Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995 TAG: 9504040088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Bugles blared, sirens wailed, employees whooped, kids sang and politicians puffed.
And with a series of flourishes including a Marine color guard, a police escort for the first guest and the turning of keys in a world record-size quadruple padlock, the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center spread open its doors and welcomed its first guests since 1989.
After almost 51/2 years of sweat and toil, and millions of dollars in renovations, Roanoke's love affair with the century-old landmark was rekindled in a feast of praise, prayers, congratulations and hopes for its future success.
The only things outshining the sun on a cloudless Monday morning were the beaming faces of Roanoke city officials, Virginia Tech administrators, Doubletree Hotels Corp. executives, and Renew Roanoke fund-raisers.
``The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center is your Hotel Roanoke,'' general manager Gary Walton solemnly told about 100 officials, employees, bystanders and reporters outside the hotel's old front door along Shenandoah Avenue.
``Today, our star shines brighter,'' he added.
The hotel was closed by Norfolk Southern Corp. and donated to Virginia Tech in 1989. What followed was a three-year struggle to finance its revamping, and two more years of tearing it apart, putting it back in shape and building the adjacent 90,000-square-foot conference center.
Today, the hotel is two-thirds owned by the Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation and one-third owned by Renew Roanoke, a tax-deductible charity created to raise millions for its renovation. The conference center is owned by the city, which built it at a cost of $13 million.
Both properties will be managed by Doubletree, a nationally known hotel management company that operates or franchises 104 hotel properties in the United States. Doubletree lent $1.3 million toward the hotel renovation.
Monday's long-awaited opening began with a prayer by former longtime Mayor Noel Taylor, pastor of High Street Baptist Church and co-chairman of Renew Roanoke.
``Almighty God, we are pleased you put it into the hearts of your servants to add to and improve the Hotel Roanoke,'' he prayed.
The opening ended with City Council taking lunch in the Virginia Room, a small private space adjacent to the hotel's ultra-plush dining quarters, the Regency Room.
In between came the ``unlocking'' of a huge plywood padlock on the old front doors; a ribbon-cutting for the new conference center, and a formal meeting of City Council in the center's Crystal Ballroom.
The last event featured a serenade by 80 fourth- and fifth-graders from Monterey Elementary School. Among other songs, they sang ``Grand Old Lady,'' which was written about the hotel.
A radiant Mayor David Bowers compared the revamped hotel and new conference center to The Homestead in Hot Springs or the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
``This is going to be a huge success. This is the talk of the commonwealth. ... The Doubletree people told me this isn't just the talk of the commonwealth, this is the talk of the whole East Coast," Bowers said.
``The doors to the hotel, the doors to the conference center, and the doors to the future of our city are open wide,'' he told council as the meeting convened.
Among the amazed bystanders milling around the festivities was Roanoke Sheriff Alvin Hudson. For years, he ``looked after'' security at the old hotel as a sideline to his police and sheriff's duties, he said.
``I thought that I knew every room, every hallway,'' he said, gazing around the overhauled property. ``And I got lost.''
The grand opening, dedication and a huge gala ball are scheduled for April 29. Among others, Gov. George Allen is expected to attend.
In hotel parlance, Monday's event marked its ``soft opening,'' an almost month-long stretch during which the staff will apply finishing touches to both properties and work out the kinks in their operation.
There were a few minor problems.
Some opening-night guests couldn't get into their assigned rooms because key cards wouldn't unlock the doors. Bellhops anxiously scurried through the corridors on round trips to the front desk to find working keys.
City Council convened in a dimly lighted Crystal Ballroom. It took about 20 minutes for someone to figure out how to turn the lights up.
Unaware that the system was live, a construction worker set off a sprinkler head, summoning a city fire truck.
And some guests with long-held reservations arrived to find out they could sleep in the hotel, but wouldn't be able to eat in the famed Regency Room, which has been booked solid for weeks.
``We're going to get a pizza and sit down there in the lobby,'' groused John Urquhart, who checked in Monday with his wife, Betty, to find out they didn't have dinner reservations as expected.
Guests had booked 180 rooms for Monday night, more than half the hotel's capacity of 332. Most of them stayed in regular rooms because the suites aren't quite finished yet, said Walton, the manager.
Much, in fact, isn't quite done in the new/old hotel. Large amounts of furniture and fixtures remain boxed and temporarily stored in meeting rooms.
Scaffolding still towers over the conference center's main ballroom. Carpet was still being glued tight here and there in the hotel.
by CNB