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

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwatr Gandhi met with members ofthe D.C. Council on Mondagy and discussed the list of projectswith $704 million in subsidiezs that have already been passed and couldc be diverted to the The list provided by the CFO's office includes the Southwesft waterfront, the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg residential development on the Capitolp Riverfront, the mixed-use O Street Marke in Shaw and seven other economic development incentives.
The two council memberz who oversee committees with direct oversight of theissue — Councilmebn Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Kwamde Brown, D-At large — have said using subsidies from stalled projectx is a strategy they would considerd to lower the amount of new spending requires to issue $750 million in bondsa to build the $550 million hotel. The recession has slowed many The Washington Convention Center Authoritgy andthe city’s hospitality industry have been pushing for a headquartersd hotel since construction of the center started in the late They argue a hotel is needed to draw larg e conventions to town.
A 1,167-room Marriott Marquis is but boosters have been unable to secure private financing to completerthe deal. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray called the late Mondahy afternoon meeting in his officewith Brown, Gandhi and Washington Conventiob Center Authority CEO Greg O’Dell. Evanxs and Brown have scheduled a June 24 joint hearing onthe matter. As they left the Evans and Brown said they are both committecd to gettingthe long-stalled hotel built, but they are lookingt for ways to minimize the cost to the which is facing a nearly $1 billioh 2011 budget gap.
Evans said other optiona being discussed include trying to attract bank loans by footing only a portion of the cost or seekinv new development partners that could build the hotel more quicklyg or for alower price. D.C. has alreadu approved $187 million bond package that wouls fund about 25 percent of the but and have failed to attract anestimated $300 million in requiredx debt financing. “The optionn that I like least is the city financing theentire thing,” Evansx said.
Gandhi said shortly after the meeting that there has not been discussion about usurpingythe city’s 12 percent debt cap, whichh it created last year in an effortf to strengthen its standint on Wall Street and would prevent the city from issuin hundreds of millions of dollars of new bonds for the He said he is all for a new hotek but not if it means damaging the city’s financial “We want to make it he said.
“The question is how to make it Southwest waterfront, $198 million; Housing Production Trust $190 million; Great Streets retaikl priority area (neighborhood tax incremenrt financing), $75 million; Capper/Carrollsburg payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Street $46.5 million; Skyland Shopping $40 million; The Yards payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $30 Great Streets, $20 Downtown retail priority area, $16.05 Fort Lincoln retail priority $10 million; Arena Stage, $10 million; Rhode Island Place retailo priority area, $7.2 million; and Broadcas t Center One, $6.4 million. The subsidies total $704.
15 Combining some portion of that withthe $187 million already passed for the hotel could easily add up to the $750 millioj in bonds O’Dell says is neededr for the hotel. Chairma n Gray declined to comment.