By: Diane Benjamin
I’ve talked to 3 people who attended the Giebelhausen event last night. Here’s the summary:
- Not many people attended
- Opposition far out-numbered supporters
- No new facts were presented
- Giebelhausen dreamed of more than one hotel downtown
- Nothing is going to happen without taxpayers being at risk
- Profit-sharing is the way he is selling the hotel
- Supporters were upset at being outnumbered by the opposition
- Giebelhausen needs the “inducement” document from the council to proceed
What is an inducement? http://www.articlemyriad.com/inducements-policy-tool-inducement/
Inducements are sophisticated and frequently effective policy tools because they rely not upon force, but upon the power of persuasion. At the same time, however, their complexity must be acknowledged and respected. The inducement as a policy instrument will only be effective to the extent that the inducer is willing and able to make good on its promise, the degree to which the inducement that is actually provided reflects what was offered, and the extent to which the inducee complies with its responsibilities and obligations pursuant to the agreement it made with the inducer. In many cases, inducements are not one-shot deals. In other words, an inducement is not simply provided for behavior or compliance in a single episode. Rather, inducements tend to have as their goal the object of securing ongoing compliance with overarching, long-range policy goals. Thus, the use of inducements both suggests and assumes that the inducer must be willing to monitor the inducee over a longitudinal period of time.
In other words, if the Council passes an inducement ordinance they are committing to funding the project at your expense. I bet that isn’t what they are being told.
The next mayor can also undo it.
One note on “profit-sharing”:
Evidently Giebelhausen is talking about hotel-motel taxes and food/beverage taxes. There is zero evidence NEW people would be coming to town to stay all night and eat. The Coliseum was originally sold as pulling people from the surrounding counties. They can easily drive home after attending events. The “profit-sharing” looks more like changing where the revenue originates rather that additional tax dollars. He may be looking at TIF dollars too – not a sure bet. Gambling tax dollars, hoping they cover the bond payments, is now how government operates.
Government picked Kroger over other competitors by rebating taxes. Government-funded competition is unfair to existing businesses. Putting taxpayers on the hook so government can pick another winner is Anti-American! Just look at how many hotels Normal put out of business because they wanted what they wanted and hustled taxpayers to get it.
It’s called “crony capitalism”, everything citizens hate about government.
A downtown hotel is not viable without taxpayers co-signing.
The Coliseum under the current management is a failure. Bloomington has a brand-new unused fire station. Bloomington has a brand new unused water tower.
The Council needs to secure new managers for the Coliseum that the citizens can trust. Until that is accomplished, NOTHING should happen with Giebelhausen. Prove you can do something right first.
Sorry Council. Right now the citizens don’t trust this project. The history of Council flubs is too long. Saying taxpayers will never have to pay a dime has been a lie with the Coliseum and there is no reason to believe it won’t happen again.
Luckily elections are early next year.
Thanks again for your work but what you describe is exactly the way the far right operates.
Thanks for acknowledging that.
Regards.
Tom
Sent from my iPhone
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By “FAR Right” you must mean common sense. Bloomington has thrown away hard earned tax dollars for more than a decade. If that’s okay with you – fine.
“Luckily elections are early next year.” True, but it seems no one cares, much like Normal. I think it’s going to take a lot more fleecing for anyone to do anything at the ballot.
Maybe people don’t think they’re being fleeced. Maybe they’re looking at the success in Uptown Normal and think a multi-million dollar investment into Downtown Bloomington is a good thing. Hard to think you’d be wrong, though. Except for the evidence in Uptown.
uptown cleaned out their drunks and shipped them to Bloomington. Bloomington loves their money too much to clean up that mess. Therefore – Bloomington will never be Uptown.
Taxpayers must be put at risk because the developers KNOW that they don’t want that risk. Make it a sweet deal for them and they’ll play. It’s a bad deal for the citizens of Bloomington.
FACT: Unless you are a MAJOR metropolitan area with MANY DOWNTOWN attractions-plays, shows, restaurants, clubs, etc such as New York, Prague, Paris, Moscow, etc. a DOWNTOWN hotel will NOT be profitable for several reasons. ONE, the square footage to recoup initial investment in property is too high, as are taxes. TWO, If the attendees DRIVE to the hotel, where do they park, and IF that outweighs cost of a cab, bus, train, etc into town, then they will stay put, in said hotel. THREE, ANY city not the size to accommodate said attractions usually has hotels on the “outskirts” of town, i.e.: Along main road or interstate where people WILL stay for several reasons among which are price, parking, ACCESS, and quiet.
I know a lot of this from firsthand experience, as I used to travel extensively, and ALL one has to do is ask themselves “IF I walk out of this hotel room on a Sunday afternoon, WHAT is there to do here” And IF you still support a DOWNTOWN hotel after that, then send your dollars to the city!
Don’t forget that Thursday – Saturday nights, downtown is for drinking kids, public urination, and whatever other mayhem they choose to partake in. The City wants the revenue, so nothing will be done to curb the activities.
A parking deck is part of the project. Most downtown businesses close at 5 PM. Even with the Downtiwn Association’s First Friday event when they are encouraged to stay open late, most do not. Since Bloomington is always compared to Normal, Normal waited to build its downtown hotel until the downtown had some viable destinations. One cannot ignore the proximity to the Amtrak station either. The risk and investment will not produce the expected results especially since the “increased” revenue will be funneled to pay for the funding gap–not sent to the City’s General Fund.
Is the unused water tower confirmed? I knew you thought it might be unused but I didn’t know if that ever got confirmed or not.
Confirmed. I FOIA’d the flow reports. Only one in use.