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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995                   TAG: 9507190046
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

J.CREW SCRAPS FACILITY

Company officials had said in June that the proposed center would ship goods to J.Crew's growing network of stores. Tuesday, the New York company said retail shipping will be handled from an existing facility in Asheville, N.C.

J.Crew already operates a 1,000-employee catalog distribution center in Lynchburg.

The retailer said it has decided to shift to the Lynchburg operation all of the catalog distribution shipping for its Clifford & Wills unit, which now is done in Asheville. The Lynchburg site will relinquish to Asheville its shipping of goods to J.Crew factory stores. But no jobs will be lost or gained at either location, the company said.

"We re-evaluated our current facilities both in Lynchburg and Asheville and we think without having to expend those original funds, we can just reorganize," said John Keith, human resources director in Lynchburg.

"We're disappointed," said Bill Rolfe, Bedford County administrator. "That's a business decision they have to make."

The Virginia Governor's Opportunity Fund already had pledged $125,000 to the project to upgrade a road and discount the cost of real estate. That money "will go back in the pot for somebody else to use," Rolfe said.

The county had begun the design of water and sewer lines to accommodate the proposed center at Lake Vista Corporate Center in Forest, but the work won't be a wasted effort, Rolfe said. The lines will need to go in sooner or later for other tenants, he said. The sale of land by the county to the company had not closed.