River District plan taking shape

The consultants working to consolidate downtown Danville and the adjacent Tobacco Warehouse District into a cohesive River District unveiled their plan during a public forum Wednesday night.

Four “catalyst revitalization projects” were explained by Ralph Basile and Taylor Yewell, of BBP LLC, and urban designer Allison Platt showed her vision for defining a center of the city and how she would make it more attractive.

Using a list of criteria that included building condition, parking availability and likelihood of triggering additional growth, Basile and Yewell chose four buildings in the district to target for renovation and marketing:

» Pemberton and Penn Building, 541 Bridge St., which is seen as a potential 60-room boutique hotel;

»  RJR Building, 401 Bridge St, which is envisioned as office space;

»  Smith Seed, 315 Lynn St., envisioned as apartments; and

» Dan River Inc. Research & Development Building, which the consultants see transformed into a combination of office, restaurant and retail space.

The four projects would require an investment of about $29.2 million, but would bring downtown a total of about 365 new workers, 40-50 new residents, 14,000 hotel guests annually, $210,000 in annual tax revenues for the city and a potential of about $550,000 in spending in the River District, Yewell said.

Platt showed a plan that would revise traffic patterns downtown.

Patton Street would become 2-way and traffic heading from downtown across the King Memorial Bridge would be routed to Patton Street so the small, awkward access point between Craghead and Bridge streets would be converted into a pedestrian area with green space and a large water feature, such as a fountain. One lane of the outbound bridge side would be converted to a bicycle lane/pedestrian walkway

Parking for the businesses currently on that block would be the current lot between Lou’s Antique Mall and Jake’s on Main, as well as parking on Patton and Craghead streets.

Platt’s plan also calls for a large “gateway” park area between the bridge and the White Mill, with a waterfall that would lead down to a stage area surrounded by water and seating. A dock would stretch into the Dan River with a building at the end where people could rent kayaks for a day on the river.

Main Street sidewalks would be widened and dressed up with trees and plants. Parking would still be available on the street, but the center lane where delivery trucks often park would be eliminated and replaced with loading zones on each block.

“It’s very plain now,” Platt said of downtown Danville, noting that “people respond well to attractive streetscapes,” and they would make the area easier to market to potential developers. “It will be a much more gracious area.”

Basile said the group has no plans to make an overall master plan for downtown, noting that the scope of the project would be overwhelming — and likely to remain undone. He said smaller, carefully chosen projects have a better chance of completion.

“It’s just enough work so projects have a chance of success,” Basile said. “Bite off a small piece and other investors can branch out.”

Next up for the consultants will be more assessments of the proposed projects, and suggestions on a second wave of projects that could take place in 7-10 years — when the first projects had paid for themselves, Basile said.

The group plans an August webinar to unveil renderings and a mockup of the River District they envision.

Thibodeau reports for the Danville Register & Bee.