
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 22, 1994                   TAG: 9403220116
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNCIL BEHIND HENRY STREET

City Council members say they would like to see nightclubs, restaurants and shops return to Henry Street once the Hotel Roanoke reopens next year.

The trick, however, will be coming up with money to revitalize the once-thriving hub of African-American commerce and nightlife.

On Monday, a committee headed by former Mayor Noel Taylor asked council for $200,000 to finance a detailed architectural study of the Henry Street area, one block west of the Hotel Roanoke and conference center.

"We hear you," Councilman William White told Taylor, "and we're going to make good by that request."

Taylor asked the city to release $200,000 in federal funds that had been earmarked for lighting and street improvements for Henry Street, now known as First Street Northwest.

But council loaned the money to Total Action Against Poverty four years ago to help transform the old Dumas Hotel into the Henry Street Music Center and Jazz Institute. TAP does not have to repay the interest-free loan until March 1997, according to Assistant City Manager James Ritchie.

Council could provide the seed money sooner by giving the Henry Street Revitalization Committee a portion of this year's $2.2 million federal Community Development Block Grant, Ritchie said.

Jim Harvey and Howard Musser, whose council terms expire in June, said Monday that they were want the Henry Street project under way before they leave council.

There are no cost estimates for the Henry Street project, which some have likened to the city's efforts that began in the 1970s to revitalize the City Market.

Taylor conceded it would take "a lot of money," some from the city government and some from private investors.

One vision of a revitalized Henry Street was presented Monday by Virginia Tech landscape architecture and planning students.

Their plan included shops and restaurants along First Street Northwest.

by CNB