Woody Crenshaw, the owner of the Floyd Country Store, plans to develop a 15,000-square-foot empty brick building across the street from the store into apartments, as well as commercial, retail and restaurant space.

In the past year, the Village Green, a once-vacant grocery store, re-opened with 14 locally owned businesses in Floyd.

Old Jacksonville Cemetery, which developers plan to preserve, lies behind the Hotel Floyd, a locally owned 14-room facility.

Photos by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Cervando Cervantes of Woodworks Restoration and Remodeling Inc. shovels old brick during the remodeling at Cafe del Sol in Floyd.

FLOYD -- The sweet scent of fudge perfumes the freshly painted red walls of Nancy's Candy store. An earthy oak fragrance rises up from the Hotel Floyd's glistening hardwood floors. On Locust Street, a flower-scented breeze whistles through benches recently built in sidewalk alcoves.

Visitors returning to Floyd during its tourism peak this summer will notice that everything smells new. But although the one-stoplight town has added new shops, parking lots, sidewalks, benches and a hotel during the past year, it hasn't extended its commercial sector beyond the block bordered by Locust and Main streets.

It's not coincidence. To prevent strip malls from moving into suburban areas of town, Floyd officials and property owners are working together to convert old downtown buildings into new commercial and residential space.

The concept, known as "adaptive re-use," is also being explored in Giles, Pulaski, Wise and Scott counties, according to downtown Floyd property owner Woody Crenshaw, who said he's been contacted by people in those communities about what steps Floyd has taken to preserve its local character.

In the past year, the Village Green, a once-vacant grocery store, re-opened with 14 locally owned businesses.

Hotel Floyd, a locally owned 14-room facility, opened behind the Village Green, putting visitors in walking distance of weekend hot spots such as the Floyd Country Store and the Sun Music Hall.

Contractors hired by the town are putting the finishing touches on a public restroom facility, bordering a field that is soon to become the town's first park. A community design drafting session for the park is scheduled for June 7 at the Sun Music Hall.

Meanwhile, a Community Block Development Grant allowed the town to improve storefront facades, sidewalks and benches, said Town Manager Mike Maslaney.

When grouped with renovations to the Floyd County Store and the Sun Music Hall during the past two years, the total cost of Floyd's revitalization project is nearing $6 million, which was funded by grant, town and private dollars. About $350,000 of town taxpayer money funded the purchase of park land and the public restroom facility.

But Floyd isn't close to being finished. Crenshaw also plans to develop a 15,000-square-foot empty brick building across the street from the Floyd Country Store into apartments, as well as commercial, retail and restaurant space. The lot beside the building would make a good spot for a farmers market, Crenshaw said.

"There was a real energy to try to protect Floyd and develop it and to try to make our community more economically active and viable," Crenshaw said. "The Village Green building was purchased to protect it from being the location for a national chain business because we really felt the importance of trying to develop our own local economy here."

While the town hasn't updated its comprehensive plan in five years, adaptive re-use is consistent with the town's values, Maslaney said. He's seen what happens when local governments fail to focus on their downtown areas or don't protect them through zoning ordinances.

"What we've seen in the big cities is what's called urban sprawl -- instead of renovating the buildings downtown, they go out in the suburbs and they construct new buildings. That doesn't do anything to keep the spirit of the town alive."

Adaptive re-use is better than new construction because it saves costs and a town's heritage, he added.

"Trying to tear down something is an expensive way and it fosters that consumptive attitude," Maslaney said. "What we need to do is use what we have and update it. You go to Europe and they have buildings that are hundreds of years old. They tell a story, they're a history of the place, and if you keep destroying that, you're destroying your history and that's something that's valuable. It's something we should be thinking more of."

Town officials in Pulaski and Pearisburg are also using Community Development Block Grant money to revitalize their downtown areas and are incorporating similar adaptive re-use models.

Pulaski's revitalization project includes sidewalk and facade improvements, as well as working with downtown building owners to create more upper-floor apartments.

"Part of a healthy downtown is having people living there," said Pulaski's Economic Director John White.

Although the adaptive re-use projects have their differences, White said Pulaski and Floyd's visions are similar in that Floyd is "sort of playing on arts and tourism, and we're mimicking that in a way by talking about a theater that will have performing groups come in and play music."

A not-for-profit group called Friends of the Pulaski Theatre has been fundraising to restore the town's old vaudeville theater built in 1911, White said. The project is expected to be finished this summer.

Meanwhile, Pearisburg has completed three facade renovation projects with two others in the works, said Town Manager Ken Vittum. The town is also renovating two of its historical downtown buildings to house second-floor apartments and first-floor commercial space.

"A lot of these buildings, over the years, have fallen into disuse," Vittum said, and eventually it "gets to where you save the historic fabric of the community or you tear it down and start over again. I think a lot of communities are looking to save what might have been unique from their past."

It wasn't hard to get the Floyd community passionate about adaptive re-use, Crenshaw said. After putting a down payment on the vacant grocery store that became the Village Green in 2004, Crenshaw formed a management team made up of friends and their friends to better organize fundraising efforts. Approximately 13 families participated in renovation planning and fundraising during two years, and 17 investment shares were sold. The team raised approximately $500,000.

"I think it was bringing people not into just one project but into the greater vision of what our community could become," Crenshaw said. "I also think that a lot of people who live here in Floyd have chosen to live here and they wanted to find a way to give something back to the community that they have chosen to live in."