Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991 TAG: 9102140452
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The money could be used to help pay for renovation of the Hotel Roanoke or development of sites in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology, Fitzpatrick said.
He thinks the city should investigate moving the offices for the Fire Department, the Water Department and the Roanoke Police Academy into the old school building on Campbell Avenue Southwest.
Voters have approved $3.5 million in bonds to help pay for converting the former school into a center for the performing arts and community service agencies.
The Jefferson Center Foundation, a private group of alumni and others, is trying to raise $2 million as its share of cost.
Beverly Fitzpatrick Sr., who heads the Jefferson Foundation, said the group would favor moving the city offices into the building.
"We've got plenty of space. We would welcome them," Fitzpatrick Sr. said. Having city offices in the building would not interfere with plans for the center, he said.
The offices are housed in a Kirk Avenue building that was sold by the city as part of a deal to acquire four Victorian-era buildings to prevent them from being demolished. The city has been leasing space in the building.
The city had been considering renovating the historic buildings at 118-124 Campbell Ave. S.W. and moving the offices into them. But engineers have estimated the renovation cost at $1 million.
Partly in an effort to avoid that expenditure, council voted 10 days ago to take a three-month option on another building, at 348 Campbell Ave. S.W.
At Fitzpatrick Jr.'s request, council has asked City Manager Robert Herbert for a report on the projected economic impact of moving the offices into each of the three potential locations.
"We need to know the long-range impact at each of these sites and what other development and economic activity that it might generate in the area before we make a decision on the option," he said.
If council decides to buy the building at 348 Campbell, formerly occupied by IBM, Herbert has said, he would recommend that the city try to sell the Victorian-era structures. If the city sells them, officials said they won't allow the new owners to demolish them.
The purchase price for the former IBM building would be $815,000. The city could move offices into the building with little, if any, renovation costs, Herbert said.
But the city would not need the IBM building if it moved the offices into the Jefferson Center, Fitzpatrick Jr. said.
The city paid $400,000 for the Victorian-era buildings. It received a $100,000 state grant to help pay for them on the condition that it preserve them. The city can keep the state money if it sells the structures to private developers and they are preserved.
The former owner - James Trinkle, president of C.W. Francis & Son, a realty firm - had planned to raze the buildings for a parking lot, but preservationists protested because of their historical significance.
by CNB