Loft Space in Bristol

Everyone laments the empty buildings in downtown Bristol. Have you ever looked up? There are so many square feet of unused space in these buildings that it’s incredible!
Last night we visited some of these buildings and walked up stairs (and walked up stairs) and rode elevators to see some of these gems in the rough.
The Beaver Creek Walk people did a great job of organizing the “Loft Tour” of downtown Bristol – in particular State Street. We met in front of the beautiful Paramount Theatre and were given name tags, a map of the buildings available for visiting, and a paper with bios of the speakers we hear later that evening.
We left on our own to visit the lofts above Antiques Unlimited (HP King), West Taylor Interiors, Nash & Powers Insurance, The State Line Bar and Grill, First Class Travel, Grand Antiques (Grand Furniture/Parks Belk), Fandango, and Merrill Lynch (First Natl Bank of Sullivan County).
Some spaces were in better-start-now condition, some were cleaned and ready for use, and the Johnston’s home and business (First Class Travel) was wonderful! We enjoyed the tour and discussing the possibilities for each building’s upper regions. There’s so much space in downtown Bristol!
The Johnston’s live above their business and have a beautiful home. The State Line Bar and Grill finished the upper floor and created a bar/oxygen bar that’s beautiful. Merrill Lynch has finished office space. Others are unfinished, some in terrible shape, but in sound buildings.
We returned from the tour to a dinner catered by KP Duty and listened to the speakers from many businesses involved in downtown renovation. Architects, Building Code experts, Interior Designers, historical, and building people who obviously love old buildings, gave us their views of Bristol-to-be based on their experiences in Asheville, Richmond, and other places where this has been a success.
We enjoyed ourselves, but do have some criticism:
The handouts and maps were good, but we looked for information on the buildings – history, past use, size of available space, etc.
We were really interested in seeing some of the other buildings, but either the owners were not disposed to allow visitors, or maybe the spaces were just unsafe for sightseers.
The dinner speakers disappointed me. They were all knowledgeable in their fields and animated, interesting speakers. They explained the beginnings and results of projects they had been involved in and told us what to expect if we undertook such a rebuilding project here in Bristol. Then, why was I disappointed? Because the discussion was a sales pitch money to invest to make money. I’m sure that many people want to see Bristol thrive and come alive on State Street and the surrounding neighborhoods, but the message I heard was that you can invest in a building, take the tax breaks to do it, and rent/sell upscale condos and make a lot of money.
It seemed that everything was geared to high profits, and we lost the focus of a bringing life to the city.
When one of the merchants complained about the parking problem for her customers, she came under attack from the promoters. Apparently, parking is a sorely contested issue in every downtown revival program. Someone said that the customers need to “get away from the McDonald’s mentality” of parking, running in, buying, and running out to the car.” I heard that when we park at the mall, we walk at least as far to the store as we do in downtown Bristol, and that the customer is wrong to feel parking is a problem. There are over 1,000 parking spaces in downtown Bristol! Whoop-de-doo!
Let’s see if I can make some sense out of this. I’ve heard the parking complaint before. I’ve heard the you’re-wrong rhetoric before, too. Of the 1,000 parking spaces available, did you subtract the reserved spaces that I can’t use?
If you run a business in downtown Bristol, don’t blame the customer because he thinks there’s a parking problem! You’re the merchant. It’s your task to get the customer in the store. It’s not your task to blame the customer because he’s unhappy with the parking and it’s not your task to tell him that he is mistaken about the parking problem.
I came early to the event, drove down State Street twice, around Shelby Street, and up Sixth Street looking for parking. Parking is reserved at the Post Office, behind Wachovia Bank, behind WCYB-TV, in the at the corner corner of State and Randall St Expwy, and in the 5th Street parking lots! I parked in a reserved parking lot that had two cars in it. And this was at 5pm, after prime-time shoppers had left downtown to go home to supper (or maybe to the mall to shop.) And, by the way, I walked farther to the Paramount than I have ever walked from parking to the shops in the mall.
So, you can blame me for being lazy, blame me for the fast-food mentality, blame me because I don’t shop in your store, and blame me for not caring about downtown Bristol. Lazy? I walked up the stairs to see the lofts, I have trouble with the analogy about fast-food and parking, I won’t come to your store if I have to spend thirty minutes looking for parking, and about not caring…I paid my money and showed up to support the event, didn’t I? I could have gone to a fast-food restaurant instead, I guess.
I enjoyed the walk, the visits to the lofts, meeting the friendly hosts at each place, and seeing people on the streets in the evening.
I didn’t enjoy the pitch for total upscale condos and apartments with emphasis on profit. I’d rather see more modest apartments built ($100,000 is not modest)
and every shop and every eatery in downtown Bristol does not have to be “upscale.” How about an urban Burger King for your employees who are more modest budgets?
So, I gripe about parking, but I come downtown anyway, and it gives me the right to get sensitive when I feel attacked because I’d like to see a parking garage about three stories high.
I’m not against profit from reconstruction, and I’m not against upscale housing and restaurants. I’d really like to see a mix of apartments, condos, and shops in the downtown area. The mix will make it work. Low-end will not make it work, and high-end will not make it work.
Maybe next time we’ll talk about public transportation.
See you on State Street.

One Response to “Loft Space in Bristol”

  1. TK Williams says:

    Parking is of the utmost importance when considering the growth and renovation of any city. If you don’t have enough, people won’t shop and business will die. I witnessed that happen in the past few years in a little suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A little “High-Class” burb called Edina had a parking shortage and instead of making more space on unused sites, new buildings were constructed and street parking was almost outlawed! Where is the common sense in this? Businesses have since been closing because no-one wants to park 10 blocks away and walk to shop. They can make their sales pitches all they want, but many things have to be considered. Economic Developement does NOT hinge on just “Selling the Idea”.