Trolley cars can be a life-giving artery for Roanoke, a prominent urban-development expert told the city's downtown leaders Thursday.

The city's developing neighborhoods mean it is moving toward a modern public transit system, said Chris Leinberger, a Brookings Institution fellow who helped renew the downtowns of Albuquerque, N.M., and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Roanoke makes its own good first impression, he said after banker Gretchen Weinnig asked what he thought of the city.

"The million-dollar condos weren't too shabby," Leinberger said, referring to properties listed for about $950,000 in a renovated building at 204 S. Jefferson St.

People who spend that much exhibit a confidence that the property will resell at a higher price, said Leinberger, who was invited to the city by Downtown Roanoke Inc.

Its commitment to the arts also works in Roanoke's favor, Leinberger said after touring the art museum that is under construction downtown.

"This is going to be stunning," he said. "I feel sorry for the curator who has to compete against that building" because its design may surpass the masterpieces inside it, he said.

"Art leads the way in downtown regeneration," he said, and it accounts for a surprising 4 percent of the nation's assets, according to a Brookings study.

Trolleys could connect downtown to the Riverside development along Reserve Avenue and to the Grandin area, Leinberger suggested, allowing people to move between small, walkable neighborhoods without cars or parking.

"That is the best investment you can make," Leinberger said, because public transportation must be in place before high-density growth can occur.

When people see trolleys running on steel rails, they feel a city's commitment to its neighborhoods is real, and they're willing to purchase housing, he said.

"The development that occurs along those lines will stun you," he said.

Pedestrians will rule in Leinberger's view of cities, because cars and parking require 100 times more space. Parking decks are necessary in a downtown because they drive growth, but they're best located on its periphery, he said.

Roger Elkin, a realty executive, asked Leinberger's opinion of downtown pedestrian malls, a concept undertaken in several cities. "They have failed," for the most part, Leinhart said, because they were too much like suburban shopping centers.

Hope Hollingsworth, market and business retention manager for Downtown Roanoke Inc., told Leinberger about changes being considered in the City Market that could turn it into a public square and displace several vendors.

Farmers markets are a great asset to cities, Leinberger said, but any redesign of those spaces should give them more than one purpose.

A slot where a vendor sells fruit or flowers out of a truck during the day should not be just a slab of asphalt; it should have green features that transform it into a place where people can do other things at night, he said.

"We're starting to realize that," said Chris Chittum, Roanoke's planning administrator, who showed Leinberger around the city's southwest sector Thursday.

Designers can build multiple-use features, Leinberger said, but the city needs to watch closely so the different uses don't lead to problems.

"It's the management that counts."