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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990                   TAG: 9005120318
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

20-STORY TOWER UNDER WAY

Sometime this year, there should be five giant construction cranes operating in downtown Roanoke. They will send a message to visitors and citizens that Roanoke is making a big step into the 21st century, Mayor Noel Taylor said Friday.

Taylor spoke at ceremonies marking the beginning of construction on the 20-story Dominion Tower building.

He said three cranes will be at the Dominion site on Salem Avenue and two a few blocks away at Williamson and Franklin roads, where construction on a Norfolk Southern Railway office building is scheduled to start in August.

By fall, work is expected to begin on a city parking garage near the new Norfolk Southern building. Construction of a bridge over the railroad tracks at Second Street could get under way by December. By then, Virginia Tech may have found a backer to renovate the Hotel Roanoke.

Some business leaders and city officials who gathered on a windy Friday to open the construction phase of Roanoke's tallest building agreed these projects are part of the "connecting bridges" that will move Roanoke into the 21st century.

A giant balloon rose to the Dominion Tower's planned 320-foot height to give onlookers an idea of the impact the $40-million project will have on the Roanoke skyline.

The 20-story building in the center of downtown is a project of Faison Associates of Charlotte, N.C. It will have 205,868 square feet of office space.

Dominion Bankshares Corp., for which the building is named, will occupy 90,000 square feet of it, said David L. Caudill, president and chief operating officer of Dominion Bankshares. The bank also will have a branch office and automatic teller machines on the first floor.

Caudill said Friday's ceremony marked "the first step of what will be the greatest expansion downtown has witnessed since the railroad came to town."

Dominion will move its headquarters to the new structure. Caudill said he expects ongoing expansion by the bank to fill the space that will be vacated when the headquarters moves.

Faison is president of Faison Associates of Charlotte, N.C., and developer of Valley View Mall in Roanoke.

He was praised Friday by City Manager Robert Herbert as a man who sees the same future for Roanoke as the Roanoke City Council, which wants Roanoke to "attempt to become the most liveable and workable place in the South."

The Faison project will include a six-level parking garage in the office building and an adjoining wing garage. The parking garage is expected to cost $11,379,000, which will be paid by the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

by CNB