Sunday, December 30, 2007
Downtown apartments are critical
The future of Roanoke
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Bill Carder
Carder is executive director of Downtown Roanoke Inc.
A glimpse into the past: downtown Roanoke in the 1930s -- bustling streets filled to the brim with cars, people of all races, creeds, ages and economic strata -- shopping, working, playing and living. Downtown -- a thriving urban environment. Living in downtown and its adjacent neighborhoods was efficient, functional and desirable. Families, the elderly, young couples, rich and poor alike lived in or near the center of our city because it was where they worked and the goods and services they needed were provided.
After World War II, that all changed. With suburbanization, downtown mostly became just a place to work, at best. Roanoke (and many other cities) experienced a dramatic change in how downtown looked and functioned.
Streets were made one-way in order to move workers in and out of the district quickly and efficiently. We lost downtown retail stores to malls and strip centers. Downtown residents fled, choosing more land, the security of neighborhoods and a better return on their investment.
Along with the migration of people to the suburbs, so went the schools, retailers, restaurants, etc. But downtown Roanoke was not dead. It's ironic that the empty buildings, vacant land, depressed real estate prices and the growth of the county became the essential ingredients of our downtowns resurgence. The migration spurned not only plans such as Design '79, Outlook Roanoke and the Outlook update, but motivated many citizen champions to mobilize and make change happen. They refused to let our downtown continue to decline.
Center in the Square was the lynchpin to our future. Since its birth, we have seen a dramatic resurgence buoyed by such initiatives as a return to two-way street grids, incentives for downtown living, the rebirth of the Hotel Roanoke, the creation of the Higher Education Center, O. Winston Link Museum and the Jefferson Center, and a renewed historic market.
Public-private partnerships utilizing almost a half of a billion dollars in historic tax credits, cooperation and compromise were some of the keys to the success we have seen up to today, and will be critical for moving forward.
So what is needed now? A retail strategy is being developed to lure key retail anchors as are a marketing plan to get the message out to the region about all we have to offer and a targeted plan to recruit new businesses.
We continue to be diligent about retaining the businesses we have. And while downtown living has become attractive to many, we lack the density and diversity of housing that will be needed to continue our progressive march. Being able to provide affordable housing is absolutely essential to the economy of our downtown.
More people living downtown helps with retail and entertainment development and also greatly enhances the sense of security for residents and visitors.
Recently a member of the Economic Development Commission, while voting against a city incentive for the apartments at the Grand Piano building, made a statement that the construction of downtown apartments was not a matter of economic development.
I contend just the opposite. It is economic development "flypaper." Just as we saw the apartments at 8 Jefferson Place pave the way for the private development of downtown housing, we will also see the apartments at the Grand building spur additional development of much-needed affordable housing.
Both the Outlook Roanoke plan and the Zimmerman/Volk residential study indicated that a downtown housing mix of 59 percent rental apartments/lofts and 41 percent for sale condos/lofts would be optimum. With the anticipated conversion of 8 Jefferson to for-sale units, we will have only about 35 rental apartments available in downtown -- or about 10 percent of available housing.
Downtown living is desirable by many in our community and if we are to achieve our objective of a vibrant, diverse downtown, we must offer the same diverse housing selection.
Public-private partnerships and incentives for a variety of pioneering projects have been successful and have contributed greatly to improving our downtown. The apartment project at the Grand building is such a pioneering venture.
