Roanoke Industrial Center (Roanoke, Virginia)

 industrial zone, production, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, historic district

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The Roanoke Industrial Center, located 2 miles from Downtown Roanoke, hosts a variety of tenants – from a plumbing company to a biofuels firm to a carpet maker. The evolution of the Roanoke Industrial Center has its roots beginning as far back as 1961. Construction began on the first part of the 9th Street complex in 1961. Stretching from Riverland Road to Bennington Street, development was completed in stages, until finished in 1980.

Today, the complex consists of approximately 20 different buildings, comprising more than 50 individual units and over 1.2 million square feet of space under roof.

The Roanoke Industrial Center has housed hundreds of different companies and organizations. By 1990, the RIC had gone from having several large tenants to spaces for a "small community" of over 40 businesses ranging from construction to warehousing and everything in between.

While the present Roanoke Industrial Center dates back to 1961, the site itself goes back even further. Starting in 1917, this site was home to a production plant for the historic American Viscose Corporation, once the world's largest producer of artificial silk.

At its booming peak in the 1920s, the state-of-the art Roanoke mill employed more than 5,000 people, and operated almost as a small town unto itself. Viscose spun 20 million pounds of rayon each year at it's Roanoke plant, and remained in operation until 1948.

Today's RIC still includes many of the historic structures and ambience of the original Viscose mill. On the strengths of its architectural and industrial significance, the complex was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on August 6th, 2019, where it is designated a historic district.

www.roanokeindustrialcenter.com/index.html
NRHP #100004260