Brownwood Texas: All " Corporate Welfare " is local !
Brownwood's Small Town Texas Values:
Local Free Enterprise "Mom & Pop" (Left article) vs Corporate Welfare via elected leaders (Right article) !
Recent side by side economic development articles on the front page of the Brownwood Bulletin:
Top Left Side of front page:
The Turtle begins downtown expansion — Construction is under way in the
500 block of Center Avenue where The Turtle restaurant plans an expansion
that will double its present size. On Friday, workers cleared one of two
vacant partitions of the building next to the restaurant and began
concrete work. David Stanley said the expansion is expected to be
completed in the fall, and the restaurant will add a second chef and
extend its hours while offering the same ambience and quality. The
restaurant has been under its current management for about 2 1/2 years.
Top Right Side of front page:
Incentives for La Quinta go before council
A new hotel may be on tap for Brownwood, and the city has been asked to
provide up to $200,000 for utility relocation and site development.
Brownwood Market Place Ltd. hopes to build a $4 million hotel that will
have 60 to 65 rooms and will operate as a La Quinta Inn and Suites
franchise. The hotel is proposed for the southeast corner of Clements
Street and Market Place Boulevard, near the Home Depot store, according to
documents in the Brownwood City Council’s agenda packet.
source: Brownwood Bulletin
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Wednesday July 12, 2006
News
Hotel site incentive wins OK
By Steve Nash — Brownwood Bulletin
Brownwood City Council members approved a $200,000 incentive Tuesday for site development for a new hotel after hearing a competing hotelier insist there isn’t enough business to justify another hotel.
Council members agreed in a 3-1 vote to ratify earlier action by the Brownwood Economic Development Corp. The BEDC agreed last month to provide up to $200,000 to Brownwood Market Place Ltd. for utility relocation and fill at the southeast corner of Clements Street and Market Place Boulevard, the proposed site of a new La Quinta Inn.
The $4 million project will have 60 to 65 rooms, and occupancy is projected at 70 percent, council members were told.
Council members Charles Lockwood, Darrell Haynes and Ed McMillian voted for the action, while council member Grady Chastain was opposed. Councilman Dave Fair was absent.
Lockwood said he thinks the city’s future growth dictates the need for a new hotel, and Gary Davis, president of Brownwood Market Place, said by phone that he is confident the new hotel will succeed.
But Bill Stewart, owner of the 11-month-old Hampton Inn on Riverside Drive, told council members, “We don’t need another hotel right now. “We’re taking care of the people who come here.”
Stewart said while hotels do fill up at times, it doesn’t last and there has never been a night when he couldn’t find a room for someone.
Lockwood suggested that the occupancy rates at Stewart’s hotel are low because of insufficient marketing.
“If we have an opportunity for another hotel, we ought to go for it,” he said. “I think we need more hotel rooms.”
“If that’s the case, why are the Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn not filling up?” Stewart asked.
Stewart said his hotel has been running 63 percent occupancy since it opened, and he cited similar figures from other hotels.
Hotel occupancy should be at 80-90 percent before another hotel is considered, and that isn’t happening, Stewart said. He said he didn’t get a taxpayer-funded incentive for his hotel but said, “I didn’t ask for it.”
“I just don’t quite think it’s right to ask all the taxpayers to bring a new business in (that is) in competition with the same type of business that’s already here and are doing all that well,” Stewart said. Doing so would “hurt us drastically,” he said.
Stewart said his hotel never turned a profit until last month, when occupancy was boosted by insurance adjusters who were in town because of the May hailstorm. Now that the adjusters are gone, he said, his hotel’s occupancy is back down.
Davis said while he thinks the local market is a factor in a hotel’s success, the specifics of the project will be a greater determiner.
Davis said he thinks the proposed La Quinta will succeed because of future growth potential and because of the hotel’s location. Davis said he disagrees with Stewart’s belief that occupancy should be at 80 percent or higher before another hotel is considered.
Council members noted that relocating the utilities on that site is necessary for any development to take place. “This is to make the property developable. We’re not approving or disapproving a specific project,” City Manager Kevin Carruth said.
Councilman Ed McMillian said his affirmative vote was not for the hotel but was for the moving of the utilities.
Council member Grady Chastain said he cast the lone dissenting vote because he agrees with Stewart that a new hotel isn’t needed.
Stewart revealed what could have been some disappointing news for Early. He said plans for a a new Holiday Inn in Early had been canceled because of low occupancy in other hotels.
Andy Bhakta, owner of the Comfort Inn in Early, who is a partner in the Holiday Inn project, said immediately after the council meeting that plans were on hold. He said, however, that $600,000 was invested in the project and it would be difficult for partners to walk away from the investment.
Later, Bhakta said he had discussed the project with his partners and they wanted to go proceed. “We’re going to go ahead with it,” Bhakta said. “It’s coming.”
source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/07/12/news/news03.txt
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Who's driving the " Brownwood Corporate Welfare Train " ?
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