Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

David Cyrus, a technician at Wimmer Tire & Services Center, works on a customer's vehicle at the center's new building in South Roanoke.

Photo courtesy of Wimmer Tire & Services Center

Wimmer Tire's former location on Jefferson Street was in a flood plain area near the Roanoke River, as seen in this undated photo.

Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Wimmer Tire & Services Center's new location on McClanahan Street is more successful than the former location on Jefferson Street.

Floods, rats and grime.

What's to miss, really?

Mark Hall fretted at first, in 2001, when the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority pushed him to sell Wimmer Tire's property on South Jefferson Street.

The authority wanted the business gone from the ground that had housed Wimmer Tire for 78 years but was coveted for a biomedical park.

Hall, who is Wimmer Tire & Services Center's owner and president, ultimately sold the property and moved the business to McClanahan Street in South Roanoke.

Now, more than six years later, he said he's glad he did -- both because the move has been a good thing for Wimmer Tire and because he believes the medical complex blooming at the redevelopment site has the potential to be a great thing for the Roanoke Valley.

He has been following a case in court this week in which holdout B&B Holdings LLC has fought the housing authority's attempt to condemn two of its properties in the redevelopment area. Hall said he has fielded phone calls from Craig Balzer and others with Balzer and Associates, an architectural and engineering firm that is a consultant to B&B Holdings, asking him for input about the case.

Hall, 56, cites several reasons he's glad Wimmer Tire left South Jefferson Street, where neighbors included Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal, Mennel Milling's flour mill and a dusty concrete ready-mix plant.

The new location on McClanahan Street is more visible, he said, as well as convenient to loyal customers in South Roanoke and handy for employees of Carilion Clinic who drop off vehicles on the way to work.

Wimmer Tire opened at the new location in November 2002.

"There's been an increase in sales," he said. "We get new customers every day. We're doing a higher volume."

Hall did not disclose specific sales figures.

He added, "Of course, my overhead is higher here. I have a note payment every month, and I was debt-free down there [at the former site]."

In retrospect, he said, the tire and repair shop on South Jefferson Street "was a dirty hole," with 78 years of accumulated grime. One employee described it as a dungeon.

Hall said he believes the original company was founded by three Wimmer brothers, probably in 1924.

The location in South Roanoke is cleaner, bigger and brighter with high ceilings, natural light and a shop floor whose epoxy paint helps keep it clean. At the old store, rodents occasionally loitered.

"I figured the rats lived at the scrap metal place, ate at the mills and hung out at Wimmer Tire," Hall said. "Some of my good, longtime customers have told me they wouldn't have come in the old place if they hadn't known me."

Car repair customer Cathy Bear, who occupied a chair Monday in Wimmer Tire & Services Center's large waiting room, agreed. She estimates she's been a Wimmer Tire customer for about 25 years, becoming a patron soon after meeting Hall at church.

"This is definitely an improvement," Bear said. "Not only the location but the condition of the building. It's cleaner, much brighter, much better."

In addition, Hall said, the tire and service center's former site had been repeatedly flooded through the years by the Roanoke River.

Hall bought Wimmer Tire in 1984 from a neighbor, David Selfe. During the memorable flood of 1985, the river inundated numerous businesses in the Roanoke Valley. Flood waters reached Wimmer Tire's second floor, Hall said.

Wimmer has two other locations in the Roanoke Valley, one on Williamson Road and one in Salem, and a store in Christiansburg.

Finally, Hall said ongoing redevelopment at the site along South Jefferson Street and Reserve Avenue promises good things for the Roanoke and New River valleys. Carilion Clinic, the region's largest employer, is building a new clinic there, and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute is also under construction. Between the two is Riverside 1, a completed, Carilion-owned office building.

"No one can make the argument that Roanoke isn't better off with everything that's going on down there," he said.

Other companies whose properties have been purchased by the housing authority and moved from the redevelopment site include Ace Tire & Lube and Mennel Milling. Ace Tire moved to Williamson Road, and it is not clear whether it remains in business. A phone number is disconnected.

Mennel Milling occupies new ground in Roanoke County, and demolition of its former complex along South Jefferson Street is under way.

Back in 2001, before Wimmer Tire agreed to move, Hall wondered whether he'd fetch a fair price for his property. He worried about finding a new location close to his clientele in South Roanoke. And he had grown accustomed to the Jefferson Street shop.

"You get used to your surroundings," he said. "You never know how bad things were until you look in your rear view mirror."

Hall paid $636,000 for the McClanahan Street property, which he bought from Carilion. The building once housed Carilion's laundry operation and, previously, was a bottling plant for Dr Pepper.

Hall received $240,000 for his old property. He said he invested roughly the same to renovate and prepare the new home -- the housing authority agreed to pay about a quarter of that total under a relocation assistance deal that covered moving expenses and helped defray renovation costs.

"I got a fair deal," he said.

Meanwhile, Eric Earnhart, a Carilion spokesman, said Carilion anticipates buying the former Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal property later this year. He said he did not know a possible purchase price.

News researcher Belinda Harris contributed to this report.