Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 16, 1993 TAG: 9310160079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV_1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
An auction has been set for Oct. 20 at 1:30 p.m. at the front door of the Christiansburg Courthouse to sell three of the 15 small parcels in the triangle-shaped property bounded by Prices Fork, Gilbert and Turner streets.
Chisholm said he has found investors from Charlottesville who will take the project over, and that he will be working with them to build the shopping center.
"It has been very difficult for me to hold the shopping center project together," he said.
The mortgages on all three properties, according to a deed in the Montgomery County Court House, are held by Dominion Bank - which was recently purchased by First Union bank.
Chisholm paid nearly $400,000 in 1988 for the three parcels that total just under 1 acre, according to court records.
Blacksburg lawyer Warren S. Neily Jr. has been hired to handle the auction.
The foreclosure is one of several delays that have hampered Chisholm's attempt to build the 75,000-square-foot shopping center just off North Main Street. The nearby commercial area along Main Street already has restaurants, shops, fastfood stops and office buildings.
The land was rezoned for commercial use in 1992 and Chisholm originally hoped to have the project completed by this August.
The drop in real estate values coupled with more conservative commercial lending by banks during the nation's recession made it harder for Chisholm to secure financing for the $8 million project, he said.
Chisholm, who said he had invested over $200,000 of his own money in the project, also blamed the "anti-development and anti-business climate here" with making local and Roanoke investors reluctant to invest in Blacksburg. "I am very fortunate to have found investors from Charlottesville who will take the project over . . . ," he said.
Chisholm said he would be assisting in development and management of the center.
Plans are for the project to have a mixture of retail, commercial, residential and restaurant use, with Follet Books as its major tenant.
by CNB