Another Possible Home For The Food Court Vendors
I wrote a brief post last Friday suggesting a number of possible new locations for a downtown food court that would serve the needs of the Market Building tenants and their customers. Relocating the food court vendors would allow them to continue doing business without interruption, and would clear the way for the Market Building to receive a top to bottom renovation. I still stand behind the idea, but for some reason the best possible alternative location didn’t occur to me when I wrote the article.
The City of Roanoke owns the parking garage on Church Avenue, and the building is already in the midst of a renovation that will convert the lower level to retail space. The square footage that is planned for retail conversion is approximately equal to the size of the existing food court. The structure is within site of the Market Building, and the location would be just as accessible for downtown workers and tourists.
Locating a major attraction on Church Avenue would also serve the purpose of extending the market area and drawing visitors into other parts of downtown. This was a major objective spelled out in the 2006 City Market Plan by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company.
On an quasi-unrelated note, I would like to welcome a new member of the Star City Blogosphere. Matt has contributed a number of thoughtful comments on this site, and I look forward to seeing what he has to offer on his own blog.
Interesting.
Until now, I was unaware there was a retail area planned for the parking garage. I agree that would be, perhaps, the best place to provide as an alternative for the Market Building vendors. In fact, if the city were to adjust the construction of the garage structure to accomodate food service, we could provide a new, updated ‘home’ for our gyros, burgers, barbecue, fast(ish) sushi, etc. that would better serve their needs.
As for Tavern, Gone Coco, Seeds of Light, Cycle Ward and the print shop (a name I can never recall), they would fit in perfectly with a newly designed model for the Market Building that would comprise of the Farmer’s Market produce vendors, artists and others, while at the same time allowing for the City to bring in smaller grocery related services (the aforementioned deli, butcher, bakery, seafood shop idea mentioned in my comments to the last Market Building post).
And, as a side note, I apologize for what is, perhaps, my worst run-on sentence ever.
My only concern is what appears to be a complete lack of progress in the construction. If memory serves, they have been working on the building since sometime shortly after I returned to Roanoke after my military service. Now, that was late 2003… I may be a little off on my recollections, as I have some hazy memories of the building undergoing some work at that time, as well. It may simply be a blending of Roanoke memories without my having taken the time to research the construction before making this comment (and, yes, R&R, you can chide me for lack of research… it’s only fair).
To be honest, taking into account my assorted daytime parking excursions into the building, I haven’t seen much in the way of actual progress during the last twelve months. Unless the City is willing to delay the potential plan for shutting the Market Building down in March in order to complete the retail location on Church, it isn’t really a viable option for the vendors at present.
In respects, Spanky’s plan is also not as viable as I thought. After hearing a recent conversation between him and my employer on Tuesday, for all of his talk of plans, he hasn’t yet secured the funding for his proposed Campbell Mart venture. Mind you, he blames this on all of the banks in the region being in Bill Carder’s pocket, but Spanky has not always been a source of reliable information when it deals with actions unfavorable to him. (As a side note, most people have only dealt with him in the local area concering his restaurant businesses and property rentals. I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with his dog furniture business during my time in the Pet Industry.)
I digress, as usual.
If the City would even consider the option of using the proposed retail space in the parking garage for the food court vendors, they could have to reconsider their current plans for the Market Building’s renovations. Honestly, it seems as if they need to focus on fewer projects at a time rather than pushing the majority of their energy into attention on current ‘crisis’ issues.
Again, this comment comes with a certain lack of knowledge and research. It’s more opinion and conjecture than solid fact.
On the unrelated note, thanks for the welcome. Hopefully I can keep up with my blog and learn from the experience. My foray into the local opinion blog scene has defintely captured my interest and attention… and taught me a few things along the way.
Matt,
I can’t find the link right now, but I saw a story recently that said the city had finally signed a contract for the garage renovations to get underway. I don’t know what the reason for the delay has been. In my last post on this subject, I had made the point that the recent temporary repairs to the building should be adequate to allow the vendors to remain in the Market building until a new location is ready to occupy. That seems like a fair compromise for everyone.
I just read through a seven page pdf for the proposed idea behind the Century Station garage.
The sketches and floor plans for the finished project are amazing. When it is finally completed, it might go a long way towards the city’s goal of trying to attract its ‘young professionals’ crowd into downtown.