Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 15, 1995 TAG: 9506150026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
"In a shopping mall a key factor is the anchor" store, hospital President and Chief Executive Officer Lester Lamb said. "We regard ourselves as the anchor."
The hospital intends to build its $60 million health center on a 110-acre site near Interstate 81 and Virginia 177 and move its operations there by 1998. It will take the first step toward that plan by applying for a certificate of need from the state by July 1.
The site sits within approximately 2,800 acres that are the focus of the Virginia 177 Corridor Agreement, signed by Radford and Montgomery County in 1993, and dealing with water and sewer service and tax-revenue sharing issues.
If development in the gateway to Radford occurs as expected, $650 million will be invested in the area, the study predicts. While 10,700 of the foreseen jobs would be tied to construction, 6,300 permanent jobs also would be created, though the study didn't mention any specifics.
Because of the corridor agreement, which calls for Radford to receive 27.5 percent of the local taxes generated there in exchange for not attempting to annex it, the county would receive about $4 million in new tax revenue annually, while the city would take in $3 million.
No time table for when development would be completed is contained in the study, which was prepared by Brian Wishneff, Roanoke's director of economic development, and James Lollar of the College of Business and Economics at Radford University.
The study takes several assumptions directly from a vision contained in a study of the 177 corridor that was completed in 1992 by the New River Valley Planning District Commission. That study breaks up the area into separate sections projected for residential, industrial, medical and commercial development.
More than three-fourths of the 2,800 acres in the area are vacant. But the hospital will pay to extend water and sewer lines to the new health center, a move that will establish a basic infrastructure component needed to prompt new development. According to the 1992 corridor study, almost 60 percent of the vacant land will develop as residential areas, while 12 percent will become industrial and 20 percent commercial.
"We're obviously excited about the potential that our project brings to the gateway," Lamb said. "Our new health center will be a landmark and a magnet."
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