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The board that governs Virginia's Explore Park came out of a two-hour closed-door meeting Thursday confident it is closer to a 50-year lease that would turn the park over to a St. Louis company created to teach people about the Old West. It's also decided to explain the proposal to the public. A community meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 23 at Explore Park. The board has not released the draft contract, but chairman Fred Anderson has shared some details. The deal would give Virginia Living Histories the right to move the buildings in Explore's historic area, to store them, even to do away with the historic area altogether. Anderson said he doesn't believe Larry Vander Maten, the man behind Virginia Living Histories, would do that. Vander Maten is interested in teaching people about history, according to Anderson. "I have only met the man one time," Anderson said. "I have, quite frankly, had to rely on people I trust." Mike Altizer, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, hopes Vander Maten will attend the March 23 meeting. Altizer said he's met Vander Maten twice. From 2000 until October, Virginia Living Histories was called Old West Living Histories. Its mission, according to papers filed with the Missouri secretary of state, was "to increase the knowledge of the general public about historic events of the Old West and involving the general public in historic reenactments of early western daily activities." According to the company's filings with the Internal Revenue Service, it has spent no money on any such programs. The company was working on a project in Colorado, according to Anderson, when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, crippled tourism. Dale Wilkinson, a Roanoke Valley developer and a former Republican candidate for the Virginia Senate, introduced Vander Maten to Explore and to some members of the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority, the board that governs Explore, more than a year ago. What Anderson described as "a small, core group" began negotiating with Vander Maten. Tom Brock and Stan Lanford are at the core of that group. Brock is chairman of the River Foundation, a private fund-raising organization that supports Explore Park. Lanford is a member of the River Foundation and the VRFA. The VRFA did not authorize the group to negotiate on Explore's behalf. In fact, much of the board was unaware of the deal. Anderson learned of the negotiations in December, when he became chairman. Even though they acted without board approval, Anderson said, "They were people who had the best interests of the park at heart." The draft contract calls for Virginia Living Histories to invest a minimum of $20 million in the park and to pay rent: $50,000 for each of the first five years; $100,000 for years six through 10; $150,000 for years 11 through 20; $200,000 for each of the last 29 years of the contract. Provisions in the contract call for those rent payments to be reduced by some portion of the cost of maintaining the park. The contract also calls for Virginia Living Histories to share its annual net receipts with the VRFA, once those receipts top $5 million. Options for developing the park include hotels, restaurants, retail venues, even a water park. "He's got all the possibilities," Anderson said. "That's all going to be part of the feasibility study." Vander Maten's company has two years to conduct a marketing study. If he doesn't like the results, he can walk away from the deal. That is just one of many steps that could trip up the project. "One of the things that we will be doing is asking the state to bless it," Anderson said. "Mr. Vander Maten understands that may be the end of the discussion." Explore, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last summer, has existed in many different versions on many drawing boards since it was first proposed in the 1980s. What was envisioned as a zoo and theme park built around the idea of the United States' western expansion and tied to a series of ecological programs has become a living history museum focusing on Southwest Virginia in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It also has hiking and biking trails, fishing and some limited environmental programs. Anderson said he sees the park moving back to its roots with Virginia Living Histories. "This thing, I think, in many respects, brings us back to the beginnings," he said. "This was supposed to be a destination point." |
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