Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

Roanoke is a wonderful place to do business because it's big enough to have a market, it's a diverse group of people, and yet it's small enough that when you need something, it's accessible and everyone is aligned around the same goal of making our community stronger and a better place to live.

Thank you.

As a small business owner, the incentive programs offered by the city are wildly impactful. For me, cash flow can be limited just based upon traffic, seasonality, time of the year, all the things that are very impactful in small businesses. These incentive programs give a little bit of breathing room to upgrade equipment, purchase new things when equipment fails or breaks, as happens in small business, and just provide some breathing room for small businesses like ours to be able to compete.

I actually got quite a lot of equipment. It was amazing. I got a laser, an x-ray unit, some dental hand pieces, and then like an ultrasonic cleaning unit as well, which was really awesome because I was actually able to make a lot of hiring decisions because I equipped a whole other room with the equipment. So it was really nice.

I feel like the incentive program is small enough that it can provide companies a foot in the door per se on maybe a piece of equipment or two smaller pieces of equipment or even maybe some items that they needed to kind of take that next step as they grow their company. Our purchases at Bloom were primarily for kitchen equipment and refrigeration. We took it as an opportunity to expand our baking and pastry program.

Roanoke's been a great partner for us. When we decided to relocate, they were super in helping us try to find a new location. They've helped us a little bit financially to invest in some more technologies as we move to the new building. So very happy with the relationship we've had with Roanoke over the past 40 years.