Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408250016
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: 44 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"The shopping center is going to happen, and I think we're all going to be happy when it does," said Richard Reiss, legal counsel for Brantner Limited Partnership. The Charlottesville investors took over the project from Blacksburg developer Ray Chisholm last fall.
The partnership has been talking recently with Blacksburg's Planning Department about a revised site plan for the project, which would be on Prices Fork Road and bounded by Turner and Gilbert streets, Reiss said. The center site is just off North Main Street in an area that already has shops and restaurants.
The changes are fairly minor but will require the project to go through the zoning process again to be approved, said Adele Schirmer, Blacksburg's director of planning and engineering. The new site plan would contain a little more open space, with more visible parking, and would lessen the amount of storefront along Prices Fork Road. The plan will have to go before the town's Planning Commission and Town Council, with a public hearing before each.
Chisholm initially proposed building an $8 million, 75,000-square-foot retail and commercial complex on the 3.7-acre site in early 1992. Hoping to take advantage of the proximity to Virginia Tech, he won approval from Town Council to have the property rezoned for commercial purposes.
But after investing at least $200,000 of his own money in the project, Chisholm, who had hoped to have the center built by last August, wasn't able to hold it together financially.
The Charlottesville partnership took over the project last fall. Chisholm, who referred questions to Reiss, now calls himself an "unpaid consultant" who will receive some financial reimbursement when the project is completed.
Reiss said if all goes as planned, the project will be finished by next summer.
He said it has taken about a year to secure the properties and revise the plans.
"It has just taken us some time to really assess the situation," Reiss said. "It has by no means been an easy project."
Some of the partners also are involved in Brantner Limited Trust, which also allied with Chisholm in acquiring an island of land just up the street from Virginia Tech last summer. The university had been eyeing the land for years as a place to build an engineering building.
Chisholm has floated the idea of building a graduate student dormitory, but so far nothing has happened. Reiss said nothing is anticipated in the near future.
"Right now we're not at all focusing on that piece of property," he said. "We're focusing all our energies on the shopping center."
Reiss downplayed the risk involved in building a new shopping center in a town that has seen three of its existing centers lose major tenants to the Christiansburg retailing hub or go bankrupt. He said there's a backlog of tenants interested in the center, and Chisholm said negotiations are proceeding with two national bookstore chains that would provide an anchor for the center.
Most importantly, Reiss said, the center, which is now estimated to cost $5 million to build, has the most important thing on its side: location.
"We're a stone's throw from the biggest parking lot at Virginia Tech. We think we're going to have the benefit of both" traffic from Prices Fork Road and area pedestrians, he said. "We really feel strongly about the possibility of its success."
by CNB