ROANOKE, Va. – Three local developers have stepped forward, offering to buy one of Roanoke's most cherished buildings. For the better part of 10 years, the historic Fire Station No. 1 has sat empty and that may soon change.
The rumors about the property have been ramping up over the last two years. A lot of people have speculated about another brewery, but that does not appear to be the plan, based on the developers' proposal. They don't want to say too much just yet, but they're promising something big.
Roanoke's historic Fire Station No. 1 is a local landmark with the hardware to boot. It's a building rich with history.
"It's really a beautiful piece of Roanoke's history and we really want to treat it right," David Hill said.
Hill is a local landscape architect, but his side hustle is as a member of Old School Partners II, LLC. You may better know it as the group behind the Roland E. Cook Lofts in Vinton, a reuse of a historic old school. Now, historic No. 1 is in their sights.
"We've learned the lessons from Roland E. Cook about preservation and construction," Hill said. "We try to learn from each project and take it to the next."
The team is not quite ready to say exactly what would go in, but they cast a wide net in their proposal to the city. According to the council agenda report, the purchasers intends to renovate the building to include a combination of retail, light manufacturing (limited to workshop, maker space etc.), hospitality and certain types of live entertainment.
"The idea is to have a mix of uses in the place, it's going to be a mixed use that tends to work really well with the downtown market," Hill said.
The proposal also includes a preservation easement, locking in the signature look of the building for the rest of its life. That is a major victory for preservationists
"Clearly it was important to everybody, so both the city and the potential owners were agreeable to doing that so we think we finally accomplished that and hopefully that will pace the way for other easements in the future," Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation President Alison Blanton said. In addition to her role on the foundation, Blanton is also one of Hill's employees.
The city would sell the property for $100. In exchange, developers propose at least $2 million in upgrades and a performance guarantee of $250,000. The city also would have the first right of refusal to repurchase if the developers wanted to sell the property. The group hopes the property would become another activation agent on this side of the market square.
"The uses that we put in there will make that building much more available for the public to come into and explore," Hill said. "It's an extraordinary building inside and we want to show it off."
A public hearing will be slated for June 18, pending approval Monday, to give feedback on the proposal. If the sale were to be approved, developers would have a six-month due diligence period to investigate the project further and make sure it is a compatible fit.