VANCOUVER— City officials here will take another week to review two last-minute proposals from longtime partner, developer Jerry Jenkins, before courting other players with the financial clout to build a downtown hotel. Jenkins, president of Renaissance Resources Group in Chandler, submitted two proposals this week for building the privately financed 150-room hotel adjacent to a publicly financed convention center south of Esther Short Park. He has spent years trying to piece together hotel financing. The decision by Vancouver officials to formally prepare a document seeking other partners could signal that his time is almost up. The Vancouver Public Facilities District board of directors decided Aug. 28 that the city could start looking for other partners next week if neither of Jenkins approaches are determined to be feasible. One of Jenkins proposals calls for hotel financing through Pacific Northwest Resources Project of Seattle. The second approach is for a nonprofit group to own and operate the convention center and hotel, with financing provided by the Bank of America. Both scenarios assume a sales tax credit from Vancouver and Clark County would be used to subsidize the project. Construction for the project must be under way by January 2004 if the city wants to continue receiving a state sales tax credit worth about $720,000 a year. SOURCE: The Columbian
