Rather than face criminal charges over his condemned parking garage downtown,  businessman Will Trinkle won a delay of proceedings to try to sell it. 

Just as a judge prepared to open the prosecution involving the Roanoke Station Garage, Trinkle’s attorney disclosed that his client is talking to several potential buyers. 

“We’re in the process of trying to sell the building,” Justin Lugar told Roanoke District Court Judge Jacqueline Talevi at an early May hearing, prompting her to delay the case until July. 

Set beside the Amtrak platform with parking for about 300 vehicles, the garage has sat empty for about a year since condemnation, with rust-colored stains on its white paint and paint squares covering graffiti. A convenience store that occupied its retail shop left previously, leaving the space vacant. 

Before news of a possible sale was broached in court, the owner had declined to respond to media inquiries, leaving the future of the complex in question.

Who might be interested in buying the deck and what they would do with it have not been made public. Although Lugar said recently that he had no update and Trinkle declined to comment outside court, the owner now has five weeks to make a deal or face the judge again.

Even as a sale could be imminent, Trinkle is proposing to board up the first floor of the garage with dozens of panels of plywood sheeting. Details of the proposal appeared in a handwritten proposal submitted to city officials that remained unapproved Tuesday.

Downtown stakeholders who would like to see something done include developer Lucas Thornton, who is undertaking tens of millions of dollars of building redevelopment in the vicinity. 

“You won't have any difficulty finding people who wish that that real estate was handled differently and I would absolutely put myself in that position. It looks to me like a missed opportunity,” Thornton said. He’s behind two major downtown projects — The Bower, with its several floors of new apartments and retail spaces, and a future concert hall at Jefferson Street and Campbell Avenue.

The five-floor garage, which is assessed at $1.93 million, “could be a great resource for us and the community,” Thornton said. “We made a big investment across the street and we think that our tenants would use it if it were available.”

Another group who might like the parking is the train traveler. Riders boarded or got off Amtrak in Roanoke nearly 110,000 times during the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024, for a rate of about 300 people a day.

Downtown Roanoke Inc. has said thousands of parking places remain available in the area. 

Since they declared the structure unsafe for public use a year ago last month, Roanoke officials have tried a number of approaches to spur action — code enforcement citations, demands for repair, a referral of the matter to prosecutors and a legal notice disclosing the possibility of a tax sale. The owner hasn’t undertaken any building activity, other than requesting permission to board the building up, since arranging for electrical work for security cameras in 2022, online records showed.

Trinkle, who was present in court this month, owns or controls several companies in whose name the deck has stood for decades at 33 Salem Ave. SW. Authorities have charged the current corporate owner, C. W. Francis and Son Inc., with misdemeanor violations of the Virginia Maintenance Code. The court case arose after code enforcement officers’ demands for repairs went unheeded. 

Prosecutors filed the charges last summer, after code enforcement officers documented what they said were a broken elevator that last operated in 2019, peeling paint, cracked plaster, loose concrete, ponding water, exposed wiring, a rusty staircase with a wobbly handrail, evidence of human habitation and trash. That case ended without a resolution because it targeted the wrong corporation, but authorities filed charges again in January. The judge took up the case but did not rule in February, after which the parties returned to court May 1.

Joshua Dietz, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, told the court that safety considerations make the resolution of the case urgent and that he saw no justification to delay the matter. There have been fires and an individual fell down its elevator shaft, Dietz said. The prosecutor was ready to try the case.

“We have not seen sufficient progress to justify a continuance,” he said.

Violations of the maintenance code can be punished with fines.

Lugar said that if authorities’ goal in filing charges was to get Trinkle’s attention, the effort succeeded. 

The business paid a significant share of outstanding taxes and late penalties of more than $44,000 earlier this year, voiding a threatened tax sale. The payments reduced the property’s balance to $14,652, the largest part of it a $13,900 installment on real estate taxes due April 7, online records showed.

A creditor moved to hold a foreclosure auction in December, but C.W. Francis and Son has remained the owner. An attorney for the creditor last week had no update.

The parties are due back in court July 3.