Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

The downtown building at 1061 E. Main St. (above), commonly known as the old Radford fitness building, and the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant on West Main Street (below) are under contract to be sold to Taylor Hollow Construction of Radford. The East Main Street building is expected to house a mix of retail and residential space, and the Goodyear plant will be used for manufacturing, says Joe Fortier, president of Taylor Hollow.

| Amy Matzke-Fawcett

amy.matzke-fawcett@roanoke.com, 381-1674

RADFORD -- New life is planned for two empty buildings on opposite ends of the city.

The downtown building at 1061 E. Main St., commonly known as the old Radford fitness building, and the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant on West Main Street are under contract to be sold to Taylor Hollow Construction of Radford.

The East Main Street building is expected to house a mix of retail and residential space, and the Goodyear plant will be used for manufacturing, said Joe Fortier, president of Taylor Hollow.

The 14,000-square-foot downtown building has been empty for nearly 10 years and little work has been done to maintain it, Basil Edwards, the city's economic director, said during a recent presentation to city council.

"If nothing is done, the building will continue to deteriorate and potentially collapse," Edwards said.

The building is expected to be restored to its original look by pulling off siding and fixing the transom windows, along with repairing the roof and water damage.

"This will pretty much give it new life," Edwards said.

Work is scheduled to begin in January, Fortier said. It will be paid for by a combination of federal Community Development Block Grants, private loans and donations and other federal grants, Edwards said.

The vision is apartments upstairs and commercial space, possibly retail or an incubator for artists, downstairs, Fortier said. The details have yet to be finalized, he said.

"Downtown is gathering a positive momentum," Fortier said. "We decided as a company that we would take the risk of taking on the building without a commercial tenant."

Part of the Goodyear plant, which closed in January, will be used for a new business manufacturing structural insulated panels for green home building. Fortier said he plans to have the operation up and running by February, in time for the spring building season.

Fortier said he plans to enclose the other half of the building and rent it to another manufacturing operation.

"We can't replace all the jobs, because Goodyear was a big operation," he said. "But the goal is try to get it back in productive use."

The new business will employ four to six people in the first few years, he said.

Although the housing market is slow, Fortier said he anticipates some demand for the product.

Other Taylor Hollow restorations in Radford include the M. Jackson Hardware Building that now houses Sharkey's Rib & Wing Joint, the building that is home to the Coffee Mill, four apartments and a restaurant space that is now empty.

The company is also finishing renovations to another building on Third Street with eight apartments, office spaces and a restaurant planned to be a second location of Radford eatery West End Dawgs.