In late August, AI Ready Roanoke, a coalition of local officials and leaders in higher education, economic development and business, issued a call.

“The Roanoke region is at an inflection point,” said the request for proposals. “Google‘s data center investment at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield, paired with the region’s concentration of advanced manufacturing, life sciences research and higher education capacity, creates a rare opportunity to build durable regional prosperity around AI.”

Nearly 30 applicants submitted proposals for a contract capped at $250,000 to conduct a market demand and feasibility study for a proposed regional AI Center of Excellence.

On Friday, AI Ready Roanoke announced that Texas-based public strategy firm CivicSol is the contract winner. Founded in 2023, the firm’s clients include localities, regions, economic development organizations and public-private coalitions. CivicSol provides services ranging from strategic planning to program evaluation and stakeholder mapping.

The coalition picked CivicSol because it had the right type of experience and the best proposal, according to Botetourt County Economic Development Director Kyle Rosner, who emphasizes the importance of the project.

“I think of AI as like a tsunami onto the economy,” Rosner says. “And I think of the center [as] our region’s boat… The tsunami’s coming… and we can either get washed away or we can try and navigate it.”

The Virginia Chamber Foundation’s 2025 Virginia AI Landscape Assessment reported that about 115,300 jobs in GO Virginia‘s Region 2, which includes the Roanoke and New River valleys, Lynchburg and the surrounding area, are exposed to AI-related changes.

The AI Center of Excellence could provide workforce training, advise area companies on AI adoption and support AI-enabled startups and projects, members of the coalition say.

“We have a pretty strong manufacturing base, and … eventually AI is going to be incorporated more within the manufacturing sectors,” says Salem Economic Development Director Tommy Miller. An AI center, he adds, could help regional companies stay competitive.

Botetourt County’s Economic Development Authority is the contracting entity for the coalition of a dozen partners that includes the cities of Salem and Roanoke, Roanoke County, Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic and Google.

The coalition identified three potential sites for the AI center: Botetourt County-owned land adjacent to Google’s planned data center campus; the historic Salem Post Office, which is owned by Roanoke College; or RoaVa Labs at Carilion Clinic, a biotechnology and life sciences incubator that opened in March.

GO Virginia, a state economic development initiative, provided a $99,999 planning grant to cover part of the study’s cost. Google contributed $26,205, according to Rosner. AI Ready Roanoke members will split the remaining $123,796.

Though it’s in early days, the project has critics.

Kathryn Hatam, a community organizer with the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance, says public interest in this type of facility is “nonexistent.”

“You have a few select folks who have decided that they are going to hitch their wagon to the AI bandwagon,” she says, “and unfortunately, they are dragging the populace of the Roanoke and Botetourt areas… along with them.”

Rosner acknowledges that AI attracts controversy and emphasizes that the study is intended to document need and community interest.

“At the end of this, we’re going to have some working documents that we can move on to implementation if it makes sense, but that’s all it is right now,” he says, “and … I worry that’s getting lost, especially in the Facebook dialogue.”

Virginia Business Associate Editor Beth JoJack contributed to this report.

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