Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003082072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Price plans to upgrade the 18-year-old Blacksburg Holiday Inn to a first-rate hotel - with an indoor fountain, swimming pool, putting green and conference center.
The Blacksburg developer also said he plans to surround the hotel with four or five office and retail buildings.
"We're planning the facility not just for Blacksburg, but for the whole New River Valley," said Price, owner of Price Real Estate and the Holiday Inn.
The demand for a top-notch conference center already exists among the valley's businesses, he said. Moreover, Price Plaza would attract groups from outside the New River Valley who are looking for a fancy place to hold conferences.
"I think bringing more of these type meetings to our area can be a great asset to the community," Price said. "I hope that's not just blind optimism."
Because of the extensive planning involved, Price said he chose to keep the project - whose cost he estimates at $14 million - under wraps.
But after recent proposals by the Virginia Department of Transportation to ease traffic along U.S. 460 threatened those plans, Price attended a public hearing Tuesday to voice his concerns.
Each of three alternate routes between Christiansburg and Blacksburg would end in a complicated interchange south of Blacksburg - smack in front of the Holiday Inn. Part of the interchange would run across a corner of the 10.7-acre plaza site - eliminating two of the planned office buildings and a lot of parking spaces.
The project engineer for Price Plaza, Don Rainey of Rainey Engineering in Christiansburg, said that is a problem he can work around.
But a "flyover" ramp recently added to the department's preliminary drawings could dash plans to expand the Holiday Inn, and may even threaten the economic viability of the existing hotel, Rainey said.
The flyover, which would swing bypass-bound traffic up and over the other ramps, comes within earshot of where hotel guests would be sleeping in newly built rooms.
"Would you want to stay overnight in a Holiday Inn that was literally less than 50 feet away from a bridge?" Rainey said.
Dan Brugh, resident engineer for the Transportation Department, said the preliminary designs of the alternate routes are just that - preliminary.
"What you see there and what is built probably will not be the same," he said.
Brugh said the flyover was added after the department adjusted its traffic projections to account for higher volume at peak hours. Flyover ramps handle fast-moving, high-volume traffic more efficiently than loop ramps, he said.
The state Transportation Board will make a decision on the route proposals this summer, after which the department will begin work on more detailed design.
Price, general partner of AHS Management Co., said the locally-based partnership owns most of the land - half in Blacksburg and half in Montgomery County - and has the rest under lease-purchase agreement.
He began designing the project in 1986, and has been preparing the site for the last two years.
Price said if all goes well in discussions with the highway department, he hopes to start construction in three months.
Rainey said the hotel expansion would take about 1 1/2 years. Phase II and III include the office and retail buildings, and would likely overlap with the first phase, he said.
by CNB