DRI President Finds New Position to be “Good Fit”

Before coming to Roanoke to assume his duties as president and CEO of Downtown Roanoke, Inc. (DRI) last fall, Sean C. Luther had been involved with private real estate development. During this time he worked with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, an organization that is essentially the equivalent of Roanoke’s DRI.

As a member of the International Downtown Association (IDA), he learned about the opening for the head of the DRI.  Bill Carder had left abruptly and had been replaced in the interim by Doug Waters.

“It was just a very good fit for my personal background as well as [for] DRI, and really what the organization is working on over the next couple years,” said Luther, who believes that his background in economic development will enable DRI to continue its management of Dickens of a Christmas and Movies in the Park, as well as the Farmer’s Market. All three fall under DRI’s traditional responsibilities of marketing and events.

Luther, still in his late 20’s, also wants to, “kind of shift … into high gear on the economic development component, working with the city, other local and regional partners on business recruitment and retention, making sure that we’ve identified retail vacancies. [That way] when we get prospects coming either to the city or to us, we know exactly where they would fit in and at what price ranges.”

He also wants to advocate for the continued transformation of under utilized structures into things like boutique office space, as well as apartments and condominiums, “really helping to push along the vibrancy of downtown Roanoke.”

Luther continued, adding  that, “what we’re working with in Roanoke is a key core of locally owned, locally supported businesses, growing downtown as a local alternative to the malls.  There’s a growing movement in the U. S. away from the static, super clean, Disney World environment that a mall represents, and towards supporting what makes Roanoke unique instead of what makes it like every other city or town our size.”

Luther, who holds a Master’s degree in real estate development from Clemson University, says that what personally attracted him to the Roanoke region is that “having grown up in Pittsburgh and having spent a considerable amount of time in South Carolina, Western Virginia is very much kind of a combination of the two.”

Another factor in persuading Luther to come to Roanoke is what he calls, “the vibrancy of downtown Roanoke. A lot of smaller Southern downtowns completely lost their center core as the malls became more prominent in the late ‘50s. Here, the city and private groups, have continuously stepped in and said, ‘We’re committed to the market area.  We’re committed to downtown as a whole.’  We saw that in the late 70’s with Design 79 and Center in the Square, and the Market Building renovation.”

“Those efforts,” said Luther, “laid the groundwork for the recent downtown resurgence. Having seen a lot of downtowns, I can understand very clearly that there’s a passion for downtown among Roanokers and the greater Western Virginia region.”

Contrary to what people may have heard, Luther says that the outdoor farmer’s market and Market Street will not close while the Market Building is closed for renovation.  The latter will remain open until Labor Day and is scheduled to reopen when the renovations are completed in July 2011.  The general idea for the renovations “is to [renovate] some of the area on the Mezzanine. Most of what’s going to happen is infrastructure repairs” meant to improve on earlier renovations in the 60s and 80s.

Luther states that, “When the city takes the market building off-line …they’re maintaining a very, very tight construction footprint.  We’re going to lose about 26 on-street parking spaces but you’ll still be able to drive down Wall Street [and] drive up that section of Market Street.  You’ll still be able to parallel park on both those streets, and it’ll certainly not impact directly the operation of the outdoor farmer’s market or the ability of shoppers to reach our inline retail here on Market Street.”

Luther is also thinking about areas away from the market: “in the short term, I think the goal is to expand some of the positive energy that’s right here on Market Square and Market Street west towards Jefferson, with soft-goods retail so that we can begin to reestablish Jefferson Street as part of that retail corridor, which was its historic role.”

“DRI,” said Luther, “is very much committed to making sure that the greater downtown area feels like downtown, that there’s an energy continuing west up Campbell towards Jefferson Center, the Cotton Mill [apartments], the condominium complexes along that route – making sure that that’s all connected and that Roanokers see it as a cohesive entertainment, business, and retail destination.”

As for new stores opening, Luther can’t cite anything specific.  “We are constantly having inquiries from people looking to open stores. I think our attraction strategy is to look at the Charlottesvilles, the Ashevilles, the Greenvilles, the Raleighs, and say, ‘you’ve done well in this market and this market.  Roanoke is very similar, and you can do well in downtown Roanoke as well.”    Luther sees smaller, local “chainlets” like Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea being a better fit than larger nationwide chain stores.

Having been on the job in Roanoke for only a short period of time, Luther can’t speculate too much about his own future plans, but adds, “I really, really love Roanoke and this organization is fantastic.  I think it’s a good fit . . .  certainly in the near future, I see myself behind this desk.”