ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
The Department of Motor Vehicles will move its office to the area near Lowe's in the fall of 1997, and the Christiansburg post office may be eyeing the same place for a consolidated office that will mean the downtown and Cambria sites will close.
The DMV recently selected for its new office the booming area near Peppers Ferry Road and Arbor Drive. It is close to Lowe's, the recently opened Outback Steakhouse, and the closed Heironimus store, where Grand Piano & Furniture Co. will open in August.
The new office has yet to be built, but the department will sign a lease within three months, said Jeanne Chenault, public relations coordinator for the department in Richmond.
It will have 11 teller windows, including a drive-up window, and 5,800 square feet. The current office at 1095 Peppers Ferry Road has nine teller windows and 2,670 square feet, Chenault said.
The department will lease the new building to speed up the move. Buying the building is a more lengthy process, she said. Leasing also will mean the building will generate local tax revenue because the state does not pay taxes on buildings it owns.
A new building is needed because the current building, constructed in 1976, "is really not adequate for that population. ... We will construct an office that is appropriate for that area," Chenault said.
Christiansburg Post Master Arthur Duarte said the Postal Service is considering the same area for its new office, though it has not settled on a site.
"We're looking at that area," Duarte said, though the Postal Service is looking at other places, too. The service is making bids and getting sites appraised, and thus not ready to announce a site.
"It's got to be in the town of Christiansburg," he said.
Duarte said the service is scheduled to have a site selected and plans ready by the end of July.
"We're still in the negotiation process. We're not ready to announce anything yet."
The new building will be on a parcel of at least five acres, Duarte said. At 28,500 square feet, it will be bigger than the combined space of the downtown Christiansburg and the Cambria offices and twice the size of the post office on University City Boulevard in Blacksburg.
The Postal Service will sell its downtown office and end its lease at its Cambria site when the new office opens, Duarte said. The new site will have more parking than the current locations.
The Postal Service will open a new office because "We've outgrown the buildings, and automation is coming, and we don't have the floor space," Duarte said. "The goal is to put everything in one building to save money."
Mail-delivery speed will go up with the new building, he said.
Richard Yearwood, an associate professor in Virginia Tech's department of urban affairs and planning, said the Department of Motor Vehicle's move could help cement the area around the Marketplace as the New River Valley's "new downtown for the whole region."
"I expect to see everything in a traditional downtown out there," Yearwood said.
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