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.
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
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