Anti-Dallas Convention Center hotel crowd promoting false “facts”

by Michael Davis of of Dallas Progress

I listened to the radio debate Tuesday on KHVN radio by the anti-hotel crowd that claims to be representing the community. There were too many lies to refute, so I'll just focus on the most obvious.

FALSE: The hotel will cost $550 million.

FACT: The hotel's guaranteed maximum price was set at $356 million in December.

FALSE: The new Fort Worth Hotel was completed without city support.

FACT: Omni Fort Worth was given $89 million for tax abatements, and was also given other financial support to make the deal happen.

FALSE: The hotel in Fort Worth is comparable to the proposed hotel in Dallas.

FACTS: Omni Fort Worth has 614 rooms. Dallas' will have 1,000. The Omni FW has 68,000 square feet of meeting space. Dallas' will have 100,000 square feet. That means the opportunity to host bigger conventions that bring in more dollars for the city.

FALSE: Claiming that the Build the Hotel group didn't show up to a public forum.

FACT: The anti-hotel group knew in advance that the pro-hotel group wouldn't participate in debates until February, so they staged a "debate" in Oak Cliff replete with name tags in an attempt to embarrass city officials that they knew were not attending.

It was also said that Houston's successful hotel costs less than Dallas' hotel. Of course it does; it was completed in 2003 and the Houston hotel terms were settled in 2001.

NOT MENTIONED:

* Hotels closer in proximity to our proposed hotel are in support of it, which include the operators of the Hyatt Regency, Adolphus, and Sheraton.

* Tourism dollars give added benefit to the city because visitors don't require year-round city services.

* In fact, just yesterday on the FrontBurner blog, it was announced that the Dallas Safari Club Convention and Hunting Expo at Dallas Market Hall is moving to the Dallas Convention Center to accommodate its steady growth. This Expo attracts more than 22,000 attendees. The Safari Club's host hotel is also switching from the Anatole to the Hyatt Regency. What this means is that this will be another convention that we will lose soon if we don't have enough hotel and meeting space.

* Each year, Dallas misses out on about $800 million in direct spending — and an additional $2.6 billion in economic impact by not having a convention center hotel.

* Multiple conventions have announced that they will come to Dallas now that we are moving forward with our convention center hotel. They include the American Heart Association whom have stated they will bring 33,000 cardiologists and a projected $86 million economic impact to Dallas in 2013 and 2017.

* The sordid history behind Pioneer Plaza, and how that caused us to miss an early opportunity to build a convention center hotel.

Check out more facts about the hotel.

Some people on the radio were also complaining about contracts going to "specific groups." I guess they had no problem with it when they were the ones getting the contracts for the last 20 years. There have been multiple briefings on expanding the current M/WBE terms at City Council. What they are asking for is already happening, and new people are getting opportunities that were not previously.

It's a new day, and a new way. We can either think and act like a small-town, or like the world-class city Dallas strives to become.

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