Posted by Will Ng Responses (0)

With a little more than a month to go before Dallas residents get to vote on whether the city can build a publicly owned Omni hotel for the Dallas Convention Center, mayor Tom Leppert's office has begun circulating a letter (see bottom of this post) highlighting the consequences if the hotel does not go through.

Urging a "no" vote on Propositions 1 and 2, which go before the public on May 9, Leppert, in his letter, warned thousands of new jobs and millions of tax revenue dollars are at stake, as well as the city's future as a convention destination.

Time is running short, and this situation is heating up. In fact, Leppert and Anne Raymond, spokeswoman for Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel, have sparred over the hotel in a local-TV debate. Raymond also has accused Leppert of personally attacking Harlan Crow—of Crow Holdings, the owner of the Hilton Anatole and main benefactor to the anti-hotel group, which spearheaded a petition that triggered the referendum. Right now, the hotel is a hot-button topic (real hot) among Dallas media.

I've been covering the ongoing story in MeetingNews in the past couple of months, and in my conversations with Dallas CVB chief Phillip Jones, he has repeatedly said the city wants to have a ground-breaking and construction started before the May 9 referendum, noting that changes to the Dallas city charter are not retroactive. However, the sense around Dallas is that this is not iron-clad and is open to legal wrangling.

Also clouding the issue is that Leppert and the city are waiting for interest rates to climb before revenue bonds to finance hotel construction are issued. In a face-to-face interview at MeetingNews' New York office on Tuesday with Dustin Clark, a spokesman for the Dallas CVB, he said the bureau remains confident the bonds will be sold according to schedule and that construction will begin some time in April.

Nevertheless, the mayor's letter is a fail-safe move if the city's best-laid plans do not pan out.

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Mayor Leppert's letter:

The future of Dallas is at stake...

Dallas's potential as a convention destination city and a magnet for business development has never been more in jeopardy.

If Propositions 1 and 2 pass on May 9, they could prove devastating … to our long-term economy … to our hopes of transforming Downtown Dallas … to our hopes of becoming the world-class city we are on the verge of becoming.

The organizations that have finally begun to reconsider Dallas as a possible host for their annual conventions? They'll change their minds and pass us by.

And the developers who are poised to reinvigorate many long-neglected Dallas neighborhoods? They'll turn their attention to nearby cities that aren't so difficult to do business with.

What will also pass us by are the thousands of jobs — and the millions of dollars of tax revenues — that such conventions and developments create.

That's why I'm urging you to forward this message to everyone you know and to strongly encourage them to Vote No! May 9.

- signal to the world that Dallas is committed to being a great convention city, with a great convention hotel attached to its convention center.

- ensure the core of our city becomes a more vibrant destination like those in other great convention cities around the world.

- reap millions more in revenues each year, lessening the tax burden on Dallas's homeowners and business owners.

- see shops, restaurants, sports venues and arts organizations citywide benefit from a new wave of patrons they did not have before.

- emerging convention cities like Houston, Denver, Phoenix and Louisville will continue to speed past us, leaving us in their dust.

- thousands of Dallas residents who would have jobs as food servers, concierges, baggage handlers and tour guides will have to hunt elsewhere for work.

- surrounding cities like Frisco, Grapevine, Arlington and Fort Worth will siphon even more convention business away from Dallas.

- the city's residents will have to bear a greater burden of the taxes the city needs to fund city services.

In 1969, the naysayers said we couldn't afford to invest in a regional airport, planned for "out in the middle of nowhere". But just look at the economic engine DFW International Airport has become for this area.

Two decades later, the naysayers said we couldn't afford to invest in a sports arena, planned for the site of a power plant near downtown. But just imagine how Dallas would be faring today if the American Airlines Center had landed, instead, in Arlington, next to the new stadium for the Cowboys.

Well, now the naysayers are back once again, saying we can't afford to invest in a convention center hotel immediately adjacent to our downtown convention center. And that the entire voting population of the city should be able to vote to approve tax incentives above $1 million.

However, I know that if we truly hope to take our rightful place among the great cities of North America, we can't afford NOT to invest in the convention center hotel. Nor can we expect developers to invest in our city if their tax incentives must wait until they get approval in costly general elections.

So, please, forward this message to every single employee, vendor, friend and neighbor you know and ask them to Vote No! May 9.

Dallas's ability to maintain its reputation as a "can do" city is riding heavily on the outcome.

Sincerely,

Tom Leppert

Mayor, City of Dallas

 

PAID FOR BY VOTE NO! DALLAS

ERLE A. NYE, TREASURER

www.votenodallas.com