Overview
The Roanoke Region was lacking adequate product to be competitive in the Economic Development marketplace. At the time of project initiation, the VEDP stated that there are currently only two 100+ acre sites along the I-81 Corridor that are “ready to go” sites Timmons Group performed a confidential site selection study for the Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Authority (WVRIFA) to identify and evaluate up to nine potential sites for potential acquisition and development by the WVRIFA.
Timmons Group utilized a proprietary GIS tool to help down select from over 165,000 parcels in the six localities (the Counties of Botetourt, Franklin, and Roanoke and the Cities of Roanoke and Salem and Town of Vinton) to 31 potential 100+ acre sites. Timmons Group Tier-rated the top sites, and two of the three sites received $350,000 in funding from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program in 2017.
