THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412160276
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
STAND AT THE CORNER of downtown Suffolk's busiest intersection and turn to the east. Now, glance upward.
You're looking at the city's history.
It's just an old office building, once part of a thriving urban core - but now it's seven stories of peeling paint, ragged molding and dirty gray bricks.
The wire hooks on the corner used to hold a clock, which counted down the years - long past - when workers and shoppers cluttered the streets.
The foot-tall letters over the door, muttering the name ``Professional Building,'' are a reminder of the doctors, lawyers and other professionals who once gave everyone within miles a reason to visit downtown.
The history of the 73-year-old Professional Building, at Main and West Washington streets, can tell you something about downtown Suffolk's past.
It can tell you something about the future, too.
After years in decline, the building soon will be renovated and filled with some 100 professionals. Hundreds of residents will likely visit downtown for the new services there.
If plans unfold, the Western Tidewater Community Services Board would be just one in a long list of public services to relocate downtown - including a health clinic, city courthouses, prison administrators and others.
City officials say their vision for downtown Suffolk's revival hasn't changed - they still want shops, theaters, restaurants and other attractions.
But first they are concentrating on drawing people downtown with services they need.
``I think most downtown areas that have had success have gone the route of human services,'' Mayor S. Chris Jones says. ``We're not just talking about the success of the agencies that move downtown, we're talking about the success of the whole downtown.''
The former Leggett building, a downtown department store mainstay for decades, stood empty since the store closed in 1992. But the city's community health clinic moved into part of the renovated first floor this past summer, followed by new offices of The Virginian-Pilot. Administrative offices for the state Department of Corrections are scheduled to occupy most of the former department store's second floor early next year - and that will nearly make the building whole again.
Plans call for a new courthouse complex across the street, and hundreds of parking spaces.
And in the seven-story Professional Building, one of the downtown area's oldest and tallest landmarks, the non-profit Community Services Board soon will take over.
Plans aren't final but the board hopes to move into the building within a year. It would bring administrative offices and some of its mental health services downtown, filling all of the building's 27,000 square feet of office space.
Suffolk builder G.P. Jackson donated the building to the board more than a year ago, one of his many gifts to the organization in recent years.
City officials approved, figuring the Community Services Board would save an aging landmark and fit nicely among the other service organizations moving downtown.
And now the government is banking on the idea's success - literally.
The City Council agreed last month to back as much as $2.4 million in bonds to renovate the Professional Building.
A renovation contract hasn't been signed and the bonds haven't been sold, but government accountants say it probably will cost about $165,000 a year for 25 or more years to pay off the bonds. The Community Services Board will cover $140,000 of the annual payment; the city will pay the difference.
And while not backing up the debt with any legal responsibility to pay if the board defaults, the city has offered its ``pledge of support.''
That means public dollars won't have to cover the debt if the Community Services Board can't pay, though banks and bond rating agencies might expect it. If the board can't keep up its payments, the city could take over the building.
Not all the money will be used for restoration. A $250,000 reserve fund must be established to satisfy the conditions of the loan, and more than $100,000 will pay the cost of issuing the bonds.
Some council members were admittedly leery of the deal because earlier renovation estimates were smaller.
But government officials say they aren't concerned about co-signing a $2.4 million loan for a non-profit agency - the board already pays about $140,000 in rent on buildings that would be consolidated into the downtown headquarters.
City finance director Lee Acors called it a unique arrangement that should protect the city coffers while still letting the Community Services Board hitch a ride on the government's credit rating.
In fact, the arrangement attracted more optimism than criticism.
Citizens haven't opposed it. Mayor Jones liked the plan, as did the rest of the council and the downtown business association.
And, of course, the non-profit board liked it.
``Let's admit it: It's great for the downtown revitalization,'' said Vincent Doheny, executive director of the Western Tidewater Community Services Board.
``We could sort of be an anchor for downtown.''
So, by rescuing the Professional Building, Doheny and others say they are tackling the rehabilitation of Suffolk's equally strained business district.
If the building's clocks can be saved, they'll go back on the wall, Doheny said.
The lettering over the door will be secured and polished.
No plans yet for whether the building's sides will be painted white again, but the peeling paint and discoloration will be gone either way, Doheny said.
And inside, plans call for saving the ornate ceiling and chandeliers, the marble veneers and the wood molding - if any of it can be saved.
The manual elevator - which employed the last elevator operator in South Hampton Roads - will likely have to be replaced.
``It's not easy,'' said Doheny, who hopes the plans will be finalized by January. ``Believe me, it's not easy.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
[color cover photo - the historic professional building]
Vincent Doheny and Peggy Williams look over the Professional
Building's interior, showing great signs of age.
The building housed government agencies.
Treasures, like this bronze mailbox, abound.
Many of the original fixtures will be restored.
Vincent Doheny is executive director of the Western Community
Services Board.
by CNB