CENTURY CENTER HAS GOOD FUTURE, CREDITORS ASSURED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992                   TAG: 9201080090
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
CENTURY CENTER HAS GOOD FUTURE, CREDITORS ASSURED
The owner of Roanoke's Century Business Center said Tuesday he sought bankruptcy protection after his major creditor scheduled a foreclosure sale and a primary tenant defaulted on its lease.
K. Bruce Hobart, developer of the Orange Avenue complex, told a creditors' meeting he had hoped to settle with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., the major creditor, over "a monetary dispute" within 60 days. But the default of the Center for Rehabilitative Medicine left him with $6,000 a month in unpaid rent.
That and loss of another tenant cut occupancy at the center from 90 percent, leaving vacancy of 25,000 square feet, or about 45 percent of the complex.
Hobart, a general partner in the project, said he feared it would fall further in arrears with Metropolitan and other creditors. Metropolitan holds a $3.2 million deed of trust on the 54,000-square-foot office structure.
Hobart's reorganization petition said Center Properties, the trade name for the center, has debt of $3.5 million and assets of $2.3 million.
Century is "quite salvageable" and its leases should be back to 90 percent or more "in normal market times," Hobart said. With normal occupancy levels, the center should produce a profit of $50,000 to $70,000 a year, he said. One of his tenants reportedly is planning to expand, he added.
His reorganization plan, to be filed with the Bankruptcy Court by March 22, is for payment of all debts, said Hobart and his attorney, Andy Goldstein.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB