Join us for “Imagining a Downtown Gloucester Community Center and Grocery Store — Lessons from the Melrose Plaza project in Roanoke, Virginia”, on Wednesday, December 17 at 4-5:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Sawyer Free Library, Gloucester.
After the closing of Gloucester’sdowntown Shaw’s, there is a great need for a new grocery store, as well as a host of other activities to serve downtown residents. Learning about how the Roanoke Melrose Plaza in Virginia came together, how it is financed and institutionally structured could help spark our own discussions in Gloucester.
A multi-use downtown neighborhood Community Center called Melrose Plaza recently opened in Roanoke, Virginia with a small grocery store included in the design. Artists, community organizations and the City of Roanoke came together to envision and plan the project, with Goodwill Industries as the anchor institution.
This event will provide an opportunity for residents and City officials to assemble in-person in the Community Room to learn about how the Melrose Plaza project came together and to ask questions of two of the leaders in the effort: Doug Jackson and Donna Davis of the Roanoke Arts Commission and City of Roanoke, with the possibility of Goodwill Industries participation, as well. Doug and Donna will zoom in on the screen in the Community Room. Following their presentations, questions to them will be taken from the audience.
