Retail roundup: South Peak development in Roanoke County drawing attention

The first condo building at the South Peak development has been completed, and a different part of the project will start to take shape soon.

Dirt has already been moved to prepare the site of a Hilton Garden Inn at the Roanoke County development, situated on a 62-acre hillside at the intersection of U.S. 220 and Virginia 419.

The hotel is expected to take about a year to complete, opening by next summer, said Jeff Barbic, director of sales and marketing for South Peak.

The building will take on arts-and-crafts architecture with stone and wood timbers to match the theme of the development.

The five-story building will have 117 rooms, an indoor pool, and a restaurant and lounge, Barbic said.

Up the hill, the first completed condo building has attracted hundreds of potential residents and curiosity seekers to weekend open houses, Barbic said.

“Residential interest has been beyond our wildest dreams,” he said.

Some who come to see the condos are older couples looking for new construction with low maintenance. Others are just curious about the condos and the view, Barbic said.

Six of the condos are under contract, with the first closing scheduled for the end of the month, Barbic said.

Construction on the second of five condo buildings will begin when 17 condos in the first building have been sold.

The condos are on the market for between $199,000 and $627,900.

Later this summer work will begin on a spec house for The Estate, a neighborhood of 23 single-family homes on about 12 acres of land behind Lowe’s. The spec house will take about six months to complete. South Peak is appealing to builders to construct a few spec houses as well, Barbic said.

The development also includes plans for a restaurant and retail.

Developers are looking for an upscale restaurant that is “representative of the project,” Barbic said. They have received interest from local and chain restaurants, but South Peak is four to six months from striking a deal with any of them, Barbic said.

South Peak won’t focus on the retail aspect of the development until details of the restaurant, or restaurants, are worked out. Just how much retail can go in at the development depends on how much parking space is available after the construction of the restaurant or restaurants.

South Peak is holding a grand opening June 1 and 2.

Buffalo Wild Wings plans renovations

Buffalo Wild Wings on Starkey Road will close for eight days in June for a half-million dollar renovation of the interior and exterior.

The renovations mark the restaurant’s 10th anniversary and are part of the franchisee’s re licensing agreement with the company, said Mark Puckett, president of ACI Holdings, the franchisee that owns the Starkey Road Buffalo Wild Wings.

The new look will add about 94 seats to the restaurant, 70 of which will be in a new banquet room. The work also will update the restaurant with the company’s new logo and colors: forest green and burgundy.

The banquet room will be constructed in an area that is currently used for storage, Puckett said. It will have its own bar with 30 beers on tap, 16 52-inch televisions and two high-definition projectors. The banquet room will also have outdoor seating.

Elsewhere, crews will renovate furniture, flooring, wall fixtures, the bar top and the bathrooms.

The kitchen will receive some new equipment to accommodate extra seating in the banquet room, and the service window will be enlarged, Puckett said.

Outside, the building will be repainted brown and yellow, and new signage featuring the company’s new logo will be installed.

The restaurant will close for renovations after the Yankees-Red Sox game on June 2.

While it is closed, the Wingmobile, a mobile restaurant with sit-down dining in a 20-by-40-foot tent, will be in the parking lot serving a limited menu and to-go meals.

Buffalo Wild Wings is scheduled to reopen June 11. The first 100 customers to visit the restaurant after the opening will win free wings for a year, Puckett said.

Penn Station Subs headed to Valley View

A husband and wife with several years of restaurant experience will open East Coast Penn Station Subs at Valley View on Tuesday.

Mike and Courtney Mazzarese bought the franchise rights to open the sub shop, which will be the sixth in the state.

The Mazzareses met while working at Burger King in Indianapolis. Courtney Mazzarese was a manager for the fast-food chain for eight years before she and her husband and children moved to Roanoke to be closer to her family and start their own business.

They chose to open a Penn Station franchise because they said they were impressed with the food and the support from the corporate office.

But it took two years to find the right location, they said.

The sub shop will open where Zero’s Subs closed, in the same shopping plaza as IHOP. They were directed to the location by a real estate agent who told the Mazzareses that the owner of Zero’s Subs was looking to get out of business. The Mazzareses approached the owner and paid him to vacate the space so they could begin work on Penn Station, Mike Mazzarese said.

They liked the location.

“Everybody from around Roanoke comes to Valley View at some point,” he said.

The Mazzareses declined to disclose how they are financing the restaurant. The average cost to open a Penn Station restaurant is $332,835, according to the company.

The space was gutted in March and work has been ongoing to put in new sheet rock, tile floors, kitchen equipment and bathrooms.

The Mazzareses plan to hire about 30 people.

The restaurant is known for its Philadelphia cheesesteak sub, hand-cut fries and fresh-squeezed lemonade. The bread used for sandwiches is baked at Roanoke’s Maple Leaf Bakery.

Penn Station was started in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. It now has more than 250 stores in 13 Midwest and East Coast states, the company says. It plans to open 40 new restaurants this year, and 45 next year.

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