Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 1, 1993 TAG: 9301010050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOTEL DONATIONS DELUGE COUNTERS
Today was the day Western Virginians would awake to learn whether $5 million had been kicked in and the Hotel Roanoke would be saved.And the answer is?
Wait until next week.
Renew Roanoke's leaders said Thursday afternoon that donations, primarily from small contributors, were pouring in so quickly that they didn't have time to count the money.
Susan Reardon, director of corporate and foundation relations at Virginia Tech, estimated that 100 to 150 donations had come in Thursday.
"All I'm having time to do is just accept them and say, `Thank you,'" Reardon said while taking a $10 contribution at Renew Roanoke's Jefferson Street office.
A final count of the donations will not be available until next week, Reardon said.
"If we're not there, we're knocking on the door," Mayor David Bowers said.
Bowers said three people handed him contributions in a brief time he was out Thursday. One of them was for $1,000.
By Wednesday, the fund-raising campaign had $4.2 million in donations and pledges. A news release Thursday afternoon said the campaign had brought in $4.35 million.
Thursday's large contributions included $25,000 from Advance Auto Parts and an additional $10,000 from the Roanoke company's president, Garnett Smith, and his wife, Patsy.
Sewell Products, a Salem company that makes bleach and ammonia for grocery stores, contributed $10,000.
A group of civic leaders calling itself Renew Roanoke announced plans Nov. 19 to raise $5 million in private and corporate donations by Thursday.
The purpose of the fund-raising drive was twofold: to bring in some of the $42 million needed to restore the century-old Hotel Roanoke, and to convince Virginia Tech, banks and other area corporations that the community thinks the project is worthwhile.
Norfolk Southern Corp. closed the hotel in 1989, and shortly thereafter donated it to Virginia Tech. But Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation, which owns the hotel, can give the hotel back to the railroad before the end of 1993 if it appears the renovation is not possible.
Renew Roanoke's end-of-year deadline to bring in $5 million coincided with Virginia Tech's own deadline - which the university later said was merely a time for assessment - to determine whether the project is workable.
Renew Roanoke chairman Tom Robertson said in the news release that Virginia Tech would give campaign workers the chance "to complete the accounting for the campaign before a final decision is made regarding the future of the hotel."
The $42 million for the project, which would include an adjacent conference center, would come from these sources:
$18 million in city-issued bonds and federal loans.
$10 million in loans from half a dozen Roanoke Valley banks.
$4 million in bonds issued by the Virginia Tech foundation.
$5 million from Renew Roanoke.
And $5 million from a yet-to-be-determined source.
It has been suggested all along that hotel planners are looking toward Norfolk Southern for part or all of the final $5 million. Volunteers at the Renew Roanoke office Thursday repeated the talk around town - or maybe the hope around town - that Norfolk Southern might match dollar for dollar what the community puts up.
"I know there are some major gift discussions going on today and over the weekend," Reardon said. "Obviously, some of those will have to come through since we are still short."
It would cost an estimated $3 million just to remove asbestos from the hotel, and $75,000 to renovate each of the 351 planned rooms. The room rate in the first year has been projected at $75 per night.
Phoenix-based Doubletree Hotel Corp. would manage the hotel.