The Virginian-Pilot
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PORTSMOUTH
State Sen. Louise Lucas will not be able to use millions of dollars in financing to build a $65 million hotel and conference center in the city.
During a charged hearing Tuesday in which investors filled the City Council chambers, Vice Mayor Bill Moody Jr. and council members Elizabeth Psimas and Doug Smith voted against the low-cost financing while Mayor James Holley and Councilman Steve Heretick voted in favor of it.
Councilwoman Marlene Randall announced before the vote that she would abstain. Her husband has invested $2,000 in the project. Councilman Charles B. Whitehurst Sr. also abstained. He, too, is an investor in the project and also accepted a $10,000 campaign donation from Lucas.
Psimas and Moody said they could not vote in favor of Lucas’ project because they had not been convinced that no city funds would be requested to pay for it.
“Without that assurance that no taxpayer money will be used, I just cannot vote for this project,” Moody said.
Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat, wanted the council to allow her to use up to $50 million in bonds.
The majority of the bonds would have come from the federal Empowerment Zone program, run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1999, Norfolk and Portsmouth joined the program, which allowed them to access more than $100 million of the bonds.
The bonds were to be used to stimulate growth and create jobs in both cities.
Lucas, along with about 600 investors who have already contributed about $1.8 million to the project, wants to begin construction on the development in November. The project – which also is backed by other state politicians, local minsters, educators and a retired judge – would include up to a 250-room hotel and 50,000-square-foot conference center with a 16,000-square-foot ballroom.
It would be built on about 7 acres adjacent to a new Tidewater Community College campus that is under construction. Portsmouth officials plan to develop Victory Village business park, off Interstate 264 at Victory Boulevard, as a city center.
Psimas said a majority of the region’s high-profile projects – Norfolk’s Granby Towers for example – have struggled to receive financing.
“What I draw from these examples and others is that we as a city have a responsibility to ensure that every project
we participate in has the necessary development sponsorship and a reasonable expectation for financing in place prior to asking the city for significant economic incentives,” Psimas said.
Psimas said she and several other council members asked Lucas’ attorney, William Nusbaum, to consider allowing them to make it clear that Portsmouth would not have to invest any public money in the project.
But she said Nusbaum denied that request and said such language would “raise a red flag to prospective bond purchasers about the commitment of the city to the project.”
Smith said he is concerned that the project would compete with the city-subsidized Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel and Waterfront Conference Center in downtown.
Portsmouth residents have invested about $40 million in that public-private partnership, he said.
“We should not be party to a project that puts our investment at risk,” Smith said.
Heretick questioned why council members did not raise the same concerns when it allowed the owners of a 250-room Holiday Inn to access up to $12 million of the federal low-cost financing.
“If this is how we treat developers who want to bring business to Portsmouth, God help us all,” Heretick said.
Holley said the proposed hotel and conference center is a good project. The city needs 25 more developments like it, he said.
“If it fails, well, that’s her failure; it’s not yours,” Holley said.
He said the Renaissance hotel and the Lucas project would attract two different groups of people.
The city needs a hotel that targets blacks, he said.
“It’s got my black picture in the lobby, but it’s a white hotel,” Holley said of the Renaissance.
Several investors and Holley said that despite Tuesday’s vote, the project is not over.
“You can vote it down,” Holley said. “It won’t go away; I can promise you that.”
Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com
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2Miler
You will probably never read this. I wrote back because I put a lot of thought into your comments. Stories told to me by my grandfather are what I think of the most. He described a Klan rally he saw in progress and when he told the story, I realized, even as a child that he was angry. What he witnessed made him ill. So I understand that it is difficult for people of my age to quanitfy. I empathise w/ your description but it is time to let it go. The Mayor's comments were actually hurtful to Portsmouth. Is it going to be worse for the "white" hotel on the waterfront because a large part of Portsmouth's population is black, or the white people who now feel less than equal there?
Comments
My comments in my last post, which you felt are irrelevant, were in response to another poster's comments. Therefore, my comments are only as relevant as his. I'm not one that got passed over for promotion in my scenario. I'm retired. Yet, it can't be justified, that a high school dropout, with no supervisory experience what so ever, with the least amount of experience within a dept., being promoted over others with more experience in the field, with supervisory experience to boot. The only advantage this guy has is complexion. I don't insult persons I don't know. Neither did I grant you, the right to attempt to insult me. Cease & desist. One can be adamant, without resulting to insults. Common sense doesn't give one knowledge of logistics, which is the dept in my scenario.
I went swimming in the Lake of Merit once
But that's neither here nor there.
You can't condone Holly's words but you can understand the frustration behind them. As many of the posts here make clear, racism - the white kind - is still very much alive.
Why wouldn't he be suspicious and angry, especially if he felt a new standard was being imposed?
I would be interested to know the answer to Heretick's questions. Is it the size of the project, the risk of the project or the backers of the project?
Two miler.....
Your comment is the most asinine I've seen in a LONG time. When will you learn the race card has been cut from the deck? Your statements have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT THIS PROPOSAL WAS DEFEATED ON IT'S LAKE OF MERIT! Thank God we have elected officials that listen to the citizens and voted down another get rich scheme for Ludacous. As to your beef that a "white man without a high school diploma" is your boss, did you ever think he had something you don't? Common sense.
Sure
If you would explain to me, how a White individual, unable to read, could tell my college educated grandfather that he was too illiterate to register to vote. Or why a White man, who didn't finish high school, never got a GED, never served in the military & has no previous supervisory experience, just got a promotion to supervise 25 people, Black & White, male & female, while all the Blacks & women in his dept. have college degrees & military backgrounds, with an average of 15 years supervisory experience, both military & civilian. If things were as some seem to think, Black's wouldn't make up only 3% of management positions, civilian or govt. We all need to be real. Blacks with credit scores over 750 or 850,(depending on which agency), have a harder time getting financing than Whites, with much lower scores. Why?
oof
Ouch!
Twomiler...
Explain the whole VBPD math exam then? While you're at it...the Hampton FD hiring process and the Ches. FD hiring process as well.
Tone, Implication
I'm not attempting to imply it's any one's turn to face discrimination. I'm sorry if you sense that. I attempt to only state facts. The initial purpose of affirmative action, was to have employers & universities consider people other than groups that, through tradition, custom, law, etc., were primarily the only groups considered, for openings existing in their institutions. This is why the plan never applied to Blacks alone but to women, religious minorities, other racial & ethnic groups, & to Whites, in cases in which they would be minorities. I agree that many intangibles should be considered in the hiring & admittance of persons into entities. Everyone is not as open & reasoned in their opinions as you. I know you realize, that a person admitted or hired through affirmative action plans, regardless of race, gender , etc., has to be qualified. Too many of our fellow citizens seem unaw
"You seem to be upset that a
"You seem to be upset that a qualified minority may get a position that a qualified White didn't. "
There you go again. Whether you realize it or not, you also alluded that it is sort of the "whites" turn to be discriminated. As for qualifiying for a job based on education and experience, it often does not matter. As an employer, I will hire whoever it is that can perform the best. Superior education may hold a spot in acadameia but not in the real world. In the end if someone is promoted, or not hired due to their ethnicity or color(whatever), it is wrong.
You seem very sincere. Perhaps you are not aware of your tone?
Discrimination
Throughout our history, one ethnic & gender group, decided norms & standards, on which we all are judged. Only if a racial, ethnic, gender, or religious minority is the group setting what the norms & standards are, could there be factual reverse discrimination. Courts, Congress, etc., have made decisions that were incorrect & later corrected. You may look these facts up if you like. I've not once, defended Dr. Holley's or anyone else's, bigoted statements. You seem to be upset that a qualified minority may get a position that a qualified White didn't. That's understandable. You need to know, that practice, was used, legally, against Blacks, Jews, Muslims, other religious minorities, Latinos, Native Americans & women, of all races, for most of our history. It was legal, to pay minorities less than White men, for the same positions, even if the minority person was more experienced & better educated. This was still legal in my lifetime.