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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 20, 1994                   TAG: 9412200087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER NOTE: above
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOTEL CENTER'S FUTURE HANGS IN THE BALANCE

Gov. George Allen's proposal to cut $700,000 in state funding from the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center places a large question mark over Roanoke Valley economic development efforts, city officials said.

Among $13.3 million in cuts for Virginia Tech that the General Assembly will begin considering next month, the governor has proposed ending virtually all state funding for the Center for Organization and Technological Advancement.

COTA, a Tech-based think tank, would hire five $100,000-per-year professors who could serve as international drawing cards for the conference center and revamped Hotel Roanoke.

Officials said the proposal flies in the face of Allen's efforts to portray himself as a champion of economic development efforts.

Why the governor has proposed cutting COTA is still unknown. Officials in the Allen administration could not be reached for comment.

"Although this is falling in Virginia Tech's budget column, this is really an economic development initiative for this city," said City Manager Bob Herbert, who also serves on the conference center commission. "I think the impact will be well beyond the conference center.

If the General Assembly approves the cuts, it may translate into fewer meetings at the soon-to-open conference center, empty rooms at area hotels, and lost travel industry business in Western Virginia.

"I would characterize it as a major lost opportunity, not for the conference center, but for the entire commonwealth," said Brian Wishneff, acting director of the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission.

Across America's urban landscape, conference centers are springing up like weeds in empty lots. They will likely compete with each other for business, which has become a multibillion-dollar industry and is still growing, Wishneff said.

The city and Tech, which are partners in the conference center, sought to make it stand out with COTA and high-technology gizmos like satellite downlinks that would allow videoconferencing to sites around the world.

COTA was created by the General Assembly last year as a public-private partnership, and the legislature appropriated $500,000 in state funding for it in the current budget year. About $100,000 in COTA funding comes from interest on a $4.5 million private endowment to Tech from an unnamed supporter of the Hotel Roanoke project.

Hincker and Herbert said COTA's budget wouldn't necessarily be a recurring expense in the state budget. Instead, expected conference center profits would fund the program in the future.

by CNB