Meg Hibbert, Contributing writer

The future of the Valleydale Foods meatpacking plant which for years filled the air of East Salem with the aromas of smoked bacon and ham now smells sweet.

The plant, which had been closed since 2006, has sold for a reported $1 million.  Roanoke visionary developer Ed Walker says owners, Indiana Street LLC, plan to use historic tax credits. That means whatever development that takes place at the corner of Indiana and Eighth streets will preserve some of the 80-plus years of history associated with Valleydale and its predecessors, in exchange for tax credits.

The association with Walker, who has revamped historic downtown Roanoke office and manufacturing buildings for commercial and residential uses, reassures City of Salem officials.

“We’re excited it has been purchased, and even more that Ed Walker is involved,” said Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess on Tuesday, a week after Walker’s announcement. “We know he is going to be using historic tax credits for some part of the project, protecting some part of the old Valleydale site,” Boggess added. “We know he will bring ideas that will generate jobs and some type of mixed use. We don’t know if it will have a residential or commercial component,” Boggess said.

Right now, the building and 11 acres is zoned Heavy Manufacturing. Indiana Street LLC was registered in November 2016 with administrative offices in Harrisonburg.

Boggess said Salem City government has known for several months there was renewed interest in the Valleydale property, which property owner Richard Bishop had on the market for years.

“We had some inquiries and we saw some surveyors out there,” Boggess said. “It didn’t begin to jell until around Christmastime.” He pointed out the city was not involved in the purchase at all. RBX Partners out of Harrisonburg was the listed purchasing agent.

In a statement he released last week, Ed Walker was quoted as saying, “We are thrilled to have the unexpected opportunity to lend a hand in figuring out the Valleydale building’s next positive role in this strong community.”

“As with every project, we intend to be good stewards of the building, of its history, of this great company, of its former employees and good stewards for a bright future at Valleydale. I would love to see some mixed uses that included light industry that would create some new jobs and bring workers back to Valleydale. It won’t be hot dogs, but hopefully there are some other light industrial uses that would work well.”

In 2014, the last vestiges of Valleydale’s local commercial presence faded, when the sales office off Peters Creek Road closed. Kirk Barrett, then the northeast director of regional sales, sales representative Brenda Hampton and Shirley Gentry packed up all the Valleydale memorabilia and donated it to the Salem Museum.

“We passed it on to the museum for safekeeping,” Barrett said. The collection will be numbered and inventoried by interns, and eventually, the museum plans to have an exhibit.

Valleydale’s meat packing plant at the corner of Indiana and 8th streets in Salem has been closed since 2006. The pigs marched on, though, across billboards at the Salem baseball stadium and at the Salem rodeo in previous years and in commercials until recently. “Even if you didn’t work at the plant, you had Valleydale meat for breakfast,” said former Salem Museum Director John Long.

Just about everybody under the age of 80 can sing at least part of the jingle: “The music goes zoom-zoom. The drummer goes boom-boom, and everybody shouts, ‘Hoo-ray for Valleydale, Hoo-ray for Valleydale, all hail it’s Valleydale!”

Stuffed versions of the three original pigs – Zoomer, Boomer and Zinger – as well as the later addition, the only girl, Val – are among the collection in the Salem Museum’s archives, as well as videos and audios of the company’s commercials, photographs, an empty 8-gallon lard bucket, a model of a Valleydale tractor-trailer truck and more.

The plant employed about 200 people in its heyday. Barrett said Valleydale branded items such as hot dogs and bacon continue to be made in Smithfield facilities in Kinston, N.C. “Most of the products are sold in the farther southwest area of Virginia, he said, “maybe in Food Lion.”

The recent purchase of Smithfield Packing by the Chinese that same year has nothing to do with the Valleydale changes, according to Barrett. “The Chinese haven’t got anything to do with this at all. The company is just not going to have any more satellite offices,” he said.

China already has Smithfield facilities there, but not Valleydale, he said. “We will be exporting some of our Smithfield products to China, especially fresh pork meat, some from North Carolina and some from the midwest.”