Harrisonburg City Council approves Hotel and Conference Center deal between City, JMU and private developer

City Council approved a deal for the City of Harrisonburg to enter into a partnership with JMU, the JMU Foundation and a private developer to construct a hotel and conference center

A few items to note, from today's Daily News Record article....

"The plans call for a 205-room hotel, to be dubbed Hotel Madison, and a connected conference center to be built on university-owned land bounded by South Main, Mason and Grace streets, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.

The $30 million hotel would be funded by dpM Partners, while the JMU Foundation would pay the $10 million price tag for the conference center up front.

The foundation would be reimbursed by the city through payments funded by collection of tax revenues generated by the complex.

According to the published memorandum of understanding, the relationship would remain in place for 21 years or until the foundation recoups its costs.

An adjoining five-story parking garage, estimated to cost at least $15 million, would be built by JMU."

As such, my understanding is that the City isn't really "funding" this development. 

• The hotel ($30MM) will be paid for by the private developer. 
  
• The parking deck ($15MM) will be paid for by JMU. 
  
• The conference center ($10MM) will be paid for by the JMU Foundation.

What the City is doing, is repaying the JMU Foundation out of tax revenues generated by this new development.  So, over the next 21 years, the first $10MM of tax revenues that are generated by the hotel and conference center will be paid by the City to the JMU Foundation. 

From a taxpayer's perspective, is this good or bad? I think it depends on what you believe would happen with the land if the deal did not come together.  If the property is not developed, then there wouldn't be any tax revenue that the City is "missing out on" by giving those tax revenues to the JMU Foundation.

Many of those in support of this deal (which has now been approved) believe that the hotel and conference center will generate other economic activity for Harrisonburg, and thus it is good thing that this deal is happening.  I tend to agree -- it's hard to imagine people coming in to stay at a hotel to attend a conference and not spending any other money in the City.

Many of those opposed to this deal (which has now been approved) seem to believe that the City is using taxpayer dollars to pay for this project.  Technically, this is true, as future tax revenues generated by the project will be essentially retroactively applied to the cost of the project. But as explained above, those tax revenues would not have been there without the complex being built in the first place.

Read the full Daily News Record article here.

Here's a brief history of this project....

• Oct 2014: City Council Approves Downtown Hotel (Daily News Record)
  
• Oct 2014: Plans Unveiled For Downtown Hotel Complex (Daily News Record)
  
• Sep 2014: Conference Center Proposal Returning (Daily News Record)
  
• Sep 2014: Conference Center Still Alive? (Daily News Record)
• Jun 2014: No Shortage Of Conference Center Interest (Daily News Record)
  
• Jun 2014: Developer Surprised Hotel Deal Died (Daily News Record)
• Jun 2014: Chenault Signs On To Conference Center (Daily News Record)
• Jun 2014: Council Waits For Hotel Documents (Daily News Record)
  
• Jun 2014: Hotel/Conference Center Details Going To Council (Daily News Record)
  
• Dec 2013: Downtown Hotel Figures Submitted (Daily News Record)
  
• May 2013: Conference Center Details Line Up (Daily News Record)
  
• Jan 2013 - City Council asked the developer to conduct a feasibility study
• Nov 2012 - No new proposals were received.
  
• Sept 2012 - City Council discussed proposal, decided to seek competing proposals.