Proposal expected today for third downtown hotel
Hotel is a key piece of the $160 million Harrison Square project.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/16688015.htm
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Deadline Day
Posted by scott spaulding at 2/13/2007 07:51:00 AM
Labels: CRED, Greg Leatherman, Harrison Square, New hotel
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5 comments:
I have heard that only one company has submitted a proposal and that should tell you a lot.
Even with large subsidies and a "sweetheart deal" there may only be one company that is willing to rist their money to build another major hotel...
Wow...
Mike Sylvester
The city only got the nod for half of the money that they requested from the state for the hotel, so it's not exactly a "sweetheart deal". One of the developers specifically stated that the reason they didn't submit a proposal was because of a lack of such funds provided.
Scott:
How much money was given to smaller hotel developers in Fort Wayne for past projects?
The answer is ZERO...
So you see a difference?
Mike Sylvester
Mike,
Maybe I should have worded it differently, but the only point I was making is that the deal wasn't as "sweet" as it could have been, had the state not been cutting down this type of funding across the board. If the city had gotten the full amount we wouldn't be talking about how only one proposal was received.
It doesn't really surprise me to have only one proposal come in. The city is telling the companies what their product will be and where it will be located and how much it will cost. There's not a lot of leeway in the matter. If the company isn't willing or can't follow the parameters given, then they decline the offer.
In the end, it still only takes one proposal to fill the one open slot for a new hotel. C.H. Johnson Consulting and the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission will decide on the proposal that we do have. Further still, City Council will decide if the project is financially feasible. We'll just have to see what happens.
I will be getting the financial information concerning the City Parking Garage over the next couple of months from Fort Wayne.
It is going to be WORSE then I thought at first.
The new Parking garage is about the same size as the existing parking garage next to the City-County Building.
The existing County Parking garage lost ABOUT $250,000 per year from 2002 - 2005.
Everything below is a GUESS. I will work an actual estimate up later...
I am revising my estimate of the annual loss the City will sustain on the parking Garage UP.
Consider this:
1. The new Parking Garage will be in an inferior location to the new Parking garage. This would certainly lead any independent person to realize that the new parking garage will lose more money based on lower revenue due to location.
2. The new Parking Garage will be allowing Lincoln Employees to use HALF of the Parking Garage for free during the week. This will lower revenue if it is true. In fact, this could lower revenue by a lot.
3. Per today's newspaper the HOTEL we are subsidizing will get one third of the Parking spaces in the garage. I wonder how this will work. I have NEVER paid for parking at ANY hotel I have ever stayed at. Parking is generally provided by the hotel. I will look into this more down the road. This could lower Parking Garage revenue as well...
4. The existing Parking garage utilizes County Employees. The new one will employ City employees. City employees make more money; therefore, expenses in the new garage will increase.
5. The County rents the existing Parking garage from another Party. In 2005 the "rent" payment was $300,000 per year. The City now wants to borrow money and build another Parking Garage. This means the City will be making principle payments on a 15 million dollar loan, interest payments on a 15 million dollar loan, and fees to bonding attorneys to set this loan up. This will be very expensive. The City should consider this payment to be an expense of the Parking garage!
If the bonds are 25 year bonds then we will have to pay about 1.2 million dollars per year for the life of the bonds...
So realizing that 1/3 of the parking garage will be reserved for hotel patrons and that 1/2 of the parking garage will be reserved for Lincoln employees during the work week I think we would be lucky to collect $300,000 in parking receipts. (Note the County parking garage brings in about half a million in receipts...)
The other expenses of the parking garage should be similar to the County parking garage, ignoring rent this is about $300,000. This ASSUMES that the City will be able to operate the garage with a similar staff and expenses as the County Parking garage...
Rent would be about 1.2 million per year.
This would result in an operational loss of 1.2 million per year for the life of the bonds...
Ouch...
Where will that money come from?
Mike Sylvester
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