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Slate Hill?

designerjunkie48

By designerjunkie48
in Roanoke

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bmedguy Whistle-Stop

bmedguy

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If nothing happens with that, what a disaster it will go down as being. I'm sure huge money has already been spent reconfiguring the whole mountainside and putting in infrastructure. Someone could be dealing with a very unhappy bank that is faced with eating it on a very large investment. It is odd to see a giant tiered, grassy mountainside that is obviously man made but has nothing on it. What would make it worse yet is if they got desperate and just let anything go up there. Hope there is some sort of plan that still has a chance of moving forward.

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mclawsdrive Hamlet

mclawsdrive

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If I was in charge of developing the site (now that its already been cleared and terraced), I'd put some big mansions on the highest terrace, along with a nice restaurant or two (panoramic views). The middle area would have some low rise office space with lower and medium priced apartments on the top floors, and then high density retail at the bottom, with shared parking garages between the stores and the offices.

Actually, screw all that, I'd just put all that stuff in one big building and call it Ben Tower (people would nickname it Big Ben). I'd make it less than 20 stories so as not to become the tallest in Roanoke, I'm not trying to boost my own ego or anything :rofl:

In all seriousness though, that site is extremely visible and accessible and therefore very valuable. Someone will put something on that site. It won't sit vacant too long (I hope I don't have to eat my words on this).

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bmedguy Whistle-Stop

bmedguy

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Ugh. I hope they can do better than that with retail. Macy's is already here. I was hoping we might get something new that is a strong national retailer and not necessarily a department store. He is one optimistic dude for still not having anyone signed on to develop something.

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designerjunkie48 Unincorporated Area

designerjunkie48

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Ugh. I hope they can do better than that with retail. Macy's is already here. I was hoping we might get something new that is a strong national retailer and not necessarily a department store. He is one optimistic dude for still not having anyone signed on to develop something.

Agreed. There is no need for another Macy's...although the Macy's at VVM will not be changing much in terms of brands and layout of store. It would be an odd place to put a department store, but it could work if they made that Macy's more of an up-scale Macy's and took out the VVM one. That's just wishful thinking. Federated is in condition right now to be opening new stores. It is crazy enough with the Hecht's to Macy's merger. As a Hecht's employee I am here to say that this merger has been nothing but chaotic. It seems as if Federated was 5 steps behind in everything than May was. You would think it would be the other way around but it hasn't been. I have a feeling that many customers will be dissapointed with the change, and would have just rather kept Hecht's. Oh well...the store opens under the Macy's name September 9th!

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rusthebuss Metropolis

rusthebuss

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I would think Kohl's could be a prime candidate for Slate Hill as an anchor.

Or maybe Costco?

While I don't shop at Bass Pro Shops, that would certainly get a lot of people to drive to Roanoke to shop. I have numerous friends that drive to Charlotte just for that store.

Have you been to the Bass Pro shop in Hampton? Its pretty cool. I bet the one in Charlotte is huge.

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rusthebuss Metropolis

rusthebuss

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Wow Bass Pro Shops would be a big detail as far as retail is concerned for Roanoke! Best of luck! Construction should start soon on the one in Richmond.

Roanoke is an outdoor mans dream. You have the mountains and lakes. Plenty of hunting for those that do that kind of thing.

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designerjunkie48 Unincorporated Area

designerjunkie48

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I think Steven was contemplating this in a good way. Although we already have 3 Orvis stores in the Roanoke Valley, and the distribution center. Don't forget that the developer also mentioned Nordstrom's as a potential tenant in the wdbj broadcast.

I missed the WDBJ7 Broadcast, but hearing that a Nordstrom was even mentioned is exciting news. The only thing I had heard was a Macy's, which I expressed my feelings about in the post up above. If I remember reading right a few months ago, Nordstrom only looks at areas where the average income is around $70,000. I think the average for Roanoke and the surrounding areas is about 32,000. But does anyone know what the average for just the ROANOKE area is, not including the city and salem??

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mclawsdrive Hamlet

mclawsdrive

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No where near that! Beverly Hills zip 90210 is 112,000. That one of the most affluent zips in the country. I've got $42,000 for 24014 (south Roanoke/Hunting hills) but it also include some pretty poor parts of SE roanoke. The other zip close to Slate Hill is 24018 which I found to be $55,734. Other zips in Botetourt, Bent Mountain, and at Smith mountain lake are around $50,000. I would guess the average for the whole area is around $35,000. But one should take into account the low cost of living... Roanoke has the 11 highest ratio in the country of income to cost of living. A $500,000 house here would sell for $4 - 5 million easily in Beverly Hills. So even if people in South Roanoke and Hunting Hills are 'only' earning $60,000 on average, they have the disposable income of someone earning more than twice that in SO CAL.

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mclawsdrive Hamlet

mclawsdrive

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There is a cool function on the New York times website to calculate average cost of living and salaries between cities. ny times

Putting in an income of $70,000 for New York, this is what it said.

'The cost of living in Roanoke, VA is 50.3% lower than in New York, NY. Therefore, you would have to earn a salary of $34,759 to maintain your current standard of living.'

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designerjunkie48 Unincorporated Area

designerjunkie48

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There is a cool function on the New York times website to calculate average cost of living and salaries between cities. ny times

Putting in an income of $70,000 for New York, this is what it said.

'The cost of living in Roanoke, VA is 50.3% lower than in New York, NY. Therefore, you would have to earn a salary of $34,759 to maintain your current standard of living.'

Very interesting! Maybe then the $70,000 figure was too high for a Nordstrom to "survive" in a town...

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StevenRocks City

StevenRocks

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Now that I've given reasons why Nordstrom could come to Roanoke, I should mention that the developer was looking into that retailer, not the other way around. We have no reason to believe that Nordstrom is considering this site, although we can hope.
Nordstrom isn't coming to Roanoke.
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