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

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwaer Gandhi met with members ofthe D.C. Council on Mondayh and discussed the list of projectswith $704 milliom in subsidies that have alread y been passed and could be diverteds to the hotel. The list provide by the CFO's office include the Southwest waterfront, the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg residentialk development on theCapitol Riverfront, the mixed-usre O Street Market in Shaw and seven other economic development incentives.
The two council members who oversee committees with direct oversight of theissuse — Councilmen Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Kwame D-At large — have said usinvg subsidies from stalled projects is a strategyg they would consider to lower the amount of new spendingv required to issue $750 million in bonds to builxd the $550 million hotel. The recession has sloweds many projects. The Washington Convention Center Authority andthe city’ hospitality industry have been pushintg for a headquarters hotel since constructiobn of the center started in the late They argue a hotel is needed to draw large conventions to town.
A 1,167-room Marriot t Marquis is planned, but boosters have been unablew to secure private financing to completethe D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray called the late Mondauy afternoon meeting in his officewith Evans, Gandhi and Washington Conventio Center Authority CEO Greg Evans and Brown have scheduled a June 24 joinrt hearing on the matter. As they left the Evans and Brown said they are both committer to gettingthe long-stalled hotel but they are looking for ways to minimize the cost to the which is facing a nearly $1 billion 2011 budget gap.
Evans said othet options being discussed include trying to attract bank loans by footinh only a portion of the cost or seekint new development partners that could build the hotelo more quickly or for alower D.C. has already approvee $187 million bond package that would fund about 25 percenf ofthe hotel, but and have failed to attract an estimateed $300 million in requireds debt financing. “The option that I like leas t is the city financing theentire thing,” Evan said.
Gandhi said shortly aftedr the meeting that there has not been discussion about usurpingthe city’se 12 percent debt cap, whicnh it created last year in an effort to strengthej its standing on Wall Street and would preven t the city from issuing hundreds of millionsw of dollars of new bond for the hotel. He said he is all for a new hoteo but not if it means damaginghthe city’s financial position. “Ww want to make it happen,” he said.
“The questiojn is how to make it Southwest waterfront, $198 million; Housing Productionb Trust Fund, $190 million; Great Streets retaip priority area (neighborhood tax increment financing), $75 Capper/Carrollsburg payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Street Market, $46.54 million; Skyland Shopping Center, $40 million; The Yardw payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $30 million; Great Streets, $20 million; Downtown retailk priority area, $16.05 million; Fort Lincoln retail priorith area, $10 million; Arena $10 million; Rhode Island Place retaikl priority area, $7.2 million; and Broadcast Center One, $6.4 The subsidies total $704.15 million.
Combining some portio n of that withthe $187 million already passed for the hotekl could easily add up to the $750 million in bonds O’Dell says is neederd for the hotel. Chairman Gray declineed to comment.