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GREENSBORO — A Raleigh  development company wants to play an ongoing role in the revitalization of downtown, starting with the purchase of five  buildings that it hopes to convert into office, retail and restaurant space.

Plans to redevelop the buildings on South Elm, West Lewis and Barnhardt streets, represent a growing trend to revitalize property south of the railroad tracks.

The group, Momentum Development Partners, already owns two of the buildings and 2.3 acres on Barnhardt that will be turned into a 150-space parking lot.

Momentum has an option to buy the other properties. In all, it expects to spend $6.5 million purchasing and rehabilitating the buildings, which total 29,000 square feet, and the land.

Other projects will follow, a company official said Tuesday.

“This is not a one-and-done,” said Nick Piornack, a managing partner in Momentum. “We hope to be there for 10 years or longer. We are going to be dedicated to that area.”

Piornack said his group, an offshoot of a company that developed shopping centers, was attracted to the South Elm area by the emergence of the Mellow Mushroom and Table 16 restaurants.

“South Elm is becoming a frontier that is going to grow,” he said, “and we want to help it grow.”

Momentum plans to buy a three-story  building at the corner of South Elm and West Lewis streets and two buildings on West Lewis from longtime owner Dick Rhyne.

The Elm Street building, which currently houses Lions’ Crown Antiques, will be converted into a restaurant and retail space on the first floor and offices on the second and third.

The buildings on Lewis, now used for storage, will become one or two restaurants. The two smaller structures on Barnhardt will become retail space.

Piornack said his company hopes to have the restaurant and office space occupied by next fall.

Momentum’s plans will revitalize several buildings that need repair, bring additional parking to the area and could help stimulate the investment climate in the center city.

“I am not pushing people to sell,” said Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of Downtown Greensboro Inc., “but we have had owners who are unwilling or unable to invest in their properties. This provides indication that if they do invest, there are opportunities for tenants or if they are ready to sell, there can be some prospective buyers despite the current economic climate.”

Piornack said his company will be looking for additional property to buy.

“We believe Greensboro ... needs people like us that are willing to step up,” he said. “I would not say Greensboro is behind (in its redevelopment efforts). It needs to pick up steam right now.”

The new development will have one downside.

It means that Lions’ Crown Antiques will have to relocate. Owners Mike Joyce and Archie Carter can’t say where they’re going.

The business might not stay in the center city, which has seen at least two other antiques shops leave South Elm recently, both because of redevelopment.

As developers revitalize buildings, shopkeepers say, they typically raise rents.

“Antiques are mostly in the emerging parts of downtown,” Joyce said. “There are some buildings available, but I can’t afford them. They are just too high.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com