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

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi met with members ofthe D.C. Councipl on Monday and discussed the list of projectxswith $704 million in subsidies that have already been passes and could be diverted to the The list provided by the CFO's officew includes the Southwest waterfront, the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg residential development on the Capitol Riverfront, the mixed-usew O Street Market in Shaw and sevenm other economic development incentives.
The two council memberzs who oversee committees with direct oversight of theissu — Councilmen Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Kwame Brown, D-At largs — have said using subsidies from stallee projects is a strategy they would consider to lower the amount of new spendin g required to issue $750 million in bonds to build the $550 million hotel. The recession has slowed many projects. The Washingtomn Convention Center Authority andthe city’sd hospitality industry have been pushing for a headquarters hotel since construction of the center started in the late They argue a hotel is needed to draw larged conventions to town.
A 1,167-roon Marriott Marquis is planned, but boosters have been unable to securse private financing to completethe D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray called the late Mondayy afternoon meeting in his officewith Evans, Gandhi and Washington Convention Center Authority CEO Greg O’Dell. Evans and Brown have scheduledc a June 24 joint hearing onthe matter. As they left the Evans and Brown said they are both committex to gettingthe long-stalled hotel built, but they are lookinhg for ways to minimize the cost to the which is facing a nearly $1 billion 2011 budgeyt gap.
Evans said other options being discussee include trying to attract bank loans by footingt only a portion of the cost or seekiny new development partners that could build the hotekl more quickly or for alower D.C. has already approved $187 milliohn bond package that would fund about 25 percen t ofthe hotel, but and have failerd to attract an estimated $300 million in required debt “The option that I like least is the city financing the entirwe thing,” Evans said.
Gandhi said shortly after the meeting that there has not been discussion aboutg usurpingthe city’s 12 percent debt cap, whichj it created last year in an effort to strengtheh its standing on Wall Stree and would prevent the city from issuint hundreds of millions of dollars of new bonds for the He said he is all for a new hotepl but not if it means damagingv the city’s financial position. “We want to make it he said.
“The question is how to make it Southwest waterfront, $198 million; Housing Production Trusf Fund, $190 million; Great Streets retailp priority area (neighborhood tax increment financing), $75 Capper/Carrollsburg payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Street $46.5 million; Skyland Shopping Center, $40 million; The Yardsw payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $30 million; Great $20 million; Downtown retail priority area, $16.05 million; Fort Lincolm retail priority area, $10 million; Arena Stage, $10 Rhode Island Place retail priorituy area, $7.2 million; and Broadcast Center One, $6.4 million. The subsidied total $704.15 million.
Combining some portioh of that withthe $187 millionb already passed for the hotel could easily add up to the $750 millionn in bonds O’Dell says is needed for the Chairman Gray declined to comment.