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Valley Wealth Group buys former Truist office in Roanoke
A Truist Bank office in Roanoke was sold for $1.9 million in late June, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced. VWG/RNK Properties LLC purchased the 6,715-square-foot office building at 3119 Chaparral Drive from Truist. The property will be the future location of Valley Wealth Group, a Roanoke-based financial management[...]
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, avoi[...]
Three Blacksburg housing complexes sold for $146M
Three off-campus housing complexes in Blacksburg geared toward Virginia Tech students have been sold for $146 million in a deal closed May 5, Berkadia announced Friday. The buyer, California-based Reliant Group, added the portfolio to its earlier purchase of a student housing property near Virginia Tech. According to Montgomery [...]
Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber hires executive director
Andy Bruns, a former regional newspaper publisher for Lee Enterprises, has been tapped as executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, the chamber announced June 4. Bruns replaces Christopher Finley, who resigned in March to become director of marketing and public relations for LewisGale Regional H[...]
Botetourt wind project hits resistance
Apex Clean Energy Inc. continues working toward a day when wind turbines standing atop Botetourt County’s North Mountain might generate enough energy to power up to 21,000 homes each year. Dubbed Rocky Forge Wind, the proposed wind farm north of Eagle Rock would be Virginia’s first onshore wind project in operation. However,[...]
Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council names new executive director
Erin Burcham, the Roanoke Regional Partnership’s director of talent solutions, is leaving the economic development group to become executive director of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council. The tech council noted Burcham’s experience in talent and workforce development. About a year ago, the tech council starte[...]
$257M Western Rail Initiative to bring NRV train service
Passenger train service will return to the New River Valley for the first time since 1979, Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday, announcing an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway. The $257.2 million deal is an addition to the $3.7 billion rail expansion package the governor hailed in March as part of the Transforming Rail in Vi[...]
Roanoke County, Va. Tech team up for strategic plan
In a first for the locality, Roanoke County has partnered with Virginia Tech to develop a five-year county economic development strategic plan. “We want to benchmark where we are today with goals that we hope to achieve in five years and then revisit it to see if we’re keeping up with what we said we […]
Luna Innovations Inc. taps new COO
Roanoke-based Luna Innovations Inc. has named Brian J. Soller its new chief operating officer, effective immediately. He was previously senior vice president and general manager of Lightwave, Luna’s largest division. The fiber optic tech company, which manufactures products for the aerospace, automotive, communications, de[...]
LewisGale to open standalone ER in Roanoke
On Monday, LewisGale Regional Health System held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new freestanding emergency room in Roanoke. Located at 1423 West Ruritan Road, the nearly 10,000-square-foot facility will be named LewisGale Medical Center Blue Hills ER and be staffed with board-certified emergency room physicians and nurses 24 ho[...]
Hollins University appoints new provost
Hollins University has named Laura A. McLary as its new provost effective July 1, the Roanoke-based university announced this week. McLary arrives from the University of Portland in Oregon, where she served on the faculty teaching German starting in 1999 and became academic associate dean for the university’s College of Arts a[...]
Arlington’s Blackfin acquires Roanoke County apartments for $23.2M
Arlington-based Blackfin Real Estate Investors LLC purchased Villages at Garst Creek, a 504-unit apartment complex in Roanoke County, for $23.25 million. The deal closed on April 21. Built in 1974, the 33-building property is located at 4375 Garst Mill Road. The property was rehabbed in 2007 under the Section 42 Low-Income Housi[...]
