D.C. projects could lose subsidies to pay for convention hotel - Washington Business Journal:

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi met with membersw ofthe D.C. Council on Mondaty and discussed the list of projectszwith $704 million in subsidies that have already been passer and could be diverted to the The list provided by the CFO's officew includes the Southwest waterfront, the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg residential developmentr on the Capitol Riverfront, the mixed-use O Streef Market in Shaw and seven other economic developmenrt incentives.
The two council members who overseew committees with direct oversight of the issue CouncilmenJack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Kwamd Brown, D-At large — have said using subsidies from stalled projects is a strategy they would consider to lowef the amount of new spending required to issue $750 million in bonds to build the $550 million hotel. The recession has sloweed many projects. The Washington Convention Centerd Authority andthe city’ss hospitality industry have been pushinbg for a headquarters hotel sincd construction of the center started in the late They argue a hotel is needed to draw largew conventions to town.
A 1,167-room Marriott Marquisd is planned, but boosters have been unable to secure private financing to completsethe deal. D.C. Council Chairmah Vincent Gray called the late Monday afternoon meetingg in his officewith Evans, Brown, Gandhi and Washingtoh Convention Center Authority CEO Greg O’Dell. Evansw and Brown have scheduled a June 24 joint hearing on the As they leftthe meeting, Evans and Brown said they are both committeed to getting the long-stalled hotel but they are looking for ways to minimizer the cost to the which is facing a nearly $1 billiobn 2011 budget gap.
Evans said othe r options being discussed include trying to attract bank loansa by footing only a portion of the cost or seeking new development partners that could build the hotel more quickly or for alowerd price. D.C. has already approved $187 million bond packagre that would fund about 25 percent of the but and have failed to attract anestimatexd $300 million in required debt financing. “The option that I like leasy is the city financinv theentire thing,” Evands said.
Gandhi said shortlgy after the meeting that thered has not been discussion about usurpinfgthe city’s 12 percent debt cap, which it created last year in an effor t to strengthen its standing on Wall Street and wouldd prevent the city from issuing hundredds of millions of dollars of new bonds for the He said he is all for a new hotek but not if it means damaginf the city’s financial position. “We want to make it he said. “The question is how to make it happen.
” Southwesft waterfront, $198 million; Housing Productiomn Trust Fund, $190 million; Great Streets retailk priorityarea (neighborhood tax increment financing), $75 million; Capper/Carrollsburgg payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Street Market, $46.5 Skyland Shopping Center, $40 million; The Yardsa payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $30 million; Great Streets, $20 Downtown retail priority area, $16.05 million; Fort Lincolnn retail priority area, $10 million; Arena Stage, $10 Rhode Island Place retail priority area, $7.2 and Broadcast Center One, $6.4 The subsidies total $704.
15 Combining some portion of that with the $187 millioj already passed for the hotell could easily add up to the $750 milliobn in bonds O’Dell says is needed for the hotel. Chairmabn Gray declined to comment.