Local News: College Station Makes Moves to Make Convention Center a Reality

Closer to a Convention Center
By Cass Smith

From the Bryan-College Station Eagle

The College Station City Council on Monday approved a finance plan for its $40 million convention center, which is planned to open in the next four to five years.

Council member Katy-Marie Lyles was the only council member to vote against the plan.

City staff members presented three alternatives for financing the facility on the eight-acre Chimney Hill shopping center property on University Drive.

David Gwin, director of economic and community development, said the facility makes economic sense for the community. Almost 90 percent of the 25 lodging facilities in the city are within three miles of the proposed convention center, he said.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Kersten said the funding option the council chose allows staff to move forward with plans but at a slower rate than previously discussed. The plan calls for possibly reducing hotel occupancy tax expenditures by 50 percent for things it currently funds, such as the George Bush Library and the Veteran's Memorial. It calls for continuing full funding of the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The money saved would be put in a fund for the convention center and is expected to accumulate $2.5 million to $2.6 million per year over the first 20 years.

Kersten said the financing plan could allow construction to begin in fiscal year 2012. He said the center should open around fiscal year 2013 or 2014.

The plan calls for about 86 percent of the overall funding to come from the hotel occupancy tax. This would allow visitors -- not residents -- to pay for the facility, Kersten said.

Another portion of the center will be financed through a designated increase in the hotel occupancy tax that is expected to provide an additional $400,000 per year initially. Last month, the Texas Legislature approved and Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a 3/4-percent increase in the hotel occupancy tax available to the city specifically for the convention center project.

Kersten said the remainder of the cost can be funded through revenues generated from current and future tenants at the site, parking fees for the proposed parking garage at the center, and a tax increment finance reinvestment zone, which would require Brazos County's participation.

Lyles said she couldn't see the center ever paying for itself. She said the city's projects should be self-sustaining, and said she didn't feel the center would fulfill that goal.

Alluding to a referendum on the center -- which voters rejected -- Lyles said residents don't appear to be supportive of the project.

"I believe if we're going to do something this big, we need to have public buy-in," Lyles said.

Council member Dennis Maloney said that when the city proposed the Northgate Parking Garage and the county planned the Brazos County Exposition Complex, residents were unsure about the projects. However, both facilities have proved to be beneficial and positive additions to the community, he said.

Challenges still remain for the convention center, Kersten said. Those include the shifting of existing hotel tax funds away from programs already funded, setting aside that money as soon as possible and concern for the accuracy of cost estimates for the project, he said.

Gwin said staff members compared the project to cities building similar facilities, such as Irving, McAllen, Midland and San Marcos.

The city of Irving is close to completing a 275,000-square-foot convention center priced at $118.6 million, while the city of Midland is designing a $47.2 million center with 121,000 square feet.

Gwin said the center is important for the community because convention and visitors bureau officials are concerned about significant, ongoing losses in both real and potential tourism business.

The center will also allow for job creation and economic diversity at a location that has 360-degree access and is central to commercial corridors and a topographic position, Gwin said.

"I strongly believe that there have been no mistakes made in terms of this project," he said.

Published on Tuesday, July 07, 2009