Sears closing
Liberty University recently announced plans to build a new civic center in place of the Sears building in the River Ridge Mall on Candlers Mountain Road.
According to Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty bought the space for $6.9 million.
The chancellor announced that Liberty does not intend to purchase more of the mall.
According to The News & Advance, the purchase was the result of a meeting between the university’s real estate agent and a representative from Sears at a real estate fair a few months ago.
Blueprint — Above is the depiction of the proposed civic center as provided by the chancellor’s office. Photo provided
According to Falwell, the building will be used by the university for administrative functions, including the Liberty University Online operations center, which will free up space in Green Hall for academic uses.
“The Teacher Education Hall will soon be demolished to allow for the construction of a new Science Hall,” Falwell said. “One possible scenario might be for the School of Education to temporarily be located on one floor of DeMoss Hall. Part of the Integrated Learning Resources Center (ILRC) would move to Green Hall in this scenario.”
Falwell said that another option might be for the School of Education to be temporarily located in Green Hall. Other options are being considered as well.
“After the new academic buildings near DeMoss are completed and the Sears space is no longer needed for university use, the university has proposed that Lynchburg use the Sears property for a new regional civic center,” Falwell said. “The city and other stakeholders have already conducted a study indicating that the civic center would be feasible for the Lynchburg area if Liberty used the facility for basketball games and other events.”
The grounds of the new center will include a 10,000-seat arena, a 50,000-square foot exhibit hall and a 250-room hotel, according to Falwell.
However, nothing has been finalized, and a substantial amount of work needs to be done before plans become permanent, according to Lynchburg city manager Kimball Payne.
The construction of the center could take between six and 24 months, according to Payne.
“It is not something that is going to happen real soon, as in the next year or so,” he said.
Students are looking forward to the opportunities that the center would provide not only to the Liberty family, but also to the community.
“It would get more business to the mall area as well as offer jobs to the community for people to work at the civic center when they finally get it up and running,” Chad Atchison, Liberty student body president, said. “It is part of our endowment, but it’s also a chance for Liberty to give back in the form of events to the community as well.”
As for the proposed blueprints, Payne explained that the space available is enough to build more than just the civic center.
“It would basically take the Sears building footprint itself,” Payne said. “There is a lot of parking that is associated with the Sears building, and it would build within that space an arena, the exhibit hall, a multi-story parking deck and a multi-story hotel.”
According to Payne, if the university were the main tenant of the arena, the Liberty Flames basketball team would hold games in that space to help eliminate traffic on campus.
If plans for the civic center are approved, it is unclear whether the university will donate, sell or otherwise transfer ownership of the location, according to the chancellor.
“Liberty would not maintain ownership of the site if it became a civic center,” Falwell said.
The city board plans to meet with Falwell again to discuss developments.