A rendering of the Hilton Garden Inn to open next year at the South Peak development. Rendering courtesy of South Peak

The first condo building at the South Peak development has been completed, and a different part of the project will start to take shape soon.

Dirt has already been moved to prepare the site of a Hilton Garden Inn at the Roanoke County development, situated on a 62-acre hillside at the intersection of U.S. 220 and Virginia 419.

The hotel is expected to take about a year to complete, opening by next summer, said Jeff Barbic, director of sales and marketing for South Peak.

The building will take on arts-and-crafts architecture with stone and wood timbers to match the theme of the development.

The five-story building will have 117 rooms, an indoor pool, and a restaurant and lounge, Barbic said.

Up the hill, the first completed condo building has attracted hundreds of potential residents and curiosity seekers to weekend open houses, Barbic said.

“Residential interest has been beyond our wildest dreams,” he said.

Some who come to see the condos are older couples looking for new construction with low maintenance. Others are just curious about the condos and the view, Barbic said.

Six of the condos are under contract, with the first closing scheduled for the end of the month, Barbic said.

Construction on the second of five condo buildings will begin when 17 condos in the first building have been sold.

The condos are on the market for between $199,000 and $627,900.

Later this summer work will begin on a spec house for The Estate, a neighborhood of 23 single-family homes on about 12 acres of land behind Lowe’s. The spec house will take about six months to complete. South Peak is appealing to builders to construct a few spec houses as well, Barbic said.

The development also includes plans for a restaurant and retail.

Developers are looking for an upscale restaurant that is “representative of the project,” Barbic said. They have received interest from local and chain restaurants, but South Peak is four to six months from striking a deal with any of them, Barbic said.

South Peak won’t focus on the retail aspect of the development until details of the restaurant, or restaurants, are worked out. Just how much retail can go in at the development depends on how much parking space is available after the construction of the restaurant or restaurants.

South Peak is holding a grand opening June 1 and 2.

Also in the column, Buffalo Wild Wings on Starkey Road will close for eight days in June for a half-million dollar renovation of the interior and exterior, and East Coast Penn Station Subs opens at Valley View on Tuesday.

Photo by Joel Hawksley | The Roanoke Times

A business consultant for 17 years, Jeff Sluss probably would have never advised a client to buy a bankrupt company.

But that’s exactly what Sluss did in March when he purchased Apex Industrial Equipment in Salem, which designs and manufactures machinery and heavy equipment for industrial customers.

“I see opportunity here,” Sluss said. “I think there are things we can do in the near- and long-term to make this a successful company.”

Sluss is hoping to bring the company out of bankruptcy and stage a comeback by branching out with a line of residential outdoor furniture made of steel.

“If you don’t diversify your business, if you are going to simply survive off manufacturing, you’re not going to make it,” he said.

Apex’s shop manager, Darrell Breeden, said the company is already seeing the results of Sluss’ leadership and business plan.

Customers “are seeing the changes that have been made in the last couple of months, and we’ve been busy as a result,” Breeden said. “Right now we have more work than we ever have.”

Read the full column here.

Photo courtesy of Cedars

A Lebanese restaurant will make its debut in Roanoke on Monday.

Cedars Lebanese Restaurant has been years in the making for the Saliba family, who moved to the United States from Lebanon in 2001.

Since then, their cuisine, which they have prepared for friends and catered at various events, has earned them praises — and often the suggestion that they should open a restaurant.

Gaby Saliba, 25, has spent the past few years researching the market and locations for the restaurant. He wanted to be downtown because of the daytime population and foot traffic, he said.

He found what he said was the right location in the formerBinaba shop (which has moved to Market Street under the name Villages of Africa) on Campbell Avenue, betweenNawab and Benny Marconi’s.

He and his family have spent the past five months fixing up the space. They refinished the hardwood floors, put up new drywall, gutted the bathrooms and more.

“We wanted to do it right,” Saliba said. He wouldn’t say how much money he has spent on the renovations.

They constructed a wall to separate the kitchen from the dining room, but the wall has open windows because Saliba thought it was important that customers could see where and how their food was being prepared.

He is using as many local food vendors as possible, although many of his ingredients are being imported. Those ingredients include spices, oils, chickpeas, pickles and some cheeses, Saliba said. If he is granted an ABC license he will offer beer and wine. For now, the restaurant will carry Laziza, a non-alcoholic beer.

The menu includes items such as hummus, hummus with shawarma (thin, sliced marinated beef), baba ghanouj, falafel, raw kibbeh (beef with wheat and seasoning) and labneh (yogurt with olive oil). Platters include several types of kebabs (chicken, lamb, ground beef), beef shawarma and shish taouk (cubed chicken breast). The menu also includes wraps and salads.

The Saliba family will cook the food “exactly how we would fix it at the house,” Saliba said.

Customers will not only be getting Lebanese food, but also a bit of culture, Saliba said.

“We want to bring a more diverse taste to Roanoke, and we want to show the Lebanese culture,” Saliba said.

He said the decor, with pictures on the walls, will convey the culture, as will servers who can educate diners about the food.

The restaurant has 11 tables and will serve a quick-order lunch, meaning customers will order at the counter and clear their tables when they are finished. A wait staff will be on hand for dinners.

Saliba said he doesn’t have any experience running a restaurant, but he has management experience and has hired a consultant.

Saliba started his own computer business, GMS Computer Services and Sales, which he sold about a year and a half ago. Running that business taught him management skills and other business basics such as figuring out how to price merchandise. Saliba is now working in the IT field and plans to continue working that job while running the restaurant.

Cedars is the only Lebanese restaurant in downtown Roanoke. The Hummus House, which was inside in the Crystal Tower building at the corner of Second Street and Campbell Avenue, closed a year ago when the building was purchased for redevelopment. The owner had said he was going to try to reopen the restaurant elsewhere but hasn’t done so.

Also in the column, a Smith Mountain Lake retailer selling items made from alpaca fibers has moved into a larger storefront, and more information on Kroger’s coupon policy, including feedback from blog readers.

A bicycle rental, repair and retail shop is moving from one portion of the Roanoke River Greenway to another.

UnderDog Bikes has made its home at Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke since opening a little more than a year ago. The small shop sits near the greenway at Vic Thomas Park in the Mountain View area.

The spot has served the shop well, appealing to families and others who like to rent bicycles and ride the greenway.

Owner Chris Heslin decided to move because the business, which started as a rental and repair shop, has grown to include the sale of bicycles, and Heslin has run out of room.

In May, Heslin hopes to open next to HIT’s Frozen Treats in southeast Roanoke at the base of Mill Mountain and next to the greenway.

He had looked at the space before opening at Black Dog last year but said that at the time the rent was out of his price range.

The new location, which formerly housed an upholstery shop but has been vacant for about 18 months, is more than twice the size of the 540-square-foot space at Black Dog, Heslin said.

The new space also appealed to Heslin because he said it will allow him to work with mountain bikers who are headed up to Mill Mountain as well as road bikers. He is also excited about the development plans for the Riverside project, a 20-acre riverfront community with retail, office space and housing. The development is planned for the former scrap yard and mill sites on South Jefferson and adjacent sites under the Walnut Avenue bridge.

Also in the column, Wine Gourmet has purchased a Staunton wine store, and a Christiansburg garage door company is expanding to Salem.

Seafood Charlie’s Salem store. Facebook photo

A Roanoke College graduate who two years ago started a local seafood delivery business on the Roanoke farmers market is expanding his business by adding a storefront.

Seafood Charlie’s recently opened on Fourth Street in Salem, where Joe’s Deli was located. (The deli moved to Roanoke Boulevard in Salem).

The store is open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, or until it sells out of seafood.

Charlie Counts, 25, started the business in 2011 after graduating from Roanoke College with a degree in business. He looked for a job but couldn’t find anything that would use his college education.

So he decided to make a go of what had become a family hobby: traveling to Surf City Crab seafood market on Topsail Island in North Carolina once a week and bringing back fresh seafood.

During the warmer months, Counts travels to Surf City once a week to pick up fresh seafood. He hauls it back in large coolers in his truck.

The business has been successful because consumers want fresh, local food, Counts said.

“People want to eat fresh seafood, and we only live 300 miles from the ocean,” he said. “There is no reason to have it imported from 3,000 miles away.”

Counts wanted to expand this year to a place that he could double as storage, he said. He had been storing the coolers and seafood at his house.

He is employing a Roanoke College student so that one person can staff the store while the other sells at the farmers market. He also will continue to sell at the Grandin Village Community Market .

Lately he’s been bringing back swordfish, Scottish salmon, striped bass, flounder, catfish, cod, crabmeat , oysters and scallops. Next month he expects to begin selling fresh shrimp.

Also in the column, read more about the furniture store opening in Tanglewood Mall, and why Sears portrait studios have closed.

JOEL HAWKSLEY | The Roanoke Times
“I love what I do. It’s become my life,” says Rosa Weeks, the owner of Christy’s Apparel & Accessories in downtown Roanoke.

Women shopping at Christy’s Apparel & Accessories store in downtown Roanoke have found a friend and a personal stylist in store owner Rosa Weeks.

For 30 years, Weeks has helped customers pull together outfits and find coordinating jewelry.

And when she makes one of her seven trips a year to New York City to select clothing for the store, she shops with specific customers in mind.

“Nine times out of 10, people love what I pick out for them,” she said.

It has been 30 years since Weeks quit her job with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to open Christy’s, an anniversary that Weeks didn’t think she’d see.

From the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks slowing shipments of clothing from outside the country, to the recession, and most recently the construction work happening outside her Jefferson Street store, the business has had its challenges, Weeks said.

“There have been times when I’ve considered giving up,” Weeks said. “I can’t do it. I love what I do. It’s become my life.”

Read the full column here.

A new Infiniti showroom is under construction at Crossroads Auto in Roanoke. JOEL HAWKSLEY | The Roanoke Times

Magic City Ford moved into its new showroom in January.

First Team Auto Mall completed its new Subaru showroom in June.

Berglund has been in the process of remodeling showrooms since last year.

Crossroads Auto of Roanoke is building a new Infiniti showroom.

And Pinkerton Chevrolet recently spent more than half a million dollars renovating its showroom.

All around the Roanoke Valley, auto dealerships are spending millions of dollars to remodel showrooms or build new ones.

While some of the improvements have been strongly encouraged by manufacturers, which franchise the dealerships, the investments also reflect the automobile industry’s recovery from the recession.

“It is coming back significantly, unfortunately from a pretty low point,” said Mark Bower, sales manager at Crossroads Auto of Roanoke on U.S. 220.

New vehicle sales are expected to hit 15 million this year, up from 10.4 million in 2009, according to data from Edmunds.com, a car shopping website.

Several factors are driving sales.

One is low interest rates, and banks that are more willing to lend money for automobiles than for real estate, said Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association, an advocacy group for dealerships.

“Banks aren’t anxious to lend you money to buy a bigger house, but they are anxious to lend you money for a new car,” he said.

The average rate for a 48-month new car loan in the Roanoke area last week was 2.7 percent, according to Bankrate.com, an online aggregator of financial information.

Another factor in the increase of auto sales is the high demand for used cars, which in turn has increased trade-in values and narrowed the price gap between new and used cars.

During the recession many consumers bought used cars to save money. As a result, used cars are scarce on lots, and there are fewer in the pipeline since not many new cars were sold the past few years, Taylor said.

The scarcity of used cars has made cars on the road now more valuable, an incentive for drivers to trade in for a new car, Taylor said. Also enticing consumers is that in some cases, the price of a new car is only a few thousand dollars more than a used car’s, and more consumers are deciding to pay a little more for a new car, Taylor said.

The recovering housing market is also a factor in the growth of auto sales because it is boosting consumer confidence, Taylor said. The prices of homes that sold in Virginia rose by nearly 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to the same time period the year before, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

And, of course, gas prices also have an effect on new car sales. With gas prices averaging $3.65 per gallon in February, many consumers are looking for more fuel-efficient vehicles, Taylor said.

Those factors have created a favorable climate for dealerships.

“Business is up and it is good for everybody,” said Cameron Johnson, president of Magic City Ford in Roanoke.

To read the full column, click here.

Bill Roberts, chairman of Belk’s northern division, talks to reporters and Belk employees on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Vance

Belk is marking its 125th year in business by investing $600 million in renovations, new merchandise and technology for its more than 300 stores.

“The intent is not to catch up. The intent is to jump ahead,” said Bill Roberts, chairman of the Charlotte, N.C.-based department store’s northern division.

Roberts spoke to reporters and store associates last week at the company’s Tanglewood Mall store, which has already benefited from some of the investments.

The Tanglewood Belk underwent a $1.8 million renovation last year. The renovations tripled the size of the shoe department, doubled the size of the handbag area and made improvements to the jewelry department.

The Belk at New River Valley Mall also has been upgraded. Last year it underwent a $2.4 million remodel and expansion that added 20,000 square feet to the existing store. The Valley View Mall store also had a small expansion in 2011.

Shoppers may have noticed more recent changes as well. The stores have rearranged merchandise to bring women’s sportswear to the first floor where the men’s department had been located. Men’s clothing is now on the second floor.

Within just the past few weeks, Roanoke Valley Belk stores have added new lines, such as Cynthia Rowley and MADE, a men’s line by Cam Newton, quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

More changes are on the way. Belk plans to upgrade its cash registers so that sale associates can look up customers’ past purchases. Associates also will be armed with iPads so they can complete transactions on the sales floor or look up answers to customer questions.

The department store is focused on its customers in other ways, too. Belk is arranging for all its sales associates to take part in public service projects. In Roanoke, 100 sales associates will be helping out at Preston Park Elementary School, Roberts said.

Belk also holds charity days to benefit local organizations. Last year charity days raised about $40,000 for 30 local charities, Roberts said.

“We evolved into large boxes in large malls, but our history is in the community,” he said.

Roberts said Belk is committed to the Roanoke market.

“We always saw Roanoke as a market that could support one mall, but it has two malls,” he said.

When Valley View opened in the 1980s, Belk decided that rather than relocate the Tanglewood store, it would open a second location.

“This is such a great area that we decided we wanted to remain committed to this store,” Roberts said.

The Tanglewood and Valley View stores each have sales of about $15 million a year, he said.

Belk, the country’s largest privately held department store chain, opened its first store in Monroe, N.C., in 1888. The store, then called The New York Racket, was a bargain store that 26-year-old William Henry Belk started with $750 in savings, a $5,000 loan and $3,000 in merchandise from a bankrupt store.

The company became Belk Brothers Co. when William’s brother, John Belk, joined the business. Together they opened more stores across North Carolina. When those two men died, William’s sons took over. Today, the company is run by the third generation of Belks: Thomas Belk Jr., who is chairman and CEO, and John Belk, president and COO.

Also in the column, The Wendy’s across from Tanglewood Mall is seeking to demolish the current building to construct a new, larger building, and Graphics Etc Framing and Gallery, is moving from the Forum shopping center.

Here is the full text of Sunday’s Retail Roundup column:

A Salem men’s clothing store that is celebrating its 45th year in business will close within the next few months.

Thompson’s Men’s Clothing Store on East Main Street will close as soon as it has sold its inventory, store owner Frank Thompson said.

Thompson, 77, grew up working in his father’s clothing store in Chatham. When he decided to open his own store, he considered Norfolk, Richmond and Northern Virginia as potential locations because of the large populations in those areas. But he found himself turned off by those locations and instead settled on Salem, where he opened Thompson’s in 1968.

Thompson has operated his clothing store in the same building since then.

Over the years, he carved out a niche in the men’s clothing market by serving hard-to-fit men who couldn’t find suits elsewhere.

“We kept getting calls about large, tall and short sizes,” he said. He began special ordering suits for hard-to-fit customers, and word spread.

Thompson’s store is one of 91 members of Big and Tall Associates, a nonprofit trade association that holds buying shows for retailers.

Thompson said he hasn’t seen much change in the business throughout the past four decades. The biggest change, he said, is the trend toward more casual clothing.

“People used to buy three to four suits a year just to go to church in,” he said.

In the mid 1990s, men began dressing more casually, and his business slowed. He began selling sportswear to adapt to the changing times.

Thompson would like to sell his business but said he hasn’t had any interest. If a buyer doesn’t step forward before the inventory is sold, the store will close by June, he said.

“I’m just getting to the age I can’t do it anymore,” Thompson said.

Big-box bookstore set to close

The Books-A-Million store at Crossroads Mall in Roanoke is closing April 13.

A manager, Donny Horn, said he didn’t know why the company decided to close the Roanoke store. A Books-A-Million spokeswoman did not return calls seeking more information about the closing.

The Birmingham, Ala., company’s financials show that Books-A-Million lost money in the quarter that ended Oct. 27. The book seller reported a net loss of $2.8 million on sales of about $105 million, compared to a loss of about $4 million the same time period a year earlier. Comparable store sales were down 3.6 percent. More current financial information is not available.

Discounts at the Roanoke store will continue to deepen as the closing date nears. Last week, books and magazines were marked down 20 percent, general merchandise 30 percent, and stationery and greeting cards 50 percent.

The 36,000-square-foot building is for lease, said Jake Copty, a leasing agent for Thalhimer, which manages the property.

“We are certainly excited about the fact that we’ve had a lot of activity on Hershberger Road,” Copty said. “It’s a valuable spot.”

The property owners, a group of investors from New York, are open to redeveloping the property, Copty said. That could include a major renovation or tearing down the building and rebuilding, Copty said.

Books-A-Million closed its Blacksburg store at the First & Main shopping center about a year and a half ago. The closures leave Barnes & Noble as the only big-box bookseller in the region. Several locally owned used book stores remain in business.

The publishing industry has been struggling the past few years as it competes with online retailers such as Amazon and as e-books have gained popularity.

According to a report by the Association of American Publishers, sales of e-books doubled in 2011 from 2010. The report found that brick-and-mortar stores remain the primary sales channel for books. Publishers’ revenues from bookstores doubled in 2011 from 2010 to top $1 billion, according to the report.

Hartman expands repair services

Audio-visual retailer Lee Hartman & Sons has serviced cameras, DVD players and televisions for years. Now it also fixes cellphones, computers and tablets, including Apple products.

The retailer got into the business of repairing small electronics, especially Apple products, because there are few places in the region that provide that service, said Jessica Hines, marketing coordinator for Lee Hartman & Sons.

The store’s technician can repair cracked screens and water damage and change batteries in iPhones, Hines said. She recommends the repairs for consumers whose electronics are out of warranty. The store is not licensed through Apple to make warranty repairs.

Lee Hartman & Sons is headquartered in Roanoke and operates six stores in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina.

(We are still having problems getting the Retail Roundup column on the new roanoke.com, so there is no link to the column in this blog post.)

A Roanoke microbrewery is poised for growth as it begins to offer its signature brew in cans and expand its distribution throughout most of Virginia.

Roanoke Railhouse has offered its beers in 22-ounce bottles since the brewery was started in 2009. The bottles are available at Kroger, some convenience stores and some restaurants.

But brewery owner Steve Davidson said the bottles don’t appeal to everyone because of their size. Some restaurants that serve beer only in bottles won’t carry 22-ounce bottles, and consumers who want a single serving are turned off by the large size.

Davidson said he believes that canning his brewery’s signature beer, Track One,  in four-packs of 16-ounce cans, will fill that gap.

He also touted other benefits of canning. Aluminum is a better light and oxygen barrier than glass, and it is more environmentally sound because it can be recycled easier and isn’t as heavy as glass so it takes less fuel to transport.

Davidson has contracted with Old Dominion Mobile Canning, a new company based in Glen Allen, to can Roanoke Railhouse’s beer.

The company will set up canning dates with Davidson and bring cans and its mobile canning machine to the South Roanoke brewery on a truck. At the brewery, the canning machine is set up near the finishing tanks and the beer is fed into the machine. Davidson’s crew will pack the beer and put it in cold storage until his distributors pick it up.

Davidson said he decided to work with Old Dominion because investing in his own canning system would be costly and take up valuable space.

The canning business will likely cut into the brewery’s bottle sales, but Davidson said he expects to pick up new business at retailers who wouldn’t sell the bottles.

Cans should be available in stores the first week of May, Davidson said.

At the same time, Roanoke Railhouse has teamed with new distributors to get its brews into stores and restaurants throughout the state. Roanoke Railhouse is also available in much of North Carolina.

The growth is expected to increase Roanoke Railhouse’s production needs by 20 percent, Davidson said. He is hiring two more brewers to help meet demand, he said.

Also in column, the owner of the Blacksburg and Roanoke Benny’s pizzerias are opening an new eatery in Radford on Clement Street. The oversized pizza shop began with Benny Marzano’s in Blacksburg. Last year it opened Benny Marconi’s on Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke. The Radford pizzeria, Benny Nicola’s, is expected to open by the end of the month.

Lastly, Promenade Park in southwest Roanoke County is getting a facelift. The Electric Road shopping center’s facade will be replaced, starting this spring. Work is expected to be complete this fall.