Speaking of downtown hotels, the N&R reports the Greensboro City Council has delayed a decision on an incentive request:
The council set a special meeting for Dec. 2 to consider a $750,000 economic incentive to bring a luxury hotel to South Elm Street downtown. The council will consider building a parking deck on the site to be owned by the city and used, in part, by the hotel.
The new City Council — with three newly elected members — will be sworn into office Dec. 3.
The incentive deal was changed from the original $8.45 million incentive package the council was scheduled to consider Tuesday night.
Spoke with a city official yesterday who criticized the N&R’s math when reporting on the incentive request. The paper calculated that the parking deck lease ” could cost up to $30,500 per month….. (a)t current monthly parking rates, the city would earn less than $14,000 a month from a 244-parking space deck — making the venture a loss for Greensboro.”
Meanwhile city documents calculates property tax revenue into the entire incentive request, and those revenues in turn will exceed the cost of the incentive package.
But going $8.1 million to $750k —quite the drastic change—- is math I can’t figure out. Hopefully we’ll get some clarity the coming days.
