ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070055
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
Downtown Roanoke's cultural hub, Center in the Square, is a finalist in a national competition for innovative approaches to urban revitalization.
As one of 52 finalists from 25 states - and the only one from Virginia - the Center will be featured in June at a United Nations convention in Istanbul, Turkey, attended by representatives of 180 countries.
Jim Sears, executive director of the center, said Wednesday the award is ``another one of the pieces of an economic development puzzle that, when put together properly, means more jobs and an enhanced economy'' for the area.
``It's also one more weapon in the arsenal of the convention bureau for attracting conventions and drawing tourists to the region,'' he said.
Word of the competition arrived in the mail this fall, and volunteer Sandy Light pulled together the application in just three days. News rolled off the fax machine this week that the center is a finalist, and that an inspector will arrive in the next two weeks.
As a finalist, the center will be featured at Habitat II, the City Summit in Istanbul. The first Habitat convention was held 20 years ago and focused on urban and rural settlements.
The competition is to show innovative approaches to urban revitalization for the rest of the world, said Akhtar Badshah of the Mega-Cities Project, one of the coordinating organizations for the project along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The thrust of Center in the Square's application is that much of the rejuvenation of the City Market grew up around it. The center opened 12 years ago with the innovative idea of providing free space for several cultural organizations under one roof. Since then, 80 new businesses have sprung up in the market area.
Sears is reluctant to take a lot of credit for the market renaissance, but he points out that more than 400,000 people a year come through Center in the Square. People are more likely to buy Mill Mountain Theatre tickets and then patronize a downtown restaurant, he said, than they are to eat downtown and decide to go to a play.
``The word would be `catalyst,''' said Larry Davidson, longtime downtown merchant at Davidsons men's clothing store and member of the center's board of directors.
This is the second time in recent months that properties in Roanoke's downtown City Market area have received national recognition. In August, a survey by a New York architectural firm named the market one of the 63 Great Public Places in America.
Badshah said there were 171 entries for the contest. The finalists range from homeless-assistance programs and housing scholarship programs to neighborhood revitalization projects. They came from cities as large as Boston and New York and as small as Roanoke.
The 25 winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in March, after they are chosen by a committee headed by HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
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