ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
If Edison was right, and inspiration is largely perspiration, then Erna Anastasia Gontrum is dripping with it. Which is probably a good thing.
Gontrum is readying what will be Anastasia Gallery Cafe and Restaurant in the Norwood Center, the heart of downtown Radford's Norwood Street.
The transformation is requiring a bit of hard work, good fortune and foresight.
The most recent tenants - The Gallery Cafe, Books and More and Hot Chilies - each lasted a little more than three years.
Gontrum and her daughter Patricia have spent most of the past six weeks transforming the cafe and Mexican eatery into a German restaurant. Mostly that's a matter of cleaning and paint color, rich green over fuchsia.
But transforming downtown Radford as a whole is taking more than a paint job.
The buildings on the east end of downtown - the side nearest Radford University - are about 70 percent occupied, said Ken Farmer, who owns an auction and real estate company in town.
"All downtowns and neighborhoods go through periods of decline, renovation and stabilization," he said. "I think we just came through a good little stretch of stabilization and we're in a bit of a drop right now."
The boom for Radford ended in 1986 when the Leggett store left for New River Valley Mall. With it went smaller clothing and shoe stores like Smithman's and Crigler's as well as much of Norwood Street's foot traffic.
Since then, Radford business leaders have been working to boost the downtown's sagging economy.
What would seem a more or less built-in clientele - Radford University's 8,270 students - do frequent downtown's restaurants and nightspots, said Duncan Herrington, an associate professor of marketing at Radford University.
But that ready-made customer base tends to shy from the specialty shops - either from lack of selection or lack of knowledge about the selection, he said.
Bud Jeffries is executive director of Main Street Radford, a publicly- and privately-funded group that, since 1989, has worked to revitalize downtown, along Norwood Street from Tyler Avenue west to Wadsworth Street.
To date, the group claims the addition of 29 businesses.
"We take a lot of pressure about things folding up down here," Jeffries said. "But we're not dead and we'll build her back up again."
The remaining businesses are diverse but specialized, leaving the downtown without the doorbuster draw it had until Leggett left. Couple that with a lack of parking and there, many downtown business owners say, lies the problem.
For solutions, they've proposed a 90-space parking lot along the back of Norwood Street where Pickett Street now runs. The town has a 150-space municipal lot at the corner of Grove and Third Avenues, but it is little used. With the proposed lot, cars would enter and exit the lot where the shell of the old Carson Drug building sits.
Radford City Council recently approved money for an engineering plan for the site. The project could be up for a vote by year's end.
Charlie Whitescarver, owner of Norwood Street's 1106 Tavern and former owner and manager of Hot Chilies, isn't too hopeful the lot will be built.
"To be real blunt, for years everyone in the East End has complained chronically about parking, and the city's never done anything about it," Whitescarver said.
Ed Cox, 34, who owns the Radford Fitness Center on Norwood Street, said there are also plans to address the need for a big draw - possibly by adding a farmer's market and factory outlet stores.
"The downtown just hasn't had that much to offer," Cox said.
Downtown supporters hope some of that changes with the sale last Wednesday of the old First and Merchant's Bank Building. The structure makes up one-third of the block across from the Norwood Center. The building, which runs from 1100 to 1106 Norwood Street, is 80 percent rented.
The building sold at auction to Radford real estate executive Jeff Price for $190,000, less than half its $460,000 assessed value.
Ken Farmer, whose company auctioned the property, said it sold for as low as it did because it will cost a good bit to renovate.
Price, whose business ventures include a property management company, a development company and the ongoing refurbishing of Norwood Street's Jefferson building, said last week he wants to restore the old bank building, at the corner of Virginia Avenue and Norwood Street.
"I won't be able to do it overnight," he said. "But I'll constantly work on it. Everything I do ties into what needs to be done."
Price said he hopes the Radford City Council notices the ongoing effort on Norwood Street.
"They need to build that parking lot. It's so desparately needed for downtown," he said. "If the city of Radford can see the vision, if they can see people like me and Ed (Cox) taking interest, I think they'll see great benefits."
Farmer said he sees downtown's lot gradually improving.
"We're doing it one building at a time," Farmer said. "But we're kind of licking the problem."
Gontrum, whose cafe opened Tuesday to a bigger-than-expected lunch crowd, is doing her share. She said the downstairs restaurant won't open for another few weeks.
"I don't see any problem at all at this point," she said. "There are so many possibilities here. You have the university around the corner, firms from around the world nearby. And it's a beautiful little town."
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. 1. The Norwood Center in Downtownby CNBRadford has some empty spaces and is looking for new tenants. 2.
Downtown Radford has several empty fronts. color.