Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Store manager Cynthia Ilewicz makes a latte in the shop on Main Street.

Keith and Paula Bolte

• Residence: Blacksburg
• Occupations: Owners of Imaginations Toy & Furniture Co. (with stores in Blacksburg, Radford and Charlottesville), Bolte Development, Annie Kay’s (with stores in Blacksburg and Radford), Imagination Station in Roanoke and the Coffee Mill in Radford. Keith Bolte is also chief of the Blacksburg Fire Department.
• Plans for 2007: They are looking to purchase a permanent Roanoke home for Imagination Station.

RADFORD -- There was a time when Paula Bolte had the chance to buy three stores and passed on two because she wasn't sure she could handle the work.

Those days are long gone.

A week ago, Bolte and her husband, Keith, became the proud -- and only slightly stressed -- owners of their fourth business, adding Radford's Coffee Mill to a list that includes Bolte Development, Annie Kay's Main Street Market and Imaginations Toy & Furniture Co.

All told, the couple run six storefronts from Blacksburg to Charlottesville and oversee 48 employees.

On the Coffee Mill's first morning open under Bolte ownership, Paula Bolte pointed out the new details -- the expanded tea selection and a box of Guayaki Yerba Mate -- pausing every few minutes to welcome customers with her customary enthusiasm.

Hiding well beneath that enthusiasm, Bolte noted, is the kind of stressful energy that gets her out of bed in the middle of the night to make lists.

And with four businesses to run, there's always a list.

From the outside, it may seem an incongruous mix: furniture, natural food products, toys and piping hot lattes.

But the Boltes say their latest venture fits into their plans quite nicely.

The Coffee Mill, located just a few doors down from the building that houses Imaginations and Annie Kay's, will give the Boltes the kitchen they need to prepare baked goods for sale at their two Annie Kay's locations.

Beyond that, though, Paula Bolte said she and her husband just couldn't bear the thought of a much-loved local business closing down.

"The Coffee Mill is an amazing thing," Bolte said. And "it's the only coffee shop in downtown Radford, and Keith and I can't imagine a small college town without one."

"It's just critical for maintaining the downtown down there," she added.

Initially, however, the Coffee Mill wasn't an obvious choice for the Boltes, either.

Paula Bolte, who is a member of Main Street Radford's board, had heard that owners Cindy Miller and Fred Singer were looking to sell and Bolte tried to find someone else to buy the local hangout.

She made some phone calls, but when nothing panned out, she figured, why not? She told Miller she'd buy it herself.

Miller was thrilled.

"We wanted to keep it open and preferably with people whom we felt would sort of maintain the general feel -- not turn it into a disco or something -- and also preferably keep it in independent, local ownership," she said.

Keith and Paula Bolte fit the bill.

And now, as Miller looks forward to some downtime, the Boltes are in familiar ramp-up mode.

"We love coffee and always have," Paula Bolte said.

"You just have the minor things about using the equipment," she added, earning a laugh from her husband.

Buying businesses and expanding them has kept the Boltes busy since 1997, when they bought Imagination Station in Blacksburg.

After changing the shop's name to Imaginations Toy & Furniture Co. and moving it to its current location on South Main Street, the Boltes opened sister stores in Richmond, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach and Radford.

The stores in Richmond and Virginia Beach have since closed, and the Boltes have learned that one of their best business assets is being local.

In 2005, they bought Annie Kay's. In June 2006, they purchased Imagination Station in Roanoke.

Of the Richmond Imaginations, Keith Bolte said, "We found we couldn't clone ourselves and couldn't run it from a distance."

"No one knew us there," Paula Bolte added. "But here [in Blacksburg] and in Radford and starting in Roanoke, people know us and they expect us to be there."

This community interaction feeds a passion for local businesses that has long motivated Paula Bolte -- a passion she and her husband hope to pass on to their 13-year-old son, Taylor.

"We're educating him that you support your neighbor and you support your local businesses because if we don't support local businesses, it'll just be a lot of small towns with nothing but a Wal-Mart to choose from," Paula Bolte said.

Perhaps then it is fitting that the Boltes have bought the Coffee Mill, a place Miller created not according to any particular business model, but because she "wanted it to be a community place where everybody would feel welcome."