THE ROANOKE REGION OF VIRGINIA

Population: 92,600
% over 50: 35%
Typical 3-bedroom home: $190,000
State income tax: 5.75%*

The Appalachian Trail comes through the city, and the region is home to a collection of lakes and rivers. Roanoke's Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, the second-largest municipal park in the U.S., offers more than 12,000 acres of hiking, biking and horseback riding. Its 800-acre lake caters to boaters and anglers.

Roanoke has six greenways that link the city's rivers, mountains and scenic areas to a vibrant, walkable downtown. The downtown area boasts a daily farmer's market and after the sun sets, the nightlife scene beckons empty nesters with first-rate restaurants and nightclubs.

Roanoke residents boast about the city's four seasons, although the winter is milder than in other parts of the country. Leaf peepers flock to the Blue Ridge Parkway once autumn hits. Roanoke just announced it will host the first-ever Blue Ridge Marathon on the parkway in April 2010.

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--Multilevel rooftop gardens with plant-covered walls, a skylight installation, a butterfly habitat, a 5,500-gallon coral reef aquarium, high-tech interactive games in a new, larger atrium -- these are just some of the details included in the plans revealed Thursday for Center in the Square's planned $27 million renovation.

The nonprofit entity in downtown Roanoke, which provides rent-free space for several museums and arts organizations, also announced the public launch of a $9 million fundraising campaign.

Center in the Square has already raised about $14 million in tax credits and donations -- from such business heavyweights as Delta Dental of Virginia and Advance Auto Parts -- toward the project.

Jim Sears, Center's president, said that within the next three weeks, the organization will start issuing requests for bids on portions of the renovation. The plan is for Center's Church Avenue building to be renovated in 2010 and its Campbell Avenue building to be renovated in 2011, with the grand opening to occur at the start of 2012, Sears said.

The proposed changes to the downtown institution also include the creation of three new galleries in the Science Museum of Western Virginia and completion of renovations to the History Museum of Western Virginia. The Campbell Avenue building facade will be restored to how in appeared in about 1917, Sears said. And it will have all new wiring and plumbing.

A presentation Thursday night at Hotel Roanoke by architecture firm Spectrum Design showed an antique exterior and a cutting-edge interior more reminiscent of the Taubman Museum of Art.

"We want to make sure that this was as astounding a cultural center as we could make it," Sears said.

The Harrison Museum of African American Culture is expected to move into the building from its location on Harrison Avenue when the renovation is done.

The renovation also includes a larger space for the Roanoke Weiner Stand, and places the Little Dipper ice cream stand in the atrium.

Some features, such as the Dorothy Gillespie sculptures and the wooden donor benches, remain in place.

Spectrum Design Vice President David Bandy said he and Sears met with state and federal officials to make sure the building's exterior design fit requirements for historic tax credits.

So far, Delta Dental has agreed to purchase $6.6 million in state tax credits to help fund the renovation, while Advance Auto Parts is expected to purchase federal tax credits and make a cash donation totaling $3.16 million. In all, the renovation's budget calls for $18.3 million in tax credits to cover two-thirds of the cost.

The center continues to seek prospects to purchase the remaining $8.54 million in federal tax credits, Sears said.

Officials with both Delta Dental and Advance Auto said the tax credits were mutually beneficial and stressed the Center's importance to the Roanoke community.

Center in the Square is eligible to have historic tax credits used on its behalf because the market area has been declared a national historic district, said Brian Wishneff, a consultant for the project.

A business can purchase a historic tax credit and potentially deduct an amount from its tax debt that's larger than the credit purchase price. The money goes directly to the project rather than to the government, in effect functioning like a grant, Wishneff said.

The center previously used the tax credits to fund renovations of the Shenandoah Hotel and the train station that became the O. Winston Link Museum.

As for Center in the Square's $9 million campaign, it has already raised $4.1 million in donations. John Harlow, the consultant directing the fundraising campaign, said Center's goal is to conclude the fundraising phase in early summer 2010.

The most obvious beneficiary of the renovations is the Science Museum of Western Virginia, which will have the use of the roof features and the atrium to enhance its programming.

"Much of what we're doing is exactly what Science wants," Sears said. "We're going to have the largest live coral aquarium of anywhere on the East Coast."

Science museum Director Nancy McCrickard could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The science museum is conducting its own $5 million capital campaign to raise money for new exhibits, Sears said. The science museum plans to create three new permanent galleries, called "How It Works," "Healthy Earth" and "Healthy Bodies."

The center is also home to Mill Mountain Theatre, which canceled its season and ceased most of its operations in January.

Sears said the renovations retain the space for the theater, giving Mill Mountain the opportunity to reopen in 2012.

Mill Mountain board member Jason Bingham said no concrete plans exist yet as to what the theater will do, but efforts to eliminate debt and create a financially feasible plan for reopening continue.

Roanoke Region of Virginia

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-- Dipping their paddles into the quiet and cool James River on Wednesday, the three canoeists worked to strike a balance between their need to cover the miles, and their desire to enjoy the day.

"It's like paddling through a post card," said Ed Rhett, shaking his head in amazement.

One of his two paddling partners, Dick McMillan, nodded.

"It's not often you can paddle for 15 miles and see only one other person," said McMillan.

"And only one house," Rhett added.

It's tough to top Western Virginia for that opportunity, especially in the fall, when the region's semi-wild rivers feature great scenery, active wildlife and generally light crowds.

A native of Pulaski, Rhett had made the trip from Charleston, W.Va., joining his brother, Charles, and their brother-in-law, McMillan, both of whom still live in Pulaski.

Why weren't they on the New River, another excellent paddling destination?

"We've done the whole New," McMillan said.

"We just finished last week," Charles Rhett pointed out.

Now it's on to the James.

The trio of retirees had already knocked out the long section from Iron Gate to Eagle Rock. On Wednesday they tackled the stretch from Eagle Rock to Springwood. Next up is the long day from Springwood to Arcadia.

While the men enjoy paddling through the summer, they love fall.

"With this kind of weather, there's not a lot of bugs," Ed Rhett said. "And the air is much clearer for photographs."

Sheepishly he admitted he was on the river that day without a camera, something he regretted early on when the trio spotted a bald eagle.

"In the sunlight, that white head looked just like a beacon," Rhett said.

During the week, daytime paddling crowds are light to nonexistent during the fall, even on rivers that can be filled with paddlers during the summer.

"School is back in session and people are thinking about other things," said John Mays, whose Twin River Outfitters business on the James sees its customer base shrink as fall arrives.

While Mays would prefer customers, he makes the most of the shift.

"It's when we do most of our paddling," he said.

Mays echoes the Rhetts when he talks about what to love about early fall paddling, including the comfortable weather, stunning water clarity, lack of bugs and beautiful scenery.

"Leaf season is actually an incredible time to be on the water paddling" Mays said.

Not all is perfect for paddlers in September and early October.

Water levels are often at their lowest of the year.

"It's not so much a safety issue," Mays said of low water. "It's more of a paddling comfort issue."

Pulling a canoe or kayak through one or two shallow riffles may be tolerable, but any more can be a real drag, so to speak.

Regularly mixing with river rocks can also mar the bottom of a craft, and even result in damage.

Fortunately for river runners, good rainfall this summer has area rivers in better shape than in recent seasons.

Those who make the effort to venture out will get to spend most of their time in their boats enjoying the scenery and the season.


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One day in July, Ed Murphy got some good news. Locomotives that had been rusting in a Roanoke scrap yard for decades were going to be hauled away to railroad museums. Another piece of the city’s railroad history was making way for a new economic engine, a medical school and research institute involving Blacksburg-based Virginia Tech and Roanoke-based Carilion Clinic, the health system that Murphy heads.


Some locals believe the ventures may become bigger than the railroad — a bold statement considering that Roanoke might still be a small town called Big Lick if the Norfolk & Western Railway hadn’t set up shop there in the 1880s. Murphy, though, is having none of this “bigger than the railroad” talk. “I’m not sure what that means,” he says. “It sounds weighty.”

Still, he adds, “There’s no doubt that an important component of the economic development of this community and the economic future of this region revolves around health care, education, research and the interconnection of all those parts.”

That interconnection is tying the economic fortunes of Roanoke and Blacksburg closer together, business leaders say. The lines between the two are “more governmental than they are practical,” says Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.

People coming into the area are increasingly thinking of the Roanoke and New River valleys as one place, not two, says Murphy. “I personally think there is a lot of value to defining this region as including both valleys because I think that they have important complimentary assets. So the more we can contribute to that being a reality, the better, I think, that we’re doing for the region.”

While collaborating with Tech on the medical school, Carilion also is transforming itself into a clinic employing a variety of specialists. It has hired 200 physicians in the past three years.

There have been a few bumps along the way, including a challenge from the Federal Trade Commission regarding recent Carilion acquisitions. The complaint says the $20 million purchase of the Center for Advanced Imaging and the Center for Surgical Excellence, two Roanoke-area outpatient facilities, eliminated competition and will lead to higher health-care costs.

“The FTC inquiry will not affect the development of the medical school, or Carilion’s ongoing development as a physician-led clinic,” says Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart. “We are concerned that the complaint appears to be based on inaccurate information.”

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is on track to welcome its first class of 42 students in August 2010. In June, the school received preliminary accreditation for its doctorate of medicine program from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

Carilion and Tech, in fact, have been partners for a long time, collaborating on research for about a decade. Now Carilion and Tech are reclaiming a former rail yard, turning a site that held a cement plant, a flour mill and the scrap yard with old locomotives into Riverside Center, a 30-acre biomedical park.

Riverside Center is coming to fruition at a time when unemployment in the Roanoke and Blacksburg areas is climbing. In June, Roanoke’s jobless rate was 7.8 percent and Blacksburg’s was 9.5, both higher than the state average of 7.3 percent.

Murphy believes that the emerging biomedical campus will attract research teams and other professionals with average annual salaries of $100,000 and more. Just putting up the buildings to accommodate the medical school has pumped more than $200 million into the local economy, he says.

Brian Townsend, Roanoke’s assistant city manager for community development, says real estate taxes alone will add $2 million a year to city coffers.
The people who will populate Riverside Center have started to arrive. There have been only 18 new hires so far, but Carilion projects 251 more jobs will be filled when the medical school and research institute are going full force.

Douglas Waters, interim president of Downtown Roanoke, Inc., says activity generated by Carilion and the medical school have helped to fuel the growth of downtown living in Roanoke. Waters lives in a converted bank building. Other downtown buildings, including former railroad office headquarters, have been reborn as upscale condominiums.

Murphy, though, says it’s wrong to focus on the Carilion-Tech collaborations to the exclusion of everything else being done to spark the area’s economy. He mentions the greenways being built throughout the valley, the planned renovations to the City Market Building, proposed renovations to Center in the Square, which houses a science museum and a history museum, and the development of the Roanoke River as “an urban amenity.”

Doughty, the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership executive, says the changes reflect a new perspective on economic development. “The old model was you just attracted jobs and that was how you grew your population,” says Doughty. “The new model is you build a place that people want to be and that attracts the talent and the jobs follow the talent.”

She cites the examples of place such as Asheville, N.C.; Bend, Ore.; and Boulder, Colo. “I would definitely say that we tried to be Charlotte for too long,” she says.

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