Bell Electric has been serving the New River Valley since 1981. In the early days, we were working out of Steve Gerus' kitchen and answering service calls in a 1967 Austin Healey. Our first paying customer was Raines Property Management, with whom we still do business.

​

We've always focused on commercial construction and helped build out some of the larger student housing complexes in Blacksburg including Pheasant Run, Hunter's Ridge, and The Villages. Other notable projects through the years include decommissioning the Virginia Tech nuclear power plant (look it up, it was real), multitudes of municipal pump stations, and miles of fiber optic infrastructure at the Lhoist limestone mine in Ripplemead.

 

We eventually outgrew the kitchen table and in 2005 moved into our current office on North Main Street which features a 5.5kW solar array on the roof along with many other energy efficient elements. Click here to see what the solar array is producing today!

​

2005 was also the year Bell hired Chris fresh out of engineering school at Virginia Tech to begin his professional career. Chris stayed on as a service technician for 3 years before moving on to co-found Baseline Solar Solutions. Baseline persevered through the recession, eventually turned a profit,  and in 2016 moved in to share office and warehouse space with us.

​

Working closely with each other led to discussions of an ownership transition that was executed in 2018 when Chris purchased the company from Steve. Chris aspires to maintain the quality and customer satisfaction the Bell reputation was built on, while also pushing to develop renewable and energy efficiency markets.