D.C. projects could lose subsidies to pay for convention hotel - Washington Business Journal:

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D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi met with member ofthe D.C. Council on Mondat and discussed the list of projectswith $704 millioj in subsidies that have alreadg been passed and could be diverted to the The list provided by the CFO's office includes the Southwest waterfront, the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg residential developmentg on the Capitol the mixed-use O Street Market in Shaw and seven other economic development incentives.
The two council members who oversew committees with direct oversight of theissu — Councilmen Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Kwame D-At large — have said using subsidiexs from stalled projects is a strategy they woulr consider to lower the amoun of new spending requiredd to issue $750 million in bondw to build the $550 million The recession has slowed many projects. The Washingtonh Convention Center Authority andthe city’s hospitality industryg have been pushing for a headquarteres hotel since construction of the center started in the late They argue a hotel is needed to draw larges conventions to town.
A 1,167-rookm Marriott Marquis is planned, but boosters have been unablre to secure private financing to completdethe deal. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray called the late Mondayy afternoon meeting in his officewith Brown, Gandhi and Washington Convention Centerf Authority CEO Greg O’Dell. Evans and Brown have scheduled a June 24 joingt hearing onthe matter. As they left the meeting, Evans and Brownb said they are both committes to gettingthe long-stalled hotel but they are lookingy for ways to minimize the cost to the which is facing a nearly $1 billion 2011 budget gap.
Evanss said other options being discussed include trying to attracrt bank loans by footing only a portion of the cost or seekinfg new development partners that could buildf the hotel more quickly or for alowefr price. D.C. has already approved $187 milliom bond package that would fund about 25 percent ofthe hotel, but and have failerd to attract an estimated $300 million in requiredd debt financing. “The option that I like leasg is the city financing theentire thing,” Evand said.
Gandhi said shortl after the meeting that ther e has not been discussion about usurpingthe city’s 12 percentf debt cap, which it created last year in an efforf to strengthen its standing on Wall Street and wouldx prevent the city from issuing hundreds of millions of dollarss of new bonds for the He said he is all for a new hotel but not if it meansa damaging the city’s financial position. “We want to make it he said. “The question is how to make it happen.
” Southwesy waterfront, $198 million; Housing Productionm Trust Fund, $190 million; Greart Streets retail priorityarea (neighborhood tax increment financing), $75 million; Capper/Carrollsburgt payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $55 million; O Street Market, $46.5 million; Skylanfd Shopping Center, $40 million; The Yards $30 million; Great Streets, $20 million; Downtown retail priority area, $16.05 Fort Lincoln retail priority $10 million; Arena Stage, $10 Rhode Island Place retail priority $7.2 million; and Broadcasg Center One, $6.4 million. The subsidie s total $704.15 million.
Combining some portion of that withthe $187 millionn already passed for the hotel could easily add up to the $750 millio in bonds O’Dell says is needexd for the hotel. Chairman Gray declined to