Roanoke explores Berglund Center redevelopment

Phazhon Nash’s grandfather lived in a part of Roanoke where homes were demolished during urban renewal projects beginning in the 1950s. Those efforts displaced hundreds of mostly Black residents and businesses to make way for developments including Interstate 581 and the Roanoke Civic Center, now the Berglund Center.

“My family grew up in that area,” Nash said during an interview in early May, “and it was taken away.”

A member of Roanoke City Council since 2025, Nash is working to ensure a brighter future for the Star City’s entertainment venue and convention center. He’s motivated partially because he knows the price the city paid to have the facilities.

“It was supposed to be for people to drive down the interstate or up the interstate and see this big, vibrant building with all these entertainment options to attract business, to attract people to live here,” Nash said. “And what once may have been a grand jewel, in my opinion, has become an Achilles’ heel, and the Berglund Center is a place, to me, that currently represents unrealized potential, unresolved trauma and a growing financial burden, rather than a source of pride.”

On Oct. 14, 2025, Roanoke Mayor Joseph Cobb stood in front of the civic center and announced Roanoke officials were exploring the idea of creating an entertainment district on the property, which could include restaurants, a hotel, parking and — insert drumroll here — a casino.

The idea generated loud and immediate feedback, much of it negative.

Nash said he went to Cobb and said, “OK, we need to really try to consolidate some of this noise.”

Nash launched an entertainment district focus group, an opportunity for community members to objectively review the city’s entertainment district proposal and explore ideas for the site’s potential redevelopment.

The first meeting was held Jan. 27. Three others followed. The fifth and final focus group meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Berglund Special Events Center.

The final meeting will include a presentation about the civic center’s needs and the entertainment market. Participants will have the opportunity to record a two-minute video statement, which will be posted on the focus group’s website.

“I think that we’ve tried to give a very balanced reality check on what the needs are at the Berglund Center, what the challenges are, what upgrades are needed,” Cobb said earlier this month. “And there’s been conversation about, ‘What does an entertainment district look like, whether it’s anchored by a casino or not, and how could that benefit not only the Berglund Center, but also the city of Roanoke and the region?’”

Difficulties

At the first focus group meeting in January, Sherman Stovall, a former Roanoke deputy city manager who now works as a consultant, painted the Berglund Center’s grim financial picture. The city of Roanoke subsidized the Berglund Civic Center by $2.5 million in fiscal 2026. Built in 1971, the civic center also faces more than $30 million in deferred maintenance.

“Given the age of the building, what we are encountering is a significant number of unplanned maintenance expenses that have to be addressed,” Stovall said.

How did Roanoke get here?

In the 1980s and 1990s, city officials’ priorities changed, and less was invested in capital needs, according to Nash.

“Pointing fingers only gets you as far as your finger,” Nash said, quoting his grandfather. “Now it’s our responsibility to fix it.”

Additionally, the civic center faces increasing competition for entertainment dollars. Nearby are the Salem Civic Center and the Jefferson Center, a performing arts venue. The Exchange, a new music hall in downtown Roanoke, has a 1,200-person capacity. Music lovers in the Roanoke Valley also travel to Rocky Mount to see shows at The Harvester Performance Center and to Danville’s Caesars Virginia hotel and casino, where rock band Heart recently played. Some make the trek to the Greensboro Complex in North Carolina.

“Certainly, having a variety of live entertainment venues results in it being a challenge for us to compete in the marketplace,” Stovall said.

The Berglund Center Coliseum can seat about 10,500. The Berglund Performing Arts Theatre next door holds 2,148.

“It’s going to be challenging for us to attract top-tier acts that you see in primary and secondary markets,” Stovall said. “Because of the size of our venue, it will not generate sufficient income to make it attractive for certain level or certain tiers of performers to perform in Roanoke.”

Robyn Schon joined the civic center in the late 1990s and has managed the facility since 2011. At the January focus group meeting, Schon said the civic center offers nearly 400 events each year. “That is a lot for a venue our size,” she said.

Schon gets annoyed by people who complain that the civic center only books country acts.

“No, we don’t get Beyoncé,” Schon said. “She’s a multimillion-dollar act.”

On the other hand, Schon pointed out, civic center has hosted sold-out shows with comedian and actor Kevin Hart and has hosted performers Elton John and Cher multiple times.

“There’s not a type of music that we don’t host,” she said.

Rolling the dice

A casino in Roanoke is far from a sure bet. Under Virginia law, local governments seeking a casino must first receive approval from the General Assembly before holding a local referendum.

No state legislator representing Roanoke has publicly supported the idea, and the General Assembly took no action this year. Even so, city leaders haven’t given up on the idea, according to Cobb.

Roanoke, Cobb noted, recently received a $770,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2025 to study the area within a 0.5-mile radius to Roanoke’s Amtrak platform.

“There are some concurrent things happening that I think could really help us position ourselves for a private-public partnership or an investment to both help us address the upgrades that are needed at the Berglund Center, but also just enhance the overall amenities that are available for people who come to Roanoke,” he said.

As for the focus group meetings, Cobb believes they have been helpful.

“It’s just inviting the public to think outside the box, and I’m hopeful too that it’s inviting potential investors and developers to think about, ‘What potential partnerships could we have with the city that maybe we haven’t thought about before?’” he said.

Nash plans to put together a package containing the information gathered during the focus group meetings for city council members to study as they continue to discuss the civic center’s future.

No matter what happens in Richmond down the line, Nash said, the city must begin planning now for the civic center’s future.

“Regardless if we get a casino or we don’t,” he said, “it doesn’t change the fact that the amount we subsidize is growing, the deferred maintenance is increasing, and it’s a vital asset for our city that’s currently not really an asset but more of a liability.”