ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
An outline of the Dublin Town Center is taking shape on an 18-acre section of the town's industrial park, including a new town hall.
The future Dublin Town Hall will be a brick two-story building with single-story wings, with an improved customer service area and a second-floor meeting room for Town Council. The governing body now holds its meetings in the Dublin library building.
The building will also have new Police Department space, replacing the present crowded facilities in downtown Dublin. Work areas, offices, evidence storage and training space all will be included.
Space for a future satellite Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce office has been included, and Pulaski County is helping to fund office space where some county services can be provided locally.
Plans are for the Dublin Post Office to relocate to the Town Center property as well. The office is now in cramped facilities in downtown Dublin.
A new branch of the First National Bank of Christiansburg, the first business structure being located in the Town Center, already is bricked and under roof. Road and utilities construction is more than half done, storm structures and sewer lines are in, and curb and gutter work is under way.
A walking path connecting the various parcels is among the plans, along with greenways.
The property used to belong to Burlington Industries. The town began negotiating with Burlington in 1990 to try to secure it as an industrial park, and in 1993 bought 101 acres. Later, Burlington donated the rest of the 270 acres, and it was added last year to the town's geographical area in a voluntary boundary adjustment worked out with Pulaski County.
Existing buildings on the property totaled 485,000 square feet of usable space. One of the nine warehouse buildings on the site is being renovated, with 60 percent of the $460,000 cost coming from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, as a prototype of an industrial shell building.
Each warehouse building measures 10,400 square feet. The prototype will have office and reception areas and a conference room in a new office area to be built out from the building.
"The plan is to have it ready for leasing to a company [or] industry, no later than June 1997," said Town Manager Gary Elander. "But also you could have two or three companies in there. ... We hope to take the same concept and apply it to other warehouses."
The town already is using those warehouses, leasing space or providing shipping and receiving services to 15 companies with more than 200 employees. "They're all occupied, with one exception," Elander said.
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