ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090028
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
GREENSBORO LEADERS are visiting Roanoke in an effort to create a vision for their downtown.
Jimmy Black, a commercial real estate broker from Greensboro, N.C., said he was impressed when he was in town on a recent business trip.
Downtown Roanoke, he said, is a place where "activity goes on morning, noon and night."
On Friday, Black returned with a delegation of about 60 Greensboro property owners and merchants "to learn how yours [downtown] has grown."
Downtown Greensboro, a weekday, daytime office and financial center, has a dozen or so restaurants, most of which close before evening. There is little retail activity, apart from some antique shops.
The main attraction is a theater built in 1927 and renovated about five years ago. It is used for live productions by local amateur companies that are popular with theatergoers. There is no professional theater.
It is "just starting to grow," said Black, chairman of Downtown Greensboro Inc., an organization that, like Downtown Roanoke Inc., promotes business and development in the center city.
The group met Friday with officials of Downtown Roanoke Inc. before attending a reception at the Jefferson Center and sampling First Friday at Five and Art by Night. Today they will tour the City Market and the central business district.
"So many things make downtown the place to be," said John Santuccio, president of Greensboro's United Arts Council. "It's exciting and attractive."
Greensboro has done better than Roanoke has in developing places to live downtown. Black said Greensboro Court, a 125-unit apartment building, was renovated in the mid-1980s. It was fully occupied immediately, he said, and still has a long waiting list.
There are about 200 housing units in downtown Greensboro, he said, and there is good demand for them. That compares with 34 housing units in downtown Roanoke.
Black said a task force on downtown redevelopment recently recommended creation of Downtown Greensboro Inc., patterned on Roanoke's.
That organization, which he heads, is being formed and has no staff. He expects it will spearhead development studies similar to several in Roanoke starting in 1979.
One asset Greensboro has is turn-of-the-century architecture, much like Roanoke's. That character, Black said, must be brought out.
The pending redevelopment plans, he said, should result in "a myriad of possibilities and lots of opportunity."
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Greensboro businessman Jimmy Blackby CNB(left) and Greensboro United Arts Council President John A.
Santuccio joke around at the Hotel Roanoke on Friday.