Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090089
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Brian Wishneff, who has played a key role in a series of major city projects from revitalization of the City Market to development of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, will leave city government Aug. 18 to start his own consulting business.
As a consultant, Wishneff will specialize in creating public-private partnerships similar to those he has been involved with as the city's chief of economic development and, more recently, as director of the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission.
Wishneff said Tuesday his first client will be the Virginia Baseball Club Inc., a group of business people seeking a major-league baseball franchise for Northern Virginia. He will help develop a partnership with the community and the Virginia Stadium Authority, a new unit of state government created by the General Assembly to own and operate a major-league stadium in Northern Virginia.
"I wish he wasn't leaving," said Roanoke City Manager Bob Herbert. "I tried to convince him it was in the best interest of the city for him to stay."
Wishneff, Herbert said, has to his credit projects such as development of the First Union Tower and the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology. Trigon Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which considered leaving the city, actually moved more of its operations to Roanoke after Wishneff convinced the company that it was cheaper to operate here than in Richmond, Herbert recalled.
If he had stayed with the city, Wishneff would have been in charge of special city projects such as the proposed higher-education center in the former Norfolk Southern Corp. office building, Herbert said.
The 42-year-old Wishneff, a native of Norfolk, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Virginia Tech. He has worked for Roanoke for 17 years. After he joined the city's Finance Department in 1979, he became involved in Design 79, a plan that involved revitalization of the farmers' market, development of Center in the Square and construction of Campbell Court, the city's downtown bus terminal. Among his other projects were the Norfolk Southern Building, restoration of Jefferson High School, four public parking garages and the "smart" road, a high-tech highway research project of Virginia Tech.
Wishneff was asked why he would give up the security of a $70,000-a-year city job for the uncertainty of starting a new business. "If I'm going to take a shot at bettering my family, I'm going to have to take some risks," he said.
And, he said, the timing seemed right, because he just completed supervision of the hotel and conference center project for the city. That project, created by a high-profile partnership between the public and private sectors, is the achievement he is most proud of, Wishneff said.
Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., director of the New Century Council, worked with Wishneff when Fitzpatrick's employer at the time, Dominion Bank, lent him to the city to work on Design 79. "Brian was exceptional in working over those folks in the grant agencies," Fitzpatrick recalled.
"He's very bright," Fitzpatrick said of Wishneff. "He has a very real sense for the potential things can reach."
Wishneff was good to work for and would stand by the people who worked under him, said Doug Chittum, who was an appraiser when Wishneff hired him for the city's economic development team.
"He's a winner," Chittum said. "He's the kind of boss you'd like to see there."
Wishneff will run his consulting business from an office in the First Union Building. Besides partnerships, he will offer other services related to economic development, downtown planning, enterprise zones, tourism development and other development issues.
He and his wife, Andee, have two sons, Eric, 16, and Parker, 10, and a daughter, Taylor, 5.
by CNB