Elmwood Park project seen sparking development in downtown Roanoke

In their minds’ eyes, the men and women who guide and promote development in downtown Roanoke can see a new spine emerging.

They see new buildings instead of parking lots along the eastern edge someday. They see a 2 1⁄2-mile-long stretch that could be one of the nation’s great city streets. And they see growth in one of the traditional roles of a downtown: providing offices for businesses.

Last month, Downtown Roanoke Inc., which markets the central business district, sought to bring attention to office buildings with its first ever tour of available space. About 60 real estate brokers, bankers and business people gathered for the event.

“I think the focus on office workers makes a lot of sense,” said City Manager Chris Morrill, who chatted with the group before they set out.

“They’re the ones who are here every day, rain or snow. They’re running out for a bite, or running a quick errand.”

Plenty already are downtown. Of an estimated 2.5 million square feet of office space in downtown Roanoke, roughly 93 percent is occupied. Businesses that need space are on the edge of needing to scramble.

“We are busting out of the space we have,” said Samantha Steidle, founder of the Roanoke Business Lounge, which houses 29 startup enterprises. She’s started looking around for more space.

In addition to a relatively low vacancy rate, downtown is running out of empty, older buildings to rehabilitate for offices.

One big reason for that is the boom in turning decades-old buildings that were originally meant for businesses into apartment and condominiums. According to DRI, Roanoke’s downtown has nearly 1,500 residents now, up 25 percent in just a couple of years, and that despite a generally sluggish real estate market.

“All that conversion into condos has taken a lot of space out of the [office] market,” said Henry Scholz, director of commercial real estate services at MKB Realtors.

But if there aren’t many empty old buildings left, there’s still plenty of space left for something new. More than a third of downtown Roanoke is parking space, said Price Gutshall, the economic development specialist at DRI.

It’s a huge proportion. Downtown lots and garages have 8,000 spaces, roughly twice the number of spaces available at Valley View mall, and there are another 1,200 street spaces.

“When downtowns started failing, in the ’80s, the idea was to turn them into malls — knock down empty buildings and offer plenty of free parking,” Gutshall said.

Now, there’s more than enough parking, he said. And before many more years pass, there might not be enough office space — not, that is, if Roanoke’s downtown is to remain a vital motor of the regional economy.

To prime the pump of downtown development, the city is counting on its $6 million renovation of Elmwood Park.

“Look at Elmwood Park, it’s mostly surrounded by parking lots. That’s a sign a public space isn’t working,” Morrill said.

One of his first clues to that came during one of his first days in Roanoke, back in 2010. He strolled down Franklin Road looking for the park and couldn’t find it. The other, Morrill said, came soon afterward when “[Meridium chief executive] Bonz Hart told me: ‘I can’t get my people to walk across the park’ on their way to work.”

Morrill had seen much the same kind of problem during his years as a city official in Savannah, Ga. There, decades ago, the city turned one of its original parks, Ellis Square, into a parking lot. Over time, people left the houses and commercial buildings that originally encircled the square, leaving it surrounded by vacant lots and empty buildings. Since Savannah turned it back into a park, with an open space for concerts and other amenities to encourage people to linger there, it has sparked a $100 million building boom in the blocks nearby.

Roanoke officials thought a face-lift for Elmwood also could help pump new life into one of downtown’s less vital parts. The key, they thought, was weaving the park more closely into the rest of downtown’s fabric.

Just as all those parking lots were an ’80s, fad, so too was the park renovation of the time that raised an 8-foot-high berm between the park and Williamson Road, one that with its thick growth of holly bushes became a kind of green wall.

The idea of the fad was to create a little green oasis — behind a barrier that would keep out the homeless wandering over from the Roanoke Rescue Mission or their campsites by Interstate 581.

It didn’t work out that way.

“You have people hiding in the hollies and jump out, scaring people,” said Roanoke Police Chief Chris Perkins,. People just didn’t want to go to the park.

That’s why the wall of earth and bushes is going. It’s also why part of the park renovation work is the new median and pedestrian islands built in late May. They’ll narrow Williamson into a single northbound lane. While there will be two southbound lanes, there will also be on-street parking.

“Driving by, you’ll see that in your lateral vision. And you’ll slow down,” said Public Works Director Bob Bengtson.

One aim is safety, he said. But the other is to encourage people to take a good look at downtown Roanoke — and maybe stop to explore further.

Passers-by will get another good look at the park through the Roanoke Public Library. Sheila Umberger, director of libraries, is planning to move stacks out of the way for a clear view from the Jefferson Avenue entrance through to a new deck overlooking the park. The deck will be a family space, and the aim is for it to feel like it is half library, half park.

A revamped Bullitt Avenue also will open a view, and be a space for people to stroll, with plans for 10 pieces of public art, Bengtson said.

Lighted pillars and planters at the Franklin Road entrance, as well as the opening up of space by removing the benches and lily ponds between that street and the main part of the park, will open up a view to Market Square and beyond. Those moves should also help invite people into the park.

“You’ll be able to walk from the Hotel Roanoke, over the pedestrian bridge, through Market Square, past Center in the Square, the new market garage hotel, all those restaurants and retail and on to the park and the greenway,” Morrill said. “It’s going to be one of the great urban walks.”

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