ROANOKE, VA. – Another new brewery is getting set to open its doors in downtown Roanoke, but for city leaders and investors, it’s not as much about the beer as it is the location.
Golden Cactus Brewing hopes to open its doors by the end of August. It’s located next to Tuco’s and across from Big Lick Brewing on Salem Avenue at Fifth Street. It’s a neighborhood that’s hit a critical mass in recent years, transforming a place most people avoided to one that they now flock to.
For Golden Cactus Co-Owner Evan Graham, it was location, location, location.
“We had expectations that this neighborhood would be up and coming, it would be another new thing for Roanoke and we kind of wanted to be apart of that,” Graham said.
The western fringe of downtown Roanoke has continued to grow in the last decade, funded mostly by developer Bill Chapman. His projects include the Lofts and West Station, Beamer’s 25, Tuco’s, the Fulton Motor Lofts and more.
Chapman said back in 2005, the area had the highest concentration of quality warehouses closest to downtown. Where others saw blight, he saw opportunity.
“At the time when we first came in, there really was just no interest in the neighborhood,” Chapman said.
He described the neighborhood as his baby, and he’s come a long way with it. Little by little the neighborhood has grown with his investments, starting with the original residential projects. Then Habitat for Humanity moved out, the Lofts at West Station expanded significantly and things began to pick up.
When Beamer’s 25 opened in 2012, Chapman said people questioned the location as soon as they realized where it was. But he said the area really went wide open with the addition of Tuco’s and Big Lick Brewing.
“We had the idea of doing a taco place and I thought wow do we really want to do that here, and sure enough I wish we had done it five years sooner because that was really when things took off,” Chapman said.
Roanoke’s traditional central business district is the few blocks around Market Square between Williamson and Jefferson. But with a new cluster of businesses five blocks away, Roanoke City Economic Development Director Rob ledger said there’s now growth on the “outside ring of the target,” priming the area in between for development.
“Malls always have an anchor at one end and an anchor at the other end, and then a lot of clustered shops in between and that’s sort of what we’re doing here,” Ledger said.
An area that some used to avoid is now a destination. Big Lick Brewing moved from a modest storefront closer to Market Square to its new space as part of the West Station expansion. Taproom manager Adam McDearmon said the new location has been a tremendous growth opportunity.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth throughout the three years that we’ve been down there now so we’re definitely excited to see more businesses come to the area,” McDearmon said.
Golden Cactus is excited to be part of the neighborhood and contribute to something bigger. They hope the two breweries, restaurant and neighboring shops bring even more business than ever to the area.