Two of Roanoke's signature civic institutions are moving through pivotal, and separate, legal processes right now, and a former mayor is publicly asking whether they're more connected than City Hall is letting on.

Roanoke, VA

Author: Roanoke Rambler Staff

Published: 11:50 PM EST August 25, 2026

Edited: 11:55 PM EST August 25, 2026

Last Monday night, City Council sat through a 59-slide presentation on turning the aging Berglund Center into a casino-anchored entertainment district. a proposal now confirmed to involve a nondisclosure agreement between the city and an unnamed developer who has already paid Roanoke $75,000 (CDC Gaming, SCCG Management). At the same time, the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission, the body that has overseen the historic hotel's conference center since the 1990s voted last month to sell that conference center and begin dissolving itself.

Former Mayor and current City Council candidate, David Bowers, who oversaw Hotel Roanoke's landmark 1995 reopening, says he's now worried those two stories are one story, and he wants City Hall to say, on the record, whether he's wrong.

What the council actually heard last Monday night

City Manager Valmarie Turner told council the Berglund Center, a city-owned, 10,500-seat arena dating to the early 1970s — has reached a "critical point," citing more than $30 million in deferred maintenance, a fire-suppression system so unreliable it has interrupted a live show, and $1.5 million the city borrows annually just to subsidize the facility. General manager Robyn Schon said the original 1970s air handlers "cannot wait another three to five years."

By the numbers, as presented to Roanoke City Council:

• $75,000 — payment the unnamed developer has already made to the city under its NDA
• $300 million — minimum investment the developer would be required to make, per state code. Projections include $5 million for the main electrical panel, $3.6 million for the roof, $2 million for a boiler, and $2 million for repaving.
• $135M–$180M — projected annual gross gaming revenue; $15M–$25M of that in local taxes (the city could not tell Cardinal News how that estimate was calculated)
• 800–1,000 — projected jobs, averaging $55,000 a year, with the casino itself occupying less than 10% of the district's footprint
• 36% support / 27% oppose / 36% unsure — the city's own resident survey, presented by Councilman Phazhon Nash, who leads the entertainment-district task force

Roanoke's Entertainment District Focus Group, 23 members initially, wrapped up Tuesday without taking a position for or against a casino. Val Brown, who runs the Greater Williamson Road Business Association and sat on the group, told Cardinal News she came away feeling the city was "trying to get participants to support a casino" and that members weren't told about the $30 million repair backlog until the final session.

Two of seven council members: Vice Mayor Terry McGuire and Councilman Nicolas Hagen have publicly opposed the casino, as has former Mayor Ralph Smith. Any casino still needs Virginia General Assembly authorization and a citywide referendum, and as of this year's legislative session, no bill had been introduced — the region's state senators and delegates have so far only spoken against it. Mayor Joe Cobb told the Rambler in December the effort is now proceeding on a "different path."

A separate, real process — with its own timeline

Three miles and one legal mechanism away, the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission — created by a 1990s act of the General Assembly, with three seats held by the city and three by Virginia Tech — voted unanimously on July 29 to sell the conference center to a Virginia Tech Foundation subsidiary for $14 million, with most of the proceeds returning to the city. The sale is expected to close as early as October. Once it does, the commission — its statutory purpose fulfilled — is expected to begin the legal process of dissolving, which under state law means petitioning the Roanoke Circuit Court, not a City Council vote. Once the hotel and conference center have a single owner, the Virginia Tech Foundation's stated goal is to sell the entire Hotel Roanoke property to a third party. That buyer has not been named.

Mayor Cobb, who sits on the commission, has framed the sale as protecting the city from financial exposure, not surrendering control: "We've weighed all of the possibilities here, and it became clear that Virginia Tech wanted to sell the hotel, bottom line."

A former mayor's warning:

Bowers, who was Roanoke's mayor from 1992 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2016, sent this newsroom a statement he explicitly asked to be used "ON THE RECORD":

"As the Mayor of Roanoke 30 years ago who oversaw the reopening of our historic Hotel Roanoke as a community treasure, and helped to arrange the financing and governance structure which has worked so very successfully since, I now want to express my concern and opposition to the dissolution of the Hotel Roanoke Commission… It's important, in my opinion, for the people of Roanoke to continue to have a say in the governance of the Hotel, and adjacent Conference Center, which we helped preserve, pay for and watched over with 30 years of success since 1995!!!… As they say down in the Virginia countryside, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it!'"

Bowers goes further, laying out — and explicitly flagging as unverified — a theory connecting the two processes:

"I have recently heard rumors, not verified, but the speculation is that this proposed dissolution of the Commission is just a ploy, a step, in an effort to transfer control of our 'Grand ole Lady' Hotel to a casino/hotel proprietor to allow for Mayor Cobb's signature effort to bring a casino to The Star City, now that it's evident that the proposal last Fall 2025 to open a casino at the Berglund Center has floundered… I understand, at this juncture, that it will be difficult at this time for Roanokers to learn the true story, as our City Mayor and Council have entered into NDA-non disclosure agreements with a pro-casino operative."

He closes by asking the city to address it directly: "I suggest that Roanokers should ask our City leaders to deny that the dissolution of the Hotel Commission is connected with the sale or operation of a casino/hotel there at the Hotel… If the speculation I've heard and suggested herein is wrong, then so be it… At least, we, the citizens of Roanoke, will know the truth one way or the other." He signed the statement David A. Bowers, Attorney, VSB #18128.

City officials did sign an NDA with an unnamed casino developer, who has paid the city $75,000, that's confirmed reporting from Monday's hearing, not just rumor. The Berglund Center casino push has stalled relative to its fall 2025 rollout, and it wasn't included in the city's 2026 legislative priority list, and no regional lawmaker of either party has publicly backed it. However, the Rambler could find no public document, official, or reporting reviewed by this newsroom connects the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission's dissolution to the Berglund Center casino developer or NDA. They are, on the public record, two separate transactions moving on two separate legal tracks. The commission's dissolution proceeds through a circuit-court petition tied to the conference center's sale, not a council vote on the casino. The city's own survey, presented Monday, actually shows a near-even split — 36% support, 27% oppose, 36% unsure — rather than clear-cut opposition, though many have expressed their sentiment adamantly.

This shows is a city where two once-separate civic landmarks are, for the first time, sitting inside overlapping non-disclosure regimes at the same moment, which is precisely why Bowers is asking City Hall to answer the question directly rather than let residents guess.

What to watch

• Whether Cobb, Turner, or other council members respond on the record to Bowers' request that they explicitly deny a casino-Hotel Roanoke link.
• The conference center sale's expected October closing, and what happens once the commission actually files to dissolve.
• Whether Virginia Tech Foundation names a buyer — or a process — for the full Hotel Roanoke property once it has sole ownership.
• Nash's plan to bring the focus group's findings back to council within about a month.
• Whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin's successor, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, moves on a statewide gaming commission — a decision several council members are watching before deciding how hard to push the casino question again.
• Whether this issue will be important enough to voters to impact the upcoming Roanoke City Council election