Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991 TAG: 9102070571
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The outfits range from national companies already experienced in revamping hotels and developing projects with universities to Virginia outfits whose principals have ties to the community or Virginia Tech.
The companies responded Tuesday to requests from the Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation, which is seeking a developer to enlarge the hotel to 415 rooms while the university and the city of Roanoke build and operate the convention facilities.
The companies, identified by Tech officials on Wednesday, include:
Ackerman & Co. of Atlanta has been in business since 1967, according to development manager Sheldon Taylor. It is involved in development of hotels, office buildings, business parks and shopping centers. Most recently, it completed the 364-room Swissotel in Atlanta, Taylor said.
Taylor, a Richmond native, said he frequented the Hotel Roanoke for social functions in the past, but that Ackerman & Co. learned of the project from a committee set up to seek bidders.
Classic Properties of New Orleans has assembled a partnership that would develop the hotel and conference center, according to president and owner David Waltemath. He declined to give any details about his company or its proposal.
"We don't want to jeopardize our position in any way," he said. "It is a very large project, and we want the job badly."
Faison Associates of Charlotte, N.C., is a commercial real estate development company headed by Henry Faison. It has extensive Virginia projects including Valley View Mall in Roanoke, River Ridge Mall in Lynchburg, and Dominion Tower, under construction in downtown Roanoke. It experience in the lodging industry includes an Omni hotel in Jacksonville, Fla.
Tony Skillbeck, Faison vice president, declined to detail the company's proposal for Hotel Roanoke.
The Henry A. Long Co. is a commercial real estate development company headed by a Virginia Tech graduate. The Northern Virginia outfit has experience in hotel, conference center and office-park development.
The Long company has developed a 345-room hotel and conference center in Westfields, a mixed-use corporate park near Washington Dulles International Airport. The company also is a partner in hotel and conference center projects in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Colorado Springs, Colo.
International Developers Inc., Arlington, is a real estate development company that has built three hotels in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., in recent years. It developed the Vista and the Ramada Renaissance hotels in Washington, which include conference facilities.
International Developers has also developed the Ballston Metro Center in Arlington, a mixed-use development that includes offices, a hotel and condominiums.
Spruce Development Co. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is redeveloping a 1929 hotel into a combination hotel-teaching facility for Northern Michigan College in Traverse City, Mich., said Paul Nine, president and primary owner. Nine said a charitable foundation is helping pay for the project, which is not as large as the Hotel Roanoke.
Nine said Spruce has been around since the 1970s but is relatively new under its current name.
Winegardner & Hammons Inc. of Cincinnati began in the 1950s developing Holiday Inn franchises, according to Matt W. Baker, vice president of development. The company now owns 60 hotels but has none in Virginia. It earns about $300 million per year in revenues, he said.
Baker described Winegardner as a "conservative-type company." He said the company submitted a proposal for a scaled-down project because "that's what we think is prudent at this time."
Virginia Tech has formed an advisory committee of local business executives to review the proposals and help the university make a selection. No deadline has been set for the committee's recommendation, although Virginia Tech vice president Raymond Smoot said Wednesday he expects the process to take several months.
Virginia Tech has owned the hotel since 1989, when Norfolk Southern Corp. closed the facility.
by CNB