The government of Montgomery County in western Virginia, with its county seat in Christiansburg, faced several challenges. One was the need for quality office space for many county departments. A second was what to do with a former textile factory, which the county had owned since 1990, but had never adequately utilized. Both problems were solved by a decision to renovate the industrial building to contemporary office standards. In retrospect, the solution might appear obvious, but the project was complex, and required the best efforts of many different parties.
The County Board of Supervisors believed that the long-term solution was development of a county administrative building. In 1998, the board authorized a search for a permanent office location. The county owned a former textile factory in Christiansburg that totaled 90,000 square feet and dated to the 1940s and 1950s. The facility had been used for the manufacture of blue jeans, but the company had shut down textile operations in 1988.