Forget Cook Out — The Party is Coming to Buena Vista
With around a dozen newly purchased properties downtown, Ed Walker says he wants to bring restaurants, live music, and more to the city.
For many residents, it looks like Buena Vista has finally gotten the break its community has been waiting for.
Real estate developer Ed Walker recently led out on the purchase of around a dozen properties downtown, and told City Council late last month about his vision to revitalize the city.
“I would like to join you in moving downtown Buena Vista in the right direction. I like apartments downtown. I’m a real fan of lights on at night. I want food and beverages downtown. I’m a big fan of live music,” Walker told City Council on Jan. 18 according to The News-Gazette.
Walker envisions something similar to his efforts in downtown Roanoke, where he and other investors transformed a nearly abandoned section of the city into a popular mixed-use sector of housing, restaurants, and music venues. Their efforts took the area from less than 10 residents to 1,200 over the last decade.
“People aren’t talking about what we’re not anymore,” former Roanoke City Manager Chris Morrill told The New York Times in 2012. “Now they’re talking about what we are. And that’s a huge shift.”
That shift may come in the following years for Buena Vista. City Manager Jay Scudder told The News-Gazette the project “could be an amazing opportunity for us.”
“Mr. Walker has been highly successful,” he said. “He’s done a lot to transform downtown Roanoke. He’s saved some remarkable buildings that had been neglected for years. He has a strong sense of community. He’s not just about making money. He’s taking care of properties that have been neglected.”
Walker seemed to reflect that in his remarks to City Council. “I’m trying to get others involved in this. There are a lot of old buildings that just need a little TLC,” he said.
City Council member Steve Baldridge thinks the developers will first look at Southern Virginia as they consider business ideas. “The students come from out of town. The students are looking for things to do, food to eat, places to go, things to buy, and the students are more rapidly going to change their buying habits,” he said.
If successful, the project will provide a needed economic and social boost to the town. “There are definitely options needed downtown,” Ruthie Lawhorne, owner of local business Vinyl Cuts told The Rockbridge Report. “Anybody that has any kind of business interest is excited about anything coming for the good in Buena Vista.”
The project started as an exercise in a real estate development class Walker teaches at Washington & Lee School of Law, according to Baldridge. How they’ll go about choosing specific business ideas for the properties remains unclear, but Walker, his students, and the investors behind the project will be at the core of the process.
Walker says he’ll take an inclusive approach as they decide on businesses for the properties. “I want to spend the next several months with my students trying to figure out what would work here. I want your input too,” he told City Counsel. He also said he hopes community members will offer suggestions, according to The News-Gazette.
The Gazette also reported that Walker intends to hold public forums as part of the brainstorming process. However, council member Baldridge left the Jan. 18 meeting under a different impression. “I think he made it clear he’s not planning on doing something formal,” he said. He recommends that those with business ideas should contact Walker directly, or reach out to the LLCs that officially own the properties. Baldridge, a local attorney who has helped with several of the property transactions, said some are already reaching out to pitch their ideas.
Walker gave City Council a timeline estimate of two years. They hope to have the businesses, business names, and managers set in the first year, and construction and renovation completed a year later.
