Lynchburg loft living offers urban alternative

Craig Cassell’s loft in Riverviews Artspace is the ultimate bachelor pad.“It’s perfect for me, a single guy,” he said, motioning around the one-room loft. “Everything’s within 10 feet.”

Cassell, 35, has lived in one of Riverviews’ 36 residential units for more than three years.

His loft is furnished modestly. A sofa sits in the middle of the room, its back to the small kitchen. A bachelor pad staple, the flat-screen TV, sits in front of the couch, and his bed is tucked away into one corner next to a sparsely decorated bookshelf.

“I’m trying to live as simply as I can,” he said. “It reinforces the fact that you don’t need a lot of stuff.”

For Cassell and other downtown dwellers, lofts offer many amenities, most notably a unique living space.

“I love the openness. I love the industrial (feel) of the rafters,” said Whitney Wynne, 25, who lives in one of three lofts above Baby B’s on Main Street. “It’s got an urban kind of feel. It’s just a really good place to come home to at the end of the day.”

But if Wynne, a teacher, needs to get out, she can walk down the street to The White Hart, where she often grades papers. Go a few yards in the other direction, and there’s Monument Terrace, where she sometimes likes to run up and down the stairs, Rocky-style.That walking-distance proximity to downtown restaurants, performance venues and other attractions is another plus for Cassell, Wynne and others.

“Sometimes my Jeep stays still for days at a time,” Cassell said. “And I still have things to do.”

Angela Hamilton, executive director of Lynch’s Landing, said the two go hand-in-hand. The more people who live downtown, the more businesses see it as an attractive place to set up shop.

“With any downtown, you want people down here 24/7, and that’s what loft living does,” she said. “I think it’s bringing a critical mass to downtown.”

Hamilton said there are currently 515 residential living units in downtown Lynchburg, which Lynch’s Landing defines as being between Fifth Street and the Lynchburg Expressway and from the riverfront to Court Street.

A growing number of those units are lofts. Riverviews and City Market Lofts are among those with the most — Riverviews has 36 units, all full except for one, and City Market has 61, with seven vacancies, according to both building managers.

Despite the current economic downturn, Hamilton said there are some 20 more in the works downtown, at the Ninth Street Parlor and sitting above High Peak Sportswear and Celebration Bridal & Formal, both on Main Street.

“Properties downtown are still continuing to move,” she said.

Some of the projects began at the end of last year, when there were hints of what could happen with the economy. The bottom line is that investors see these downtown revitalization projects as a good investment in the long run, she said.

“Those investors certainly believe in downtown,” Hamilton added. “I think downtown, at this point, is a good, safe bet.”

Michael Ewers, site manager at City Market Lofts, has witnessed the correlation between downtown living and downtown business since they started renting units almost two years ago.

“New restaurants are popping up,” he said. “There’s a lot more action. I grew up in Lynchburg, and I haven’t seen this many cool little places downtown (before).”

David Van Dyke moved into City Market Lofts a few months ago and said it’s been a stimulating place to live.

“This little downtown pocket is so rich culturally,” he said. “We like the diversity and creativity. I see no reason why they shouldn’t just continue to keep creatively bringing in businesses and residences.”

In the case of Riverviews, some of that culture is right there in the building. In addition to the lofts, it is home to the Craddock Terry and Riverviews Artists’ Co-Op galleries, as well as three floors of studios.

“It’s been a really neat community,” said Joan MacCallum, president of Riverviews Artspace Ltd. “I think people really enjoy being in a building where other things are going on.”

It’s not just the young hipster crowd that’s attracted to the loft lifestyle either. Some empty nesters are choosing to downsize to lofts as well, Hamilton said.

Judy Noon, 64, moved into her Riverviews loft, right down the hall from Cassell, in August.

Moving from her 3,600-square foot home to the 886-square foot loft was “wonderful,” she said. “It was therapeutic. I threw out most of my clothes.“I dropped everything and decided to go back to my art.”

The previous owner put up a partition, so Noon actually has a bedroom that’s separate from the main living space.

Storage, however, is an issue. The loft doesn’t have any closets, so she has had to get creative. In addition to two dressers for clothes, Noon has decorated with armoires and cabinets that double as storage.“It’s not fancy,” she said. “But it’s functional.”

The space is also her art studio, with a work table situated near the window so she can look out over the James River. She said the move to Riverviews has inspired and shaped her work, primarily sculptures and ceramics.

“When you change places, it changes your mindset,” she said. “I’m interested in the history, the architecture.”

Loft living also eliminates the hassle of yard work and, as Cassell said, offers a simpler way of life.

Van Dyke, 57, moved to Lynchburg to take a position as the interim pastor of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Madison Heights.“We’ve always owned homes where we live and, every time, renovated,” he said.

But after spending part of his sabbatical year living in a loft in Richmond, he and his wife were sold on the lifestyle.

“We kind of made the transition (in our jobs), downsizing in all that,” he said.

“It was a tough adjustment,” he added. “(But) if we weren’t going to have a house and a yard, we decided the loft was the next best thing.”

Noon agrees.

“To me, this is better than any retirement living,” she said. “I’m not ready for that scene.”