Raleigh, NC Council Backs New Convention Center Hotel Project

RALEIGH, NC— The City Council here agreed Tuesday, July 15, to move forward on plans to build a new downtown convention center and high-rise hotel, a pivotal vote on a linchpin in the citys hopes to remake downtown Raleigh into a happening hub. The agreement now goes before Wake County commissioners, who are likely to approve it. The councils approval doesnt commit money from the countywide hotel and meals tax to pay for the $180 million center and to help finance the $80 million hotel next door, but it puts elected leaders firmly on that track, said a report in The News & Observer here. The pact affirms the proposed site just west of the existing center on Fayetteville Street Mall and sets in motion work to find designers and hotel consultants, acquire the land and negotiate basic terms with a developer. The project would be the Triangles biggest hotel, with 450 rooms. If the county goes along, city and county staffers will put together a detailed plan of how the project will be financed through certificates of participation, a debt that does not require voter approval. Repaying the principal and interest on that debt will eat up about two-thirds of the money generated from hotel and meals taxes in the next 30 years— or about $580 million. SOURCE: The News & Observer