Virginia Tech Foundation may sell Hotel Roanoke

After more than three decades of ownership, the Virginia Tech Foundation is moving toward cutting the Hotel Roanoke loose.

“What has happened so far is very, very preliminary,” university spokesperson Mark Owczarski said in a statement Wednesday. “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.”

He added: “Given the hotel’s current strength and success, along with operating and franchise agreements nearing renewal, the timing for this exploration is optimal. The City of Roanoke and its council are supportive of this exploration.”

The Virginia Tech Foundation owns the hotel, but Virginia Tech and Roanoke jointly own the conference center through the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission.

“Any decisions about how to position the conference center in or with a potential sale will require the alignment of all three partners,” Owczarski stated.

The Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission met Oct. 9 and went into closed session to discuss “potential disposition of the commission’s real property.” Neither its executive director, Brian Mann, nor Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb immediately responded to requests for comment. According to a spokesperson for the city, members of the commission are Cobb; city manager Valmarie Turner; Court Rosen, a Roanoke real estate developer and former member of the Roanoke City Council; Amy Stoakley Sebring, Virginia Tech’s executive vice president and chief operating officer; Simon Allen, Virginia Tech’s chief financial officer and vice president for finance; and Susan Short, the university’s senior associate vice president for outreach and international affairs.

Formerly a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel property, the Hotel Roanoke has been operated by McLean-based Curio Collection by Hilton since 2016.

In April, the Hotel Roanoke announced plans for a 10,000-square-foot expansion, which would involve enclosing the north courtyard and adding indoor-outdoor recreation and conference space. Owczarski did not immediately respond Thursday when asked if those plans are now on hold. Roanoke has issued about $12.7 million in bonds to fund that expansion, according to the city’s spokesperson.

The hotel has undergone about $17.6 million in renovations in recent years, including upgrading all guest rooms and renovating the Pine Room Restaurant and 1882 Lobby Bar.

The Grand Old Lady became a Hokie in 1989 when Norfolk Southern deeded the circa-1882 landmark to the university. At that time, business wasn’t booming at the Hotel Roanoke. Tourists preferred chain hotels off the interstate, and Norfolk Southern decided to focus on the transportation business.

Using loans, donations and other funding, the project’s leader spent about $28 million initially to remodel the hotel, with an additional $13 million spent to construct the adjacent 63,000-square-foot conference center before the property reopened in 1995.

In 2015, the Roanoke Valley – Alleghany Regional Commission, one of the state’s regional planning agencies, released a study estimating that the Hotel Roanoke had an economic impact of about $616 million over the previous 26 years.

Selling the Hotel Roanoke would not be the end of the Star City’s relationship with Virginia Tech.

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine opened in 2010, and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC was founded the same year.

“The potential sale would allow Virginia Tech to deepen its Roanoke presence and commitment in new ways,” Owczarski stated.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated