ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280093
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: AMY GARDNER Daily Press NEWPORT NEWS (AP)
HE DOESN'T WANT to go, says Anastasios Daniel, who has run his Newport News restaurant since 1961. But that restaurant is downtown, and city planners say its time has passed.
Anastasios Daniel and his Paramount Restaurant are among the last holdouts in a downtown that long ago succumbed to suburban flight and the shopping malls.
The Paramount, surrounded by vacant buildings and empty lots, may be the next to go.
As part of the Downtown Partnership Initiative, the city's $6 million plan to please the Navy by improving the look and feel of downtown just a few blocks from Newport News Shipbuilding's yards, officials want to tear down the Paramount.
A restaurateur since 1948, Daniel, 75, doesn't want to go. The Paramount has been Daniel's livelihood since 1961.
``You work all your life to make something, and they want to take it away,'' Daniel said. ``Even without the restaurant, I make enough from the two floors of apartments to live. And to replace this building, it would cost $1 million or more - without the second and third floors.''
But city officials say they have no choice. They've tried other things to cut down on the vice and decay that pervade downtown Newport News. Removing the buildings that cause the problems, they say, is the only sure-fire way to appease the Navy.
``We need to remember something here: We're trying to create an environment where the shipyard can thrive and the Navy is happy. That's job number one when it comes to downtown,'' said Neil Morgan, the city's assistant director of planning and development. ``There are too many opportunities for sailors to get into trouble with vice issues. We've taken a variety of approaches, if you look back over 40 years, and none of the others has succeeded.''
Daniel's building also sits on land the city may use for a new fire station, said City Manager Ed Maroney. And it's not in the best condition in the world, said Morgan.
``Our desire is not to tear down buildings for the sake of it,'' Morgan said. ``It is to remove blight. These buildings were identified as sources of ugliness and abandonment or associated with vice activities. I've worked downtown for the last 91/2 years. There hasn't been any change for the better during that time.''
The city is offering Daniel $184,000 for his property - a handsome sum compared with its $50,000 assessed value, Morgan said.
``Our basic approach is to offer the city tax assessment for someone's property,'' Morgan said. ``In Daniel's case, we're offering more. We think that's fair.''
But Daniel said $184,000 won't cover his cost of relocation - or make up for the rent he receives for apartments above the restaurant. If the city offered him more, he'd be happy to move out.
A native of Cyprus, Daniel arrived in Newport News after wartime service in Great Britain's Royal Air Force.
He remembers when Washington Avenue crawled with activity, when it was lined with restaurants and department stores and when Elvis Presley played next door at the now-demolished Paramount Theater.
``It was one of the busiest places you could ever imagine,'' he said. ``It was like Fifth Avenue in New York or Oxford Street in London.''
But that era is a thing of the past, city officials say. It is time now to prepare downtown for a new era of activity - an era of industrial or commercial development, perhaps. And the very first step is clearing out the old.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Anastasios Daniel recalls his street as ``one of theby CNBbusiest places you could ever imagine. It was like Fifth Avenue in
New York or Oxford Street in London.'' color.