Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 20, 1994 TAG: 9405200043
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Agents for the developers said a Blockbuster Music store and a Discovery Zone center are to open this fall under a single roof at 4037 Electric Road.
The 2.43-acre site is across Virginia 419 from an existing Blockbuster Video store, one of the company's four Roanoke Valley outlets.
The video store will remain in its present location, while the new operations will be in a new building on the former Bob Bell Nissan site. The building, constructed in 1988, has been vacant since September 1991.
Dennis Cronk of Waldvogel, Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group Inc., which handled the transaction, said the old building will be razed in June. Construction will begin immediately on a new, 25,650-square-foot building.
The two businesses are expected to employ 85 to 90 people, Cronk said. The target date for opening is October.
Timothy W. Gubala, Roanoke County director of economic development, said construction and other permits will be handled under a program that expedites economic development projects.
The development is expected to yield $26,000 a year in property taxes plus an unspecified amount in sales tax revenue to Roanoke County, he said.
Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. has a 10-year lease on the new building, which will be constructed by A&M Enterprises, LLC. Cronk said A&M is an entity representing a group of local investors who declined to be identified individually. A&M bought the property in February for $865,000 from NationsBank Corp., which acquired it through foreclosure.
Blockbuster Music is one of several subsidiaries developed in recent years as the company has diversified from video stores into other entertainment units. The music unit had 511 stores at the end of 1993, according to the company's annual report, making it one of the nation's largest music retailers.
The music centers feature listening posts where customers can sit and use earphones to hear selections before they purchase tapes and compact discs.
The Discovery Zone FunCenter, another Blockbuster unit, offers children's recreation, featuring brightly colored tunnels, ball baths, slides, climbing nets, an obstacle course, a mini-racetrack and other attractions.
Most parents play with their children at the center, but they also may wait in the television room.
Cronk said A&M Enterprises has had a contract to buy the property since the end of 1993 while the country rezoned the land to permit retail use.
A&M and Blockbuster have been negotiating for a lease since the end of last year, Cronk said. The deal was contingent on county zoning approval of a variance to allow construction within 10 feet of a private road abutting the property instead of the standard of 30 feet.
Although the building will be close to the side property line along the private road, it will be set back much farther from Virginia 419 than the car dealership building is now.
The variance was granted April 21 and the deal was closed Tuesday.
Cronk said it would be more expensive to renovate the existing building than to raze and replace it. Also, he said, "the highest and best use of the building doesn't match the highest and best use of the property."
He predicted other properties between the Roy Webber Highway and the railroad trestle on Virginia 419 will be similarly redeveloped. "I see more demolition to get the highest and best use," he said.
by CNB