Walk along Salem Avenue in downtown Roanoke – or along Church Avenue, Jefferson Street and Campbell Avenue – and witness old commercial spaces, some approaching the 100-year mark, in the process of becoming valuable and much-sought after real estate. Consider:

• The Colonial Arms building on Jefferson Street, renovated by Ed Walker and subdivided into seven condominiums, is turning downtown living into luxury, with some of the condos going for $500,000 as a starting price.

• The Lofts on Church (in the old Ewald Clark building, 17 Church Avenue), being renovated by Building Specialists, will also be pricey, due to the extensive renovations required for turning commercial space into living space.

• The City and State Building, 120 Campbell Avenue on the corner of First Street (the bottom floor is leased to Frank L. Moose Jewelers) is not, as building owner and renovator Rob Glenn says, “a starter home.” Glenn purchased the 1905 building from Ed Walker and is turning it into condos that are each a single story (the Glenns kept the top two stories for themselves) of 3,700 square feet.

There is also an increasing interest from young professionals who don’t have a lot of equity built up in homes but have a practical interest in living downtown. For this sector, there are apartments to lease – 121 Campbell Avenue and the old Norfolk & Western building at 8 Jefferson Place, with its 87 units.

In addition, Steve Musselwhite has purchased for renovation 418 First Street and is condoing its upper levels. The most expensive, he says, will sell for about $225,000, ranging from a starting price of $150,000.

Roanokers are moving downtown for some pretty solid reasons: Urban condos give retirees the same type of carefree living that a retirement community does, with an extra spin on it. Some use leased space downtown to move into temporarily while homes are being sold or renovated. Some simply relish the thought of walking to work.

This is the case with Sands Woody, owner of Trio Bistro. Bar. Bottle, who lives above his business, located on the corner of Church Avenue and Market Street. He can go downstairs at 10 p.m. or midnight, he says, just to check on things. He can walk down the block and buy fresh corn-on-the-cob and cook it for dinner. And he can stretch out on his rooftop terrace in the evening.

The trend of moving to Roanoke’s 67-square-block downtown is experiencing a resurgence, according to Kathy Kinsey, director of operations for Downtown Roanoke, Inc. She defines this area as stretching from Williamson Road to Wells Avenue to Fifth Street to Highland Avenue, with sections going up as far as Seventh Street.

“Richmond was at our point several years ago,’’ she says, and points out that many of the condo properties never go on line, but are snatched up by purchasers who hear about them word-of-mouth.

The first major downtown living space, says Roanoke City’s Director of Planning, Building and Economic Development Brian Townsend, was 8 Jefferson Place with its rental units. Those opened up in 2002. Others, he says, have come up in small spurts.

“From an economic point of view, downtown residents provide additional feet on the street, mouths to feed other than the visitor at night or business during the day,” Townsend says.

“They provide, over the long term, a stable customer base that the restaurants and retails can rely on, day-to-day.’’

But, he says, we have not reached critical mass yet. That’s a matter of concentration and density. While we have between 125 and 150 housing units currently in the downtown area, and that’s not going to show demonstrable impact, it’s a start.

Sands Woody should know all about expensive renovations. In 1999 he bought from the Trompeter family the entire corner where his business and residence is located. It’s essentially three buildings, he says, whose first floor he turned into one big space. The second floor was all leased space, but now only two tenants are there, the remainder devoted to a Trio Bistro banquet room and his offices. The third floor, which is in just one of the buildings, is his home.

That floor, he says, had never been built out. It was raw space. But the rest of the building was essentially raw as well by the time he got to it, with pigeons roosting where Woody now resides. The roof had leaked for years. He had to replace the original flooring and floor joists.
“At one time, I could stand in the basement and see the ceiling,” he says. “It was a huge mess.” He would now have it no other way. Except for better governing by the city of Roanoke.

Krista Vannoy of Waldvogel Commercial Properties says they feel that downtown living is a hot trend both locally and nationally.

“It offers the opportunity to live in a vibrant community, to walk to work, dinner and the Farmer’s Market, festivals and events, and to enjoy a lower-maintenance lifestyle, usually in a beautiful, creative space,” she says. “So many of our downtown buildings provide great living spaces: huge windows, high ceilings, views of downtown and Roanoke landmarks.”

These buildings were once a camera shop, a bank, a funeral home, and a furniture store whose upper floors have been vacant for a long time.

Values have been increasing and will continue to, she predicts.

There have been more sales transactions in the central business district in the past 24 months than in other, similar periods, says Vannoy. There has been significant investment in the purchase and redevelopment of downtown properties.

A few examples of people living downtown and loving it:

Jessica and Louis Tudor. “You can walk to the YMCA, to St. John’s [Episcopal Church] and the children can walk to Roanoke Catholic School.” PHOTO BY DOUGLAS MILLER

Louis Tudor, owner of Tudor’s Biscuit World, is renovating 25 West Church Avenue:
Louis Tudor says he’s just moved downtown early – way before retirement. He’d done the big house in the suburbs thing, but when he became too busy chasing his daughter to swim meets (she now swims for West Virginia University), or went fly fishing all weekend, only to come home to a lawn that begged mowing and raking, he knew he was over his head with home chores
.
And then, says Tudor, his mom became ill with cancer.

“It took her six or eight months to die,” he says, “and that changes the way you view life. I sat and watched her and realized that you don’t own anything, but spend time on this planet, hopefully with the people you love.’’

And he wasn’t doing enough of that, but owning a smaller space near his 21-year old business, Tudor’s Biscuit World on West Church Avenue, would solve his dilemma. He had lived there before, in 1985 when he was first married, but it was not nicely finished. Now, he, his wife, Jessica and his two youngest children, Shane (12) and Hannah (11), have been crammed in the upstairs apartment of his business for what seems like forever, as his townhouse next door is being renovated.

“It’s been like watching paint dry,’’ he says. He’s on his second contractor, Ren Heard, owner of Lake Trees Farms. Heard is doing this simply as a favor to Tudor, and because, says Tudor, he’s fascinated with the project. There’s a huge skylight in the middle of a room that will be over 6-feet x 6-feet; the ceilings are 11 feet high, the walls are brick and the floors are hardwood. The townhouse is 2,400 square feet, not counting the roof, which will be accessed via a spiral staircase. There will be a bedroom on the roof, with a garden. Heard has found a brick in the townhouse with date 1920 stamped on it.

The best thing about this is not just that the Tudors can, guilt-free, now spend time in the outdoors.

“I’d rather camp the entire weekend and enjoy everybody’s nature, and then come home and not rake leaves,’’ he says. “Why do you have to own land? Just fish there, come home, and go to bed. You don’t have to own everything you see. And it wasn’t until my mom got cancer that I started seeing that.’’

John Reburn. “People are more honest and forward here.” PHOTO BY DOUGLAS MILLER

John Reburn, owner of Roanoke Valley Print Works, 108 Salem Avenue:

John Reburn is no stranger to downtown living. He’s done it twice before, in Los Angeles, but his townhouse at 108 Salem Avenue above his Roanoke Valley Print Works business is his favorite of the lofts he’s lived in.

Living and working as a graphic artist in L.A., he knew he liked doing both in the same space. He was trying to “reinvent” the next 20 years of his life, considering starting a business in a less-expensive location than California. After three years of research, the area where he spent part of childhood vacations and could easily visit relatives in Southwest Virginia seemed perfect. It’s just gone up from there.

His two biggest annual trade shows are in New York and Atlanta, and Roanoke seemed like a good in-between location, but it wasn’t easy to locate an urban townhouse. He says he flew into Roanoke three times looking at properties before finally relocating to do it while he lived here. The day he arrived, his townhouse came on the market.

“I just jumped at it – it was absolutely the perfect size,” he says. “There are two floors of living space, and downstairs is my studio and shop, and I’ll have my press here, too.’’ In addition to that square footage is the rooftop that he’s turning into a patio. Although this building had been a residence before, it was run down, he says, with no real character.

It is the antithesis of that now. His home is accessed via a small street-front door, next to his shop. The steep stairs inside lead to a cozy, well laid out living area, the kitchen sectioned off by a butcher block work space. From there, another set of stairs leads to a loft.

Living downtown is constant “movement, constant sounds, things happening … I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Frederick, Md., and I really enjoy being around people. It’s been an adjustment, from L.A., a big adjustment, but it’s a welcome one. I asked for it and went into it with my eyes wide open.’’

Rob and Sherry Glenn. “It appears to be an unusual time,” says Rob Glenn, “when Roanoke is on the leading edge, as opposed to being behind.” PHOTO BY DOUGLAS MILLER

Rob and Sherry Glenn, 120 Campbell Avenue (rented an apartment) and are renovating City and State building):

The Glenns’ Smith Mountain Lake retirement home just wasn’t that: It had steps all over the place, says Rob Glenn, and was quite far from medical facilities. When three out of four of the Glenns’ parents had major surgeries two years ago, they realized that the home of their dreams was no longer ideal.

For the last five years, the Glenns had already lived, part time, in a third-story apartment on Campbell Avenue to cut down on the constant commute from the lake.

“Rob has his own business consulting firm [The Issues Management Group].” says Sherry Glenn. “He worked out of our home at the lake, and we felt like we needed a place in Roanoke for meetings. A couple of years ago, I figured if we were going to keep doing this, we might as well buy a floor downtown. Then, things started happening.’’

Those things were not only the medical crises, but Ed Walker’s City and State Building just down the block from the Glenns’ rented apartment, began calling out their name. This 1905, eight-story building at 102 West Campbell soon became theirs.

“What I ended up doing was buying a project, not a building. I bought an elevator, flat floors, six-foot hallways and four-foot doorways,’’ says Rob.

His wife says that when they started looking around for a permanent home in the downtown area – they had fast become convinced that this was the greatest place to live – Walker showed them the City and State Building. “We loved it immediately. It has a lot of character and is one block closer to the market [than their apartment].’’

They were going to buy a floor from Walker – these floors are 3,700 square feet each – but ended up buying the entire building.

“We don’t do this for a living, and we may never do this again,’’ she says firmly. They have renovated the floors, sold them to individuals, and Breakell Construction, their contractor, will build out each floor to the owners’ specifications. The building will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified – a green building – thanks to efforts of Breakell and Spectrum Engineers, according to Sherry. And with the elevator, jokes Rob, they will be able to retire, ride around on scooters, and live the way they always have.

They ended up occupying the top two floors of the building, he explains, because they wanted enough room for a parent or a caregiver.

“We’re trying to plan ahead,’’ says Sherry. “We loved being at the lake, but we’ve been there and done that. I don’t miss anything – well, maybe the view of the water. We like being down here, at the center of everything, hitting the sidewalk and going to dinner… I hardly ever cook anymore because there are so many good restaurants.’’