ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996               TAG: 9608050030
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER 

MARRIOTTS WILL BE MARRIOTTS, THEIR NEW OWNER PROMISES

``IT'S GOING TO BE BUSINESS AS NORMAL,'' said the CEO of Interstate Hotels Co., which has just bought the two major Marriotts in Southwest Virginia.

A Pennsylvania hotel management company has purchased the Marriott hotels in Blacksburg and Roanoke, but the new owner said Friday that customers won't notice any difference.

Interstate Hotels Co. of Pittsburgh bought the Roanoke property from Carter Associates and the Blacksburg hotel from NCH Corp. for a total of $34 million. T.A. Carter, a Salem architect and real estate developer, is principal owner of Carter Associates, a partnership, and owner of NCH.

Carter "is 68 years old, and he's trying to cut back a little bit," said Robert Glenn, Carter's attorney.

The 148-room Blacksburg hotel, on Prices Fork Road, was built in 1973. The Roanoke Airport Marriott was constructed in 1984 and expanded three years later with a seven-story, 65-room addition. Today it has 320 rooms.

"The acquisitions of the Roanoke Airport and Blacksburg Marriotts establish Interstate in two very strong regions with attractive market potential," said CEO W. Thomas Parrington Jr. Interstate owns or manages four hotels in Virginia, but none, until now, in the southwestern part of the state.

Both hotels will keep the Marriott name, said Interstate spokesman Tom Loftus. Interstate is the nation's largest Marriott franchiser, he said, operating 39 Marriott hotels.

Interstate has tentative plans for renovations for both hotels, Loftus said, but the company usually likes to settle into a new property for five or six months before making any changes. The staff of each hotel will be retained, he said.

"It's going to be business as normal," he said.

Interstate, which was founded in 1960, is the nation's largest independent hotel management company. It was a privately held company until June, when its stock first was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is known primarily as a hotel property manager; it now owns 18 of the 158 hotels in its portfolio.

LENGTH: Short :   48 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ROGER HART/Staff. The front desk at the Roanoke Marriott
          will continue to look pretty much as it did Friday, when Front Desk 
          Supervisor Karen White checked Paul Harshbarger into a room.