Jeff Geiger Lands Rezoning Approval That Will Help Reshape Downtown Blacksburg

05.16.2019

On Tuesday, May 14, Jeff Geiger was back in Blacksburg to convince the Blacksburg Town Council to approve the rezoning needed for redevelopment of the old Blacksburg Middle School site.  Jeff’s success paves the way for his client, Midtown Development Partners, to move forward with its proposed $100+ mixed-use development project that’s expected to attract more people to Downtown Blacksburg.  Based on Jeff’s persuasive arguments, the Council approved the school rezoning in a unanimous vote of 7-0.

The old middle school sits in the middle of the Midtown’s 21-acre development site and has been vacant since 2002.

In addition to the rezoning, Midtown’s project required the separate approval of a development agreement between Blacksburg and Midtown. That agreement, which also passed in a 7-0 vote, is key to the site’s development as it dictates which parts of the property the town will develop, finance and own.

The Midtown project was first proposed in 2017. Among the other documents Jeff had to negotiate prior to last night’s approvals:

• Development agreement for swap of land with town, construction and dedication of civic spaces and for town construction of a parking garage and public safety building.
• Parking lease agreement for initial use of the town paid for parking garage.
• Parking utilization agreement for use of the parking agreement after the lease.
• Stormwater Declaration allocating capacity and costs for an underground system.
• Grading easement for grading on town owned land. 
• Memorandum of Understanding for joint cooperation to obtain VDOT funds for road, pedestrian and bicycle improvements.  

Incredible job on a project with a lot of moving parts, Jeff!

Click here to read coverage of this exciting development in the Roanoke Times.