Ed Walker To Rehab Patrick Henry Hotel

The 1925-era Patrick Henry Hotel in Roanoke^

Developer Ed Walker has purchased the Patrick Henry Hotel in downtown Roanoke and plans to spend $14 million in renovations, creating apartments, office space and a restaurant in the 1925-era building. He'll be using the same construction team he has employed for three other major Roanoke projects, but has yet to select an architect. For full details, go here.

I'm pumped about this because I used to eat at the old Four Parrots restaurant about twice a week and our best annual company dinners at the Blue Ridge Business Journal were in the marvelous lobby of the old building. We had a jazz trio and more food than a small country consumes in a week at these things, feeling like big shots and thoroughly enjoying the elegant life.

Ed is simply a miracle in responsible development and we're damn lucky as a community to have him and his family caring about us and our infrastructure.