Downloaded from the Marriott's website
AUGUSTA, GA - According to the Augusta Marriott Hotel website the company owns the Trade, Exhibit and Events (TEE) Center. The hybrid conglomerate built with taxpayers money has being scrutinized for giving the construction, management, operation and catering, plus a parking deck, to Augusta Riverfront, LLC, which happen to be the management of the Marriott with connection with Morris Communications and the Augusta Chronicle. It is seems like a Save the TEE campaign it will start soon. Nevertheless, legally cannot be detached the building from the Marriott, supposedly.
Because legally cannot be detached the Marriott from the TEE Center, the Augusta Richmond County Commission must approve the agreement for management and operation with Augusta Riverfront, LLC, according to the management of the Marriott. Candidates running for District 1 prefer to give a temporary agreement to run the TEE Center until the new commissioners meet in January 2013 to review the contracts and put on bid the management and catering.
That is the position of Denice Traina while the incumbent Matt Aitken is in favor to give the agreement to Augusta Riverfront, LLC now and for 50 years. William Fenoy is being supported by former commissioner Betty Beard and he also said that the commissioners shouldn't rush to approve the agreement. It is not clear if Mrs. Beard support could influence his decision on the matter if elected since Mrs. Beard was the vote that gave the green light to the project years ago.
Probably in legal documents the official name is TEE Center but for branding reason is being called Augusta Convention Center. It is like the GRU and the GRUA situation where the Save the A campaign reached a compromise with the name. Nobody knows who, when, where and what was compromise in the TEE Center debacle.
"The Augusta Convention Center, formerly called the Trade, Exhibit, and Event Center or TEE Center, is a convention center currently under construction in downtown Augusta, Georgia. It is part of the Downtown Augusta Redevelopment Plan. Ground breaking for the facility was held in June 2010, construction is expected to be completed by January 2013. The complex will be over 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) when it opens.
The facility will have 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of exhibit-hall space, which could hold 195 10-by-10-foot booths, seat 3,500 people as a theater or feed 1,800 as a banquet hall. The building design also includes a ballroom, a kitchen, a loading dock and storage space. It will be built on the property next to the Marriott hotel and on the Augusta Riverwalk. A 400 space parking garage has been built across the street from the center. The cost of the center is estimated at $40 million." Wikipedia.
It is seems like Wikipedia editors have no idea that Augusta Richmond County taxpayers money paid for everything and so far nothing belong to them, except "air rights" and a mountain of unanswered questions.
To make more clear the ownership of the TEE Center, the Marriott Hotel is linked at the center's website. Until now is uncertain if the other hotels in Augusta will sue the city and the hotel for unfair business practice by the Marriott, and beneficiary of taxpayers money.
A sort of background
By Tim Rausch and Johnny Edwards, The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.McClatchy-Tribune Regional News
Aug. 12, 2009--Augusta could lose a planned $25 million Hyatt hotel if city commissioners don't settle their differences on the exhibition center/inner-city revitalization deal by month's end, say two men involved in the deal.
Local business leader Julian Osbon and developer Courtland Dusseau are urging commissioners to end their stalemate by Aug. 31, when contracts to purchase the four properties that would make up the hotel site expire.
Mr. Dusseau, managing partner for Alabama-based Legacy Hospitality, said he can't get the Hyatt Place Hotel & Business Center financed unless the trade, exhibit and event center is built on nearby Reynolds Street. Mr. Osbon, owner of one of the four properties, says he won't extend his land contract in September; it has been extended twice since being signed in January 2008.
He launched a public information campaign this week, starting with a memo to the mayor and the 10 commissioners and an attached flier reading, "Urgent Community Alert: Time is of the Essence."
"I don't think all the people understand the consequences," Mr. Osbon said Tuesday. "I wanted to make sure that if we did lose the hotel, that everyone had an opportunity to consider the possibilities."
Several commissioners and Mayor Deke Copenhaver said Tuesday that they weren't aware of the Aug. 31 expiration date but that they hope an agreement can be reached.
Black city commissioners who have opposed floating bonds to raise more money for the so-called TEE center said they resent being blamed for the possible loss of a hotel, but they can vote yes if they have a guarantee on when the Laney-Walker and Bethlehem neighborhoods will get installments on a projected $37.5 million in hotel fees.
"Right now they're using the TEE center to say that it's the reason why a lot of stuff isn't getting done," Commissioner J.R. Hatney said. "Nobody's trying to stop the TEE center from being built. We're just looking for an equitable finance plan between the TEE center and Laney-Walker and Bethlehem."
The commission has been at an impasse since early May over the TEE center and inner-city revitalization project, both of which are to be funded through a $1-a-night hotel fee implemented in 2008. The TEE center was approved by voters for $20 million in the 2005 special-purpose local option sales tax referendum, but it took almost two years for the commission to approve a site and operating agreement, which happened after Commissioner Don Grantham got a sixth vote from Commissioner Betty Beard with the inner-city revitalization deal.
Now the TEE center's cost is estimated at $38 million, not including a parking deck estimated to cost $12 million to $17 million.
City Administrator Fred Russell's initial funding proposal, which involved a combination of bonds and rerouted revenue streams, failed May 5 by a 5-4-1 vote, with the split falling along racial lines. Tensions escalated in the ensuing weeks, with one special-called meeting canceled for lack of attendance, another boycotted by half of the commission and the black commissioners calling a news conference to say they won't "succumb to fear, threats or intimidation."
Since then, the commission has voted to allow Mr. Russell to take only small steps forward on the project.
Mr. Russell said Tuesday that to move the TEE center and Laney-Walker/Bethlehem projects forward, he needs votes to approve bonding, approval of the operating contract, approval of a $1 million loan to keep the inner-city projects going forward in the short run and permission to purchase property.
According to Mr. Osbon, the Hyatt would be a 135-room hotel with a 22,500-square-foot office building and underground parking. During its first year of operation, it is estimated to generate about $368,000 in property taxes and $454,000 in sales and lodging taxes, Mr. Osbon said, with a 25-year economic impact of $215 million.
Commissioner Joe Jackson has put the TEE center issue on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting. He said it's time to quit with the baby steps.
"This could potentially cost us millions of dollars by not moving on this," Mr. Jackson said. "It's going to put black people to work. It's (going to) put white people to work. It's (going to) put Augusta to work."
Though he's willing to work toward a resolution, Commissioner Corey Johnson said he won't do so out of fear of losing the hotel.
"I don't think it's us that lost it," Mr. Johnson said of the Hyatt. "You can't lose what you never had. We lost the Golf and Gardens. So many things in this city have been lost because they haven't been planned."
Mr. Dusseau was on the phone with commissioners Tuesday in an effort to get the TEE center project moving again.
"I'm just trying to do something that will help the whole community, no matter what district it's in," Mr. Dusseau said. "To me this is not a political deal; it is an economic deal."
Mr. Dusseau said Legacy Hospitality picked Augusta not only for its big events, such as the Masters Tournament and Augusta Futurity, but also because of the TEE Center's potential convention traffic.
No comments:
Post a Comment