Over a decade of changing mayors, new councilmembers and different city staffers, no one seemed to question the wisdom of a city-financed hotel. SanAntonio SATX SanAntonioTX Hyatt EconomicDevelopment Tourism
The City of San Antonio’s eagerness to back the Grand Hyatt has been problematic from the beginning.The"Mother of All Hotel Giveaways." That's what the latecolumnist Carlos Guerra dubbed the plan for a 1,000-room convention center hotel in March 1996. The city and county had already doled out tax abatements to two downtown hotels, the Westin Riverwalk and the Adam's Mark, later the Wyndham. But city staff decided that we needed abig hotel next to the Henry B.
The project came with a host of promises neatly set out by then-Mayor Bill Thornton. He pledged the project would"increase annual visitor spending in San Antonio by $100 million, create a payroll of $15 million for 850 jobs and pump an average of $777,000 in sales tax rebates into city coffers. The city's share of hotel occupancy taxes from the hotel when it is in full swing will be about $1.
It took a few years for the second shoe to drop, or perhaps we should say"the second hint." In 2000, Sheraton agreed to a revised deal, promising a 1,200-room hotel in exchange for a reduced tax abatement deal of just $3.1 million, together with a commitment to a minimum of $7 an hour to hotel employees. Finally, in February 2002, with the convention center expansion complete and Sheraton still unable to come up with financing, the city pulled the plug on the deal.
That body largely consisted of local hoteliers and hospitality interests, and rather predictably, it endorsed the need for a big, new hotel. Former councilmember Art Hall seemed to sum up their thinking when he said:"For me, the bottom line is we have to compete."
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