Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990 TAG: 9006070563
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As TAP's search for a new headquarters has progressed, Cabell Brand said Wednesday that he has been in contact with City Manager Robert Herbert and assured him that the agency wants to work with the city.
Some city officials fear that plans for a convention and trade center could be hampered if TAP moves its headquarters into the old Stone Printing Co. building on North Jefferson Street.
The building, now occupied by Frame One, a wholesale framing business, is next to Norfolk Southern Corp.'s old office buildings, the recommended site for a convention center.
TAP has taken a 90-day option on the building.
"We told them [TAP] that we prefer not be landlocked if the convention center is on the NS buildings' site," Vice Mayor Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. said earlier this week.
"We have a number of options and we're keeping them open, but TAP is not going to interfere with what the city is doing," Brand said.
Brand said the Stone Printing building is just one of the alternatives TAP is considering.
One proposal that has been discussed privately would call for TAP to acquire the building that houses the administrative offices for the city school system (the old Booker T. Washington School on Douglas Avenue near Interstate 581 and Orange Avenue.)
Under this plan, the school administrative offices would move into the old Jefferson High School, which will be renovated and converted into an arts, educational and office complex.
Some TAP officials have looked at the school administration building and Brand said he also plans to tour it.
Brand said TAP needs a building with at least 50,000 square feet of space so it can put all of its operations in a central location as quickly as possible. TAP can't wait two or three years to get a new headquarters, he said.
The anti-poverty agency lost its headquarters on Shenandoah Avenue Northwest to a fire Dec. 23.
Brand said TAP hopes to make a decision on a headquarters by the time the 90-day option on the Stone Printing building expires in late July.
NS plans to construct a new office building at Williamson Road and Church Avenue in the Downtown East urban renewal area and presumably will vacate its old buildings near Hotel Roanoke.
The city has not made a final decision on the site for a convention center.
At this point, city officials do not know whether the recommended site will be available because they have not negotiated a deal with NS, but they want to retain flexibility if the site is acquired.
Fitzpatrick said the Stone Printing building, across the street from Hotel Roanoke, might be needed for future expansion of a convention center even if it's not required now.
by CNB