Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410110084
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But maybe the movies themselves, if not their original environments, can come back to downtown. That's the hope, anyway, of a task force established last week by Roanoke City Council.
It is not clear yet where this effort falls on a realism vs. fantasy continuum. A lot of things would be nice to have downtown, from rail service and a new university to Disney's America and a Fortune 500 corporate headquarters. Not all things are obtainable, however, especially when profitability is required.
Even so, public-private partnerships have become common over the years - the Hotel Roanoke's rehab being a prime example - and private-sector participation can help assure a kind of reality check. There seems to be enough enthusiasm for the idea of a downtown theater to at least study its merits.
In pursuing the project, council and Downtown Roanoke Inc. are operating on a couple of assumptions. One is the belief that a movie house (or houses) would enhance downtown's growing role as a regional entertainment and nightlife center. Another is the belief that the location can support a theater.
The first assumption appears safer than the second; but, while neither is unassailable, both are at least plausible. That a movie house would boost downtown's attractiveness by broadening the entertainment mix makes intuitive sense. And Roanoke's downtown is already a lot more attractive than most. Its offerings, in a relaxed and safe atmosphere, already draw a fair number of people, including at night. Downtown Roanoke Inc. has conducted demographic studies which, it says, indicate that a downtown theater could make it.
With all the old palaces gone, screens today would have to be housed either in new structures or in old buildings retrofitted for a new use - or in a combination of the two, like Center in the Square.
The museums and professional live theater of Center in the Square differ, of course, in a fundamental way from the film industry. The former are nonprofit organizations that do not compete with for-profit private businesses. Movies, however much an art form, are also moneymakers. Care would have to be taken to ensure that public-sector involvement in getting a downtown theater is not unfair to existing businesses in the valley.
But that concern need not preclude any public-sector participation whatsoever. The city has a legitimate interest in nurturing the downtown entertainment scene for visitors using the new conference center, or for anyone prepared to contribute to the local economy. At a minimum, there's nothing wrong with attempting to recruit prospective investors, helping them find suitable sites, or working with them to make sure their plans mesh with city projects like the proposed railside park between the City Market and the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
There would indeed be a lot right with such initiatives, if the result were the revival of movies downtown.
by CNB