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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994                   TAG: 9402260016
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WELL, SURVIVING A NUCLEAR WAR ALWAYS WAS A GAMBLE

Resort officials want the Pentagon to declassify the bunker and the Legislature to legalize casino gambling.

The bunker near the West Virginia-Virginia border was built during the Cold War to house Congress in case of a nuclear attack.

It is still closed to the public and controlled by the Defense Department, but federal officials plan to turn it over to the resort in the "near future," said Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Hansen.

The Greenbrier is owned by CSX Corp., a Richmond-based transportation and real estate company.

Resort President Ted Kleisner met with lawmakers this week to push legislation to allow casino gambling at The Greenbrier, as well as aboard riverboats on the Ohio, Kanawha and Monongahela rivers.

Gambling will become a standard amenity at luxury resorts and The Greenbrier needs to compete if it is to maintain its 1,600 jobs and add more, he said.

Kleisner said he would like to open about 100,000 square feet of the bunker for gambling, because "mystique sells."

"I would say that there is a certain aura in casino gambling in what people would perceive to be the venue for convening the federal government in case of a nuclear war," he said.

He would not discuss specifics of the shelter, which is deep beneath a wing of the hotel.

Greenbrier officials have been negotiating with Congress and the Pentagon to open the bunker since The Washington Post and The Washington Times disclosed its existence in May 1992. One report said it can sleep 800 people.

Maintaining the bunker adds as much as $5 million to the Greenbrier County economy, Kleisner said, but he would not be more specific.

The bunker was built for $14 million in 1955 and 1956 so Congress could meet during or after a nuclear war. Although its existence was secret, the construction was part of a well-publicized expansion of the resort.

Greenbrier County residents said the bunker was an open secret before the 1992 newspaper articles.

Kleisner said the facility has living quarters for members of Congress, their staff and families. The hotel described it in May 1992 as "a spartan underground structure."

"Just imagine all the pleasantries and amenities of a World War II submarine," Kleisner said.

The Greenbrier acknowledged in January 1993 that disclosure of the bunker had helped increase business.