Roanoke development

[weill]

well i guess that does have some advantage to it

[RoanokeFound]

theres this thing called salt... and something called sand

mix them together you have a 1-2 punch that destroys snow and ice.

[BGW]

And whats wrong with the city schools?

Funny you should ask... I'm a product of Roanoke County Schools and I always heard that city schools were terrible and to be avoided at all costs. When my brother moved his family to just inside the city limits off Brandon Ave, I cringed at the thought of my nieces & nephews going to city schools. Guess what? The elementary school they attend is excellent! The 4 year old goes to FREE pre-K, and the middle school that the oldest boy will go to next year seems to be, at worst, no worse than my county middle school was.

I'm not saying I'd ship my kids off to William Fleming tomorrow, but Roanoke City's schools aren't that bad. Come to Richmond if you want to see an urban school system that's in on life support.

[weill]

well, i guess it just want people think about the city.

[mclawsdrive]

well, i guess it just want people think about the city.

As a product of 12 years in Roanoke City schools, I think I can say that the difference between city and county schools is primarily the socio-economic status of the student bodies, not a difference in the quality of the education available. My graduating class sent students to Harvard, Yale and pretty much every ivy league school. Our governers school students were a year ahead in math than county students. But my h.s sent far less total students off to college. If you compare city and county students with similar incomes, the difference in scores vanishes. Many people think you should judge the quality of a school by the results, but you must look at the input and output to make a fair judgement. If Roanoke county schools were terrible, they would still send more kids to college and have higher sol scores than the city. The average county student is middle or upper middle class, while half of city students (at least at high school level) are near or below the poverty level. Family income strongly corrolates with performance in school.

[mclawsdrive]

What is being constructed next to the civic center?

[StevenRocks]

It's an addition to the civic center that will pretty much replace the underground exhibit hall.

[mclawsdrive]

Any idea what they will use the old space for when the new exhibit hall opens?

[StevenRocks]

Potentially it could still be exhibit space. But it might just be closed off. It needs a lot of work.

[mclawsdrive]

Any word on the redevelopment of the 400 block of Marshall Ave, S.W. Last I heard, the city and housing authority had bought the whole block and were going to turn the whole block into upper middle class single family homes.

[StevenRocks]

I haven't heard any recent news on that.

[bmedguy]

Any word on the redevelopment of the 400 block of Marshall Ave, S.W. Last I heard, the city and housing authority had bought the whole block and were going to turn the whole block into upper middle class single family homes.

The plan is still moving forward. One house is nearly completed. There are a few more that work has started on and several that are sitting and waiting to be rehabed. This is a great project for Old Southwest as that was the worst area of the neighborhood in terms of drugs and prostitution. Those houses were multi-unit apartments and were not maintained at all, (let's face it they were crap holes) were in disrepair, attracting that kind of traffic. The entire block will be converted back to single family homes and they will be selling for 250,000 last I heard a couple of months ago.

[electricmonk]

That's actually Day Ave. I live on Marshall a few blocks up from there.

I just wish they would move forward on the Cotton Mill project that was supposed to happen on 6th St near Marshall Ave. I found this older article about that. Also mentioned in this article is the Can Company. I went to a couple parties there last spring and summer but then they quit having events because the building wasn't up to code yet. I haven't heard anything else about it since at least July and their website just says "coming soon" so I'm not holding my breath.

Edited March 3, 2006 by electricmonk

[mclawsdrive]

Interesting article.

Oops, I don't know why I thought that project was on Marshall. First Baptist turned that entire block, and several other ones, into beautiful parking lots.

I hope the Cotton Mill and Can Company projects come to fruition. The most important element (in my opinion) was the mention of affordable residential space.

[mclawsdrive]

The Can Company Building was just recently placed on the the National Register of Historic Places, making significant tax credits available for renovation work. Full story at: http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/56521

[bmedguy]

Good news on the Can Company Building. Hopefully that will get things moving there. Her is recent news on the Roanoke River Grrenway development which is closely tied to federal flood control money.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/55622.html

There was also a meeting at the civic center (can't remember who organized it) a few weeks back to revitalize and organize public efforts to get the greenways built in terms of both fund raising and volunteer work on construction. The end result was the group decided to focus on getting the river portion completed first and then focus on connecting branches as it was thought the river would yield the greatest payoff in terms of increased interest.

[mclawsdrive]

I'm very happy so see some momentum on the greenways. But I'm concerned that the river project is gutting the river too much. In my opinion, it would be far less damaging to the river eco-system to leave a 5-10 foot buffer on each side of the river's normal edge. Then widen the river channel with bench cuts on both sides of the buffer. This would leave some of the shade trees and roots that protect the river from excessive heat and erosion.

The army corps' logic is confusing. They say they must remove all trees and brush from the channel to maximise effectiveness of the improved channel for flood control. Yet they plan to plant trees and shrubs after each section is completed. Will these trees and shrubs only be planted on the outside edges of the channel, 50 + feet from the river?

It seems that the corps will plant trees, but more sparsely than the current continuous tree cover that follows much of the river. I wish that at a minimum, the corps could strategically select certain mature trees to save instead of spending all the effort and money to cut them all down and plant new ones that will take 50 years to provide the same canopy.

[StevenRocks]

The Can Company Building was just recently placed on the the National Register of Historic Places, making significant tax credits available for renovation work. Full story at: http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/56521

I used to work right down the street from that place. Great building.

[bmedguy]

It appears our downtown growth is gathering some attention from our friends in Richmond. I think it is great. So many positive things have happened to downtown Richmond recently from what you all have been saying. Anyone have any opinion on the projects these developers are involved with? Hmmm.... am I sensing some momentum?

http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/56786

[electricmonk]

I'm excited about it. About 5 or 6 years ago I did a photo shoot with a local band and we did all the photos downtown on a Sunday. We were able to get up on fire escapes and the parking garages and other upper floor spots and one thing we commented on at the time was the amount of unused space on second, third and fourth floors all over downtown. We would look into a building and say something along the lines of, "damn that would make a cool apartment".

I'm hoping the art museum will spark the owners of Billy's Ritz to do something with the upper floors there. I've been through the upper floors there and it would make awesome apartments.

Also I'm hoping that with all the interest in downtown now some places will come available that don't cost an arm and a leg. Some nice 1 bedroom units for 500-600 a month is right up my alley.

[bmedguy]

The upper floors of these old buildings really do have great potential as living space. That was one of the first things that struck me when I moved here and I was shocked that apparently no one had thought there was a market and tried to capatilize. I think the potential is just being scratched on the surface. Affordable apartments downtown would be a terrific way of keeping around 20 somethings everyone says they desperately want to attract. Little has been done to this point to do that, but that would be a good step.

Electricmonk, I know it's still not cheap, but didn't I read that some of the new lofts on Cambell would go for as low as 155,000? I could be mistaken, my memory is not detail oriented. If you can at all afford ownership, I think getting in now, right at the begining could potentially pay off big in a few years. Of course it is a risk as well as Roanokers may not take to downtown living, but looking at how quickly these things are selling at this point that doesn't seem to be the case.

[burt]

It looks like you've attracted some top developers from Richmond. American Tobacco apartments in The Bottom used to be the Shockoe Bottom Arts Center. Pohlig Brothers Building was an old ante bellum warehouse that served as a hospital during the Civil War. Both of these projects in Richmond are first class all the way and are sold out.

Roanoke, judging from their comments and pictures you guys post, would seem like a great investment opportunity for developers and potential tenants.

[erdogs]

I opened the Roanoke Times on Sunday and saw what could possibly become the most beautiful contemporary building ever constructed in Western Virginia! The new Art Museum of Western Virginia design is bold, expressive and sorely need in Roanoke, a town that seems so doggedly determined to preserve its past that it

[bmedguy]

It looks like you've attracted some top developers from Richmond. American Tobacco apartments in The Bottom used to be the Shockoe Bottom Arts Center. Pohlig Brothers Building was an old ante bellum warehouse that served as a hospital during the Civil War. Both of these projects in Richmond are first class all the way and are sold out.

Roanoke, judging from their comments and pictures you guys post, would seem like a great investment opportunity for developers and potential tenants.

Well that is good news. I hope they decide to try a couple of ventures here. Thanks for the inormation.

[bmedguy]

Well erdogs, there are plenty that would agree with you. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. I (like the poster who first brought it to our attention) personally love it but won't rehash all that here. There is a thread specific to the art museum if you would like to join the discussion.

As far as construction pics...... I wish. They still haven't actually broken ground. These things take time I suppose. Given how projects go around here, grumblings of doubt it will ever be built have started. I still think it will, but don't know when. The latest time estimate given by the director was to break ground "hopefully" by the end of March. Doesn't sound too optomistic.