Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990 TAG: 9007250596
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Total Action Against Poverty has agreed to pay $1 million for the eight-story Crystal Tower office building at Campbell Avenue and Second Street Southwest in downtown for its new headquarters.
Poverty may remain largely hidden in some areas in the city, but officials expect the move to produce a higher, more main-street kind of visibility for the agency.
Like others, downtown businessmen were surprised by TAP's disclosure Tuesday that it intends to buy the Crystal Tower building in downtown for its new headquarters.
The head of the downtown business organization said today he does not know whether TAP's decision will help downtown renewal.
"It's too early to speculate on what impact it will have on downtown development - pro or con," said Franklin "Kim`' Kimbrough, executive director of Downtown Roanoke Inc.
The agency had an option to buy the old Stone Printing Co. building across Jefferson Street from Hotel Roanoke. TAP was expected to exercise that option, which expires Friday, but switched plans after learning in the past few days that the Crystal Tower building was available, said Cabell Brand, president of TAP's board of directors.
Two real estate agents who had been working with TAP on other possible sites "made us aware for the first time this past weekend that the building might be available," Brand said.
After two days of negotiations, TAP decided to enter into a contract to buy the Crystal Tower building, he said.
Commercial space occupies the building's first floor along Campbell Avenue and offices are on the upper floors. The building contains enough space for TAP to consolidate all of its programs there quickly, according to Ted Edlich, executive director of the anti-poverty agency.
That move will bring approximately 150 employees - and an average annual payroll of $1.5 million - into downtown Roanoke. The agency brings approximately $6 million in outside resources to the Roanoke Valley each year.
TAP will honor all leases with tenants in the Crystal Tower building, and no one will be asked to move, Edlich said.
Although TAP expects ultimately to occupy a substantial part of the Crystal Tower building, Brand said it hopes to keep tenants in the first-floor commercial space and some other offices to generate income to help cover the building's operating expenses.
"The building will serve both as a headquarters for TAP and as an income-producing property," Brand said. "We want to keep the tenants, especially in the commercial space on the first floor. We need the income." TAP will work with the tenants, he said.
TAP also plans to obtain an option to buy the Crystal Tower's parking lot, at an additional cost of $250,000, Brand said. The agency has enough money from the insurance settlement on the fire that destroyed its old headquarters on Shenandoah Avenue to buy the Crystal Tower building now. But funds for the parking lot are not available, Brand said.
The building is assessed at $784,100 by the city for real estate tax purposes. The parking lot is assessed at about $200,000. The property sold for $1 million in 1988.
Jerome Howard, commissioner of revenue, said TAP would pay real estate taxes on the building.
A title search will be necessary and other legal work must be completed before the deal can be closed, but Brand said he hopes it can be concluded by Aug. 1.
TAP's decision came one day after the Henry Street revival area and the city's Booker T. Washington school administration building were eliminated as sites for a headquarters.
City Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles, who is on TAP's board of directors, said the decision to buy the Crystal Tower building is "the right step" for the agency. As a council member, she said she "wholeheartedly endorses the move."
Vice Mayor Howard Musser said he did not know TAP was considering the Crystal Tower building until a reporter called for his reaction.
"If they are pleased with it, I am pleased. I am happy they have got a place they like," Musser said.
TAP had preferred that its headquarters be in the Henry Street renewal project, but City Council said Monday that the city couldn't afford to provide $2.1 million requested by TAP to help finance the project.
Brand said the building has 78,000 square feet of finished office space and 13,000 square feet of unfinished space, more than enough to meet TAP's needs.
The building has some vacant office space that TAP can use immediately, which was a factor in the agency's decision, he said.
TAP's operations are now scattered at several sites.
The Crystal Tower building has had a financially troubled history and has undergone several renovations since Richard Hamlett, a former Roanoke real estate developer, bought it two decades ago.
Built in 1932, it was operated as the 183-room Ponce de Leon Hotel until 1970, when it was acquired by Hamlett. He converted it into offices. The building, which once housed all of Hamlett's real estate operations, has been the subject of several foreclosure sales in the past decade.
Brand said the purchase of the Crystal Tower building means that TAP will not have to raise funds for (type missing)
TAP had hoped to locate its headquarters on Henry Street as part of an urban renewal effort. The agency had asked the city to make a three-year $2.1 million commitment to developing commercial property in the area. TAP would have contributed its own funds of $1.5 million and secured other funds for the estimated $7.1 million cost for the project.
by CNB