The new event center on Melrose Avenue is already busy

Crew completed a stage on a previously opened stage LH Hamler Event Center Owner Mike Hamler said recently. He bought a former auto shop for $265,000 and paid more than $500,000 to renovate it into an event center. He has two meeting rooms totaling 7,600 square feet. Although it opened in November, the center is still in its infancy.

Hamler, who is active in the real estate and funeral industries, said he liked the location of the building, which once housed Austin Auto Service and is known to some as the Goodyear Building. The garage used to be painted green and yellow, but is now finished in gray and blue.

Hamler said the space will be used for multiple purposes and will also be available for catering. “Given that, we can host it there,” Hamler said. “We have reservations almost every weekend.”

Grief counseling groups meet on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of the month. Thursday is jazz night. For more information, please visit hamlar.org.

Hamler named the center after his late uncle, LH Hamler. Among his numerous roles, he was the first black member of the Roanoke School Board and the school board's first black president, according to his biography.

Hamler, president of the funeral business, said the project is under the auspices of Hamler Properties, which owns the building, and is in partnership with the Hamler Family Foundation and Hamler-Curtis Funeral Home and Crematorium.

Modine will spend $18.1 million to expand its Rockbridge County plant that makes data center cooling equipment, adding 211 new jobs, the governor's office announced Tuesday.

Based in Racine, Wis., Modine has served Rockbridge County for more than 60 years. The plant is located southwest of Lexington on Collierstown Road. His $470,000 grant from the Federal Opportunity Fund will support the Rockbridge County project.