The Crozet Gazette reported that for most of the past decade, the old Virginia Metalcrafters building sat empty along Route 250, a leftover from more than a century of ironworkers and brass casters who once supplied hardware to the rest of the country. Then a tattoo studio moved in. Then a coffee roaster. Then a brewery. By this past August, the building was crowded enough that a reporter walking through it could count off names like Basic City Brewing, Happ Coffee, Common Wealth Crush winery, Bud Co. Trail Supply, and the Waynesboro Innovation Hub, all sharing wall space with hand-lettered signs asking passersby, "What could you grow here?"
That question has an actual answer this year, and it traces back to one city program rather than a dozen unrelated decisions. If you live near Warren Oaks and have noticed more construction tape and fresh signage around downtown and along the Metalcrafters corridor, you're watching the output of Waynesboro's Grow Waynesboro Rockfish Gateway initiative, a grant competition that just picked its 2026 winners and gave them a specific deadline: launch or expand by fall.
A pitch night decided what's coming
In April 2026, a group of local entrepreneurs stood up at The Foundry at Basic City Beer Co. and pitched business ideas they'd spent seven weeks developing through a partnership between the city, the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, and the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center. Judges scored each pitch on business viability, job creation potential, and community impact, then handed out $65,000 in grants. The money came from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development's Community Business Launch program along with the city, the Economic Development Authority of Waynesboro, and private backers including Atlantic Union Bank, First Bank & Trust, and Shentel's Glo Fiber.
The winners now have until fall 2026 to open or expand. That single detail is the reason a resident three or four blocks from Warren Oaks can expect several new storefronts to appear within the same few months rather than trickling in over years.
In the Crozet Gazette's report, Greg Hitchin, the city's director of economic development and tourism since 2010, said:
"We want people to open a business here."
What's actually landing, and where
The grant recipients are landing in three places: downtown along the Main Street corridor, the Metalcrafters building on Route 250, and Willow Oak Plaza on West Broad Street. The Metalcrafters building has quietly become the city's second commercial district.
| Location | New arrival | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Willow Oak Plaza, 901 W Broad Street | Valley Alley | Retro bowling alley with a vintage arcade and restaurant |
| Downtown Waynesboro | Passerine Market | Specialty food market and wine bar with charcuterie, cheese, and local produce |
| Virginia Metalcrafters Marketplace | Shenandoah Valley Bouldering | Indoor rock climbing and fitness facility |
| Virginia Metalcrafters Marketplace | Waynesboro Inspiration Station | Kids' creative studio and specialty toy shop, a second location for Crozet Inspiration Station |
| Virginia Metalcrafters Marketplace | Trellis Art Collective | Artist-led studio and commercial space founded in 2026 |
Willow Oak Plaza is a 163,090-square-foot shopping center on West Broad Street, already anchored by a Walmart Neighborhood Market and a CVS and sitting five minutes from Interstate 64. Valley Alley's own site confirms the 901 W Broad Street address and describes the plan as bringing "fun for all ages back to Waynesboro." Passerine Market received a $12,000 grant specifically to build out a downtown wine bar and market, the largest single award in this year's round according to the recipient list published by Waynesboro Business.
Shenandoah Valley Bouldering was the program's top overall winner. Its founders, Ross and Sophie Elliott along with Taylor Nystrom, met in western North Carolina before settling in the Charlottesville area, and Sophie has said the group plans to open the climbing walls at Metalcrafters before the year is out, backed by a Kickstarter campaign layered on top of their own investment and the grant money.
A varied mix of new businesses
The awards span a bowling alley with a full arcade and restaurant, a climbing gym with staffed walls and fitness programming, and a kids' creative studio built around memberships, camps, and drop-in art sessions.
Together, these businesses add entertainment, food, fitness, and creative activities near Warren Oaks this fall.
The track record already exists two doors down
None of this is a first attempt for the building. Tattoo Mountain, one of Metalcrafters' earlier tenants, spent eight months waiting to move in after signing on, its owner Wiecek said. The shop opened anyway, grew from one tattoo artist to a team of four, and now stays open seven days a week including Sundays.
Across the street, Bonobos Bakery had a slow opening last spring before a TikTok surge turned its bright pink storefront into the kind of place that draws lines for cinnamon rolls. Neither business received a Rockfish Gateway grant. Both prove the corridor can support a slow-build business through a rough first stretch, which matters if you're wondering whether this fall's grant recipients are likely to stick around past their opening month.
The clock on this particular wave
The city's downtown revitalization effort runs on a separate, two-year state-funded program that wraps up at the end of this year. Waynesboro also closed out a round of building improvement grants, worth up to $5,000 in matching funds for facade and outdoor space upgrades, with an August 7 deadline, and a BOOST tourism grant round offering up to $3,000 for marketing campaigns aimed at visitors. Winners for that BOOST round were expected to be announced within weeks of the application closing.
Put together, this fall isn't just another season of openings. It's the closing stretch of a specific two-year funding push, which means the businesses landing now are likely to represent this cycle's full slate rather than the start of a longer trickle. The city's broader numbers back up why officials keep funding this kind of program: visitor spending in Waynesboro hit $85.9 million in 2024, a 10.4 percent jump over 2023 that Hitchin called the largest percentage increase anywhere in the Shenandoah Valley, and the city's population has grown to around 24,000 residents as of this year.
What to actually watch for
If you're near Warren Oaks and want to time your visits rather than stumble onto a grand opening after the fact, the Metalcrafters cluster is worth checking on first since Shenandoah Valley Bouldering's founders have named a before-year's-end target. Valley Alley and Passerine Market are both working toward a fall 2026 window without a published date yet, so a call ahead or a glance at their social pages before making a special trip downtown will save a wasted drive. Willow Oak Plaza already has daily traffic from its existing grocery and pharmacy anchors, so Valley Alley's arrival will change the parking lot dynamic there more than it changes downtown's.
None of these openings require a special occasion. A Tuesday evening at a new bowling alley or a Saturday stop at a specialty market that just started stocking Virginia wine is the kind of thing that becomes a habit before anyone notices it started.
If any of this makes you curious about what's happening in the market around Warren Oaks itself, Nest Realty - Shenandoah Valley keeps an eye on both sides of this town, the storefronts and the streets around them.
