Bill Heath has seen the impact a university's arts center can have on a regional economy, and he is looking forward to when Virginia Tech opens one near where he lives.

"If we build the type of facility that Virginia Tech envisions, a first-class venue for the performing arts, we will see very quickly that people will be traveling from zip codes around the region, and even from out of state, with obvious economic benefits beyond the center itself, such as local restaurants, hotels, and tourism," said Heath, the president and CEO of Christiansburg, Va., based FNB Corporation.

Heath, who lives in the county where Virginia Tech is located, is a member of the Christopher Newport University Board of Visitors. He remembers the benefits that school’s Ferguson Center for the Arts brought to Newport News, Va.

Hotels, restaurants and other attractions have reported “that performances at the Ferguson Center have substantially increased their business,” said center Director William Biddle.

Attendance at his center was nearly 200,000 last school year. Ticket sales were $3.4 million.

Virginia Tech officials are working to open their own Center for the Arts, in Blacksburg, as part of a long-standing goal to increase the prominence of the arts on campus. They envision an $82.2 million complex that would include a renovated Shultz Hall and two new buildings: a 1,300 seat performance hall (rendition pictured) and a visual arts gallery.

“We owe the student more than a preparation for life at work,” university President Charles W. Steger has said. “We owe him or her the opportunity and means to educate themselves beyond work and after work. To that end, a new home for the fine and performing arts will culturally enrich the lives of our students, and the entire university community as well.”

Center for the Arts is also expected to help the university’s recruiting efforts across the board. By providing a new civic amenity, it will make Blacksburg more attractive to people who are choosing where to relocate for work or school.

University officials hope to begin construction in 2009 and complete the project by 2011. Raising money for the center is one of the goals of the $1 billion Campaign for Virginia Tech: Invent the Future, a private fundraising initiative announced Oct. 20.

Within the campaign, there is a goal of raising $30 million for Center for the Arts construction. Private support is important for launching the project, though state funding is anticipated. A significant amount of university funding has already been secured. Center for the Arts is among several projects expected to benefit from money raised to support a main priority of Virginia Tech’s fundraising campaign: enhancing the quality of life on campus and in the wider community. Officials will also seek to realize that goal by improving athletic facilities and preserving campus landmarks such as Lane Hall and Solitude.

With a total goal of $1 billion, The Campaign for Virginia Tech: Invent the Future marks a new era in private fundraising for the most comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The campaign’s funding priorities target five goals: academic excellence, the undergraduate experience, research facilities, Virginia Tech and the community, and the President’s Discovery Fund, a pool of unrestricted funds.

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