THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 13, 1994 TAG: 9412130299
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Administrators for the Virginia Department of Corrections plan to move into the former Leggett Department Store building on Main Street in January, in a move seen as a major impetus toward bringing downtown back to life.
When completed, the offices will occupy most of the building's second floor, corrections officials said Monday. Gov. George F. Allen has signed a five-year lease for about three-fourths of the building's upstairs, said Marvin Dodson, regional manager for the Department of Corrections.
The complex will nearly fill the building vacated by the former retailer in 1992 and bring nearly 40 white-collar employees back downtown, said P.R. ``Bob'' Chisom Jr., director of downtown development.
``Obviously, we're elated,'' Chisom said Monday. ``This is another giant step. To us, it just points to an extremely rosy future for downtown.''
The offices will house regional administrators for three divisions - adult institutions, adult community services and youth services. They are scheduled to move from their current site on Constance Road, where their lease expires Dec. 31.
However, the upstairs of the former Leggett building has not been renovated. The remodeling, which started Monday, is expected to be completed by April.
Until then, some of the state employees will make do in a small, vacant space downstairs next to The Virginian-Pilot offices, in the area the building's owners hope eventually will become a deli or some other type of eatery. About a dozen others will temporarily work from offices at St. Bride's Correctional Center in Chesapeake or Southampton Correctional Center near Capron in Southampton County, Dodson said.
The Pilot staff moved into the building in September, occupying about half of the renovated first floor. In the other half is the Suffolk Community Health Center, which moved in during the summer.
The building's owners, known as Peanut City Associates, have promised to have the Corrections Department's temporary headquarters ready before the end of the year and the upstairs finished by April 1.
They also are optimistic about the future of downtown, said Robert B. ``Benny'' Speight, co-owner of the 38,000-square-foot building, which is across Main Street from the proposed new courthouse complex.
The owners will have invested about $1.25 million in the building when the renovations for the Corrections Department are completed, Speight said. by CNB