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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995                   TAG: 9501260008
SECTION: ECONOMY                    PAGE: NRV-30   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

COLLEGIATE SQUARE CONSTRUCTION SET FOR SPRING

After years of delay, workers may finally break ground in the spring on the Collegiate Square Shopping Center on Price's Fork Road.

Zoning revisions and site plan modifications were wrapped up as Blacksburg Town Council approved the project late last year.

Developers say the shopping center, estimated to cost $5 million, will appeal to both students and town residents. The site, between Gilbert and Turner streets, would be developed for retail, office and possible residential use.

Construction could be completed within the year.

For more than two years the Collegiate Square project had been going in circles. A group of Charlottesville investors took it over from Blacksburg developer Ray Chisholm, who initially proposed building an $8 million, 75,000-square-foot complex on the 3.7-acre site in early 1992.

Chisholm won approval from Town Council to have the property rezoned commercial. But after investing at least $200,000 of his own money in the project, he wasn't able to hold it together financially.

by CNB