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Thursday, August 26, 2010
No Quick Decision on Event Center, Hotel
By Rivkela Brodsky
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Though many business leaders remain undecided about the proposed $400 million Downtown event center and headquarters hotel project, one hotel mogul has come out strongly against it.
Jim Long, owner of six hotels in the state, as well as the Albuquerque Plaza building Downtown, calls the project an "economic albatross for Albuquerque." From the 15th floor of his office in the Albuquerque Plaza, the CEO of Heritage Hotels & Resorts, told the Journal on Wednesday that the project is a losing investment for taxpayers from Day One.
At least two city councilors and the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau recently pointed to a need for the center after looking at ACVB convention booking numbers, which have been in decline since peaking in the mid-'90s. The past two years in particular have seen a dramatic drop, and future bookings are discouraging.
The ACVB sent out an e-mail earlier this month asking for local businesses, ACVB partners and those in the lodging industry to sign a "declaration of support" for the center, as well as an eighth of a cent gross receipts tax increase to make that happen.
Long said he received the e-mail but does not support the project for several reasons. In particular, he doesn't believe Downtown is a destination desirable enough to attract the number of people necessary to support a new center.
"The issue is not the CVB, and the issue is not the lack of rooms, and the issue is not the lack of convention space," he said. "The issue is the lack of desirability of Downtown. If you come to stay here, there must be something to do. There must be a vibrant community aspect to Downtown to attract those conventions, and I think people know that intuitively."
Long owns Hotel Albuquerque near Old Town, but none of his hotels is inside what ACVB considers the Downtown corridor.
The tax hike proposed by ACVB would fund construction of a Downtown event center and hotel "designed to help resurrect Albuquerque's failing convention center industry," bureau President and CEO Dale Lockett said in the e-mail.
Lockett has said the city needs to invest in its convention offerings to be competitive. "We've stated because of a response from our buyers there is a very clear reason we are not competitive because of our product," Lockett told the Journal on Wednesday.
Many city business leaders have yet to weigh in.
Neither the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce nor the Greater Albuquerque Innkeepers Association has taken a position on it and the associated tax increase.
The chamber announced in an e-mail memo to members this week that the issue is under discussion and a position will be presented at the board of directors' Sept. 23 meeting.
Innkeepers Association executive director Charlie Gray said, "We do have a lot of members who have diverse opinions on it," and the group's board of directors will most likely also discuss it at its September meeting.
When asked about Long's stance, Lockett said: "I've been supportive of what I believe is a reasonable investment by the city in exchange for the return on investment that it will bring. I respect the right to have a difference of opinion, but that doesn't mean I agree with them."
Still, Long said he, the bureau and community leaders all want to achieve the same goal.
"I think at the end of the day we all want the same things a vibrant Downtown. ... But there are smarter, better ways to get there using what we have and small private investments."
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