ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512170001
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
A COUPLE'S experience with renting the Star City Ballroom raises questions about the handling of what is seen as an underused asset.
They have decked the Star City Ballroom for a big bash. Tonight at 6:30, if you are an employee or guest of New River Electrical Corp. of Cloverdale, you can pull up in front of the City Market building, let a valet park your car and go inside and celebrate the holidays.
When all the food is eaten, the balloons popped and the drinks emptied, the people in charge of arrangements still will be shaking their heads over one thing: how they came to rent a ballroom in the heart of Roanoke - the historic Star City Ballroom of all places - a mere two months before a major event?
In the party planning business, venues often are booked a year in advance. Yet with every other suitable location for the party booked by mid-October, the ballroom was still available when meeting planners Teresa and Jim Curtis called on New River Electrical's behalf.
"We were amazed it had not been rented," Teresa Curtis said, and "it was the last thing available."
The Curtises' good fortune was the result of luck and circumstance, but their experience raises questions about the handling of what some see as an underused public asset.
Fralin & Waldron Inc., a Roanoke County real estate development company, got the right to all rental income from the market building for 20 years, beginning in 1983, in return for its $1.5 million remodeling of the historic structure. Fralin & Waldron pays the city rent of $1,000 a year on the property.
The project's most successful element is the street-level complex of 23 restaurants, shops and salons, which draws hundreds of customers daily. But odors from the food court have made the building's second floor unappealing for shops, meaning that space is vacant.
The gymnasium-sized room on the third floor is rented at $100 an hour by school groups, community organizations and private individuals and is used several times a month, said Janet Scott, an executive assistant at F&W Management Corp., the property management arm of Fralin & Waldron.
Despite that, the company remains at least $500,000 in the hole on the City Market project, said Elbert Waldron, owner of Fralin & Waldron.
There is no concerted marketing plan for advertising the availability of the third floor, which has functioned over the years as a boxing arena, concert venue, gymnasium, auditorium and ballroom..
Although the company is glad to book what ballroom business there is, it would prefer to sublease the space as an antique or craft mall or spot for events, as long as a subtenant handled arrangements.
Too little marketing is part of the problem with the ballroom, but it also needs some sprucing up, said Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The ballroom accommodates 450, has a stage and large windows with views of other historic market-area buildings.
It "is a terrific place," Teresa Curtis said. "It's this big old empty room. Once it's transformed on Saturday night, it's going to look spectacular."
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Teresa Curtis adds some color to theby CNBtables with poinsettias.