Wednesday, October 07, 2009
A grander depot's day will arrive
From the RoundTable blog
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James G. Cosby
Cosby is the treasurer for the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and chairman of the Virginian Railway Station Restoration Committee.
In response to your editorial, "Make old depot's new life exciting" (Sept. 22) and the preceding article, "Station renovation gets nod" (Sept. 17), we appreciate the publicity and attention you have given this project. The article was generally fair and well done. It did, however, have one omission that caused your editors wrongly to conclude that the only use proposed for these buildings is for a storage facility with a few offices. If that were true, I, also, would conclude that Roanoke Chapter, National Railway Historical Society needs a grander vision.
The restoration partners, NRHS and the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, have been working on this project since 2001. Four federal and state grants have been received totaling more than $700,000 to fund Phase I, contamination abatement, building stabilization and construction of a temporary roof. The building will be completed in later phases.
Our grant applications and written business plan have always envisioned public uses for these buildings (there are two, joined by a covered breezeway) that are on the national and state registers of historic properties. The smaller building (one-third of the total) will be used by the chapter and will house displays open to the public to explain the history and significance of the Virginian Railway (and please note the "n" at the end of "Virginian") in the Southwest Virginia area. It will also honor the former Virginian Railway employees, most of whom are now deceased, some 50 years after the Virginian was merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway. The building will also provide a comfort station for users of the Mill Mountain Greenway that passes by the building.
We do not yet have a tenant for the larger building. Our preference would be to lease it to an agency or nonprofit organization that serves the public. We have engaged the services of a commercial real estate agent to find a suitable tenant for the station.
We are determined to be good stewards of the public's money (both taxes and contributions) that will fund this project. To that end, the larger building will be leased to a tenant that is able to pay rent to the chapter sufficient in amount to support the ongoing costs and maintenance of the whole such that the entirety of the project will be self-sustaining without a requirement of public funding into the future. If that means it is necessary to lease it to a commercial tenant such as a restaurant or even as office space, then so be it.
At the least the community will have a beautifully restored structure that removes blight and enhances the neighborhood. But when we find the right tenant for this historic property, the "grander vision" the editors seek will become a reality with a win-win result for Roanoke and its citizens.
