DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997                 TAG: 9703070648

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   41 lines

MANAGER-RECRUITER HIRED FOR CHESAPEAKE CONFERENCE CENTER

The city has hired William L. Lindley as Chesapeake's first conference and tourism manager, a key job that could determine the success of the city's new conference center.

Lindley's primary job will be to recruit clients willing to rent out the proposed center, which is currently under construction.

The building, located behind the Holiday Inn Chesapeake in the Greenbrier area, is expected to be open in September.

City officials have said the conference center must begin booking clients now if the city is to begin paying off the building's construction costs.

The City Council approved the $9 million center in August 1996 under a public-private partnership with the Chesapeake-based Armada/Hoffler Holding Co. The city will be paying Armada/Hoffler for the building over a 30-year period.

Lindley, 57, is no stranger to Hampton Roads. He was the first director of marketing for the Omni International Hotel in Norfolk when it opened in 1974. He stayed there about 6 1/2 years before going to Chicago to work as director of marketing for Omni's Midwest regional sales office.

When the Norfolk Convention Bureau opened in 1981, Lindley returned to run it. Thirteen years later, Lindley left for Jacksonville, Fla., where he has served as executive director and president of the Jacksonville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Lindley's wife remained in Norfolk, and he commuted between Hampton Roads and Jacksonville every three weeks on weekends. During the Christmas holiday, Lindley discussed the commuting with his wife and then resigned his post in Jacksonville. He applied for and got the job in Chesapeake.

``We're just pleased as a city to have a person of Bill's experience,'' said Warren D. Harris, assistant director of economic development for Chesapeake. ``It's a credit to the potential of this facility.''

Lindley will be paid $60,000 annually. He said he plans to begin recruiting people for the conference center locally and in-state. ``We need business six to 12 months out,'' Lindley said. ``There's a sense of urgency that we want this thing open and we want some good business in it.''

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