Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Great Eastern Management Company President Donald Wagner told a handful of citizens who attended a neighborhood forum at the Police Department that his company's vision will improve parking and traffic conditions in and around the center, and will make it more attractive to passers-by.
Great Eastern is a general partner of Brantner Limited Partnership, which will ask the town to approve an amendment to the site's commercial zoning classification so it can begin work on the center this fall. The partnership is made up of a group a Charlottesville investors who took over the project last fall from Blacksburg Developer Ray Chisholm.
Chisholm won approval two years ago to have the 3.7-acre site bordered by Prices Fork Road, Turner and Gilbert streets rezoned so he could build a shopping center.
"As you might expect, when someone new comes on the scene they have some different ideas about what would work best," Wagner said Wednesday.
The developers worried that the initial parking layout on the triangular-shaped property would prompt parking-space searchers to move in and out of the lots onto Gilbert and Turner streets as they hunted for spaces.
They also were concerned about the steepness of the parking facilities, which would have been at about a 5 percent grade, Wagner said.
Under their new plan, the parking lots will be enclosed, and most of the space will be flat. The new design also makes getting in and out of the center from Prices Fork Road easier, and should eliminate possible traffic back-ups at the center's entrances.
The new design, Wagner said, also improves the facades of the buildings, so that those facing Prices Fork Road and Turner Street will be more attractive and easier to see into when driving by.
Wagner told the group that he envisions a three-story building along Turner Street with retail shops on the first floor, offices on the second and perhaps apartments on top. Shops would also occupy two smaller buildings.
More parking and a future building site have been penciled in for a piece of land at the corner of Gilbert and Turner, but if and when that is built depends on the Harvest Baptist Church, which operates a student center there. Wagner said the church might be willing to make a land swap at some point if his group can find a suitable place for the student center, although there are no plans for such a move yet.
As for the shopping center, Wagner said he would like to see some site work begin this fall, followed by construction in the spring. "A year from now we'd like to have places open," he said.
Blacksburg Planning Commission and Town Council will discuss the amendment at meetings next month on Oct. 4 and Oct. 11, respectively.
by CNB