Conference center at Hotel Roanoke to be sold for $14M

On Wednesday, the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission unanimously approved an agreement to sell the hotel’s conference center for $14 million to a subsidiary of the Virginia Tech Foundation.

For more than three decades, the Virginia Tech Foundation has owned the circa 1882 landmark. A foundation subsidiary called Hotel Roanoke operates the business.

Meanwhile, the City of Roanoke and Virginia Tech jointly own the conference center through the commission. It was formed to build and operate the 63,000-square-foot conference space that was added to the hotel as part of a multimillion-dollar revitalization effort in the 1990s.

“So the Virginia Tech Foundation owns and operates a hotel, and they’re buying the conference center that sits adjacent to the hotel,” Paul Beers, a principal at Glenn Feldmann Darby & Goodlatte who represents the commission, said Wednesday.

The commission approved a purchase and sale agreement with the Virginia Tech Foundation subsidiary for the conference center, its furniture, fixtures and equipment and other tangible and intangible property.

“I’m very optimistic it will close in the next 30 days or so,” Beers said.

The goal, according to Beers, is for the Virginia Tech Foundation ultimately to sell the entirety of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. “I don’t know what prices they’re going to be able to garner for that entire complex, but it should be a lot of money,” Beers said.

The Virginia Tech Foundation and the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission “remain deeply committed to the future success” of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, Virginia Tech spokesperson Mark Owczarski said in a statement.

“We believe consolidating the ownership of the hotel and conference center will make the property more attractive to a potential buyer,” he said.

During an October 2025 commission meeting, members went into closed session to discuss “potential disposition of the commission’s real property.”

Owczarski said in a statement Oct. 16, 2025, “What has happened so far is very, very preliminary. Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech Foundation … have approached the city with the idea to consider and explore the sale of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. … Given the hotel’s current strength and success, along with operating and franchise agreements nearing renewal, the timing for this exploration is optimal.”

The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center became a Hokie in 1989 after Norfolk Southern deeded the hotel to the university.

At that time, business wasn’t booming at the hotel. Tourists preferred chain hotels off the interstate, and Norfolk Southern decided to focus its energies on the transportation business.

Using loans, donations and other funding, leaders of a revitalization effort raised about $28 million initially to remodel the hotel, with an additional $13 million spent to construct the conference center before the property reopened to considerable fanfare in 1995.

Formerly a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel property, the Hotel Roanoke has operated under the Curio Collection by Hilton brand since 2016.

The sale comes at a time of penny-pinching for the City of Roanoke. This year’s budget included measures such as cutting positions to close about a $19 million deficit.