Enough is Enough

Business Leaders Decry Misinformation Distributed in May 9th Election

May 07

For Immediate Release /Contact: Michael Walz - 214.957.7151 Jay Pritchard - 214.558.6656

Dallas, TX- Today, the Enough is Enough campaign released statements from several prominent Dallas business leaders questioning the validity of recent assertions by the “Vote Yes” campaign relating to the construction and operation of the Convention Center Hotel.

“The ads I have seen against the hotel are distorted and misleading,” said Ray Hunt, Chairman and CEO of Hunt Oil and longtime community volunteer. “To say that if this project is viable, the private sector would do it is just flat wrong,” continued Hunt. “The private sector would only receive revenue from the hotel itself, while the City and the Dallas taxpayers would receive additional rental income from the entire convention center complex. Further, the city of Dallas will benefit by having hundreds of thousands of new visitors to Dallas who will spend their convention dollars in our restaurants, our arts district, our shopsand all of our hotels.”

“These incremental dollars will improve our general revenues and most likely end up lowering taxes for homeowners over the next several years. The City will gain in ways a private developer cannot,” Hunt concluded.

The Enough is Enough Campaign Chairman Ron Steinhart agrees, saying, “Without a Convention Center Hotel, the future growth of Downtown Dallas will be hamstrung and the volume of conventions will diminish, denying Dallas
one of the best sources of revenue a city can have…tourism and conventions. Misleading and false information is being presented as fact—to say taxpayers will pay for this hotel and that services will suffer is wrong. It is extremely frustrating and disappointing for many of us in the community that the ‘Yes Political advertisement paid for by Enough is Enough campaign’ is misleading voters with millions of dollars of ad money spent to do so. Dallas is use to having civilized, honest discussions—not attack politics from people who live outside our city.”

“The Convention Center hotel is an expansion of a convention center that will allow us to compete with other top convention cities, all of which have hotels connected to their convention centers,” said John Sughrue, CEO of Brook
Partners, a full-service real estate development and investment company headquartered in Dallas. “Without this expansion, we could be dooming the current convention center to a status of ‘obsolete’ in the years to come.”

According to Sughrue, meeting planners today for the largest conventions in America want a convention center which has a convention center hotel attached to it. This is one of the main requirements for large groups such as the American Heart Association.

“No matter how much is spent trying to mislead Dallas voters, they need to know that an expanded convention center is a great deal for all of Dallas. Further, Dallas voters know when the information they are being fed is
distorted. The truth is that visitors will pay for the expanded convention center—it is that simple,” said Jack Matthews, President of MatthewsSouthwest, a full service development company headquartered in Dallas.

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