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The Washington Business Journal's Jonathan O'Connell follows up on the ongoing Washington Convention Center Hotel saga to report that city officials are discussing taking roughly $700 million in subsidies that have already been passed for other projects and diverting them to the hotel. The argument goes that a number of high profile development projects, including the Southwest waterfront, the Capitol Riverfront, the Skyland Shopping Center and the O Street Market, have long been stalled by the collapse of the lending market, so those allocated subsidies are sitting dormant in the meantime. But such a course of action would of course be very tricky for D.C. Council members who represent the neighborhoods that would then lose their public funding for those projects. The scheme could pose particular problems for Ward 2's Jack Evans, who would be forced to weigh the hotel, which is in his Ward, against longstanding promises to make the O Street Market project a priority. In May, Evans pushed through a $1 million grant to the developers of the O Street Market in Shaw.
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I was really looking forward to the O Street Market project starting. I'm not sure the hotel will benefit 9th Street as much as the O Street Market would have.
Everyone I've talked to who's been unfortunate enough to attend conferences at the Washington Convention Center all say the same thing: the place is infested with ginormous roaches. Two theories: either the roaches have eaten all the rats OR the rats are breeding with the roaches to create a superior race of "roachrats" that are invulnerable to poison and are practically indistinguishable from conference attendees, except inasmuch as when the lights come up after a speech, they scatter to the floorboards.
It's enough to make you want to take the Flaming Gaylord Poop Chute to the National Harbor Convention Center. At least they have their cockroach, mouse, violent explosive diarrhea, and plague problems relatively under control.
By all means, take the Poop Chute. Just don't ride your bike.
I believe the proper terminology for a rat-roach hybrid is "ratch."
This is going to set off the mother of all lobbying battles at the Wilson Building.
Maybe the could use the massive revenue the city gets from the Washington Nationals to pay for the hotel. Or maybe the 5 cent bag tax....
The Convention Center was outdated the day it opened. Its size (or lack thereof) and not the lack of a hotel is what is keeping the big money conventions away from DC.
National Harbor isn't the competion, Las Vegas, Orlando, and other cities with larger centers are.
Two project under the possible ax:
I fail to understand how Arena Stage can be considered a "stalled" project. Construction is on-going on the site and is on schedule.
At the same time, although construction has not begun on the Southwest Waterfront Redevelopment, the project is on schedule as the developers prepare for the PUD processes. They have not even begun the financing stage yet. Why slow them down?
And has anyone even considered why a hotel would cost over $750 million in DC? That is well over the final cost of the Nationals' Ballpark with its infamous over-runs, and over 40% of the entire budget planned for the Waterfront's three phases.
From Biz Journal...
"A 1,167-room Marriott Marquis is planned, but boosters have been unable to secure private financing to complete the deal."
No shit! Why would private financiers buy the cow when they can get the milk for free? The city has made it perfectly clear that they are desperate for this development. So just move in after they build it.
By night, the CHUD's sneak out above ground and pilfer supplies from various construction sites. They use the materials to build themselves swanky living quarters beneath DuPont Circle and Meridian Hill. Some CHUDs have been known to occupy the unoccupied rooms at the Convention Center. Chicago CHUD Bobby has a fixation on ice machines.
Reneging $700 mil from very worthy projects that would stimulate growth across the city, many in neighborhoods that need a boost, to back a single hotel project is illogical. The Council Members that support this will likely be stepping on a land mine with their constituents that support the projects in their immediate neighborhood from which the money would be reallocated. We do need to do every reasonable thing to make the Convention Center more appealing and to curb the revenue that the city is loosing to PG County but tripping up 13 great projects for the sake of one does not make sense.