A couple of interesting stories are out today about the proposed convention center hotel in anticipation of the city council’s economic development committee meeting today: The Observer’s blog weighs in with some interesting tidbits, as does the Morning News. (For background, click here and here to read our primer from a couple of days ago.) The Observer’s story details the increasing public angst councilman Mitchell Rasansky feels about not receiving enough information about the hotel finance plan, despite pleading with Mayor Tom Leppert for help; that’s basically the same thing councilman Angela Hunt has been saying about this issue, as well as what she said about the Trinity Tollroad for that matter. Now as then, no one else on the council appears too interested, though.
It appears the master plan at the moment is to refinance existing convention center hotel debt to extract the $40 million needed to buy the land targeted for the hotel. (Hey, doesn’t that type of double-dip financing sometimes lead to what’s going on with home foreclosures all over the country?) The city attorney must believe this is a legal way to obtain the funds, as opposed to having to ask taxpayers for the money in a direct ballot, and I imagine that’s correct. What will be more interesting, though, is how the council is going to find the additional $100 million or so in funds needed to build the hotel and operate it, assuming that’s still Leppert’s plan. No one may care much about the convention center hotel as an issue today, but I suspect that if the council has to ask taxpayers for big money somewhere down the road, it might be a different story.
