Roanoke – Last October, Roanoke mayor Joe Cobb and Roanoke City Council announced the possibility of a casino coming to the Berglund Center as part of a larger entertainment district.
However, the city council is still looking into other options.
Recommended Videos
City Councilman Phazon Nash is currently leading a focus group composed of people from all walks of life to determine what the best options would be moving forward for the Berglund Center.
Nash organized the group last year and began meeting in January with the sole purpose of finding options that would breathe new life into the Berglund Center.
“Whatever we do to the Berglund Center is going to help increase the livability, recruit more people to Roanoke, retain more people, especially younger people in Roanoke,” Nash told 10 News.
It’s why representatives from groups like the Rail Yard Dawgs, and Downtown Roanoke Inc. are a part of the group.
Nash said he wasn’t looking for “yes men.” He wants people and business leaders whose perspectives can improve not only the Berglund Center, but everything around it.
“We want whatever goes on at the Berglund Center to supplement and improve and act like steroids to our local businesses here in downtown,” Nash said. “We don’t want to cannibalize ourselves. We want to strengthen ourselves.”
These perspectives are important to making sure the city has their bases covered in future conversations surrounding the Berglund Center.
“It’s important to have them at the table so that when council and the city manager are having those conversations in the future about what do we do, we have a framework, we have some safety rails to stay within so that we can hopefully produce some plans and some concepts that the citizens can get behind and support,” Nash said.
Regarding the proposed casino, Nash says it is an opportunity worth exploring and would bring in jobs and much needed improvements to the Berglund Center.
However, he also said that city council has to be thorough when it comes to this and make sure no stone is left unturned.
“I think it provides opportunities, but I also think that casino or not, there are other opportunities that we have to explore and that we had to go out there and perhaps chase down, perhaps get really outside of the box and be very creative about.”
Nash and city council may only have one shot at enhancing the Berglund Center so he said he wants to make sure they do it right.
“I think that the best days for the Berglund Center are in the future and that we can make it better.”
If you would like to give your own opinions or constructive criticism of the proposed entertainment district, you can send an email to entertainmentdistrict@roanokeva.gov and we also invite you to comment below.