
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 31, 1994                   TAG: 9403310292
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER|
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

W.VA. INNKEEPER PURCHASES BIG BOY AT AUCTION

A West Virginia motel owner placed the highest bid Wednesday on the former Big Boy restaurant near Blacksburg, which was sold at auction to satisfy some debts of a bankrupt restaurant partnership.

The winning $610,000 bid means the National Bank of Blacksburg recoups about 60 cents on the dollar for its loans to Homestyle Restaurant Associates, which filed for financial reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1992.

R. Doyle Van Meter, innkeeper of the Sycamore Inn in Williamson, W.Va., said plans for the restaurant were incomplete. Van Meter, a Virginia Tech graduate whose daughters also attended Tech, said he didn't know yet whether he will try to regain a Big Boy franchise for the restaurant.

Van Meter operated a restaurant, the Brass Tree, at his Inn.

The Homestyle partnership filed for financial reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in December 1992, listing debts of more than $1 million. The Big Boy restaurant opened in 1991. The franchise was dropped last fall and the restaurant briefly opened as Our House. The restaurant closed before the end of last year; and during bankruptcy proceedings, the building and land reverted to the National Bank of Blacksburg.

A special prosecutor is expected to be named soon to review a state police investigation into allegations by some of the former Homestyle partners that Herbert Alcorn Sr., the general partner, wrongfully invested their money into his financially troubled Park Realty, which also is in reorganization in Bankruptcy Court.

According to bankruptcy records, Alcorn invested $273,500 of the partnership funds and was repaying it at 11 percent interest.

A key question in the investigation is whether the partnership agreement gave Alcorn the authority to do that.

Alcorn says he did nothing wrong and that the matter is more of a civil dispute among partners. As general partner, Alcorn managed the project and kept the records and books of the partnership.

by CNB