This sign has gone up while the Spartan Square shopping center awaits a new digital sign. Photo by Amanda Codispoti

Several eagle-eyed readers spotted the sign pictured at left at Spartan Square and wondered what it meant.

I called Louis Waldrop, whose company, Waldrop Development, owns the Salem shopping center on W. Main Street.

Waldrop, a very optimistic 90-year-old, said the shopping center is getting a new sign, and the message on two temporary signs is a reference to a new bank that will be built at the center later this year.

BB&T has plans to build a new branch office in the parking lot just east of the ABC store, according to Waldrop and the bank’s corporate office. Construction will start this fall. I am writing more on the new branch office for Sunday’s column, which I’ll post here when it publishes.

Waldrop is hoping the shopping center, which includes Kroger and Ollie’s, will see several other new tenants this year. He would like to lease a vacant 8,000 square-foot space to a doctor’s office, and also wants to lease The Shoe Dept. space. The shoe store closed earlier this year.

The temporary signs at Spartan Square will be up until the new sign is ready, Waldrop said. The new digital sign should be installed in July, he said.

The Mexican restaurant Rancho Viejo is opening an eatery in downtown Roanoke.

The new restaurant will be located on the city market in the space where Horizon Bar and Grill closed last year.

Rancho Viejo has restaurants in Roanoke County on Electric Road near Tanglewood Mall, Vinton, Daleville, Salem, and Moneta. The restaurant company also owns several Rancho Viejo elsewhere in Virginia.

Restaurant owner Edfrain Aguirre said the downtown restaurant will be different than the other locations but he wouldn’t elaborate, saying he wanted to wait until closer to the opening to reveal more details.

He did tell me that they are working on the downtown space now. That includes putting down new tile, painting, and remodeling the wine cellar so it can hold private parties and live music on weekends.

Aguirre expects the restaurant to open by the end of July. I plan to get more details closer to the opening date.

Rancho Viejo will join three two other Mexican restaurants downtown: Alejandro’s and Queso Southwestern Grill. and La Finca.

East Coasters Bike Shop last year purchased from Roanoke the old Virginia Museum of Transportation along Wiley Drive in the Wasena neighborhood.

The building is a shell, and bike shop owner Wes Best has said he will need to invest about $500,000 to install heating and cooling, a new electrical system, plumbing and more.

Best wants to keep the interior much the same as a tribute to the building’s history, and so those who visited the 35-year-old building when it was the museum will still recognize some features. Workers won’t touch the exposed rafters, and the floor — which is part brick and part concrete — will stay, Best said.

The plans call for a 700-square-foot cafe that will sell sandwiches, wraps and beverages, Best said. The cafe will have a 1,000-square-foot deck for patrons.

Best is in the process of working out a lease with the cafe’s operator, who he said has experience in the restaurant business. Best did not want to disclose more details about the cafe and its operator until the lease is finalized.

Before work can begin, the plans for the building are being reviewed by the city’s department of planning, building and development.

When the plans are approved, Best can apply for building permits and work can begin. Best estimates it may be a month before that happens. He expects to open the new shop in early fall, he said.

The current shop at Promenade Park, near the intersection of Colonial Avenue and Electric Road, will close when the new shop opens.

Also in the column, Minuteman Press has opened in southwest Roanoke County, and Family Dollar is building a store in Salem.

A Google map shows the locations of Dollar General stores in the region and beyond.

In Sunday’s Retail Roundup column readers will learn of yet another dollar store opening. Family Dollar is building a store on W. Main Street in Salem.

It will be the company’s 16th store within a 25-mile radius of downtown Roanoke.

Similarly, Dollar General has 11 stores within a 10-mile radius, and Dollar Tree has 8 stores within an 25-mile radius.

How many stores is too many?

A reporter with Supermarket News, a trade magazine, asked Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling that question this week.

Dreiling said the company, which has 11,000 stores in 40 states, still has room to grow. Dreiling is quoted saying that as long as same store sales (sales numbers from stores that have been open at least a year) are increasing, the company hasn’t hit its saturation point. You can read the SN story here.

The Roanoke-area has seen a flurry of dollar store openings in the past two years, most recently the opening of Dollar Tree on Williamson Road and two Family Dollar stores, one on Williamson Road and another at the Roanoke-Salem Plaza on Melrose Avenue. Dollar General is building a store on Jamison Avenue, which should open this fall.

The growth of dollar stores was fueled by the recession, and based on dollar stores earnings, it appears that consumers are sticking with their recession shopping habits.

Do you think dollar stores in the Roanoke market have reached a saturation point? Are you a dollar store shopper? Share with us what you like about shopping at dollar stores.

Piggly Wiggly, the first supermarket to open in Roanoke in 1919, is returning to the valley.

The Super Save IGA on Riverland Road in southeast Roanoke will change over to Piggly Wiggly in about two weeks, said Chad Burdette, who runs the store with his wife, Dawn.

“We’re thinking of it as a fresh start,” Burdette said.

The Burdettes applied to become an independent grocer under Piggly Wiggly and received approval a few weeks ago, Burdette said.

To read the full story, please click here.

Will you shop at Piggly Wiggly? What do you like about the stores?

Freedom First’s drive-up ATM at Towers Shopping Center. Photo courtesy of Freedom First

Freedom First Federal Credit Union has opened a larger bank branch at Towers Shopping Center.

The credit union had an office at Towers just inside the shopping center’s entrance on the upper level. After 10 years, the credit union outgrew that space and looked a few doors over for a larger office. It leased a vacant space at the shopping center between Fresh Market and Verizon Wireless.

The credit union also tore down the old Java Hut kiosk in the parking lot and built a drive up-ATM.

As I reported in this Retail Roundup column, Freedom First merged with Carilion Federal Credit Union more than a year ago. The branch, which is near the hospital, saw its traffic increase after the merger, necessitating the need for a larger location, said credit union President and CEO Paul Phillips.

The new branch is 2,700 square feet and will have more teller windows, four offices and a conference room.

The bank is holding a grand opening, which includes a ribbon cutting, door prizes and remote broadcasting from Q-99, Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Freedom First has 47,000 members and assets of more than $300 million. It has nine branch offices in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

The debate boiled down to one question: Why isn’t Roanoke attracting retailers such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Banana Republic, J.Crew or Crate and Barrel?

The answer isn’t easy.

A lot of it comes down to numbers, such as population, projected population growth, average and median income and even the number of residents with a college education, according to local commercial real estate agents and economic development officials.

Every retailer has minimum requirements in those categories that a new market must meet in order to be considered.

Also in play is the availability of desirable real estate. Retailers are looking for spaces that fit their store layout and have specifications that range from street visibility to ceiling heights.

Other factors, such as competition and the retailers’ expansion plans, also affect decisions about opening stores in new markets.

Just because Roanoke isn’t attracting certain retailers now does not mean that consumers here will be without them forever.

Job growth in the valley has the potential to change the valley’s population and income levels.

“Job growth is the root of all retail in our market and beyond,” said Matt Huff, a commercial real estate agent with Poe and Cronk Real
Estate Group.

Please click here to read the rest of the column.

The Roanoke-based furniture retailer expects the sale of the stores to close in August. Grand CFO Randy Lundy declined to disclose the purchase price.

Grand will acquire John Eye/Big Sandy stores in Princeton, Summersville and in Beckley and Lewisburg, where Grand already has stores.

Grand’s Beckley store will move into the John Eye/Big Sandy Beckley location. The Lewisburg John Eye/Big Sandy store will close.

Grand hopes to hire John Eye/Big Sandy employees, adding 65 to 70 new employees to Grand’s payroll, Lundy said.

“This has created a tremendous opportunity for us to increase our sales and volume and grow the business,” Lundy said.

John Eye/Big Sandy stores are part of the Big Sandy Superstore furniture chain based in Franklin Furnace, Ohio. The company has stores in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

When the sale closes, Grand will operate 19 stores in Virginia, Tennessee and West Virginia. The company employs 550 people at its stores, warehouses and corporate office, which is located on Electric Road in Roanoke County.

Fresh Cuts will use fresh ingredients and make its food from scratch, including chili for hotdogs and sauces for pasta, said Paul Price, who is opening the restaurant with his wife, Canie Price.

Canie Price is Filipino and will help her husband in the kitchen making adobo (simmered chicken with an Asian sauce) and pancit (rice noodles with a mix of vegetables), among other dishes.

Also on the menu: Four cheese lasagna, chili, subs, hamburgers, fried chicken, spaghetti and meatballs and all-beef hotdogs. Prices range from $1.50 for a hotdog to $7.95 for an entree, such as a fried chicken platter or spaghetti and meatballs.

Paul Price is owner of ProCon Construction Services in Roanoke. He is opening the restaurant because he said he grew up working in restaurant kitchens and has always loved to cook. He saw a need for a restaurant in Roanoke that makes fresh food, especially along Williamson Road, he said.

Price declined to disclose how much he has spent opening the restaurant, but said that the building already had kitchen equipment (it is located where Paco’s Tacos closed), saving him a substantial amount of money.

Fresh Cuts is located at 1613 Williamson Road and is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

If you eat there please leave your review of the restaurant here!

The 52,000 square-foot store is getting new decor, paint, a new floral department adjacent to the the entrance, new customer restrooms, a new employee break room, new check out lanes and self-check out stations, and new cases, shelving and track lighting, according to a news release from the grocer. Kroger is spending $3.75 million on the remodel.

The store has cut back its hours to accommodate the work. The Lakeside Kroger was open 24 hours, but for the next five months will be open from 6 a.m. to midnight, the news release said.

Kroger does not have plans to remodel any of its other Roanoke Valley stores this year, said John Lambert of John Lambert Associates, a public relations agency that represents Kroger.