Wells: Don’t pull SW Waterfront financing
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
June 18, 2009
D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells on Thursday urged city leaders to cease any talk of pulling funding from economic development projects in his ward in order to finance a $750 million convention center hotel.
“Diverting funding away from the Southwest and Southeast neighborhoods at this time in favor of a fully government funded mega hotel breaks the promise we made to our residents that we are ready to move forward,” Wells, D-Ward 6, said in a statement.
The city, meanwhile, may be on the verge of an agreement with Marriott to bring more private equity into the financially challenged hotel project. If the deal closes, said Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, the city will need to provide $50 million to $100 million more than the $187 million it has already promised — not the entire balance.
Wells is the first ward council member to weigh in on Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal to publicly finance the 1,100-room convention center hotel. The finished product, with its 100,000 square feet of ballroom and meeting space plus retail, is widely considered crucial to ensuring D.C.’s convention center remains competitive regionally and nationally.
The problem: Issuing $750 million in hotel bonds would crack a “debt cap” established by the council at Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi’s request. That is, unless the city postpones or cancels a slate of other projects it has pledged to subsidize.
There are at least 13 major projects authorized for future bond sales. Among them: $198 million for the Southwest Waterfront, $90 million for the Southeast Federal Center, $46.5 million for the O Street Market, $55 million for the Capper Carrollsburg redevelopment in Near Southeast and $40 million for the Skyland Retail project in Ward 7.
“It is unwise for the City to even suggest going back on its commitment at the exact moment the project is moving forward to attract private financing,” Wells said of the Southwest Waterfront. “If attempted, it would create uncertainty and jeopardize the jobs, affordable housing, retail amenities and public investment that have been promised to our residents.”
Evans, chairman of the Finance and Revenue Committee, said he hoped to forestall the “hysteria” of people thinking their projects were being eliminated. No projects will be dropped, he said.
“We’re heading in the completely opposite direction,” he said.
