Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 7, 1993 TAG: 9312070171
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Monday, they celebrated the opening of Style Plus, a clothing store at 19th Street and Melrose Avenue.
All the stores in the small shopping center are occupied - the goal of Total Action Against Poverty (TAP) and community developer 19th & Melrose Corp. since the Kroger grocery left the spot years ago.
Leaders of the groups said a newer organization of which they are a part - Melrose Avenue Residential/Business Revitalization Advisory Board - now will take on drugs, vandalism and poor housing.
Their target area is bounded by 11th Street, 24th Street, Shenandoah Avenue and Orange Avenue.
Now that Style Plus has opened its doors in a former ABC store and Jay's Community Supermarket is doing good business two doors down, members of the development team said they will start thinking of building new businesses in the center parking lot.
A recent survey showed that residents want a laundromat, another clothing store, a fast-food restaurant and a medical facility. "Those are some of the things we are looking at," said Martin Jeffrey, TAP's community development and outreach director.
TAP Executive Director Ted Edlich said an economic development team is considering start-up loans for entrepreneurs interested in establishing businesses at the shopping center.
The Rev. Frank Saunders, pastor of Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and head of the new community advisory board, has enlisted 70 residents of the area to work with him.
Other partners in his organization include NationsBank, Crestar Bank, First Union Bank, Central Fidelity Bank, First Virginia Bank, the Loudon/Melrose Neighborhood Organization, Northwest Child Development Center, the Roanoke Tribune, dentist Wendell Butler and four churches.
His team is organizing a clean-up day, identifying homes that need rehabilitation and helping residents get rid of abandoned cars and debris. He said team members also will identify crack houses and help drive them from the area.
A network of block captains - he's recruited about 15 so far - will organize requests for city services needed on their streets.
The advisory board was set up this fall, but 19th & Melrose Corp. was formed about four years ago.
It invested $668,000 in the shopping center - most from five area banks and the rest from the Southwest Virginia Community Development Fund and in Community Development Block Grant money, according to Stan Andrzejewski, representing First Virginia Bank in 19th & Melrose Corp.
Monday's customers at the new Style Plus - the third Roanoke Style Plus store of owner Mun Kwang Cho - said it offers one of the best selections of African-American hair products in the area.
The store also sells clothing, wigs, hats, handbags, jewelry, hosiery, cosmetics and toys.
Jay Jackson, manager and part-owner of Jay's Community Supermarket, said his business has risen 20 percent to 30 percent in the past year. He said it shot up when the Winn-Dixie supermarket at The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem closed in the summer.
He and his father, Jerry Jackson, bought the former Nick's grocery and opened for business last year. A SupeRx drug store also is in the shopping center.
Annie Price, treasurer of the Loudon/Melrose neighborhood organization, said the center is a great help to elderly residents who can't drive to stores across town. Without it, she said, "It would be kind of dead around here."
by CNB