ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220051
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
THE ROANOKE LANDMARK'S inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places should bring it more attention and perhaps a federal tax break.
Hotel Roanoke has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that could earn the hotel's owners a tax credit and valuable exposure.
The 332-room hotel is owned by a partnership consisting of the Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation Inc. and Renew Roanoke. Those entities, together with the city of Roanoke, a year ago completed a $42million project that involved renovation of the hotel and construction of an adjoining conference center.
Hotel Roanoke's placement on the roster is ``a tremendously important symbol for the community,'' said Alex Wise, director of the state Department of Historic Resources.
The historic designation enables the hotel's owners to apply for a partial rebate of the hotel's $27.8million rehabilitation cost in the form of a tax credit. That credit may be worth $2million to $3million, said Ray Smoot, vice president for finance at Virginia Tech. An application for the credit is pending, he said.
Norfolk Southern Corp., which donated the hotel to Virginia Tech before the restoration project began, never sought to have it placed on the federal register, even though the structure dates to 1882 and has been the focus of many aspects of community life, John Kern, director of the Roanoke Regional Preservation Office of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, said Thursday.
The federal register, created in 1966, is maintained by the National Park Service. It lists about 60,000 buildings, groups of buildings and other sites, including about 1,600 in Virginia.
About 18 properties in Roanoke are on the registry, including St. Andrew's Catholic Church, downtown's Boxley Building, the Radisson Patrick Henry Hotel, Harrison School and the Buena Vista House in Jackson Park.
Despite being on the register of historic places, the hotel did not achieve federal landmark status. That designation is reserved for nationally significant places, such as Virginia Military Institute, Washington & Lee University, and Thomas Jefferson's homes, Monticello and Poplar Forest.
Placement on the register will provide valuable exposure for the property through promotions and advertising of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the leading organization of the national preservation movement. Gary Walton, the hotel's general manager, predicted the listing will draw more business to the hotel and conference center.
The designation means the hotel's owners are obligated to preserve the building's English Tudor facade during any exterior modifications that are paid for with federal funds, unless they receive special permission to change it.
According to state historic resources officials, Hotel Roanoke was on the drawing boards as Philadelphia industrialists created the Norfolk & Western Railroad and set up headquarters in Roanoke when the town was known as Big Lick.
Although the original structure was destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt. Thursday's announcement took place a few steps away from the East Wing, the oldest part of the structure, which dates to 1931, Kern said.
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