At last night’s meeting, the Greensboro City Council approved a $1.97 million economic incentive for a proposed downtown hotel. The vote was 6-3, with council members Marikay Abuzuaiter, Tony Wilkins and Zack Matheny voting no.
What struck me about the discussion and debate was council member Sharon Hightower’s probing into the type of jobs the hotel —which will operate under the Wyndham banner —will provide. All I could at the time was the developers would not have to through the seemingly incessant back-and-forth if they weren’t asking for the incentive. In the end they got it, so they’re probably thinking now it was worth it.
As for the Union Square Campus, the agenda item was merely a resolution —albeit a specifically worded resolution —- in support of the campus. Any further action — ceding the land, agreeing to provided infrastructure, will have to come back before the council.
One issue though — who is supposed to make the first move? After a speaker from the floor noted that the boards of the the campus tenants –UNCG, N.C. A&T and GTCC –had not officially signed off on the project, Opportunity Greensboro chairman Ed Kitchen said that while the boards were in favor of the concept, they were waiting on a commitment from the city. But then council member Zack Matheny advised Kitchen to go get commitments from the universities then come back.
We’ll see what happens. A lot has to happen for the campus to be up and running by 2016.
