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The Roanoke
Times
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/141216
Demolition will lead to
redevelopment in downtown Dublin
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By Angela Manese-Lee
DUBLIN -- A section of downtown Dublin once home to an
auto repair shop, a post office and a soda fountain, will soon be the site of a
Walgreens pharmacy, a development town officials hope will spur increased
retail growth in the area.
Dublin Town Manager Bill Parker said demolition permits were pulled in late
October to bring a 13,650-square-foot store to the southwest corner of Giles Road and U.S.
11, where it will sit diagonally across from a CVS Pharmacy.
According to a news release, developer Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties
expects Walgreens to open its doors next fall.
When it does, Dublin's
downtown corridor will look significantly different from the way it did when
then-fire Chief R.S. "Buzz" Cecil stopped there for lunch in the
1970s.
Back then, the strip boasted the Dublin Sundry, which offered a menu of hot
dogs, hamburgers and Coke floats.
"That was the hangout place," Cecil said of the sundry. "It
was a landmark."
In the decades since the business closed, the building, and those around it,
deteriorated.
"As far as the sundry was concerned, I kind of expected that I would
hear some sentimentality about it, but the buildings had fallen into disrepair
and really were going to require some investment to bring them back to where
they would be in good shape," Parker said. "I think that everybody
realized that probably it [redevelopment] was something that needed to be done,
even though it was sentimental."
And the hope is that redevelopment won't stop there.
"I hope it jump-starts downtown, quite frankly," Parker said.
"We still have some available property downtown."
It may not be a vain hope.
Parker said he has noticed that since Wal-Mart moved in just outside Dublin and the deal with
Walgreens was finalized, the town has received significantly more attention
from retail developers than it did in years past.
"We're getting calls all the time now," he said. "That's
something else that's very new to Dublin."
"You have to land somebody," Parker added. "That's always
been a kind of a given in this economic development thing ... and I think it's
very true. Otherwise, you just don't seem to get the private investor or the
national franchise to give you a look."
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