A longtime warehouse pitched as a mixed-use opportunity sold in Roanoke, Virginia, potentially setting the table for a redevelopment that would be part of one of the city's most ambitious economic projects in decades.
In recognition, the sale earned a 2025 CoStar Impact Award for sale/acquisition of the year in Roanoke, as selected by an independent panel of local industry professionals.
Electric utility provider American Electric Power finalized a $3.35 million deal in November to sell its former property, a flex warehouse complete with office and showroom space, at the base of Mill Mountain along the Roanoke River.
The roughly 23-acre site was touted for its mixed-use potential due in part to its prime location across from the former campus of American Viscose, a major rayon producer that shuttered its factory site, today considered one of Roanoke’s most historic industrial properties, in the late 1950s.
Located on more than 200 acres, the campus at one time was the largest rayon plant in the world, employing more than 5,000 workers and including such on-site amenities as dining halls, a gymnasium, a dispensary and a dormitory for single women who worked at the plant, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
In 2023, developer Ed Walker acquired the sprawling site with plans to remake it into Riverdale, a proposed $50 million neighborhood envisioned to include new apartments, offices, retail, restaurants and a hotel. The existing campus, which has operated as a pseudo-maker space home to dozens of tenants including art studios, a ballet school and sheet metal shops, is reportedly expected to see its first new apartment building break ground this year as part of the Riverdale development.
About the deal: Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group brokered the sale of American Electric Power's 80,391-square-foot complex at 1919 Ninth St. Built in 1973, the property includes 40,000 square feet of office space with the balance being warehouse and shop space. The deal came out to nearly $42 per square foot.
What the judges said: "The sale is part of an overall transformation of [the] Riverdale area in the City of Roanoke, an area slated for significant redevelopment over the next 20 years," said Price Gutshall, a vice president at Cushman & Wakefield Thalhimer. "The sale reflects increased investment in [an] area that has historic economic significance in the region."
They made it happen: Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group's Vice President Adam Hardy, Senior Vice President Bryan Musselwhite and President Matt Huff.