ROANOKE BUSINESSMAN BUYS SPIGEL BUILDING DOWNTOWN

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 17, 1992                   TAG: 9201170186
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
ROANOKE BUSINESSMAN BUYS SPIGEL BUILDING DOWNTOWN
A Roanoke electrical equipment supplier, Robert E. Zimmerman, has bought the long-vacant Samuel Spigel Inc. building in downtown Roanoke.
Zimmerman, president of Roanoke Electric Zupply, said he bought the building from Signet Bank for $160,000 as an investment.
"I have no plans, but I'm going to clean it up, sit back and see what happens. . . . I'm hoping someone will use it," he said.
Zimmerman said he plans to repair the roof, put new glass in the storefront and fix the elevator in the three-story, 15,000-square-foot building at 308 S. Jefferson St.
Zimmerman said he "got a good buy" for the building, paying less than half of what the Bulbin family spent to remodel the store before it closed four years ago. Zimmerman said he used money from the sale of another building to buy the downtown property.
Spigel's, once a widely known women's apparel firm, was hit by a fire, a family disagreement and bankruptcy in the 1980s.
The company was operated by three generations since its founding by Samuel Spigel in downtown Roanoke in 1920, continuing for 71 years under Maxine Bulbin, his daughter; her husband, Fred Bulbin; and their children, Susan and Sam Bulbin. The company expanded to Valley View Mall and Towers Shopping Center. Its last shop, at Towers, closed in August.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB