Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990 TAG: 9006300382
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Short
James Rakes, president of the National Bank of Blacksburg, and Samuel Tollison, president of the First National Bank of Christiansburg, announced the donations.
A third bank also got into the act Friday. Central Fidelity said it would make up to $500,000 in loans available for similar projects.
All three banks made the contributions to the MBC Development Corp., a non-profit, tax-exempt partnership between local banks and governments.
Such organizations give banks a chance to reinvest their profits into a community, said Donald Moore, Montgomery County's economic development director.
The contributions often go to industrial development, but they can be used for many other projects that benefit their home communities, said U. Wayne Elliott, a member of MBC's board of directors.
The shell building, to measure 76,124 square feet, is being built on 9.4 acres in the Blacksburg industrial park.
Moore and other economic development officials recently told the Board of Supervisors that the county lost about $13,500 on its first shell building in Christiansburg.
Counties use shell buildings to lure potential employers. Ames Textile Corp. of Lowell, Mass., plans to finish and move into the Christiansburg shell this year.
MBC will lend the donated money to the county's Industrial Development Authority, which is overseeing the new shell building.
by CNB