Giles County has received a planning grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to create a plan to encourage business development and revitalize the downtown areas in Glen Lyn, Pearisburg, and Rich Creek. The grant provides resources to engage the towns’ citizens, businesses, and property owners in the downtown districts in order to develop a vision for the future of each town, and identify development projects and strategies to encourage business growth that support a thriving downtown area for each community. In addition, New River Valley Regional Commission (NRVRC) staff provides economic research to identify potential business opportunities, especially related to tourism and the increasing visitation to Giles County’s outdoor recreation attractions. Giles County will engage an architect or design firm to develop specific redevelopment project designs and cost estimates for rehabilitating buildings in the downtowns.
Giles County applied for the grant in order to build on the ongoing initiatives of Giles County, including efforts to promote outdoor recreation tourism, investments in outdoor recreation amenities focused on the New River, and the current DHCD grant in Narrows and Pembroke to undertake a similar planning process. This new planning grant helps to ensure that all five towns, Giles County, and other regional partners are working together to pursue complementary economic development strategies that maximize the benefit of these ongoing investments in outdoor recreation tourism. In addition, the grant helps prepare the Towns to apply for future DHCD grants to implement the development projects and business support programs they identify in the planning process.
For further information, please contact Patrick O’Brien (pobrien@nrvrc.org), 540-639-9313 x206.