Oct. 08–City Council is scheduled to contemplate a difficult question today, and El Pasoans may get a first real look at the direction this relatively new group plans to take in the future. To be pondered: If a new 15-story Downtown hotel is built, should the owner get $3 million in tax incentives?
El Paso businessman Jim Scherr had little trouble getting tax incentives in 2009 when he restored what is now the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Downtown. Now he wants to build a $17 million Courtyard by Marriott Hotel adjacent to the DoubleTree. In 2009, council was gung-ho on Downtown revitalization, and restoring that old hotel was considered a major step forward. It provided 200 rooms at a time the city was actively seeking bigger conventions and more tourism.
Now new Mayor Oscar Leeser has made it clear he’s still for revitalizing Downtown, but not at the expense of other parts of the city. Some old and some new city representatives agree with him. The previous city council, without batting an eye, would have OK’d Scherr’s latest request by at least a 5-3 vote. And previous mayor John Cook is a close friend of Scherr.
Another hotel is sorely needed in Downtown. We don’t have the number of rooms available to attract large conventions at the Judson F. Williams Convention Center. Conventions bring out-of-town money to the city. A new, large Courtyard by Marriott Hotel would be a great asset, and, like the DoubleTree, would be a short stroll from our museum district, the Downtown ballpark and the Union Plaza Entertainment District. It would be across the street from the convention center. It would likely be another catalyst for new retail and more restaurants and night life.
There is already good news that the long-shuttered 100-room Artisan Hotel in Downtown looks to be reopening. Presently, a good number of the 357 rooms of the once-grand Camino Real Hotel are closed. The Mexico ownership group said there are plans for renovation.
But without another big hotel in Downtown, we still lack enough rooms to land big conventions. City Rep. Cortney Niland said council has already nixed one Scherr proposal in a closed-session meeting. Scherr says he won’t be able to build another hotel without another break on taxes. His deal on the DoubleTree, according to an El Paso Times report in 2009, was an estimated $4.3 million in tax rebates over a 10-year period.
Obviously, a large, brand-new hotel would be a big plus for Downtown. In fact, Cook has said he would have preferred a major hotel Downtown over the multi-purpose arena that is to be built with voter-approved bonds.
What council will consider today is what’s more beneficial: No new hotel unless owners pay full taxes, or tax incentives that, in the long run, are superseded by more out-of-town money coming into the city.
We’ll learn more about our new City Council’s priorities today.
