Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060478
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY and JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Who the bidders are and what they are proposing will be revealed at a news conference the university has scheduled for 10 this morning in the lobby of the now-closed landmark hotel.
"The documents literally came in on a cart," said Larry Hincker, director of university relations. "We got about 2 feet high worth of proposals.
"We are gratified," he said of the response from prospective developers.
The deadline for proposals was 4 p.m. Tuesday. The university had moved back earlier deadlines of Nov. 30 and Jan. 3.
The project would create a 400-plus-room hotel with an adjoining conference center.
The proposals are just proposals, however. Bidders did not have to include financing plans.
Criteria for proposals also allowed a potential developer to submit plans for a smaller project than 400 rooms.
Roanoke has agreed to commit $4 million in tax-free revenue bonds to help finance an $8 million conference center next to the hotel. Tech would provide the other $4 million. The conference center is considered a key to attracting investors for the hotel renovation.
Roanoke County has discussed chipping in an additional $4 million for a larger conference center, but has not agreed to do so.
Tech officials and consultants estimate the full project will cost $34.6 million.
Negotiations with bidders will go on in the next couple of months, with the hope that a contract can be worked out by May.
Construction is estimated to take 27 months, according to a development scenario released in December by Raymond Smoot, Tech's vice president for business affairs. The scenario projected a January 1994 opening for the conference center.
Norfolk Southern Corp. gave the hotel to the Virginia Tech Foundation in late 1989. The Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation was established as a holding company for the property, which was valued at $14 million by the railroad.
Virginia Tech President James McComas said at the time that he envisioned the revitalized hotel and new conference center as a graduate education center and training ground for students in hotel and restaurant management.
The center's focus would be on corporate training, programs that could accommodate as many as 1,500 to 2,000 people at once.
The hotel, on an eight-acre knoll in downtown Roanoke, was built in 1882. It had 385 rooms and employed 200 people when it closed Nov. 30, 1989.
Legislation has been introduced in the General Assembly to create a six-member commission to own and operate the conference center. Three members of the commission would be appointed by Roanoke City Council and three by Virginia Tech.
The commission would have the power to sell bonds, set fees and establish booking policies.
The city also has agreed to make major street improvements in the vicinity of the hotel. Nearly $10 million will be spent to realign Second Street and Gainsboro Road, construct a bridge across the Norfolk Southern Railway tracks at Second Street and make other improvements to provide better access.
The city also is considering construction of a $25 million convention and trade center near the hotel, which could help make the project more attractive to a developer.
The convention center would be part of the overall complex, but the city has not made a commitment or established a projected schedule for building the convention center, which has been recommended by consultants.
City Council members said recently that additional incentives might be needed to help attract a developer for the hotel renovation. But they said it is too early to commit on the amount or the kind of financial help the city might provide.
They said the hotel is a key to downtown's economic health and that the city might have to become involved in financing the renovation.
ZHA Inc., an Annapolis, Md.-based real estate consultant, has been working for Tech since 1989 developing details of the project and helping find a developer or a major hotel chain.
ZHA, headed by Don Zuchelli, helped develop Crestar Plaza - formerly the Colonial American National Bank Plaza - the Poff Federal Building and the Orange Avenue Industrial Park in Roanoke.
by CNB