VINTON, Va – As the town of Vinton continues to grow, work on the new Vinton Vinyard Station is almost done.
For nearly a decade, it was considered an eyesore, but because of Greg Rhodes and his team, new life is being given to the near-century-old former Vinton Motor Company building.
“We pretty much did a total gut job, bringing it back to the original shell and then we’ve been reworking everything since,” said Rhodes, who owns Construction Unlimited.
Ford stopped rolling out cars in 2008 and after the building sat unused for a decade, the town announced the redevelopment of the site back in 2018.
“It’s been a very interesting project just because of the history of the building and the business. The business was started in 1931 originally, so we’re trying to do a few little items to remember the original garage and the Ford dealership that was here,” said Rhodes.
A new brick oven pizza shop, Joe Goodpies, will be the first tenant in Vinyard Station. The new shop will also create dozens of new jobs in the community.
As work continues, the property owners are still looking for more businesses interested in opening within the newly-renovated building. They hope the new development will bring more life to downtown Vinton.
“We’re definitely hoping that being this is on the main corner of two streets in Vinton here that it will help tie the community back together and reinvigorate the business side here,” Rhodes said.
Construction on the new pizza shop is set to be complete within the next two months.