Both parties have notified the City-Parish Council of their decision to withdraw their request for the creation of the Parc Lafayette Economic Development, or Tax Increment Financing, districts to fund development of a four- or five-star hotel and convention center, the release stated. LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux is the IDB’s executive director.
It’s unclear what prompted the decision, though the proposal has come under strong opposition from the Tea Party of Lafayette (listen to its PSA here) and local hoteliers, who said in today's Advocate that they are struggling in an already overbuilt market. The proposal called for an additional 2 cent sales tax and 2 cent occupancy tax at the hotel, and a 1 cent sales tax in the retail development planned to surround the hotel.
According to the release, developer Dr. Glenn Stewart plans to move forward with the construction of a 4-star boutique hotel and retail center. That means the proposed 124-room hotel will now have closer to 50 or 60 rooms, Stewart told The Independent Weekly for this story.
"My goal in creating Parc Lafayette and this hotel was to give Lafayette, and all of Acadiana, something to be proud of, something that could unite everyone in the shared culture and history we all possess," Stewart said in today's release. "Instead this TIF has done just the opposite."
Stewart became his own worst enemy after the proposal came under fire, calling Tea Party of Lafayette members "idiots" in a public meeting and then misleading this paper and others about how much property he actually owns at the site.
In Saturday's press release, Stewart emphasized the fact that incentives he pursued were part of a package LEDA developed in its "Major Hotel" incentives letter of January 2009, a collaborative marketing effort between LEDA and Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission to bring a 4-star convention center hotel to Lafayette.
"I commend LEDA for putting together a very attractive package of incentives for a developer to build a four-star convention center hotel. Without a package of this nature, it is impossible to build such a risky, capital-intensive project,” Stewart said. “Even with this incentive package, approximately one dozen other developers had decided it was too risky by the time I found out about it in March of 2009. I was willing to take this risk because I truly believed it would have exposed our great city to a wide audience, and help attract new business to Lafayette.”
"It was important that we go through this very public process," said City-Parish President Joey Durel, one of the project’s biggest supporters. "Dr. Stewart is to be commended for his efforts to make Parc Lafayette a unique experience that would attract people from all over."
"A multi-million dollar investment, like the one made by Dr. Stewart, is so important to the economic vitality of our community,” said Gothreaux in the release. “We are disappointed to pull this proposal, but we are very impressed with Dr. Stewart's plans to continue with this project. I'm sorry that this EDD effort has to be withdrawn. We have supported Dr. Stewart and believed this approach was best for the community. I regret that this has happened."
Gothreaux, who declined further comment on the matter, also described the original marketing letter as an opportunity to provide information on prospective incentives to any hotel/resort developer. The ordinances creating the Parc Lafayette TIFs were to be considered by the City-Parish Council at its March 15 meeting.
Durel could not be reached for further comment.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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