Enough is Enough

Supporters say Dallas Convention Center hotel would boost business for competitors

In News   

May 01

By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News

A political rally backing a proposed Dallas Convention Center hotel drew more than 300 people Thursday, including a cross-section of hotel managers, chamber of commerce presidents, union officials and business owners.

The rally at Gilley’s in the Cedars was the latest, and to date biggest, event in a back-and-forth campaign that centers on a referendum that would effectively kill City Hall’s hotel plans if voters approve it May 9.

Led by Mayor Tom Leppert, the crowd at Gilley’s cheered when hotel directors, managers and owners urged people to vote no to Proposition 1, saying they welcome the planned convention hotel as a boon to Dallas’ convention business and a boost to their businesses.

“We need this hotel really badly. In 2005, 28,000 doctors came into the city. They stayed in our hotels, they ate in our restaurants, bringing us hundreds of thousands of tax dollars. Without this hotel, they aren’t coming back,” said Adrian Norbury of the Rosewood Crescent Hotel.

Larry Hamilton, owner of the planned Loft Hotel on Young Street, said he can’t wait for the convention hotel to open, even though his hotel will be right across the street.

“We are all for it,” he said, noting that he comes from Denver, where the city’s convention business has thrived since that city funded a successful convention center hotel.

No one at the rally mentioned the name of the hotel’s primary opponent, Hilton Anatole owner Harlan Crow.

But it was clear who Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau President Phillip Jones was referring to when he told the crowd that the pro-hotel campaign – which enjoys the backing of Dallas’ political elite – is an underdog.

“We’re being outspent 5-to-1, predominantly funded by one entity that is afraid of the competition,” Jones said.

Anne Raymond, managing director of Crow Holdings and spokeswoman for Citizens Against a Taxpayer Owned Hotel, said that city leaders should focus on the finances of the $500 million hotel project, not on staging rallies.

“I would say it would be more appropriate if the city tried to make the case to the taxpayers as to why they should accept this enormous burden vs. continuing to hold pep rallies that (political consultant) Carol Reed and Phillip Jones put together,” she said.

Hotel backers argue that the hotel’s costs will be paid for by hotel guests, not taxpayers.

However, if the hotel cannot generate enough revenue to pay its debt, taxpayers likely would be required to meet the city’s obligations.

Leppert, who has been a focus of the anti-hotel campaign, wrapped up Thursday’s rally with a shot of his own, saying that only the “vote no” side is talking positively about Dallas’ future.

“The other side doesn’t have solutions. They don’t want to talk about how to be competitive,” he said.