Allen Johnson: Hotel debate desperately needs someone without a dog in this fight
Where do I stand on a proposed new $54 million luxury hotel for downtown Greensboro?
To be honest, I still don’t know.
Arguments that favor the eight-story project include its potential to add a significant development in the heart of downtown — the biggest since Roy Carroll’s $40 million reclamation of the old Wachovia tower as Center Pointe— unless you want to count the new, $114.6 million county jail.
Other factors in its favor include its use of low-interest federal stimulus bond financing that poses no cost to local taxpayers.
Arguments against it include a city-commissioned study that questions its viability and the conventional wisdom that the local hotel market already is overbuilt — including yet another hotel that seeks federal financing, as part of the planned Shoppes at Pyramids Village off East Cone Boulevard.
Part of me says the new downtown hotel deserves a chance. That if its financial pro forma isn’t sound, no one will buy the bonds anyway.
Another part says: What would be the price of failure, and what could be the lasting impact on downtown?
Here’s what I do know for sure: All of the loudest and most prominent voices on both sides of this debate have vested interests in its outcome. And every single one of them stands to gain or lose financially.
The cast of characters:
Melvin “Skip” Alston, who, as a broker for the hotel, stands to earn a sum that he says “is none of your business.” That’s arguable. But his involvement in the enterprise while serving as chairman of the county commissioners, who had to approve the hotel’s bid for federal financing in December, is clearly inappropriate.
Alston recused himself from that vote, but he acknowledges lobbying City Council members on behalf of the $54 million hotel. He denies, however, threatening competing hotel owner Mike Weaver with protests during tomorrow’s opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum — and threatening recall elections of Mayor Bill Knight and two council members if they didn’t support the hotel. He contends he was merely saying that other people were making those threats. Uh, right.
Either way, he has overstepped his bounds and abused his role as commissioners chairman.
Deena Hayes. The school board member is a resident of the Ole Asheboro Neighborhood, which would be a part owner of the hotel. She also shares a home with John Greene, whose company — JCG & Associates — is a principal in the Urban Hotel Group, another partner in the hotel venture.
Hayes has as much of a right as any citizen to make money. But as a public advocate for the venture, it would have been helpful if she had disclosed all of her connections to the hotel up-front and early on.
Dennis Quaintance and Mike Weaver. The two well-known hoteliers have raised the most vocal and skeptical questions about the downtown hotel venture. Those questions have been legitimate and helpful.
But as owners of the Proximity and O. Henry hotels, they obviously would compete with any new hotel. They say they fear is that the downtown hotel might not fail altogether but simply slip into mediocrity. This, they say, would hinder other hotel projects from coming into downtown in the future, much as the under-performing Marriott does already.
Then again, a future hotel venture downtown could be their own.
Randall Kaplan, George House, Milton Kern and the other partners in the Elm Street Center have joined forces with the ownership group of the new hotel. As part of their investment, they’ve offered the Elm Street Center property for the project versus the original location at South Elm and Lee streets.
They’ve also wanted a hotel linked with the Elm Street Center for two years but couldn’t find financing. This is their chance. It’s also a chance to make a lot of money.
More power to the spirit of free enterprise that fuels all of these people’s passion. But what this discussion has lacked is clear direction and leadership for people whose job it is to consider the greater community good.
As a News & Record editorial noted last week, had the city and county established a clearly defined process and guidelines for all of the proposed local stimulus projects, we could have avoided much of this mess.
Other communities have done it, including San Bernardino, Calif., which added rules disqualifying any stimulus bond project from which an elected official stands to gain financially.
That would have nipped the Skip problem in the bud.
And added a method to all the madness.
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