
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 8, 1994                   TAG: 9403080088
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SALEM PARK FILLING FAST

With two expanding Roanoke Valley businesses moving in, Salem's new industrial park already is at least half full.

Noble-Met Ltd. and Tele-Path Industries unveiled architects' renderings for their buildings in the Apperson Drive park Monday at Salem City Hall. With the two buildings and Tele-Path's option on another parcel, the four-lot park is close to capacity.

"You hear over and over again - what does the Roanoke Valley need?" said Assistant City Manager Forest Jones. "Clean, high-tech, environmentally safe [businesses] - and that's what we're getting."

Five-year-old Noble-Met, a metal tubular products company with 19 employees, expects to expand to 24 to 30 employees in the next few months. The Salem site will be about 20,000 square feet and can be doubled later if needed.

Tele-Path, also with 20,000 square feet, has 62 employees making electronics testing equipment for telecommunications companies. The company already has grown to the number of employees it expected to have by the end of 1994, said President Leon Harris.

Both buildings are expected to be finished by fall, said contractor Samuel Lionberger Jr. Construction will cost more than $1 million each, he said.

by CNB