The struggle for public information is real regarding a taxpayer subsidized Downtown Convention Hotel project that hasn't offered much in the way of financial disclosure.
Moreover . . .
CITY HALL AND ITS VAST ARRAY OF KANSAS CITY ALPHABET SOUP ECONOMIC AGENCIES CONSPIRE TO KEEP DOWNTOWN CONVENTION HOTEL FINANCIAL DATA SECRET!!!
Anti-climax . . .
The reality here isn't surprising and we all know the big secret . . . Kansas City taxpayers by way of clandestine and deceitful tactics from City Hall are really the main backers of a doomed hotel project that hasn't garnered much interest from private investors.
Here's the damage . . . The highlights are mine . . .
UPDATE: OPEN RECORDS REQUEST FOR THE "TERM SHEET" ON THE DOWNTOWN HOTEL FINANCING PACKAGE!
You may or may not remember when the Downtown Hyatt Hotel Developers met with the City Council on December 22, 2015 they stated to the Council they had a firm "term sheet” spelling out the financial arrangements for the project. Our City Manager backed them up stating he had seen the sheet and all was good. This gave the Developers to green light to continue on their project without having to have City Council approval. December 20th was a deadline for the developers to have a significant finance package or the City was ready to possibly pull the plug.
At that meeting several Council Members asked to see the term sheet and the Developers refused to show it. After the meeting, CFRG put in a records request for the City Manager and the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA ) which is a division under the Economic Development Commission, which is part of city hall; to produce the term sheet so we could publish it. Remember, the LCRA will own the hotel if it gets built. We have not heard anything from the City Manager but we did get the following response from the EDC President, who oversees the LCRA.
Note: (Since we could not get a hold of anyone at the LCRA, we sent out request to the city Attorney’s off and asked them to forward it to LCRA)
Here is the response we received from the EDC…. “….Cecilia Abbott of the City’s Law Dept forwarded to me your request for information from Joe Egan (head of the LCRA) – who has been out of the office. It appears that neither Mr Egan or Brian Engle (counsel to the LCRA) have received a copy of the term sheet you reference. Sorry we could not be of assistance.”
We thought it was odd that the entity which is going to be the owner of a $300,000,000 plus Hotel was not involved nor had copies of the financing “term sheet”. Perhaps this mythical “term sheet" doesn’t exist??
We asked the EDC about this: “...Thank you for your prompt response. We find it alarming the LCRA is going to own the new hotel and not even they have a copy of the financing terms. What on earth is going on here??
To which the EDC replied: “….The terms of project financing have yet to be approved by LCRA. At the time project financing terms are presented I expect that these terms would be discussed and finalized.”
Does this seem a little confusing? The Developer tells the City Council they have financing for the downtown hotel project, the City Manager swears he’s seen the plan and it "meets all the criteria of the agreement” yet the hotel owner knows nothing about it?? You decide!
Citizens for Responsible Government
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Developing . . .
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