Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:59:33 -0400
From: Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Gilliland Fliers
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Michael Nelson wrote:

>  --- "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>
> > As for the Convention Center hotel's completion date slipping, as
> > it happens, Ted and I are the people who proofread the transcripts
> > of the meetings of the Washington Convention Center's Board of
> > Directors and Advisory Board.  As of last month, they were still
> > saying their headquarters hotel should be open by 2010.  Of course
> > that's no guarantee that it will be, but Alexis claims to have
> > knowledge that it definitely won't be.  If so, he knows more about
> > it than the people in charge of it.  (I'm not betraying any
> > confidences here; those meetings, unlike most of what we proofread,
> > are open to the public.)
>
>  Okay, that's interesting to know.  Did the meeting transcripts
>  mention if the DC city council has decided how the new hotel will be
>  funded?  A group of investors have volunteered to pay for the hotel
>  construction, but I haven't heard about any decisions.
>
>  We were concerned that if funding for the hotel wasn't secured soon,
>  everything would start over again when Mayor Williams leaves office.
>
>  It was my understanding that the negotiation for the final piece of
>  land needed for the hotel has not reached a settlement.  It seems to
>  me that the DC City Council has been too busy lately worrying about
>  the new baseball stadium parking to have time to work on the
>  convention center hotel.

I don't think the City Council has any direct involvement.  I think
that's WCCA's.  They have advertising for investment bankers and made
their selection and are now preparing to sell bonds.  I just did a
(public) meeting of the Finance Committee at which this was discussed,
but I tend not to retain the details of the transcripts I edit and proof
(too many), although in the case of WCCA I also have to create minutes
from the transcript....

--Ted White