Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991 TAG: 9102130167
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Downtown leaders say they hope so, too.
"That's the last deadline I'm willing to wait for," said Kathy Jebo, former president of the board of the Radford Main Street downtown renewal program. "People have been waiting for a year and a half."
"I hope he means it," said Ken Farmer, current Main Street president. "It has the potential to be a very positive thing. But it's come to the point where most people will walk on the other side of the street just to avoid it."
The bank, vacated in 1986 when United Virginia Bank moved to a new building down the block, has become a sore point to civic leaders trying to revive the city's business district.
Old photographs of the bank, built sometime around the turn of the century, show a stately building with tall columns and multipaneled windows. The outside bricks are granite-plated; the inside teller booths were marble.
"It's a gorgeous old-time bank," said Main Street Project Manager Charlie Whitescarver.
But some of the building's architectural flourishes were hacked off when an aluminum facade was put up sometime in the 1960s, bank officials said.
Thacker pulled down the aluminum more than a year ago to expose the original architecture, and the upstairs was converted to student apartments. But Radford leaders say little has happened since.
Meanwhile, pigeons live atop the building. Curtains of various colors and Greek fraternity letters cover several windows. And some people have begun to lose patience.
"It has now started to hold back the overall feeling of the entire block," said Jebo, who, with others associated with the Main Street project, has worked to restore the business district's turn-of-the-century ambiance. "It's hard to convince people to renovate when you have an eyesore next door."
United Virginia Bank - now Crestar - built offices across from Radford University in 1986. The old building eventually was donated to The Conservation Fund, a non-profit Arlington organization that works to protect land and water resources.
The building was donated because there was "no viable market" for selling it, said Crestar spokeswoman Freda Carper.
The Conservation Fund entered into a partnership with Thacker's Thavan Corp. on Virginia 114, in which Thavan would manage the property, said Thacker and Conservation Fund officials.
"They [Thavan Corp.] are responsible for all aspects of management. I think you should talk to them," said Conservation Fund real estate director Dave Sutherland.
"We're not a developer," said Conservation Fund spokseman Jack Lynn. "From our point of view it is something that eventually we hope will produce revenue for us. We would not be involved in the facade."
Asked if The Conservation Fund could provide money to help with renovations, Lynn stressed that the group is a non-profit organization. "Where would we get the money?" asked Lynn. "I'm sure if the city of Radford would like to make a grant, we would be eager to receive it."
Radford Economic Development Director David Ridpath said that to the best of his knowledge, no grant money is available.
Whitescarver, the Main Street manager, said he did not think the building would qualify for a federal Community Development Block Grant, but he would look into it.
In any case, Thacker said he wants to restore the facade as much as possible to its original condition.
He said he had hoped to find a tenant for the downstairs area to help with cash flow before doing the renovation work. "Somebody's got to foot the bill," Thacker said.
Though there were several ideas from prospective retail tenants - including plans for a restaurant that would have used the teller windows as a bar - Thacker said no one could come up with the money.
He said he now believes he must renovate the building before he can attract a downstairs tenant. "It's now time to start working on the downstairs and outside," Thacker said. "I hope by spring to have it done."
Told some civic leaders were impatient, Thacker said, "They assumed we were going to do all the renovation at once. We just have not been in a position to be able to do everything we want to."
He said the additional renovations could cost some $20,000. "We have some financing lined up. It's just a matter of putting it in place," he said.
Whitescarver, the Main Street manager, said the bank is not the only building that still needs work. But it is the most visible. "It takes up the skyline," he said. "You come into town from that direction and that's what you see."
Whitescarver also said he believes Thacker is serious about the renovation. He said he and Thacker attended a recent seminar in Staunton on window replacement and masonry work.
"I don't think he would have driven all the way to Staunton if he wasn't going to do something about it," Whitescarver said. "I'm going to support Dave in whatever he can do."
Whatever Thacker does, some hope he does it soon.
"I personally feel very strongly that whoever is responsible ought to be doing something to make it more attractive than it is," said Hix Bondurant of Bondurant Realty, which has renovated the former Leggett up the street from the bank. "At least get rid of the pigeons."
"It would help everybody" if the work was done, said Farmer, who has renovated three downtown storefronts.
"We're kind of anxious to see the revitalization begin" on the bank, said Ridpath, the city's economic development director. "We see it as a centerpiece for the downtown area. We just hope it doesn't sit there too long."
It has already been sitting too long to suit Jebo, who fired off a letter to Thacker last March urging him to get on with the project.
"It is the feeling of a great many citizens that you should begin final exterior renovations," Jebo wrote. "Your corporation, Thavan, is failing to capitalize on a new spirit of change stimulated by the growth of Radford University. . . . I hope you will continue to be a positive force."
Nearly a year later, Jebo says it's time Thacker did something to show he is serious.
"He could send someone over to clean it up," said Jebo. "He could clean the windows. He can put certain requirements on what the kids [the upstairs apartment tenants] can hang up. All he has to do is send a workman over to sweep it up, and clean the windows once a month, if he really wants to give some sign . . . That would stop a lot of the complaints right there."
Thacker said he would look into the reports of untidiness. "That's the first I've heard," he said.
by CNB