The landscape of West Washington Street will change this spring,
as a national video store chain is planning to purchase houses and
an apartment building at the corner of West Washington and North
Center streets for development.

Family Video Movie Club Inc. is planning to demolish the Greens
Court apartments owned by the Bradford Redevelopment Authority and
some of the nearby houses to build a 7,000-square-foot, one-story
building on that corner.

“They’re the ones that approached the Redevelopment Authority,”
said Sara Andrews of the Redevelopment Authority on Friday. A
representative of Family Video Movie Club Inc. contacted them in
October, she added.

“In January, we decided to go ahead on it,” Andrews explained,
“contingent on the due diligence.”

She said that issues such as environmental studies and zoning
variances have to be taken care of before the Authority will sell
the eight-apartment housing unit.

Three residents currently live in the building, she said. “When
we’ve been having vacancies in other properties, we’ve been moving
(tenants) voluntarily into the other properties.”

She said several people have moved into similar housing on Elm
Street. The residents remaining in the Greens Court apartments will
be given “sufficient time to find another housing unit,” Andrews
explained.

Bill Mohler, vice president of Family Video, said he planned to
get moving on the project this spring.

“We want it to be a spring project for us,” he explained. “We’re
ready to get started as soon as we can.”

Mohler said the development is “going to be a couple of things.
One is a video store. Another is going to be a lease space …
probably for food.”

Restaurants and video stores are a good combination in the 400
other locations in the store’s chain, he said.

“There is certainly some interest” in developing the
food-portion of the building, he said. “In fact, we have someone
who is very strongly looking toward it.”

He declined to comment further, saying no deals have been
signed.

Describing what to expect from the store, he said there would
likely be 12 to 14 employees with a combination of full-time and
part-time positions.

“We’re excited about the spot up there,” Mohler said. “We think
it will be a nice addition to the community and to our
industry.”

Andrews explained that plans for the development look
appealing.

“The facility is a very attractive, one-story brick facility,”
Andrews said, adding the authority would not have approved it
otherwise.

Mohler explained some area residences will also be purchased to
make way for the development, but he declined to specify how many
or to give locations.

“It will basically just be taking a couple of small homes there
to develop the corner the way we would need to,” he said.

Mohler said Family Video is the “largest privately held video
chain in the country and the third largest video chain in the
country.”

They are also the property owners at each of their locations, he
said.