With the addition of the new Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke will bring in millions of dollars annually, said members of the museum's board in a presentation Tuesday to local business and community leaders.

They project $30 million a year in new money for the local economy. That would include $9 million in wages, about $1 million in state and local tax revenue and an estimated $10 million in annual spending by tourists.

Heywood Fralin, president of the board of trustees, presented the numbers as reported by a Boston consulting firm. They included the creation of nearly 500 jobs.

"Clearly our area of the state lags behind the economy throughout Virginia," he said. "If you believe as I do that we all control our own destiny, then it's projects like this that have a future effect on the economic development of our region and that can help create the jobs that can keep our children here in this area."

Robert Stauffer, a business professor at Roanoke College, said economic impact in dollar figures is difficult to forecast. It's hard to predict whether the museum will have repeat business from Virginians or whether tourists who come to the area are coming specifically to visit the art museum, he said.

The 75,000-square-foot art museum is planned for a parking lot in downtown Roanoke, across the railroad tracks from the O. Winston Link Museum. Construction should begin in September, and the museum will open in September 2007, said Georganne Bingham, executive director of the museum.

During the presentation, Virginia Tech president Charles Steger made official the university's collaboration with the art museum.

Virginia Tech will work with the museum to provide art education training for grades K-12 and will make other contributions, including distance learning through a broadband network. One advancement will include the "Cave," a three-dimensional, virtual simulation that allows students to study and create 3-D structures.

Steger said the art museum will help Virginia Tech recruit "world class faculty" who are interested in cultural opportunities in Southwest Virginia.

For the past year, the art museum also has consulted with Sonnet Takahisa, co-founder of the New York City Museum School, about ways to create educational programs at the museum.