ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997               TAG: 9701100019
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER

CONSULTANTS CONDUCT 2-DAY STUDY OF PULASKI'S DOWNTOWN PROSPECTS

Two representatives of a Boston, Mass., consulting firm began research in Pulaski Wednesday to see if its downtown area would be a viable location for a shopping mall.

Carol Todreas, president of Todreas Hanley, and her partner, Jivan Colabawalla, attended a quarterly meeting of the Pulaski Economic Development Board, which authorized the project.

Todreas said the two would spend several days in Pulaski talking to merchants, shoppers and others and then compare Pulaski and its potential markets to other places where downtown outlet malls have been successful.

"Our goal will be to give you the reasons why or why not we think it might able to work here," she said. "We really want to give you a broad range of what works, what doesn't work and what are the factors."

Pulaski is smaller than some of the municipalities to which it will be compared in the study. "It's not really size that's so important," she said, but "if enough people can be attracted to come here." The purpose of the study, she said, is to "see if you can make it happen or if it would just be wasteful" to seek tenants for a downtown mall.

Barry Matherly, the town's economic development director, reported that a downtown market study conducted by Virginia Tech students as a project is complete and yielding interesting data.

It shows that about 47 percent of downtown business people surveyed did about the same business in 1996 as in 1995; 35 percent showed an increase; 12 percent, a decrease; and the rest were unsure.

The problems cited by business people included a lack of merchandise variety, a lack of parking space and a need for more restaurants.

The students also surveyed more than 100 downtown customers and found different concerns: lack of clothing merchandise, a perceived crime problem downtown and inconvenient store hours. The customers did agree on the need for more restaurants, rating that need No. 2.

The economic development staff has sent out 100 packets on the town to successful restaurateurs who might want to expand.

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