From the Roanoke City Market to the Mall?

Juan Garcia has been in the City Market Building for 15 years, and Georgia Crump for 25 years. With construction plans for the Market Building, vendors have been told come July they are going to need to find a new place to go.  That new place could be Tanglewood Mall. “It was a very good sell on their part. They are willing to do anything it takes to get us there,“ says Crump.

This week Tanglewood invited vendors in the Market Building along with Market Square businesses to an informational meeting about how the mall could provide them with space for their businesses.“They hope to attract a lot of people from Roanoke. Maybe it’s a good idea or maybe not, we don’t know,“ says Garcia.

Some vendors are concerned about the lack of foot traffic at Tanglewood. “It’s a pretty slow mall and they will have to do a lot of advertising,“ says Crump. With July looming close, she feels she may not have any other choice saying the city isn’t doing much to help now or in the future. “ I don’t think they realize how important we are to downtown and the building has been here 25 years and it has worked.“

Tanglewood says it is taking all the information from Wednesday nights meeting to see just what to do next, and vendors like Crump are waiting. “It sounds exciting and I’m hoping it will work out because it would be good for the area.“