Dallas City Council Votes to Move Forward on Convention Center Hotel
By Scott Braddock

The Dallas city council on Wednesday voted to spend roughly $40 million to buy land for a convention center hotel in downtown. 

Mayor Tom Leppert estimates the final cost will be around $500 million.   That figure will depend largely on which of four developers is chosen to build the ambitious project.  The council also voted to tell City Manager Mary Suhm to move forward with the convention hotel.  Leppert says he hopes the council will vote on a final plan for construction of the hotel this fall. 

Several developers are vying to build the project. 

During a public comment session, only a handful of people spoke against the hotel, while the vast majority, made up of pro-business forces, spoke in favor.

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, told the council that he's tired of seeing the city miss out on chances to have economic development.  He pointed out that Dallas had opportunities to host professional football and baseball teams, and they will both have stadiums in Arlington now.

Councilman Dwaine Caraway agreed with West.  "We can't afford to be on the losing end," he said.  "I'm so excited about the hotel," he said.

Before the vote, a staffer with the Mayor's office handed out a "Convention Center Fact Sheet."  It says, in part, that "Dallas is the only one out of the top 22 convention markets without a convention center hotel either built or under construction." 

The literature also touts the government's ability to get better financing than a private developer, because, among other things, the city doesn't have to put money up front and can issue tax-exempt revenue bonds.

Councilwoman Vonciel Jones Hill was one of only two members to vote against moving forward with the hotel.  She doesn't like that the purchase of the land and prospect of the city owning the hotel were based on the same vote.  "To own the land is a good idea.  To own the hotel is a bad idea," she said. 

"Ownership of the hotel is not only a front end cost of 500 million.  It is a continuous cost of maintaining and keeping up that hotel," Jones Hill said.

Over the past week, the debate had shifted from a discussion about giving subsidies to a developer to a fierce exchange over the idea that the city should build and own the hotel outright.  A city council committee last week recommended that the city should own the hotel but a private company should run it.

Councilwoman Angela Hunt has questioned the speed at which the proposal has changed and moved through the process. She believes citizens aren't being given a real opportunity to give input.  "We're basically telling our bosses you don't have any business getting involved in this," Hunt said.
 
Hunt believes the council should be focused on things like improving streets and making sure there are enough police on those streets.  "These things are fundamentals that we've gotta get done ...not figuring out ways to spend a half a billion dollars so that the city can own a hotel," Hunt said.