Historic Flair Found at the Hancock Building
June 11, 2008
Just a few weeks ago the historic Hancock Building that last housed Grand Piano Furniture Company opened its doors. While a very difficult renovation with equally difficult financing, this building reportedly came in on time and on budget. It now provides 58 apartment units to the growing mix of downtown residential opportunities. On the first floor it
houses 12,500 square feet of commercial space. Amazingly, by the end of the opening day only two units remained available. Obviously, affordable, upscale apartment living with an historic flair, within blocks of many restaurants and cultural amenities was in demand.
Like many projects in Roanoke, this one became controversial when it became apparent that it could not be done without the city stepping in. The city has long desired to have a mix of residential units in downtown and really throughout the city. Mostly, downtown living was offering high end and expensive condominium units. The city went on to support the cost of renovating the beautiful historic façade to help make the project economically feasible. This along with tax credits and VHDA financing helped make it a go.
The Hancock Building is a great example of a private-public partnership that works for the city. The owners with a bold and a progressive vision were able to see a need that would enliven all of downtown and pull a team together that got it done in a very short period of time. Drive past this building at night and you will see the lights on and the new activity and street buzz on this corner- that should make any Roanoker proud of their downtown.
The city remains open to weighing extraordinary costs for projects that meet community need and help grow our city, and while not an easy decision, I believe this one has clearly shown that our decision was the right thing to do.
[...] over the new MLK bridge from the Hancock Building sits the Claude Moore Education Complex which officially had its ribbon cut last week. This is a [...]
Councilman:
I know you are new to the world of blogging, and it seems like a wide open world where nearly anything goes, but…
The professional photographers we employ at The Roanoke Times appreciate being credited for their work, and roanoke.com is copyrighted. So, we would all appreciate it if you would credit the newspaper for photos from our newspaper or Web site you use on your blog (I count two on your site at the moment, I believe).
Thanks,
Chris
Chris Winston
Business Editor
The Roanoke Times | roanoke.com
Chris- I believe I got most of my pictures off the Hancock website, the Roanokeva.gov website and Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Commission Website– yes this is new to me and if there are indeed photos here originally from the paper or roanoke.com- I will certainly give credit. I am a big fan of the professional journalists and certainly the photographers at the Roanoke Times!
I love what the city has done with the hancock!
Dave, I imagine you are the ONLY one who is a fan of the photographers at the Roanoke Times… and professional journalist is a huge overstatement. The one thing the Roanoke Times needs to learn is that they aren’t that great… and their photography, is, well, crap.
I would definatly recommend giving them credit for their off topic photos which frankly never have anything to do with the story. (Might I remind the world about the story done where the focus was a career type and an office that was paired with a picture of a cat on a chair… on the front page.)
Alot has to do with the fact that the Roanoke Times has decent “college educated” photographers and journalists… and MAYBE someone with the combonation of both, and yet… noone with REAL natural talent to capture a story. For some reason the Roanoker, Belle, and even the Blue Ridge Business Journal (which I believe might be owned by the Roanoke Times) can capture this… while the super powered Roanoke Times still believes that a piece of paper from a college and 5 years working as a studio assistant makes you qualified to work at a newspaper.
The Roanoke Times doesn’t seem to get that while they, and their untouchable journalists, think that they run Roanoke, everyone else simply reads the paper because it’s the only one… and think it’s crap.
If the Roanoke Times took a step off the high horse and highered someone with talent rather than someone who was taught that “correct way to write” and had “x amount of years of experience” maybe their photos would make sence, or even better, maybe their stories would be worth reading.
But anyways Dave- I enjoy your writings!