28
Dec
2004
At a meeting on December 20, officials from the Isle of Capri (IOC), its architectural firm, its construction firm, and the Riverboat Development Authority visited the offices of the River Cities' Reader to give their pitch for a riverfront hotel/casino complex that it hopes the Davenport City Council signs off on early next year.
To no one's surprise, IOC, Ryan Companies, and Elness Swenson Graham Architects ran into a lot of skepticism here, and a lot of questions. Distilled, the inquires came down to two issues: Why not a different site? And why should the City of Davenport provide any assistance at all?
What was surprising was that the assembled representatives seemed ill-prepared for the questions, and visibly frustrated when we wouldn't accept their word that they'd done their homework on other locations and financing options. They didn't seem to have any clue that given the importance of the question before us - whether the city should allow commercial development on riverfront property it owns, particularly development that sucks money out of its patrons - the burden of proof was clearly theirs.
I'm willing to be convinced that the Isle of Capri has exhausted all alternative sites in its effort to boost the revenues at its Rhythm City property, but I need some evidence.
Instead, Isle of Capri is taking a well-worn spin path in which everything is roses all around, and only an imbecile could possibly oppose the project. The city is risking nothing, the project is self-financing, it's a beautiful hotel, people will come, the public has access to more of the riverfront, parking spaces are turned into park space, everyone gets more money, the temperature is always 72 degrees, and clouds never cover the sun.
All projects seeking public assistance have a credit and a debit column, and they're usually about the same length. (It's akin to that saying about free lunches.) The IOC is being disingenuous - not to mention insulting - by pretending the hotel proposal it's pitching to the city council is any different. Sure, there are positives. There are also negatives, and if the IOC wants to appease its skeptics, it had better start acknowledging and addressing those debits.
The IOC insists that it's explored other locations. Fine. Let's see the site studies showing why those other locations are financially unattractive and/or infeasible. If site studies haven't been commissioned, the IOC needs to do them, in good faith, before it asks for anything from the city.
The IOC claims that nobody will lose any money under its proposal. Fine. But let's be up-front that $5 million from the Riverboat Development Authority and $7 million from the City of Davenport in the form of tax rebates represent real money that could be used for something other than this expansion project if the whole thing were financed through a bank.
And let's see the documents that show that the Isle of Capri couldn't move forward with this project without the assistance of the city; after all, we're only talking about $7 million in tax rebates and a few percentage points of interest on $6.1 million for a parking garage. That's not much for a company that had net revenues of $550.6 million in the six months ending October 24, 2004.
The Isle of Capri has actively developed this project for more than 20 months behind closed doors, and now it expects the Davenport City Council to rubber-stamp it. But there are rational, informed questions and objections to letting this project move forward, and it is incumbent upon the Isle of Capri to address them with facts, studies, and real, unpolished information.
The questions and objections cannot be waved away. We won't let them be ignored.
To no one's surprise, IOC, Ryan Companies, and Elness Swenson Graham Architects ran into a lot of skepticism here, and a lot of questions. Distilled, the inquires came down to two issues: Why not a different site? And why should the City of Davenport provide any assistance at all?
What was surprising was that the assembled representatives seemed ill-prepared for the questions, and visibly frustrated when we wouldn't accept their word that they'd done their homework on other locations and financing options. They didn't seem to have any clue that given the importance of the question before us - whether the city should allow commercial development on riverfront property it owns, particularly development that sucks money out of its patrons - the burden of proof was clearly theirs.
I'm willing to be convinced that the Isle of Capri has exhausted all alternative sites in its effort to boost the revenues at its Rhythm City property, but I need some evidence.
Instead, Isle of Capri is taking a well-worn spin path in which everything is roses all around, and only an imbecile could possibly oppose the project. The city is risking nothing, the project is self-financing, it's a beautiful hotel, people will come, the public has access to more of the riverfront, parking spaces are turned into park space, everyone gets more money, the temperature is always 72 degrees, and clouds never cover the sun.
All projects seeking public assistance have a credit and a debit column, and they're usually about the same length. (It's akin to that saying about free lunches.) The IOC is being disingenuous - not to mention insulting - by pretending the hotel proposal it's pitching to the city council is any different. Sure, there are positives. There are also negatives, and if the IOC wants to appease its skeptics, it had better start acknowledging and addressing those debits.
The IOC insists that it's explored other locations. Fine. Let's see the site studies showing why those other locations are financially unattractive and/or infeasible. If site studies haven't been commissioned, the IOC needs to do them, in good faith, before it asks for anything from the city.
The IOC claims that nobody will lose any money under its proposal. Fine. But let's be up-front that $5 million from the Riverboat Development Authority and $7 million from the City of Davenport in the form of tax rebates represent real money that could be used for something other than this expansion project if the whole thing were financed through a bank.
And let's see the documents that show that the Isle of Capri couldn't move forward with this project without the assistance of the city; after all, we're only talking about $7 million in tax rebates and a few percentage points of interest on $6.1 million for a parking garage. That's not much for a company that had net revenues of $550.6 million in the six months ending October 24, 2004.
The Isle of Capri has actively developed this project for more than 20 months behind closed doors, and now it expects the Davenport City Council to rubber-stamp it. But there are rational, informed questions and objections to letting this project move forward, and it is incumbent upon the Isle of Capri to address them with facts, studies, and real, unpolished information.
The questions and objections cannot be waved away. We won't let them be ignored.
