keep it or sell it?
The Roanoke City Market building should be the star of the downtown market area. Unfortunately, it’s been falling apart for quite sometime. The bathrooms are in horrendous condition and the third floor isn’t being used at all. Talk among members of DRI suggested they’d like to see this building once again with a complete top to bottom renovation that offers retail space on the bottom floor, food merchants on the second with balconies for outdoor dining, and a banquet hall on the third floor. Now there’s talk of the City selling off the property. (Read the article.) So what do you think should be done? Should the City renovate or sell?
Jeff St Real Said,
December 5, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Renovate it, and forget about the proposed odd little European plaza in the vacant space across the street (for now).
RoanokeFound Said,
December 5, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
who comes up with this crap? Seriously now.
Simple Country Fella Said,
December 11, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
Roanoke might be better off selling City Hall (if it hasn’t been already) instead of the Market Building. Given the City’s “neglect” of the building and routine maintenance one has to wonder if they even change the oil regularly in City owned vehicles. Was the neglect by design or just the usual incompetence?
After 12 years on the Council one would think Nelson Harris would have learned enough about how a City should operate to have questioned the lack of maintenance at City owned property. I forgot, he has been too busy buying his non-thesis doctorate and producing books with museum photos we non-council members can’t obtain to have more than one year’s experience 12 times over. As for the Market Building losing money, no wonder. The management is incompetent.