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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994                   TAG: 9403180257
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOTEL ROANOKE FILLING UP ALREADY

Another 11,500 room nights are in ``proposal'' or ``tentative'' sales stages, said Gary Crizer, Doubletree Hotel's local marketing director. A room night is a hotel industry measure of occupancy, each representing one paying guest staying one night.

Phoenix, Ariz.-based Doubletree has a contract to promote and manage the project, which is a joint effort of Roanoke and Virginia Tech.

Crizer recently hired Diane Elder, who had been director of marketing for Holiday Inn-Tanglewood, to promote Hotel Roanoke at Virginia Tech. Research shows that Tech does enough programming in the area to account for 14,000 room nights per year, and Elder will be trying to capture as much of that as possible, Crizer said.

He also said Elder has sold most of the hotel's room nights that are already committed. They include 700 nights in 1995 and 3,360 in 1996.

The hotel and conference center is scheduled to open in spring 1995.

Construction and marketing updates and next year's budget were on the agenda for the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission meeting Thursday.

The commission's 1994-1995 fiscal year budget totals $553,000, and includes $274,511 for Doubletree's pre-opening expenses, $23,000 for the management fee to Doubletree, and a $117,000 operating deficit.

Brian Wishneff, acting director of the commission, said he used the ``worse possible projection'' to come up with the deficit figure. He said the deficit for the first 12 months of operation is expected to be at least $300,000, but business projections suggest this will disappear by the second year of operation.

Ted Settle, director of continuing education at Tech's Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center, said he was ``nervous about some of the expectations'' for revenue during the early stage of operation.``I think it is a realistic projection,'' said City Manager Bob Herbert. ``We have to see what the market is when we get up and operating.''

Herbert also said it now appears that the commission center staff that was on loan from the city through June probably will have to stay through December.