East Coast distribution center.

The company supplies fasteners, like screws and rivets, to corporate customers and the U.S. Navy. “We work with our suppliers, domestic and abroad, to secure quality parts that meet the quality specifications,” explains Betsy Troyer, marketing manager of Würth Revcar Fasteners.

Additionally, the company develops custom inventory management solutions for its customers “so they don’t run out,” Troyer says. “They have the parts they need when they need them.”

Würth Revcar Fasteners needs to move to a bigger space, says CEO Chapman Revercomb, because the company has sustained “pretty extreme growth” over the past several years.

Part of that growth stems from the Würth Group consolidating complementary business units from different Würth Group companies over several years, Troyer says. Industrial customers that had previously obtained their fasteners from other Würth Group companies were absorbed by Würth Revcar Fasteners. “It was a moving of the chips,” she says.

Since the pandemic, Würth Revcar Fasteners has also won new clients and seen increased orders from established customers. That’s in part because Würth Revcar Fasteners hasn’t struggled as much with post-pandemic supply chain and labor issues, Revercomb says. Being owned by a large international company with deep pockets helped protect Würth Revcar Fasteners from those difficulties, he believes.

“We certainly didn’t have a crystal ball,” Revercomb says. “But as the lead times kind of developed and disruptions continued to mount, we were able to quickly invest in enough inventory to cover those disruptions.”

Since 1999, Würth Revcar Fasteners has worked out of a 42,000-square-foot building on Thirlane Road in Roanoke. For the past several years, the company also has occupied a 50,000-square-foot warehouse located off U.S. 460 in Roanoke County. Both sites are at 100% capacity and have been for a while, according to Revercomb. Those buildings will be leased to other companies when Würth Revcar Fasteners moves into its new digs.

When he learned in early 2022 that the expansive former Home Shopping Network building on Avery Row was available, Revercomb quickly got on the phone with Würth Group executives about what had the potential to be Würth’s largest facility in North America. “We ended up going for it,” he says.

The goal, Revercomb says, is to have the space to support two decades of “accelerated growth” for the company.

Initially, executives at Würth made a rough estimate that office renovations
and warehouse infrastructure would cost $5 million. But after working with a general contractor and architects, the cost grew to $11 million, according to Troyer.

The new Würth Revcar Fasteners operation on Avery Row will look quite different from the 7,000-square-foot Southeast Roanoke building where Jim Revercomb Sr.,
Chapman Revercomb’s grandfather, first launched the business that would become Würth Revcar Fasteners.

As of December 2022, Würth Revcar Fasteners had about 100 employees in Roanoke. Employees will move into the new facility in phases, with a goal of everyone being moved into the new facility by July, she says.

As part of the expansion, Würth Revcar plans to hire 50 new employees by this summer, Troyer says.  The openings will include office and warehouse jobs.

Between late 2023 and 2025, Würth Revcar Fasteners plans to invest an additional $6 million in warehouse automation, according to Troyer. “We’re doing it for the long haul,” Revercomb says. “We’re going to be there for at least 20 years and hopefully more.”

Sweet valley high

For Paul Mahoney, chair of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, the past year has stood out for bringing an “explosion of development” to the county.

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. Inc. opened a new distribution center. North American Specialty Laminations LLC established a mid-Atlantic production facility. And Würth Revcar Fasteners Inc. began work on its new North American headquarters and East Coast distribution center.

“The business community is willing to take some chances on the optimistic hope that things are getting back to ‘normal,’” Mahoney says.

Last year, the broader Roanoke region received more than 400 inquiries from prospective companies — more than twice the inquiries received in 2019 — according to John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, the nonprofit regional economic development organization representing the counties of Alleghany, Botetourt, Franklin and Roanoke and the cities of Covington, Roanoke and Salem, plus the town of Vinton.

Altogether, the Roanoke region added 434 jobs in 2022 and saw $132 million in new capital investment, says Hull.

About 45 minutes southwest of Roanoke, the economic development picture in the New River Valley is also looking promising, says Sherri Blevins, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors.

In October 2022, county supervisors eliminated Montgomery County’s merchants’ capital tax — a tax on businesses’ inventory — even though it generated about $1.5 million annually for the county, according to Blevins. The move makes Montgomery more competitive for attracting businesses, she says.

Meanwhile, the New River Valley Regional Commission, working with leaders in Montgomery, Bland and Pulaski counties, is leveraging $69 million in grant funding from the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, along with private and local investments, to extend high-speed internet to more than 21,000 homes and businesses in the three counties.

In November 2022, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a proposal by Appalachian Power to attach fiber-optic cable on its electric poles. Fiber-optic internet will become available to residents throughout this year and into 2024, according to Kevin Byrd, the commission’s executive director.

“Broadband is going to certainly help us to continue to be more competitive in economic development,” he says.

Montgomery County

Falling Branch Corporate Park in Montgomery will soon have two new tenants.

Silver Spring, Maryland-based biotech company United Therapeutics Corp. purchased more than 16 acres at the park from the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. for $1.06 million in June 2022. While a spokesperson for United Therapeutics declined to comment on its plans for the site, Blevins says the company will occupy a 50,000-square-foot facility. A May 2022 resolution passed by the Montgomery County Economic Development Authority noted United Therapeutics will invest a minimum of $20 million at Falling Branch and will have at least 20 employees there.

United Therapeutics owns local biotech firm Revivicor. Based at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Revivicor provides pig organs that have been genetically modified to prevent rejection in human transplant patients.

Also moving to Falling Branch is FedEx Ground. FedEx Corp. ground package delivery subsidiary plans to lease a 251,000-square-foot distribution center currently under construction on 41 acres in the park. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership reported that the facility will create 200 positions.

Roanoke County

Würth Revcar Fasteners announced plans last year for an $11 million new headquarters and distribution center to be located in the former Home Shopping Network building in Roanoke County. (See related story.)

Also in the county, Lowe’s began shipping appliances out of its new 60,000-square- foot warehouse and distribution center in October 2022, creating about 70 jobs, according to company spokesperson Kara Hauck. Roanoke-based Cherney Development, in partnership with North Carolina-based Samet Corp., built the $11 million facility located in the county’s Valley TechPark.

The county also received news in September 2022 that Wisconsin-based North American Specialty Laminations LLC, a lamination solutions provider serving the building products industry, would invest $2 million to open a mid-Atlantic production facility, creating 44 jobs.

Roanoke City

Pennsylvania-based transportation and logistics company A. Duie Pyle Inc. opened a cross-dock service center in Roanoke in April 2022, according to John Luciani, chief operating officer of LTL solutions for A. Duie Pyle. The facility employs 22 full- and part-time workers.

Floyd County

In October 2022, Phoenix Hardwoods, which produces artisan-crafted hardwood furniture and home goods, opened a retail storefront in downtown Floyd, creating eight jobs. Previously, Phoenix had a showroom at its production facility off U.S. 221, but the location meant few shoppers, says owner Jeff Armistead, who, with his wife, Annie, purchased the business in 2020 from company founders Bill and Corinne Graefe. The new showroom has made all the difference, according to Armistead. “We had more people show up at that place in one day than I had in six months at the other place” he says.

Two months later, SWVA Biochar announced it would invest $2.6 million and create 15 jobs to increase capacity at its Floyd County facility, where it produces biochar, a highly absorbent, specially produced charcoal that can be used as a filtration system and a soil conditioner.

Bedford County

In March 2022, Bedford County’s economic development office announced North Carolina-based business and marketing solutions company Source4 would invest more than $4.5 million and add 30 jobs to expand its facility at Vista Centre Drive in Forest. Source4 opened operations in Forest after purchasing Marketing Support Solutions Inc. in 2018. Pam Bailey, the county’s economic development director, says work has been completed on a new 43,000- square-foot-warehouse on the property.

Botetourt County

U.S. Sen Tim Kaine and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm visited the Troutville facility of Virginia Transformer Corp. on Aug. 25, 2022, to promote the company’s plans to build self-contained power modules for electric vehicle charging stations.

“It’s nice when you have a secretary and a senator coming and saying, ‘Hey, this is a big deal,’” says company spokesperson Kevin Lowery.

A business that wants to open a public charging station can order one of Virginia Transformer’s E2V units and be ready to charge vehicles within a day after delivery, according to Lowery. The unit includes multiple elements needed for charging stations, including transformers, switchgears, distribution circuits and breakers.

“Instead of having to deal with the construction of all of that,” Lowery explains, “it’s all packaged in one. We’ve already done it for them.”

Lowery expects the two manufacturing lines being built to produce the E2V to be in operation by July. He declined to say how much the expansion will cost. The company plans to finish hiring 30 workers for the effort by midyear.

Va. nursing homes, assisted living facilities struggle with staffing

Virginia’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities continue to struggle with staffing shortages, according to a Virginia Health Care Association-Virginia Center for Assisted Living survey released in December.

Of 154 long-term care providers who responded to the survey, 86% said their workforce situation worsened in 2022 compared with 2020, an increase of five percentage points from the 2021 survey.

Joe Hoff, president and CEO of Friendship, which has nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day care and independent living across two facilities in Roanoke and one in Salem, needs about 50 to 75 more employees to be fully staffed. Friendship currently has about 650 employees, with about 1,000 residents on average.

“There’s just a critical nursing shortage across the country, but I’d say within the past two years, it’s been a bit harder to find staff,” Hoff said. Although some people who retired or left the workforce during the pandemic are coming back, they aren’t returning to the workforce as fast as they left, he added.

A persistent problem

Of the facilities surveyed, 93% reported vacancies for certified nursing assistants/direct caregivers, 87% have vacancies for licensed practical nurses and 70% have vacancies for registered nurses.

Tom Orsini, president and CEO of Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk, has roughly 400 employees, about 190 of whom are nurses or nursing assistants. The facility has 104 long-term acute care beds and 192 nursing home beds. Orsini needs about 20 more nurses or CNAs and has been using contract nurses in the meantime.

“It’s just the field of people competing for this resource has grown,” said Orsini. “If you’re a nurse, you don’t have to come out and do hands-on nursing. There’s a lot of other opportunities for nurses,” like working in home health, doctors’ offices or labs.

Eighty-two percent of respondents had a shortage of staff to fill all shifts in the 60 days before the survey, which VHCA-VCAL conducted from Sept. 7 to Sept. 30. In those 60 days, 96% of providers said they had asked staff to work overtime or take extra shifts, up from 92% in 2021.

Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital has asked staff to work on their scheduled days off, Orsini said, even if they can’t work a full shift that day.

Facilities also had vacancies for dietary staff and housekeeping staff, with 67% reporting the former and 55% reporting the latter. Friendship raised its minimum wage to $14 an hour to recruit and retain dietary and housekeeping staff, Hoff said.

Part of the difficulty filling nursing positions has been a lack of qualified applicants, survey results show. More than half (55%) of the respondents indicated they had few to no qualified applicants.

Filling open positions takes longer now, Orsini said.

“Before COVID, it could just be just a couple of weeks,” he said. “We’d simply put advertisements in the normal professional advertising websites, and we would get applicants. It would just seem that there were more applicants out there.”

But now, the process takes about three to four months. Part of the problem, he said, is that health care facilities are competing with service industries that they didn’t previously have to compete with, like fast food restaurants, which can raise their wages quickly and pass prices on to consumers.

“We can’t do that. We deal with third parties — Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance — where rates are already set. So we have to wait till we renegotiate contracts or the new rate year starts,” to raise pay, he said.

Counteracting workforce challenges

To address these labor shortages, facilities reported taking a number of steps. Almost all (97%) reported they are working to hire new staff. Ninety percent reported increasing pay, and 83% responded that they are offering bonuses for overtime or double shifts. About 55% reporting using contract staff from staffing agencies.

Friendship raised certified nursing assistants’ minimum starting wages from $15 an hour to $17 an hour this year, Hoff said.

Friendship employees confer at a nurse station. Photo courtesy Friendship
Friendship employees confer at a nurse station. Photo courtesy Friendship

Friendship has also taken several steps to retain employees, Hoff said, including allowing flexible scheduling. The company also provided a “retention appreciation bonus,” giving each employee an extra $150 each paycheck for five pay periods, which cost the company around $350,000 total.

Both Hoff and Orsini reported using contract nurses from staffing agencies while searching for direct hires to fill their vacancies.

“Our goal is to have our own staff, but we’re having to backfill with contract nurses. The care is not as stable as we’d like,” Orsini said.

Both care companies are also working to develop workforce pipelines.

Lake Taylor serves as a clinical site for nursing programs from nearby schools like ECPI University, so students come to the center in rotations.

“Now that they’ve worked here, and if they like it and they feel comfortable, they’ll come back and apply to work here. They kind of test-drive us a little bit. We test-drive them,” Orsini said.

Usually, about eight to 10 students are in a class, and Lake Taylor will generally hire about four or five from a class, he said.

Friendship also serves as a clinical site for nearby schools like Virginia Western Community College and Radford University. The facilities can host cohorts of about 10 to 15 students at once, and Friendship generally hires one or two students from those cohorts, Hoff said.

Friendship and Lake Taylor are also training employees on-site.

Friendship now trains certified nursing assistants in on-site classes of 10 and pays them while they’re in training. Previously, CNAs had to complete training before receiving pay, Hoff said. If Friendship has more than 10 trainees at a time, the company will place the remaining students in an outside training program.

Lake Taylor runs classes for noncertified nursing assistants, teaching them how to feed patients in an eight-hour course, Orsini said.

Lowered admissions

Because of staffing challenges over the six months prior to the survey’s administration, 42% of respondents limited their number of residents to an amount below full capacity, up from 37% in 2021. Thirty-eight percent reported placing a hold on new admissions (up from 29% in 2021), and 34% reported turning away hospital admissions (up from 26% in 2021).

Lake Taylor sometimes had to slow admissions to or close one of its wings during COVID-19.

Now, “we’re not fully admitting [patients] to all the beds yet,” Orsini said. “We’re taking our time. We’re making sure we’re able to take care of the patients we have and make sure the staff is there as well.”

Friendship has not had to limit admissions, Hoff said, because the company has supplemented nursing staff with agencies, though he hopes to attract and retain enough employees to stop using agencies.

VHCA-VCAL represents more than 350 nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the commonwealth. Its members operate more than 97% of Virginia’s Medicaid nursing facility beds, and six in 10 nursing facility residents rely on Medicaid for their care, according to a news release.

The association is seeking aid from the state: “Virginia’s nursing homes are doing everything they can to keep their employees, who are the backbone of long-term care,” VHCA-VCAL President and CEO Keith Hare said in a statement. “Now, we’re calling upon Virginia policymakers and members of the General Assembly to make meaningful investments, which will help address key staffing challenges and get seniors access to the 24/7 care they need.”