Crisis Averted

Two days after the developers of Museum Plaza and the city's Convention and Visitor's Bureau appeared to be headed to battle, the crisis was averted.

At issue were the plans by Museum Plaza to use 80% of the Westin's room taxes on public infrastructure improvements instead of being handed over to tourism officials. In his hallmark fashion, the mayor quickly gathered both sides and sat them down to create a compromise - and it didn't even take 24 hours.

Under the plan crafted by both sides, Museum Plaza will keep the first 400,000 each year of the hotel taxes for public infrastructure upgrades. Every year that 400,000 dollars "cap" will grow by 4% for the 30 year life of the TIF district. All revenues above this will go to tourism officals.

This compromise still has to be approved by the State Legislature, but now tourism officials will give Museum Plaza their support, and the plans are expected to be rubberstamped by the state.

I'm just happy they got this resolved quickly. Now, let's get ground broken!