| Public v. Private Funds for Hotel |
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| by Carolyn Barta | Sun, Oct 12, 2008, 08:52 PM |
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Steve Blow starts out his column with the right question in Sunday's DMN: "If this new convention center hotel is so great, why aren't private developers building it instead of the city of Dallas." Precisely the question I have. By the end of the column, however, he appears to come around to Mayor Tom Leppert's position -- that getting into the hotel business has worked well for Houston, Denver, Baltimore and Austin. I, for one, would like to see the numbers. The chance is, particularly in this down economy, that taxpayers will end up footing the bill for this hotel. Leppert can't say there is no risk but seems to convince Blow that the biggest risk is in doing nothing. It's an argument I'm not buying. How about you?
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Comments (4)
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written by byx , October 13, 2008 Carolyn, THANK YOU. I'm not Steve Blow's biggest fan any longer, but Leppert has been pretty misleading about this as well as the submerged Trinity Toll Road. The cheapest option? busses, light rail, and even a trolley between the downtown hotels that already exist, and the Convention Center. It's been a big echo chamber quite a bit lately, but the hotel really seems like a canard for someone to make a lotta bucks (shrinking bucks) on the City's maturing teat.
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written by john k. , October 13, 2008 Houston's convention center hotel may have to be on hold as conventions to Houston may have to wait until damages from Hurricane IKE are repaired, but expences go on.
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written by Bob Reagan , October 14, 2008 Why should private investors build a convention center hotel when they can peddle influence to a sufficient number of elected officals who can extort money from the citizens to pay for it? It's cheaper to buy a council member than to hire a competent architect and builder (even one who won't rip you off with grandiose monuments to himself like the so-called "signature bridges").
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written by Darrell Jordan , October 14, 2008 Just as a developer wouldn't begin construction of an office tower without a significant portion of it pre-leased, I don't think the city of Dallas should construct the hotel without bookings of a large number of conventions to justify the need for the hotel. These are perilous economic times, and may be so for several years. Convention travel will be one of the first items cut from the budgets of many organizations. I am not convinced the need exists to spend $500,000,000 on this project. Write comment
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