Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990 TAG: 9006300275
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"People have just seen this thing drag out so long," the Rev. Carl Tinsley said. "A lot of people [say]: `It's not gonna happen.' You know: `We've been duped.'"
Tinsley is board president of the Gainsboro Project Area Committee, which developed plans for the Henry Street project in 1983.
The idea behind the project is to resurrect the now-dead black commercial and entertainment district on Henry Street across the railroad tracks from downtown.
Some members of the Gainsboro committee met Friday with officials from Total Action Against Poverty to discuss Henry Street.
TAP is lobbying the city to help it locate the agency's new headquarters on Henry Street.
Mayor Noel Taylor said the city is still committed to Henry Street, although he agreed with the Gainsboro leaders that progress is painfully slow.
"I join with them in wishing that we could be cutting the ribbon tomorrow," Taylor said.
He said the delay has been a result of many complex issues that have come up since the project was proposed. These include the future of the Hotel Roanoke and the convention center proposed for the east side of Henry Street.
The convention center is tied to Virginia Tech finding a hotel-management firm to renovate and run the hotel. And locating the trade center between the hotel and Henry Street depends on Norfolk Southern moving out and giving up the property to the city.
"There are so many ifs," Taylor said.
He said that if the convention center is located between the hotel and Henry Street, the Henry Street side of the convention center could have retail shops and restaurants.
That would tie into any commercial development across Henry Street, including the music center that TAP is developing at the former Dumas Hotel.
"I have no fear" that the Henry Street project will not work out, the mayor said. "It's a matter of what is the best use of that property - and when."
George Heller, a Gainsboro resident and former administrator of the Gainsboro committee, said project backers have waited long enough.
"Let's stop studying and put something in the ground," Heller said.
The Gainsboro council spent about $110,000 in federal grant money in 1983 to develop a detailed plan for a shopping center, offices and parking along Henry Street, Tinsley said.
Tinsley said the Gainsboro committee was ready to go forward with the project and make it happen.
Instead, the mayor appointed a city commission to take over responsibility for Henry Street. Tinsley contends the commission has not done enough to make the project a reality.
"I don't think the mayor got any support downtown," Tinsley said. "I think maybe they were just using him to keep it at a standstill."
Tinsley said he thinks having TAP's headquarters on Henry Street would be a good idea, although the city needs to help the project expand beyond that.
TAP wants money and land from the city to develop its plan for Henry Street.
The agency also wants the city to make a commitment by next month, so TAP can make a decision on its plans to replace its home, which was destroyed by fire last year.
Under the community action agency's plan, its headquarters - and the offices of three statewide agencies connected to TAP - would be tied into TAP's plans with the old Dumas Hotel. TAP has a $600,000 grant to develop the music center.
A half dozen or more commercial businesses would be located on the front side of TAP's offices.
TAP president Cabell Brand concedes that stores and restaurants on Henry Street will have a hard time prospering unless the city builds a convention center next door.
But he argues that if the city does not act now to help TAP build on Henry Street, the city might miss a prime chance to make the Henry Street project a reality.
If TAP can locate there, he said, it can bring in $900,000 of its own money along with the possibility of as much as three times that much in donations from private foundations.
If TAP is forced to locate elsewhere, he said, the city will lose a major infusion of money into the project.
"I don't want to come off as being critical of the city administration," Brand said, because the city has given much support to TAP since the fire.
"But on this one issue of Henry Street," he believes the city is not attuned to the possibilities.
There are other sites that TAP could rebuild on, Brand said. But the chance to make something big happen on Henry Street, he said, is a "once-in-a-century opportunity."
by CNB