Civic leader leaving BID for Charlotte post.

After eight years with the 14th Street-Union Square Business Improvement District and Local Development Corporation, Rob Walsh is leaving the helm of the city's largest and most influential community business group to take a similar city post in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Walsh, who became the executive director of the 14th Street LDC in 1989 and took over the reins of the BID six years later, will become the president of the Charlotte .Uptown Development Corporation (CUDC) in early April.

As leader of CUDC, Walsh will be charged with the task of bringing a new $192 million basketball arena and entertainment complex to Charlotte, a city of 450,000 people. He also will use millions more in public and private investments to bolster the city's retail and industrial development.

"Charlotte is a smaller pond than New York City, but this is a bigger project and we will be shaping a community, creating a residential area and making it into a 24-hour city,' Walsh said. 'It is daunting, but I'm not afraid of it."

A search committee from the BID and LDC will seek to fill the 'very large shoes' of the man many have come to regard as 'the mayor of 14th Street' and a prime candidate for New York public office.

During the search process, BID-LDC Deputy Director Jim Whelan will serve as acting executive director of the BID.

Formed using tax-assessment funds in the early 1980s, the BID's mission has been to improve the area and augment city services. Predating the BID, the LDC is a non-profit group created and sustained through private grants and contributions.

Already the executive director of the 14th Street LDC, Walsh was swept into the top office of the BID after a minor scandal rocked the newer group in August 1992. Shortly thereafter, the two groups merged.

Walsh's departure comes at a time when the community is completing its transformation from a depressed, drug-infested area to one of the hottest retail and residential districts in the city.

"There are very few big changes left because the big changes have already occurred," Walsh said.

Union Square South, the $150 million, 500,000 square-foot residential and retail entertainment complex which broke ground last month, is the crowning achievement on the area's turnaround.

"There are some missing teeth in the area but not many," Walsh said. "The economics will now drive the neighborhood so I feel most of what I set out to do has been accomplished."

Walsh, who lives in Stuyvesant Town with his wife Terry and two-year-old daughter Kara, undertook the job of executive director of both the BID and LDC at a time when tho community was still reeling from the 14th Street reconstruction nightmare.

Walsh was already complaining bitterly about the shoddy workmanship by the infamous Perez Interboro Asphalt Company, which is still even today the focus of other reconstruction nightmares across the city. Prior to that, Walsh was leading the fight against blight and quality-of-life problems.

When he took charge of the LDC in 1989, he immediately led the battle to close the notorious Underground Disco on Union Square North, where six people were killed in shootings, numerous assaults occurred and drug dealers flourished. He joined local leaders and elected officials, convincing the State Liquor Authority to close the club for good.

Walsh soon got involved in a skirmish with the owner of the former Century Publishing Building, an eight-story landmarked building that was crumbling due to neglect. Union Square North depended on the development and, after years of pressure, the owner cut a deal with Barnes and Noble, resulting in restoration of the vintage structure.

While Walsh was able to do much with the LDC to encourage economic development, joining forces with the BID and gaining access to its $760,000 budget aided in the area's gentrification.

So did Walsh's tenacity. He brought together constituencies from five diverse community boards on development issues and united politicians who normally wouldn't even speak to one another. He created coalitions and made political chaos into working relationships.

Walsh has not been afraid to take on the established political powers, including the now U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo, the son of former Governor Mario CUomo, fought with Walsh over the final plans for housing on 14th and 13th streets for formerly homeless people.

With the backing of his board, Walsh was able to convince Cuomo to create housing with a retail component that today includes the appliance giant P.C. Richard and Son's Manhattan flagship store. Due to cunning negotiations, the LDC now manages the retail site, which brings in thousands of dollars to the group and many more to the city in tax revenue.

The housing complex, the Genesis Robert F. Kennedy Building, has become the model for other such developments throughout the city.

Walsh wasn't one to back down from a battle. For the past decade, the BID-LDC has battled the owners of the Sahara Hotel at 14th Street and Third Avenue, where two triple-X video stores continue to operate. The owners were ordered to sell the building after it was found that they had illegally forced tenants out of the squalid structure.

On the verge of a conclusion for months now, the fight might be Walsh's final victory. He is set to testify in court, where the city is seeking to compel the owners to sell the property to the highest bidder.

Using his negotiation skills, Walsh has also worked to initiate many other developments in the area, including these projects:

NYU is constructing a huge new dormitory complex, which could make use of the entire Palladium site;

The former American Savings Bank at East 15th Street and Union Square East, now a landmark, will be converted into an off-Broadway theater. The House of Blues was convinced that their idea of a club would have made the area too congested;

The 14th Street Armory between Sixth and Seventh avenues is slated for a future residential and retail site. Walsh's group helped convince Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter to use the building for only one year for the Welfare Employment Program. And because of the agreement, other public assistance program offices on 14th Street and Union Square were forced to improve their site quality;

The creation of a public-private partnership at Washington Irving High School is helping underachieving students to pass and go on to college. It was Walsh's efforts that helped Principal Bob Durkin keep his job at the school after a controversy erupted over his promoting students that may not have deserved to pass. He also brought in the National Arts Club to encourage arts at the school.

One of Walsh's first acts as BID director was to create a new sanitation and security office on the toughest block on 14th Street between Second and Third avenues. Since then, 14th Street and Union Square have seen vast improvements in cleanliness and crime problems. Even during the snow storms last year, paths were clear for pedestrians due to BID cleaners.

As a result of the new office, a store next to the BID storefront was closed because drugs were being dealt out of the site. And the 14th Street-Union Square area was recently rated by the city as the cleanest of all the BIDS.

Commenting on Walsh's resignation, Jonathan Fanton, chairman of the BID-LDC and president of the New School, called Walsh "a catalyst behind this neighborhood's renaissance."

'His spirit and devotion to the people who live and work here will probably remain unrivaled," Fanton said.

Peter Hutchins, chief financial officer of Guardian Life Insurance and president of the BID, said that Walsh "set the standard by which other BID and LDC leaders will be judged. Charlotte's gain is our loss."