WSLS: Roanoke promoting Innovation Corridor to attract more development:
Corridor showcases work of researchers, entrepreneurs
By: Jessica Jewell
The Star City is working to be known as an innovation city.
Leaders from the city, Virginia Tech, Carilion, Radford University and others are coming together to establish an Innovation Corridor.
The original plan was for a physical corridor down Jefferson Street. Now, the focus has shifted to branding Roanoke as a center for innovation and a multimillion dollar biomedical and tech hub.
The goal is to bring in more students, researchers and development.
“Virginia Tech is doing amazing things, VTC, the Fralin Biomedical Institute, there’s so much incredible work going on and this is a way to sort of harness all of that and show to the larger world, not just to the community, but to the larger world, this is what we’re about and this is what we’re doing,” said Marc Nelson, Roanoke’s special projects coordinator for innovation and economic inclusion.