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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995                   TAG: 9503270037
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOTTOM LINE LOOKS GOOD, AND IT'S NOT EVEN OPEN

But officials said they believe the center can be profitable because some business already has been booked in advance of its April 3 opening and because the project carries no debt; the city of Roanoke is covering the $13.8-million land cost and construction debt.

The Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission adopted budgets Thursday for itself and the conference center running from July 1, 1995, to June 30, 1996.

The center, which will be the site of educational conferences, corporate meetings, weddings and other events, is projected to generate a profit of $41,060 on revenue of $1.8 million. The center will open next month alongside the refurbished hotel.

Brian Wishneff, acting commission director, said projections are based on a combination of hard numbers and guesswork by Doubletree Hotels Corp., which will manage both the hotel and the conference center.

Commissioners contained any urge to celebrate the upbeat projection that the multiyear project will be profitable. Wishneff chalked that up to prudence.

``Before they start saying, `Wow, this is doing much better than we expected,' they want to see it perform for a year, and then they will say it next year,'' Wishneff said.

Operators of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center said they hope to position it as a popular destination for meetings of state associations, corporations and other groups. The conference center has 37 meeting rooms and 63,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotel has 332 rooms.

New conference centers often lose money for one or two years until they develop regular business, Tom Bolman, executive director of the International Conference Center Association in St. Louis, said Friday. In addition, debt often limits their profitability.

In the case of the Roanoke center, city taxpayers will pay back the bonds. The city expects to cover the next payment of $700,000 with a projected $1.2 million to $1.3 million in additional taxes generated by the hotel-conference center project.

``They certainly have a leg up, with not having to service debt,'' Bolman said.

The conference center, owned by the city of Roanoke with input from Virginia Tech, will take in most of its revenue - projected at $1.5 million - by charging conference fees, which cover room rental, use of audio-visual services and coffee service, the budget said. Operating the center is projected to cost $766,930.

The conference center also will receive 8 percent of sales of food and beverages served under its roof starting in April 1996, projected at $63,265 for the year. The hotel, which is in charge of providing the food and beverage service, agreed to share 10 percent of that revenue with the conference center after April 1997 and 12 percent after April 1998.

Also, the conference center should net about $17,000 in parking fees and about $5,000 in telephone charges during the year.

The center's expenses include a $60,000 fee to Doubletree for its services. Doubletree also will receive 2.5 percent of hotel revenue and an extra 1 percent for meeting certain performance standards.

Contributions of $175,000 each from the city and Virginia Tech and the projected $41,060 profit will fund a separate commission budget of $391,060 whose largest expense is a $258,060 reserve to cover any unforeseen conference center losses.