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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260405
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REMODELED BUILDING SOLD TO ROANOKE WITHOUT BATTLE

The glass-and-masonry building at Franklin Road and Third Street Southwest near the Poff Federal Building in downtown Roanoke will go down without a fight.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has bought the building from Daniel Crandall, a lawyer who acquired the property in the mid-1980s and remodeled it.

A condemnation battle has been avoided.

The widening of Franklin Road between Mountain Avenue and Third Street Southwest will require the building to be razed. The highway project is scheduled to be advertised for construction bids in October.

The state paid Crandall about $300,000 for the property.

The building attracted public attention several years ago when Crandall said he never suspected that Franklin Road would be widened before 1995.

"The highway project is coming quicker than I realized," Crandall said in an interview then.

Crandall said he had spent more than $200,000 to buy and renovate the structure.

He said he didn't know about the widening plan when he bought the property, but learned about it when he contacted the city about his renovation plans. He said he offered to sell the property to the city then, but the city said it couldn't because there was no firm timetable.

Crandall said the remodeling project had been an almost daily labor of love for him and his wife. The couple designed the new facade for the building, and Crandall acted as his own prime contractor.

It was a "dream of ours," he said, adding it was a convenient location near federal and state courts.

He said his law business increased rapidly after he moved into the building.

Crandall talked with highway engineers about the possibility of changing the road plans to spare the building, but they said there was no way to save it. He was the only property owner who objected to the widening plans at a public hearing last year.

The project will require 19 families and 14 businesses to be relocated. The state has acquired all of the needed property except for two commercial parcels.

by CNB