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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 14, 1995                   TAG: 9511140066
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A DOWNTOWN STORE IS HISTORY

ROANOKE is one of the last - maybe the last of - Virginia cities to boast a major department store in its downtown. This fact adds to the unhappiness, but also informs the context, of the news that the Heironimus department store on Jefferson and Church will close.

The announcement can't be said to have come as a shock. For years speculation has been heard about how much longer the downtown store could survive, bucking national, even worldwide retailing trends. It already has been scaled back considerably from a heyday when merchandise filled the building's five floors.

Given the trend, staying open has sometimes seemed as much a matter of leasing arrangements and civic pride as of profitability. Closing has seemed as much a matter of when as of if - especially given a change in ownership.

None of which renders the departure of the 105-year-old downtown establishment any less significant, of course, especially for older residents, many of whom recall a pre-mall era when downtown was the place to shop, and department stores included not only homegrown Heironimus but also Pugh's, and later Miller & Rhoads and Leggett. The loss of a one-stop shopping option won't help today's office workers either, or efforts to attract housing development downtown.

Nevertheless, specialty stores and ambience - of which Roanoke has plenty - are today's retail success stories. Even department stores in malls seem not to be faring as well as niche shops. And downtown Roanoke is blessed with excellent boutiques and specialty emporiums, as well as a growing variety of good restaurants, to help it weather the Heironimus closing.

Whatever we might wish them to be, department stores in downtown America of the 1990s are mostly nostalgic set pieces. It is better to discern changing needs and find creative new uses than despair over a lost past.

Fortunately, few Virginia cities can boast the vitality that the historic market area has brought to Roanoke - a vitality increasing with the re-opening of Hotel Roanoke and the addition of a new conference center. Just since August, 17 businesses have announced grand openings or expansions in the city's core.

With the market area and some side streets outside it now crowded with shops and restaurants, the outlook for Jefferson Street isn't bleak. Fink's Jewelers plans a major renovation of its flagship store on Jefferson; a new wine shop and a new restaurant are opening. Finding a new tenant or new use for the Heironimus building presents a challenge, of course. But it also may present an opportunity for creative development on one of the city's broadest and most beautiful streets.

Sad as it will be to no longer have Heironimus downtown, the store is closing - don't forget - mainly because not enough people shop there. Roanoke can adapt better than most downtowns where ``anchor'' department stores have closed. And Heironimus, still open in five other locations, won't be gone or forgotten any time soon.

by CNB