Rendering courtesy of Valley Forward

This rendering shows the building that Valley Forward proposes to build on Mill Mountain. See a closeup.

Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

This photo shows the current site on Mill Mountain where a 10,000 square-foot building proposed by Valley Forward would be located. The building would feature two restaurants.

• See a location of the planned building on Mill Mountain

Message board

• Talk about the plan

Valley Forward unveiled a proposal this afternoon to build a pair of restaurants and community room in a 10,000-square-foot building atop Roanoke's Mill Mountain.

John Lugar and Robert Fralin, chairman and vice chairman respectively for the young professionals advocacy group, presented plans for a two-story project that they say will sit roughly in the footprint of the old Rockledge Inn, which burnt down in 1976. The proposal includes a 5,000-square-foot "destination restaurant" that will occupy the building's top floor, along with a 3,000-square-foot cafe designed to accommodate a more informal crowd on the lower floor.

The estimated price tag is between $2.5 million and $2.75 million. Lugar said none of that will come from taxpayers. Instead, the group will establish a foundation and raise $1 million from private donors. The rest will be borrowed and paid off using rent from the restaurants and the community room.

Valley Forward has obtained a letter of intent to run the restaurants from Steve Parry, who is the franchisee for Philadelphia's Old Original Bookbinder's chain and who has opened a number of other restaurants in Virginia.

"We would be very lucky to get someone of Steve Parry's caliber, because he's a successful restaurateur and businessman," Lugar said. "We feel it's important to have a proven successful top-rate restaurateur instead of taking a chance on someone."

Lugar said that on a 1-to-10 scale of Roanoke restaurant prices, where the Texas Tavern is a one and upscale steakhouse Frankie Rowlands Steak House is a 10, the cafe and restaurant would be "a three and a seven," respectively. He said the more upscale restaurant would be similar to 419 West or Montano's International Gourmet.

The bottom-floor cafe also would share space with a 3,000-square-foot meeting room to be called the "Fishburn Community Room" that could be used for civic groups or events such as wedding receptions.

Lugar said the plans are to serve alcohol at the restaurant, but he could not answer questions about obtaining an ABC permit to do so. The city restricts ABC permits for city parks to non-profit groups. Although Valley Forward's proposal involves a non-profit foundation, it's still unclear whether an ABC permit could be transferred to a private vendor. Current city ordinances also require that alcohol consumption in city parks stop by 11 p.m.

Valley Forward issued the only response to the Roanoke City Council's request for proposals to build an inn and/or restaurant atop the mountain. The city council discussed the issue in closed session last week, but until today the public hadn't had a chance to view the plans.

The group has been pushing for development on Mill Mountain since last spring, when it proposed a much larger project which included a 45- to 60-room inn, upscale restaurant, jazz bar and sandwich cafe. Valley Forward's new proposal has been downsized, and Lugar and Fralin are pressing the idea that "there's something for everyone."

Still, the proposal will almost certainly continue to draw the ire of those who want to preserve the mountain as is. A number of people who are skeptical about Valley Forward's proposal planned to attend today's press conference. Many are worried about the visibility of the building from the mountain. Others are worried about the need for new parking.

Lugar brushed those concerns aside, saying he thinks the new design addresses them.

"We hope folks haven't pre-judged this before they see the full plan," Lugar said.

He said the project will be built on the mountain's slope, which will obscure its profile below the ridgeline. He said the building style and surrounding trees would provide additional cover.

"There's a way to do it, we feel, where the visibility would be minimal but you would also be able to see out," Lugar said. "It's more on the front of the mountain than on top. There will not be a notch in the tree canopy on the top. The way it will be designed and built, it will blend in with the mountain."

The plans also include two new parking lots with about 70 spots in areas Lugar said are already open. The lots will be built in a style similar to those in Wasena Park, he said, which helps minimize storm water runoff.

J.B. Fishburn, the late Roanoke businessman who acquired and then deeded large portions of the mountain to the city in the 1940s and '50s, included restrictions to ensure the land would be "developed and forever preserved, improved and maintained for the use and pleasure of the people of the City of Roanoke, Virginia, and vicinity as a public park."

Language in the restriction, Lugar said, explicitly allows for "buildings, structures and things similar thereto." He added the Roanoke star was built in Fishburn's lifetime and that the Rockledge Inn would still exist on site if it hadn't burnt down.

"I know that folks that opposed this beat the drum of ‘public park, public park, public park' — but if arsonists had not torched the Rockledge Inn, it would still be there," Lugar said. "This is Roanoke — you would not take that down without someone burning it down."

City Attorney Bill Hackworth, as well as his predecessor, Wil Dibling, have told the council that any proposal to develop Mill Mountain would require a judgment from the Roanoke Circuit Court that would depend in part on the blessing of the Fishburn heirs.

Fralin said he's met with the Fishburns and come to an agreement. The family, he said, wants Valley Forward to take their proposal to the Mill Mountain Advisory Committee and then on to the city council.

"After discussions with the Fishburn heirs, we are encouraged that they will allow our elected officials to make a final decision," Fralin said in an e-mailed statement. "Obviously the officials would take into account all information, not the least of which will include the recommendation from the Mill Mountain Advisory Committee. As long as the democratic process is given the chance to play out, we will be satisfied."

Members of the advisory committee met Thursday, but had not seen Valley Forward's proposal at that time. At this point, the group does not plan to meet in December, so the next scheduled meeting is Jan. 24. However, the committee could end up meeting before then if there's a need, said Mill Mountain Advisory Committee Chairman Steve Higgs.