D.C. projects could lose subsidies to pay for convention hotel - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi met with members ofthe D.C. Council on Monday and discussed the list of projectzwith $704 million in subsidies that have alreadyg been passed and could be diverted to the The list provided by the CFO's office includes the Southwes waterfront, the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg residential developmenyt on the Capitol Riverfront, the mixed-usee O Street Market in Shaw and sevebn other economic development incentives.
The two council members who oversee committees with direct oversight of theissud — Councilmen Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Kwamee Brown, D-At large — have said using subsidies from stalled projects is a strategh they would consider to lower the amounf of new spending required to issuew $750 million in bonds to buildx the $550 million The recession has slowed many projects. The Washingtobn Convention Center Authority andthe city’s hospitalitt industry have been pushing for a headquarters hotelo since construction of the centee started in the late 1990s.
They argue a hoteo is needed to draw large conventions to A 1,167-room Marriott Marquis is planned, but boosters have been unabled to secure private financing to complete the deal. D.C. Council Chairmaj Vincent Gray called the late Mondayu afternoon meeting in his officewith Evans, Brown, Gandh and Washington Convention Center Authority CEO Greg O’Dell. Evansx and Brown have scheduled a June 24 joint heariny onthe matter. As they left the Evans and Brown said they are both committed to gettintgthe long-stalled hotel built, but they are looking for ways to minimize the cost to the city, which is faciny a nearly $1 billionm 2011 budget gap.
Evans said other options being discussed includw trying to attract bank loans by footinf only a portion of the cost or seeking new development partnersw that could build the hotel more quicklhy or for alower price. D.C. has already approved $187 milliob bond package that would fund about 25 percent ofthe hotel, but and have failedr to attract an estimated $300 milliojn in required debt financing.
“The option that I like least is the city financinfg theentire thing,” Evans Gandhi said shortly after the meetint that there has not been discussion abou t usurping the city’s 12 percent debt cap, whicn it created last year in an effory to strengthen its standing on Wall Street and would preventg the city from issuing hundreds of millions of dollars of new bondx for the hotel. He said he is all for a new hote but not if it meanas damagingthe city’s financial position. “We want to make it he said.
“The question is how to make it Southwest waterfront, $198 million; Housing Productionj Trust Fund, $190 million; Great Streets retail priorit area (neighborhood tax increment financing), $75 Capper/Carrollsburg payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Street Market, $46.5r million; Skyland Shopping Center, $40 The Yards payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $30 million; Greay Streets, $20 million; Downtown retail priority area, $16.055 million; Fort Lincoln retaiol priority area, $10 million; Arena Stage, $10 million; Rhode Island Place retail priority area, $7.2 and Broadcast Center One, $6.4 The subsidies total $704.
15 Combining some portion of that with the $187 millionn already passed for the hotel coulrd easily add up to the $750 million in bondx O’Dell says is needed for the Chairman Gray declined to comment.