Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405250070
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Armed with a new executive director, Robert Matthew Kennell, the development group's board held a retreat at Hollins College last Tuesday to discuss ways of implementing a new vision of central Roanoke as a place to work, live and play. The board also just launched its biennial census of downtown activities.
And the city has redrawn the borders, expanding the area that constitutes downtown. Now the board is talking about pushing even further beyond the traditional business district through a joint effort with Old Southwest to develop both neighborhoods.
Kennell, who moved to Roanoke this month from Tidewater, said the city has "a fantastic downtown" that serves as a business center not just for the valley, but for the entire western part of the state. It's a mecca, he said, for theater and museums with the amenities of a large city and the safety of a small town.
In Hampton and Newport News, Kennell said, his wife wouldn't go to a mall at night. In Roanoke, he said, she's comfortable visiting downtown at any hour.
With the opening of Explore Park this summer, he predicted, tourists will be drawn off the Blue Ridge Parkway and will visit downtown as well.
Kennell will pick up on the effort of his predecessor, Franklin Kimbrough, to expand the number of apartments on upper stories. This, he said, is "absolutely essential to the success of downtown" so that it becomes "not just a business area, but a neighborhood."
Of the 34 existing apartment units constructed in the last few years on upper levels of downtown buildings, all but one is currently rented.
In the blocks in the area recently added to the map of downtown, Kennell said, condos and single family homes can be developed that will boost the entire area.
But the loan pool for housing development is completely depleted, and no more money was forthcoming for this year. That's not from lack of interest by the city, he said, but because of the number of people asking for money.
The other issue for downtown housing is parking, Kennell said. He would like to see an arrangement for tenants to use the municipal garages at night. A parking problem, he said, "kind of goes along with living downtown," but most people who live there also work there, so they escape a commute.
Kennell would like to see a graduate school downtown. That was the case when he earned his master's degree in public administration at Florida Atlantic University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while working for that city.
Retail business is strong downtown, and sales tax figures show that the City Market is growing faster than any place west of Richmond, Kennell said. It's just harder to hide an empty downtown storefront, such as the old Woolworth variety store that closed this year on Campbell Avenue, than it is to mask a vacant space in a mall.
If stores come and go, Kennell said, that's the nature of retailing. But he said the City Market is actually an incubator for businesses that expand elsewhere, such as Patina, Alexander's and Corned Beef & Co. Rents may be up at the market, Kennell said, but it's still less expensive for a new business than starting in most large malls.
With his fresh viewpoint, Kennell said some capital improvements should be undertaken at the market soon, notably new awnings that cover the entire sidewalk and the farmers' stalls.
Downtown Roanoke Inc. is also working through the Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension Service to recruit younger farmers to the market. Keeping the stalls filled with local fresh produce is no problem now, he said, but it could become one later as long-time farmers retire.
The city recently expanded its downtown service district to include Henry Street and nearby portions of Southeast and Southwest. Property owners in the district pay taxes at a rate that includes an extra 10 cents per $100 of assessed value, with the money dedicated to downtown promotion.
Kennell said, however, that it's natural for the emphasis to be on the City Market, even though all areas of downtown pay the extra tax.
"The market is so visible. It is the town square," Kennell said. Besides, he said, property owners and businesses on the market assess themselves a premium above the tax to promote that specific area.
One thing that doesn't disturb Kennell is the impending arrival of a Wal-Mart superstore near Valley View Mall, despite the chain's reputation for damaging business for downtown merchants in other communities.
Downtown can't compete with the volume of a Wal-Mart, Kennell said, but Wal-Mart lacks the "unique things and services" of downtown Roanoke. "Wal-Mart can't market pottery like Emerson Creek can. Wal-Mart does not have 69 restaurants."
The board of Downtown Roanoke Inc., at a retreat in January 1993, took a look at the quality of life and the ambience of downtowns in several cities.
This year, said Chairman Douglas Waters, the board concentrated on its overall vision and the steps it should be taking to improve the quality of downtown life and to make downtown a magnet.
Roanoke's model, he said, is Charleston, S.C., with its historic Battery district and the bay as a magnet instead of a farmers' market. It boasts a thriving downtown business center and historic buildings.
Roanoke's next project, Waters said, will be the Rail Walk, a landscaped pedestrian path linking two of downtown's top anchors, the Transportation Museum and the City Market. It also will commemorate Roanoke's heritage as a railroad town.
The group is still developing several possible designs for the Rail Walk, Waters said, but the project could start in about a year. The project will evolve in phases over time so that people can walk beside the tracks before the entire path is finished.
Waters said the group also wants to expand Roanoke's Peach Festival to make it more like Charleston's famed Spoleto Festival. The latter is a major cultural event with musical, dramatic and artistic events.
Something that ambitious cannot be produced in a year, Waters said, but the board hopes this year to add a "musical component" to the Peach Festival, which is scheduled for the first weekend in August. A wide range of musical groups would be the "first step to a broader-based art festival- or a nice event of its own."
Waters acknowledged a need to expand activities into the entire service district outside the City Market. "We probably haven't fully satisfied their needs," he said.
Concurrent with that mission is the need to determine the part the organization can play in the redevelopment of Henry Street.
All of the expanded area, including some of the area around Henry Street, is somewhat residential in character, making it hard to dovetail with the central business core.
One of the first proposals to meld the expanded area into the heart of downtown is to extend the Christmas decorations throughout the new area. The star-shaped ornaments placed on downtown utility poles are near the end of their useful life. Many people want to extend the street decorating to cover the entire service district. If that happens, Kennell said, the expense will be "tremendous."
In fact, Waters said, Christmas may become the first step in linking Henry Street to the business district, perhaps by extending the holiday carriage rides and antique car rides, as well as the decorations.
Waters said downtown officials are discussing with organizations in Old Southwest a cooperative program uniting the two communities. One possibility is extending the Christmas decorations even farther to cover the major traffic corridors through the Old Southwest neighborhood.
Downtown Roanoke also will look for cooperative projects with the new Jefferson Center to better tie in those organizations, Waters said.
Beverly T. Fitzpatrick, director of the New Century Council, said Kennell's arrival presents a new opportunity for downtown. Kennell, he said, has experience in the public and private partnerships and in the grant funding that will be required in the future.
People developing downtown must understand what a critical mass is, Fitzpatrick said. In some other cities, he said, residents have gone a mile from downtown and tried to create another downtown. In Roanoke, he said, people are building on the existing compact area.
Still, he said, the remodeling of Hotel Roanoke and the Henry Street revitalization project are logical extensions of downtown. They will maintain a pattern of close trade with the downtown core.
Hotel Roanoke, which sits about three blocks north of the business district, represents involvement in downtown by Virginia Tech, which FItzpatrick said will make a tremendous impact in five years.
Recalling the community efforts that went into downtown planning in the Design 79 and Design 85 projects, Fitzpatrick said now would be a good time to make another community study of the city's heart. "We haven't done that for a while. We need another plan," he said.
Larry Davidson, owner of Joseph Davidson Inc., the parent company of the Davidson men's clothing chain, said most merchants don't object to the emphasis on the City Market in development efforts. Regardless of what area is the focus of concentration, Davidson said, all of downtown benefits, because the neighborhood becomes a destination for residents of the entire region.
Downtown, he said, needs more office space rented and more housing.
To Davidson, downtown is "multifaceted. It's clean. It's still thriving, despite some dark spots."
Downtown Roanoke cannot compete with Valley View Mall in volume. But, Davidson added, "specialty stores and specialty events make downtown a very special place."
Kennell's strong points in the past have been more in development than in festivals.
He worked for his native city of Hampton, and he spent a year on loan to create a master plan for development of Downtown Phoebus, a village-like historic area of the seaside city, and its league of business sponsors.
He said he was hired in Roanoke because of his experience in city planning, particularly revitalization of downtown Hampton with its Waterfront Radisson Hotel and new parking authority. He managed Hampton's Community Development Block Grant program, which in Roanoke will be used to support upper-story housing planned above storefronts.
Kennell spent last year working with budget and management projects in the office of the Hampton city manager where, he said, he saw the perspective of the entire city.
That broad background, he said, will give him the ability to work with the New Century Council, the Henry Street Revival group and others related to downtown.
He began work May 2, succeeding Kimbrough, who resigned last year to accept a similar job in Jackson, Miss., where he could be closer to his family.
One of his goals, Kennell said, will be to make downtown Roanoke "everybody's place." He used as an example his 1-year-old daughter, who will be attracted by the museums. She also will need toy stores and children's stores.
A series of newspaper articles, he said, identified the problems causing young people to move away because of lack of opportunity.
A growing downtown, he said, can provide jobs, entertainment, night life and economic development that will keep generations of workers in the Roanoke Valley.
Waters said Roanoke has "a wonderful downtown" compared with most cities because of the farmers' market and a safe environment.
Downtown, Waters said, is "a desirable place to spend time. I can't understand how people persist in the view of what a hollow, empty place it is." Because of people's vision through previous plans, Waters said, downtown Roanoke is "a healthy and growing place."
Another reason Americans are turning their attention back to central cities is the cost of infrastructure - roads, water, sewers, buildings. Development is getting more expensive everywhere, Kennell said. In most cities, downtown is where infrastructure already exists, and people are discovering they can work, live and play with a minimum of commuting and environmental problems.
Perhaps an even more telling reason for preserving and rebuilding the city's core is that locals everywhere, Kennell said, take their visitors downtown, because each is distinctive. They don't take visitors to malls, which are all the same.
Keywords:
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by CNB