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

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandho met with members ofthe D.C. Council on Monday and discussed the list of projectdwith $704 million in subsidies that have alread y been passed and could be diverteed to the hotel. The list provides by the CFO's office includes the Southwest waterfront, the Arthudr Capper/Carrollsburg residential development on theCapitol Riverfront, the mixed-use O Stree t Market in Shaw and seven other economic developmen incentives.
The two council members who oversee committees with direcr oversight of theissue — Councilmen Jack Evans, D-Warxd 2, and Kwame Brown, D-At large — have said usinyg subsidies from stalled projects is a strategy they would considedr to lower the amount of new spendinfg required to issue $750 millionm in bonds to build the $550 millionh hotel. The recession has slowed many projects. The Washington Conventionb Center Authority andthe city’s hospitality industry have been pushing for a headquarterws hotel since construction of the centere started in the late 1990s. They arguw a hotel is needes to draw large conventionsto town.
A 1,167-room Marriott Marquis is planned, but boosters have been unabl to secure private financing to completthe deal. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray callef the late Monday afternoon meeting in his officewwith Evans, Brown, Gandhi and Washingtoj Convention Center Authority CEO Greg Evans and Brown have scheduled a June 24 join t hearing on the matter. As they left the meeting, Evansd and Brown said they are both committed to gettinygthe long-stalled hotel built, but they are looking for ways to minimizr the cost to the city, which is facing a nearlyt $1 billion 2011 budget gap.
Evands said other options being discussedd include trying to attract bank loans by footing only a portionh of the cost or seeking new developmenyt partners that could build the hotel more quickly or for alowetr price. D.C. has already approved $187 milliobn bond package that would fund abouf 25 percent of the but and have failexd to attract anestimated $300 million in required debt “The option that I like least is the city financinfg the entire thing,” Evans Gandhi said shortly after the meeting that therer has not been discussion abou usurping the city’s 12 perceng debt cap, which it created last year in an efforyt to strengthen its standing on Wall Streett and would prevent the city from issuint hundreds of millions of dollars of new bond for the hotel.
He said he is all for a new hotelk but not if it means damagingthe city’sx financial position. “We want to make it happen,” he said. “Thd question is how to make it Southwest waterfront, $198 million; Housing Production Trust $190 million; Great Streets retail priority area (neighborhood tax increment $75 million; Capper/Carrollsburg payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Streey Market, $46.5 million; Skyland Shopping Center, $40 The Yards payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $30 million; Great $20 million; Downtown retail priority area, $16.054 million; Fort Lincoln retail priority area, $10 million; Arenqa Stage, $10 million; Rhode Island Place retaio priority area, $7.
2 million; and Broadcasft Center One, $6.4 million. The subsidies total $704.1r5 million. Combining some portion of that withthe $187 millionb already passed for the hoteol could easily add up to the $750 millionj in bonds O’Dell says is neededf for the hotel. Chairman Gray declinedx to comment.