hey everyone, tonight is the final vote on the Hampton Inn at 5pm at City Hall. if anyone can make it tonight to voice some concern on this project, every little bit helps. if anyone has a few minutes to kill, below is what i will say on this issue tonight. pass this along to anyone who may be interested!
thanks.
mike draper
"there have been a lot of strange things about this Hampton Inn project. one is the narrative that so many dramatic changes have come in the last few weeks.
as neighbors, we have had some big concerns: how the traffic would flow on the site, how would the neighborhood interact with the hotel, and would the building materials match the current buildings in the area.
none of those things have changed for the better. when we asked about the traffic pattern changed, we were told there was nothing we could do. when we asked if they could, like every other downtown hotel, have a restaurant for locals to use, we were told that the Hampton Inn Corporate doesn't allow a restaurant, or even a kitchen. there will be no way for our neighborhood to interact with the hotel. and as far as materials, those have gotten worse: each of the 3 buildings now plans on using fake brick, glued to a concrete building. this is next to two projects that each use real brick, and two blocks away from the World Food Prize, which used re-claimed limestone to construct a stair-case that matches the building.
the council had a few concerns as well that centered around labor and signage.
neither of those things have changed since November. back then, Skip asked if the Hampton Inn would be using local labor. the developers said that they'd try, but there is no guarantee -- and it certainly won't be union labor. two months later, that is still the case. Brian Meyer was concerned that a bright red, Hampton Inn sign would be facing the river. browncamp residents in some of the most expensive units in the building were concerned that this sign would shine right into their lofts. Skip more talked to one and told me that he thought that is an easy fix, just move the sign to the river-side only. on the drawings tonight, the sign is in the exact same place it has always been.
a parking garage has moved, meetings have been had, but little has actually changed.
as downtown residents, we've felt a little miffed that the city staff seems to be working for Hampton Inn.
last tuesday, the Hampton Inn showed up to Urban Design and Review without any final plans. they wanted final approval that the UDRB could not give. but because they need approval by Jan 31 for financing, the City has allowed them to still go to Planning and Zoning, the City Council, and then back to a special UDRB meeting this Wednesday at 3:30pm.
not only were Browncamp and Waterstreet residents some of the first to invest in Downtown, our buildings pay about $650k in annual property taxes, which will be $16m in revenue over 23 years.
now Halley Greiss has said on his website that, "taxes should never come at the expense of citizens prosperity" and that "just as your family has to live within a budget, the government should be required to live within its means."
but this project is requesting TIF money. and as the State of Iowa recently showed, Des Moines not only has a large amount of TIF debt already, but it's TIF debt per person comes out to about $1,500 per person. that is more than West Des Moines ($1,290 per person), Waukee ($1,300 per person) or even Ankeny ($1,000 per person). TIF is debt, and it is debt every citizen is responsible for.
Halley, you've already voted to give more of our tax money to the Hampton Inn, and tonight is the final vote.
now, you could argue that TIF money will generate future earnings. for taxes, the city's best case scenario says that there will be an additional $4m in taxes over 23 years that wouldn't have been there before. however, having a cheap hotel next to expensive downtown properties will almost certainly sink our property values. and if our property values since by only 15% because of this project, the city will be missing out on almost $3m over the next 23 years.
the City Council may have complained that i've over-simplified my criticism of this project, but I think that you guys have missed a lot of angles on this issue -- affect on riverwalk values, affect on other hotels, etc.
not all development is good, and not all progress is forward.
those of us opposing this issue -- residents, hotel owners, young entrepreneurs -- have supported downtown's growth for the last several years. we have worked hard to build it into a place Hampton Inn wants to move to.
ignoring your core supporters in business or government is never a wise decision."
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:30AM 