I don't get the wounded feelings over the downtown hotel project expressed by Allen Johnson here and, again, in this morning's print paper.
Sure, some people hated the idea because this is Greensboro and they hate everything, and others mistook the bond strategy for public funding.
But the heart of the matter has always been that the owners of a big event space need a hotel to make their property work, and there was no serious indication that GSO could come close to supporting a big new hotel, and so the property owners couldn't raise the money even with a huge recovery-bond assist.
I'd love to see a successful new downtown hotel, and I have no problem with the local daily applauding bold ventures.
But I can do simple arithmetic, and this project has never come close to adding up. Numbers ain't "snide comments," and the big paper should know the difference.
That's one of the big problems, isn't it?
We're being asked to get behind an idea that we don't understand.
The plan used to obtain City approval is long gone -- the project isn't even in the same location anymore. The new location is an upgrade, but still, we are discussing a project that has not been vetted by Council (not that the befuddled Council got into the details the first time around...)
The newer plan discussed at the January council meeting has been dismissed as fantasy by the HVS report.
HVS has worked in the past for both Quaintance-Weaver and for the hotel developers. Randall Kaplan told Justin Catanoso, "they (HVS) are the experts in evaluating the marketplace."
The thing about the HVS report is that the numbers were not even close to being close to adding up.
So when do we see the new plan?
How big will the hotel be? How much will it cost to build? How much of the $30 million raised with tax-free bonds will go to the developers for fees and cashing out of equity, and who vets the valuations on the properties put up as equity?
Another commenter writes that the QW legal action seems likely to bring about yet another third-party feasibility study.
The clock is ticking on this funding package, and extended legal action could run out the clock.
Which might not be an unintended consequence.