Now that the Hotel Roanoke conference center is being sold to the Virginia Tech Foundation to try to help expedite the sale of the historic property, the university says it is exploring options and “is deeply committed to ensuring” the asset’s future.
It makes sense to sell the conference center to the foundation — which also owns the hotel — so they can be marketed together, instead of separately, the conference center’s commission decided.
The obvious questions to be answered are when will a deal happen and who will buy the property?
And is it possible it could be sold for another substantial use, such as a casino?
Much has been made of the city of Roanoke’s idea to redevelop the Berglund Center into an entertainment district including a casino. Right now, that proposal has long odds, with public opposition and a lack of any movement this year in the General Assembly, which must issue approval before a local referendum would need to pass.
That’s led to speculation that a casino could instead be located in the nearby hotel and conference center — with Virginia Tech using its statewide political muscle to strong-arm a gambling license. City council candidate David Bowers sent an email to the media earlier this month raising the issue.
On that possibility, Virginia Tech issued a statement to Cardinal News:
“While we cannot comment on an active marketing process, it is our view that the property is best positioned as an historic luxury hotel and conference center that supports visitors, conferences, tourism, and economic development in the region.”
Newmark, the real estate firm marketing the property, acknowledged receiving questions about the potential sale earlier this month, including what would happen if a casino operator is interested. However, the firm had not responded to any of the questions as of Monday.
When asked if the conference center commission has discussed a potential casino, commission member and Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb — a Berglund Center casino supporter — said, “There’s no truth to that whatsoever.”
The university, in its statement, also added this:
“Virginia Tech and the Virginia Tech Foundation are not involved in decisions regarding a potential casino in the broader community.”
Other issues remain in play with the hotel property:
How will the $14 million conference center sale be divided between the city and the foundation?
The conference center commission is a public body that includes three city of Roanoke representatives and three from Virginia Tech. That means that while the Virginia Tech Foundation is buying the conference center, the university has a financial stake in the facility — which has been accumulating since it opened in 1995.
The commission’s city representatives are Cobb, City Manager Valmarie Turner and Court Rosen, the commission’s chair who works in private real estate. The Virginia Tech members are Amy Sebring, the school’s executive vice president and chief operating officer; Simon Allen, the university’s vice president for finance and chief financial officer; and Susan Short, its senior associate vice president for outreach and international affairs.
The commission’s discussions have been happening privately for months.
Numerous questions about the planned sale and its impact on the city were sent to Turner, and through a spokesperson, she declined to answer any of them, saying Cobb was the better person to talk to.
Rosen declined to discuss the situation as well, and the Virginia Tech representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
But numerous numbers have been publicly reported recently and in the past.
It was the city that issued $12.8 million in bonds to build the conference center in the early 1990s.
Then, the city issued another $12.7 million in bonds in 2024 to finance a courtyard addition to the property. That project is on an indefinite hold because of the ongoing negotiations over the sale of the Hotel Roanoke and the conference center. The city being on the hook for that expense is part of the negotiations.
The city and Virginia Tech, meanwhile, contribute equal annual subsidies to the conference center’s operating budget. That’s currently set at $80,000 apiece.
The conference center generated $780,289 of net operating income in 2024-25 from more than $6 million in revenue, minus expenses, according to a commission financial statement. The commission’s existing budgetary assets are part of the negotiations, too.
Cobb was asked if the city will get a majority of all of the $14 million for the conference center sale, mainly because of its bond obligations over the years.
“My understanding is we would get most of that,” he said. “I don’t know where in the timeline that would occur. I think one of the things we wanted to make sure about is that in any kind of sale the city would be made whole because we had taken out some debt for potential expansion projects and wanted to make sure anything related to that was covered. So all of that has been part of the conversation.”
It’s unclear if the city — strapped for revenue for the past several years — could use defeasance to retire the outstanding bonds and potentially use any conference center sale windfall for something else. Defeasance is a fiscal maneuver to retire bond debt using interest driven off a larger principal amount.
There is also a process for the 31-year-old conference center operating arrangement between the city and university to end. When the property is sold, the commission will be dissolved at some point through a court process, according to its founding agreement.
Why did the commission agree to sell the conference center for $14 million when it is assessed for tax purposes by the city at $20.6 million?
The simple answer: The commission itself appraised the property through a private firm — as well as received valuation opinions from others — that priced the conference center at around the $14 million figure.
The conference center is unique because it’s publicly owned and tax-exempt. And the property is also unique by its use. Because of those factors, there’s been no reason for the commission to make an issue of the city’s tax valuation over the years.
“I don’t know where they [the city real estate valuation office] got that figure,” Cobb said of the tax assessed value in discussing the commission’s separate appraisal.
K.C. Bratton, the city’s real estate valuation director, wrote in an email that he’s waiting for the conference center sale to close.
“Until that process occurs, I think it would be premature for me to offer an opinion on the sale price or what, if anything, it may indicate relative to the current assessment,” he wrote.
Cardinal News requested a copy of the commission’s appraisal and was told it will not be released until the sale is complete.
Reporter Samantha Verrelli contributed information to this report.
