Cardinal News: Then & Now takes a look back at the stories we brought you over the last 12 months. Through the end of the year, we’re sharing updates on some of the people and issues that made news in 2024. This installment: riverfront developments in Danville.
Dan River Falls, the former mill building in Danville being converted into a mixed-use property with 190 apartments, saw its first tenants move in this month. The adjacent riverfront park, which was originally scheduled to open around the same time, will take a little bit longer to complete.
Coming down the pike are two more riverfront projects: a whitewater channel and a pedestrian bridge.
Together, these projects signify a recent city effort to capitalize on its riverfront property, which was historically used solely for industrial purposes.
“We had our greatest natural resource running right through the middle of the city, and we weren’t using it,” said Bill Sgrinia, director of parks and recreation for Danville.
Soon, people will live, work and play along the Dan River. 
An old mill building gets a new life
Dan River Falls, the new name for the building that used to be called the White Mill, is over a century old, but you can’t tell by looking at it today.
Stretching along the banks of the Dan River and built in 1920, the former mill building looks entirely different than it did two years ago.
Walled-over windows have been unblocked and replaced with glass panes, parking lots have been paved, and the building received a fresh coat of white paint, in keeping with its traditional appearance.
The building’s interior has also been transformed, starting with work as basic as leveling uneven floors and removing lead paint.
Now, peering through the windows, passersby can see walls, light fixtures, appliances and some lofts across the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
The first 150 apartments are complete, with nearly 20-foot ceilings, massive windows and polished concrete floors. The units are renting for $1,300 to $2,100 a month.
Residents will have access to storage areas, as well as to shared spaces like meeting rooms, a fitness center and a grilling area.
Witnessing these exterior improvements has created a sense of civic pride, said Dave Vos, project manager with the Alexander Company, the company behind the rehabilitation.
“It seems like everyone in Danville has a connection to the White Mill,” he said. “Everyone we’ve spoken to is very excited to see the building redeveloped.”
The mill’s redevelopment is especially significant because of its prominent location between the Dan River and Memorial Drive, Vos said.
“Danville has taken these big, incredible strides with job creation and revitalization, but having that huge behemoth on the river with blocks over its windows … sort of took away from all the progress that’s been happening,” he said.
When the project is complete, it will “provide a finishing touch” on all the work that’s already been done in the city’s River District.
The process began with a tweet from city Councilman Lee Vogler in 2018, after the property had been sitting vacant for about a decade.
“Would love for you guys to come take a look at our historic riverfront White Mill,” Vogler wrote, tagging the Alexander Company, a Wisconsin-based developer.
Vogler was familiar with the developer’s work and thought it would be a good fit for a White Mill rehabilitation project. 
The building is a 550,000-square-foot space that was once an important part of Dan River Mills, the textile giant that drove Danville’s economy for decades.
The Alexander Company responded to Vogler’s message and took on the building’s rehabilitation. The project broke ground in January 2023, and the initial phase of the project is now mostly complete.
This first phase cost about $86 million and included the first wave of apartments and many of the residential amenities, Vos said.
The second phase will include 40 more apartments and retail and commercial space on the first floor. The total cost for the project with both phases complete will likely be around $110 million, Vos said.
“We’re creating spaces for future tenants. … We’re hoping to build out as many of those in 2025 as possible,” he said. “There should be a lot of activity in that area.”
At its Dec. 17 meeting, the Danville City Council unanimously voted to approve a budget amendment that would provide $5.6 million for renovations at Dan River Falls for city offices.
A citywide space needs study identified improvements needed for the city’s economic development and parks and recreation departments several years ago, according to the staff report in the Dec. 17 meeting agenda packet.
Establishing office spaces in Dan River Falls will improve operational efficiency and increase collaboration, the report says.
“For Parks and Recreation, the new space will help create a one-stop shop for residents and visitors doing business with the department. It will also be adjacent to the new riverfront park, the riverwalk trail, and the proposed whitewater channel,” it says.
Right now, the parks and recreation department offices are in the City Auditorium, removed from most other city departments, which are located at City Hall.
For the economic development department, the Dan River Falls office will serve as “the first impression for people interested in expanding existing businesses and opening new businesses within the community,” according to the staff report.
The first residents moved into the building this month. About two-thirds of the available 150 apartments have been claimed, Vos said.
Some folks were hesitant to apply for an apartment without being able to see it first, he said. Because the building is an active construction site, tours were not being offered when applications first opened. 
But in the past few weeks, property managers have begun showing the property to future tenants.
“Right now, the priority is taking people who have already signed leases, and then once that’s done, anyone who is interested in seeing a unit before filling out an application will be able to make a reservation,” Vos said.
City officials, including Vogler and City Manager Ken Larking, called the vacant White Mill a physical reminder of the loss of the textile industry, saying it affected the psyche of the community.
“That building, for several years, has shown that Danville’s best days were behind us,” Vogler said in a 2022 interview with Cardinal. “Now, once it’s done, it’s going to show that our best days are in front of us.”
A grand opening for the building will be held this spring, alongside the opening of the riverfront park, though construction on Dan River Falls’ second phase will continue through 2026. 
Coming soon: riverfront park complete with splashpad and pier
Right next to Dan River Mills is the anticipated $14 million riverfront park, which broke ground in March 2023.
Both projects originally were scheduled to be finished by the end of 2024. The riverfront park completion date has been pushed back to spring 2025 due to delays with the groundwork at such an old site, Sgrinia said.
Because there had been no development at that site for many years, construction crews didn’t know exactly what they were digging into, he said. Crews found old building foundations and remains of an old canal during groundwork.
Before progress could be made, workers had to either remove these remains or make sure they were safe to build on top of, Sgrinia said.
Conversations about a riverfront park first began in 2016, Sgrinia said.
In the intervening eight years, funding has been secured and plans have been developed for a 4-acre park with a splash pad, a covered stage, a playground, gardens, river access for kayaking and a pier over the water.
Plans for the pier resulted in the removal of a century-old lowhead dam in the river over the summer.
Much of the groundwork is finishing up, Sgrinia said, with above-ground work scheduled for the next few months.
“Some of the larger artistic elements are still under construction,” he said. “The landscaping, and there’s a lot of landscaping, hasn’t been completed. There’s a tremendous amount of plumbing work that goes into things like the splash pad, so that’s getting ready to begin.”
The project cost hasn’t changed since the plan was introduced, Sgrinia said, though there have been more project management and materials testing costs, “which were not expected, because we didn’t expect the project to go this long.”
That funding comes from a variety of sources, including fundraising campaigns, donations and a grant from the Danville Regional Foundation.
[Disclosure: The Danville Regional Foundation is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions. See our policy.]
With the new deadline set for March or April 2025, the parks and recreation department is working to finish the park by the time the weather warms up, Sgrinia said.
“We’re going to have people who want to start using it,” he said. “We definitely want to be open for the spring and summer.”
Kayaking, tubing and swift-water training
In a few years, Danville residents and visitors will be able to speed through rushing Dan River waters in a kayak, attempting to stay afloat in the shadow of the refurbished White Mill. Or they can sit in the riverfront park and watch lifesaving crews train for swift-water rescues in the same spot.
The city plans to cut a passage out from the river, directing water around what is now known as Dan River Falls, for a planned whitewater channel with multiple uses.
It can be used for recreation, part of a growing trend of river sports that are making economic impacts on communities across the country. Scott Shipley, the engineer for the Danville project and a former Olympic slalom canoeist, created a conceptual design study for the site.
Options would include fast-paced activities like whitewater kayaking but could also include slower-paced activities like tubing.
The plan is to be able to control the water volume and flow through the channel. This is possible because the channel will cut away from the river, around Dan River Falls, but would still be fed by river water.
In-river whitewater features can’t control water speed, said Andrew Hall, project manager with the city’s parks and recreation department.
“We have advantages of the system being out of the river, but it’s also being fed by the river, so we have the advantages of that too,” Hall said. “We don’t have the cost for the pumps, which is a very significant operating cost for some whitewater channels that are outside of the river. … We’ll have control without relying on pumps.”
The channel would be an Olympic-caliber course, so the city could see Olympic athletes training there in the future, Sgrinia said.
“If we could have had it finished in time for the Olympics in 2028, we would have international teams here training,” he said.
The city also plans to use the channel for swift-water rescue training, particularly in the spring and fall when recreational uses are less popular, Sgrinia said.
“The final benefit is really just the aesthetic of it,” he said. “You’ll have people who want to just go sit down and watch the water go by and have a hamburger and hopefully a beer.”
It’s too early for even a ballpark timeline for project completion, though construction will take between 18 and 24 months once it begins, Hall said. The engineering and design phase is about 90% finished and expected to be complete by February.
“It’s down the line, but it’s moving,” Sgrinia said.
The city is now working on funding. The 2024 state budget included $3 million for the whitewater channel. The city must provide a two-for-one match from non-state sources.
Some other outdoor recreation grants will be available soon, Sgrinia said.
There’s no set price tag for the project yet, but it will likely be in the $18 million to $20 million range, he said.
The pedestrian bridge project is in an even earlier stage. An old covered bridge that was used when the former White Mill was operational will become a pedestrian walkway that will connect to the existing riverwalk, with space for live music and the ability to light up at night.
The city is working through design, development and engineering proposals now. Architects will need to do maintenance on the bridge to transform it from its current state of disrepair to “a solid, functioning structure,” Sgrinia said.
The city has already submitted grant requests to help fund that project, and Sgrinia said he hopes to know more about funding by January.
“That is going to make a big difference about how fast it moves forward,” he said.
Even though multiple large projects are underway on the city’s riverfront, Sgrinia said the parks and recreation department doesn’t want to overlook other parts of the city.
“Not everybody lives [in the River District],” he said. The department plans to open one new neighborhood park outside of the River District every year.
Still, the riverfront projects are a defining moment for Danville’s relationship with the Dan, and there will be a lot of exciting new features along the river in 2025, Sgrinia said.
“It’s exciting to see these projects on the river, as much as they’re centered around recreation, that are going to be a significant contributor to our economy,” he said.
