What is Wildwood Commerce Park?
Wildwood Commerce Park is a 270-acre commercial and industrial site adjacent to Exit 19 of Interstate 77 in Carroll County, Virginia, which the county's economic development page calls a regional location. It is a collaborative project of Carroll County, the City of Galax and Grayson County through the Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority, which made its initial purchase of the site in 2011.
A 270-acre site beside Exit 19, as Carroll County describes it now
Start with the park as its home county presents it today. On Carroll County's economic development page the park's size is 270 acres, its place is adjacent to Exit 19 of I-77, and its role is regional, for commercial and industrial use.
The same county page places Carroll County twelve miles south of the interchange of Interstate 81 and Interstate 77. That is the county's figure for the county, not a measured distance for the park, and a different figure for the park appears later on this page with its own source.
The county's 2024 comprehensive plan keeps the park in its policy. It includes a short, direct line: "Continue to promote Wildwood Commerce Park at I-77 Exit 19." The same plan tells the county to support the regional authority behind the park, and it notes that Twin County Airport sits at 2,694 feet above sea level just west of I-77 near Exit 19.
Why ground near Exit 19 can carry an Austinville mailing address and still be in Carroll County is explained on the Austinville, Virginia area page.
Three localities working through one regional authority
Wildwood is not one county's project alone. The Town of Hillsville's business page describes the arrangement in one sentence.
Wildwood Commerce Park is a collaborative project among Carroll County, the City of Galax, and Grayson County through the Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority.
Town of Hillsville, Business and Economy
The authority, known as BRCEDA, traces itself to a state designation. Its own site says the Virginia General Assembly designated Carroll County, the City of Galax and Grayson County as Virginia's Entrepreneurial Region in 2004, and that those localities formed BRCEDA to promote that distinction. A GO Virginia announcement calls it a multi-jurisdictional regional economic development authority.
Carroll County's 2024 comprehensive plan describes BRCEDA the same way, as a regional authority of Carroll, Grayson and Galax that promotes regional efforts.
Where it began: 167 optioned acres inside a 1,400-acre private tract
The oldest dated record read for this page is a BRCEDA post of February 17, 2011, written while the land was still in private hands.
The Wildwood Commerce Park is part of a 1,400 acre tract located off Exit 19 of Interstate 77.
Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority, February 17, 2011
The same post says BRCEDA had optioned 167 acres of that tract, that a 2010 grant award had been made for BRCEDA's acquisition of the 167-acre site, and that the land was privately owned. An option is a right to buy, not a purchase, and the post does not describe the acquisition as complete.
The Town of Hillsville's page supplies the next date: BRCEDA made its initial purchase of the industrial park site in 2011, and development has progressed since. Between that 167-acre option and the county's 270 acres today, the sources read here do not record how the acreage grew, and no dollar figure from any of them is repeated on this page.
A gas extension finished in 2021, and sewage from Exit 19 treated in Galax
The utility record at the park is dated, which makes it easy to follow in order.
On December 7, 2020, the GO Virginia State Board approved a Per Capita application for BRCEDA, the Wildwood Natural Gas Extension application, which GO Virginia said would provide gas access to the park. Carroll County's 2024 plan reports the outcome: in 2021, with funding assistance from GO Virginia, Appalachian Natural Gas completed a 5-mile extension from Training Center Road to Wildwood. The plan also records that the county's gas system had been sold to Appalachian Natural Gas in 2016.
Sewer is handled across a jurisdictional line. The county plan says sewage collected at Exit 19 and Woodlawn, and in the Route 58 and Gladeville/Cranberry areas, is pumped to the City of Galax for treatment. The Galax comprehensive plan confirms the other end: its wastewater system accepts sewer from Carroll County's Gladeville/Cranberry system, which was expanded to serve areas including the Wildwood Commerce Park area.
A line that serves an area is not the same as capacity at a given building site. Sewer availability for a particular site, and public water too, are answered by the utility for that site. Next door, the Coulson Church Road listing states public water, sewer and natural gas available, which is the listing's own description of that parcel.
The county plan also names Exit 19 (Wildwood) among the interchanges it calls for initial Economic Activity Plans on, a list set out in how far from an interstate exit is still commercial ground.
Pad sizes, tier status and a founding year: the details the published record splits on
Several details circulate about Wildwood that the sources disagree on. Rather than pick one, this page prints none of them.
- Pad sizes. The Town of Hillsville's page and the park's own site list different acreages for the graded sites, so neither pair is repeated here. What a graded building site is, as a term, is explained under what a pad site is.
- Site tier. A 2020 GO Virginia announcement and the county's 2024 plan describe the park's state readiness status in different terms, so no tier appears here.
- The founding year. BRCEDA's and GO Virginia's accounts and the county plan point to different years for when the authority was formed.
- The Town page's other lines. The Town of Hillsville's page still says utilities are "scheduled for mid-2014", so its remaining descriptions of the park are treated as history rather than as today's facts.
Two neighboring questions do have documented answers. Traffic on the interstate is published by VDOT: its 2025 bidirectional estimates put I-77 between US 58 and Coulson Church Road at an average of 46,000 vehicles a day and between Coulson Church Road and SR 69 Lead Mine Road at 45,000. How to read those figures is covered in what a traffic count is and why buyers ask. And Carroll County's plan says the county does not utilize zoning, which is worked through in what unzoned means for a commercial buyer.
On the ground next to the park, Bowman Real Estate lists nine wooded acres on Coulson Church Road, described on the Coulson Church Road listing at Exit 19.
Looking at commercial ground near Wildwood Commerce Park at I-77 Exit 19?
Lowell is the listing agent on nine acres on Coulson Church Road beside the park. Send what you have in mind, or the ground you own near the interchange, and he will come back with the facts on record. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Who do I contact about available sites at Wildwood Commerce Park?
The Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority, the regional authority through which Carroll County, the City of Galax and Grayson County work on the park together, or the Carroll County Economic Development Authority at 605 Pine Street, Hillsville, (276) 730-3001. Site sizes, prices, tenants, covenants and current readiness status come from them, because the published sources disagree on several of those details.
Does Wildwood Commerce Park have natural gas?
Carroll County's 2024 comprehensive plan reports a line to it: in 2021, with GO Virginia funding assistance, Appalachian Natural Gas completed a 5-mile extension from Training Center Road to Wildwood. GO Virginia's State Board had approved BRCEDA's Wildwood Natural Gas Extension application on December 7, 2020. Service to a specific site is a question for the gas utility.
How far is Wildwood Commerce Park from Interstate 81?
The two published figures measure different things. The Town of Hillsville's business page places the park thirteen miles south of I-81, and Carroll County's economic development page places the county twelve miles south of the I-81 and I-77 interchange. Each figure belongs with its own source, and neither is a distance measured for a particular parcel.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Economic Development: Wildwood Commerce Park, adjacent to Exit 19 of I-77 Carroll County, Virginia
- 2024 Comprehensive Plan: Wildwood, BRCEDA, Economic Activity Plans, Exit 19 sewer, the gas extension and Twin County Airport Carroll County, Virginia
- Business and Economy: Wildwood Commerce Park and BRCEDA Town of Hillsville
- Virginia's Entrepreneurial Region Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority
- Wildwood Commerce Park receives grants, February 17, 2011 Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority
- Approval for the Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority's Wildwood Natural Gas Extension, December 7, 2020 GO Virginia Region One
- Comprehensive Plan 2022, Amendment 1: wastewater service to the Wildwood Commerce Park area City of Galax
- VDOT Bidirectional Traffic Volume 2025 Virginia Department of Transportation