Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 24, 1991 TAG: 9102210460
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The hotel's lobby has been refurnished with furniture representing an eclectic blend of styles and periods. It is part of a $1.25 million restoration of the 65-year-old hotel to the elegance of a bygone era.
While the Patrick Henry won't officially mark completion of the renovation until April, overnight guests and curious locals already are sampling the new decor. Oriental rugs now soften the white marble floor, plaster decoration has been highlighted with gilt and old partitions were removed to enlarge the lobby and flood the room with light.
"It's unbelievable, that's what it is," said Franklin Kimbrough, executive director of Downtown Roanoke Inc., about the restoration.
Until now, Kimbrough said, Roanoke has lacked a downtown hotel nice enough to attract corporate travelers. Those guests, he said, had stopped using either the Patrick Henry and the Hotel Roanoke even before it closed in November 1989.
Renovation of the Patrick Henry's lobby and guest rooms, he said, puts it "in the league with the Marriott and Sheraton." But the Patrick Henry, Kimbrough said, "offers something a little bit different. It has the ambience and character and history of Roanoke."
Affirmative Equities, a New York firm specializing in historic renovation that bought the Patrick Henry last May for $3 million, sees its potential as Roanoke's main business hotel, said Michael D. Murphy, the outfit's executive vice president.
Murphy said 80 of the guest rooms have been improved and work is still in progress on 20 others. The hotel's remaining 20 rooms are occupied by permanent residents and will be refurnished as their occupants leave and the rooms are converted to regular hotel use.
"The Patrick Henry is not a run-of-the mill hotel," Murphy said. "It has historic value and also is downtown where a lot of things are happening in Roanoke.
Murphy said the downturn is only temporary and occupancy should recover when the Persian Gulf war is over.
In addition, he said the Patrick Henry's owners carry low debt on the project because renovation is less costly than building a hotel from scratch.
The Roanoke Airport Marriott is one of the best and most costly facilities in that chain, Murphy said, yet that hotel does a very good business. Marriott Corp. last year ranked the Roanoke property as one of its most profitable airport inns.
The hotel opened Nov. 10, 1925, and was enlarged in 1931. It was sold at auction in 1968 to Monterey Corp., owned by a family in Parkersburg, W.Va.
Monterey spent about $2.5 million upgrading the building's mechanical systems to meet modern code requirements for electricity and plumbing. That remodeling also enlarged guest rooms, reducing the number from 300 to 120, and provided a kitchenette in every room.
Although it has remained open during the renovation, the Patrick Henry's managers say they won't really be ready until the first week in March when new food and beverage service will be in place. That's when the hotel's new restaurant and pub open. Murphy said the owners have delayed promoting the hotel until full food service is in operation.
The hotel's dining room will be called The British Tradition, whose decor and menu is modeled after an English restaurant. It also will operate a pub, the lobby bar and the hotel's room service.
"It's hard to give the impact you want to give without food service," said Bob W. Finney, director of operations at the hotel.
Finney, who worked 17 years for Hotel Roanoke and three years for a Salem motel, said the restaurant and lobby bar will differentiate the Patrick Henry from the motel experience.
Motels, he said, lend "a transient type feeling. There's not the same ambience. You fend for yourself."
Hotels like the Patrick Henry, Finney said, "deal with a different type of elegance," from a welcoming greeting by the bellmen to nightly turn-down service on request.
Indeed, by style and quality of the renovations and its new rate structure, the Patrick Henry clearly is after a different clientele.
Finney said its rates are $79 for a single and $89 for a double. Corporate clients who regularly bring guests will pay $65 and $75 respectively.
Linda Copenhaver, director of sales and marketing, said corporate rates can be as low as $60 depending on the number of nights and group rates are even lower. "We're flexible," Copenhaver said.
Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said those rates are "very competitive in the area." She said the Patrick Henry's renovated rooms will be "competing head-to-head with the Marriott and Sheraton."
The Marriott charges a little more, she said, but the Patrick Henry is on a par with the Sheraton and Holiday Inn Tanglewood.
Mackey said the bureau is "real excited" about the quality of the Patrick Henry restoration.
The Patrick Henry is also unusual, Finney said, because it has five one-bedroom suites and one two-bedroom suite on every floor, along with two mini-suites. They rent respectively for $150, $175 and $99 a night, but Murphy said the mini-suites, which have a sitting-dining area on one side of a large room, will be used primarily as upgrades for repeat corporate business.
Two lawyers from Boston, who stayed at the Patrick Henry during a business trip last week, called it "a great hotel."
"It has Old World charm," David Conlin added. He said the rooms are "beautifully redone" with wallpaper reminiscent of the period when the hotel was built, overstuffed furniture.
The Patrick Henry lobby, he said, "is a great people-watching place."
Conlin's associate, George Neuner, said the hotel owners "did a real super job." He called the Patrick Henry as nice as any hotel he's stayed in.
They agreed that the hotel will be even better when its restaurant opens. Currently, the hotel supplies only a catered breakfast.
Brenda McDaniel, spokeswoman for Dominion Bank, said the Patrick Henry "is very valuable to us" for housing people who visit the bank on business. "It's a convenient place downtown to put them," she said.
Freda Carper, spokeswoman for Crestar Bank, said, "The convenience factor is super for us." She said the bank will recommend the Patrick Henry to visiting executives who have been using the Marriott or Holiday Inn Tanglewood.
"It's beautiful," Carper said of the renovation.
John Berry, vice president in charge of the Roanoke office of Blue Cross-Blue Shield, said the renovation is "a boost for downtown. It's a first-class facility."
But he said the rates struck him as "a little pricey" compared to the Marriott and Sheraton.
Blue Cross-Blue Shield, which has one or two visitors a day who stay at local hotels, will "try and support it to the extent as it's practical in terms of economics," Berry said.
Finney said the hotel's occupancy "is running a pretty good average for a property this size," especially considering the lack of promotion prior to opening of the restaurant.
The Patrick Henry is perfectly located for anyone with business in downtown Roanoke, Kimbrough said. The hotel is both comfortable and convenient.
Even if Hotel Roanoke reopens, he said, its reconstruction will take at least four years. Meanwhile, Kimbrough said, the Patrick Henry owners have "a wonderful niche, a wonderful opportunity."
by CNB