TPM has their data dumps, well, don't want to plagiarize so at JJ we are going to call them document downpours. Here are the closing docs for the 2007 transactions between Jackson and Transcontinental Realty over the sale of the land for the site for the convention center hotel obtained through a public records request. I've also included a copy of the presentation provided to the city council obtained in the same request. I requested a copy of any appraisals conducted for the property when the loan was closed and the PKF marketing study mentioned in Mississippi Business Journal article.
19 comments:
Read Pg 4 of the first document KF.
"The Hotel will be owned by the City of Jackson".
On Pg. 4 of the first document:
The Para head: "Transcontinental Gaurantee:" WTF. Although guarantee is spelled correctly in the paragraph.
Interesting usage: "Transcontinental"
Kingfish has proven that TCI guarantees are worth as much as a Harvey Johnson guarantee.
Should Whitwell vote for the hotel his purchase status will be confirmed. No QW, you do not know more than the people you represent and thinking so will be your political downfall.
Actually the Jackson Convention Center / Hotel is irrelevant.
Very few significant private sector entities will even consider
Jackson , MS as a potential location for a one day meeting.
... much less a two or three day convention.
On the other hand, I'm sure that many Fed-rawll Gub' ment groups would
beez like'n da chance to dress up, ...put on big ass pimp hats,
& converge upon Jack-Town to drink some complimentary
Hennessy from a fake instructor at a phantom National Emergency
Communications dispatch school ?
First blush, Jeff Good relies on WHO? Why not say, "I'm clueless wIthout understanding how others feel, because you know, I'm not about standing up with my own opinion, I need others to do it for me."
And he is a foodie? A foodie fond of foolish reprentatives who he must make happy.
Once you accept 6:37 that Quentin is a RINO you'll undertand. The best kind of Republican for NE Jax is one who talks shit like Quentin but then votes Democrat.
6:45pm You obviously have no idea who has used the Convention Center. I have personally been to two events held by "significant private sector entities" and two non-private sector events. The Mississippi Marathon, for example, uses the Convention Center and attendance has grown each year because people enjoy our city once we get them here and they tell others.
Our convention bureau is first rate . I am working with them now on a large event.
Unlike you and some other bloggers, I'm proud of Mississippi and think our Capitol city is beautiful.I want people from other states to come here and see what a wonderful people MOST of us are. When we get visitors, they are favorably impressed and return.
For the event I'm bringing here, casinos and the Biloxi Convention Center were the only other places large enough to accomodate us.
I do hope those attending our event don't meet YOU ,6:45, as that will reinforce negative national stereotypes.
KF raises legitimate concerns about this hotel deal, but that we need an adjacent hotel is not in question. That we need a convention center to attract large corporations and for our existing large businesses is not in question. It's part of the package that's needed these days.
I'm appalled that so few bloggers here have any understanding of investing in the future and how many seem to expect overnight success.
As for the event I'm planning, my worst obstacle to overcome is uninformed Mississipians who haven't been downtown in a decade bad mouthing our city . We are our own worst enemies when it comes to marketing our state.
That we need a convention center to attract large corporations and for our existing large businesses is not in question. It's part of the package that's needed these days.
Page 12 of the PKF report describes that the private capital markets will not finance this project and others like it. Conveniently missing is any analysis why these investors are passing up such great opportunities. For sound investments,long term borrowing costs are historically low.
Properly assessed and allocated risk apparently results in an inability to find PRIVATE investors willing to finance this project and others like it. Do these investors know more about these markets than the public sector decision makers that are sure that these are moneymaking investments? Do all city leaders in all cities big enough to sell bonds really believe that if they don't build something like this in THEIR city that those large corporation and conventions will flee somewhere else forever? There is no lack of consultants that can be paid to deliver this prescription for success.
That we need a convention center to attract large corporations and for our existing large businesses is not in question. It is part of the package that's needed these days.
For my own package I require a new Mercedes or two. Several models will suffice but high on the list is the CLS63 AMG. For the vacation villa I wish to purchase on an undisclosed Caribbean island a more practical vehicle is required, a G550 Sport Utility will git-r-dun. The financing for the Caribbean vacation villa is also needed, if you haven't guessed. I have been unable to finance this package through the private market, but since IT IS ALL REALLY NEEDED, my attorney will be meeting with the city just as soon as they get the Convention Center deal done.
I am sometimes struck by the similarities between these city development efforts and cargo cults.
Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when the residents of these regions observed the Japanese and American combatants bringing in large amounts of material. When the war ended, the military bases closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and radio equipment, and mimicking the behaviour that they had observed of the military personnel operating them. From Wiki-Cargo cult.
October 17, 2011 8:35 AM has obviously downed large quantities of the convention-center-will-save-the-world koolaid.
I'm never impressed, yet always humored, by those who decry the naysayers, tout the imaginary benefits of Jacktown and project that same old attitude of imaginary crime and invisible patrons flocking to town.
Newsflash: One does not have to be a damned idiot and outright fool to love Mississippi and our capitol city (we all do); but, one DOES have to be a damned fool to toot the 'drawing card' trombone without a slide.
The ranks of the downtown boosters is replete with revisionists who have been working feverishly to walk back all that was presented as the case for the convention center in 2004.
Voters were told in 2004 that the center itself would break even operationally when in fact it has lost more than one million dollars in each of the last two years. Today if you bring that up the apologists are quick to quip something like 'convention centers don't make money' because they need to draw attention away from the fact that voters were told the center would break even.
Today the hue and cry is that the convention center is losing business opportunities because national conventions and their planners require convention center attached hotels. But back in 2004 proponents of the center argued that the center would be successful even without an attached hotel.
They made the we'll-be-fine-without-a-hotel argument because Harvey Johnson's own consultant -- C.H. Johnson Consulting which is one of the consulting firms he's using now to justify the hotel madness -- advised that a convention center in Jackson would be successful without having
to rely on any regional and national conventions for at least one decade after the center opened.
"Jackson Convention Center Implementation Plan", Prepared by C.H. Johnson Consulting, Inc, Section 3, Page 16, Category: Implications for Jackson.
"Jackson, as the State capital and largest city in the State, has an opportunity to succcessfully enter the market for state association conventions, local and regional tradeshows, and consumer events. As regional and national conventions and tradeshows continue to increase in number and size, Jackson will enjoy increasing demand from these segments as well. However, over the first ten years of convention center operations Jackson will be primarily dependent upon state and local even demand."
Unfortunately few of the convention center proponents either read, or will admit to having read, the following warnings from C.H. Johnson Consulting, Inc. about the trustworthiness of their own work.
"Jackson Convention Center Implementation Plan", Prepared by C.H. Johnson Consulting, Inc. Provided on the page before the first page of the report.
"The findings presented herein, reflect analysis of primary and secondary sources of information. Johnson Consulting utilized sources deemed to be reliable but cannot guarantee their accuracy. Moreover, estimates and analysis presented in this study are based on trends and assumptions, which usually result in differences between the projected results and actual results. And because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, those differences may be material."
You just can't make this up. Harvey Johnson's own consultant warned that their work may prove to be shit and sure as heck that is what happened. Now Harvey is using the same consultant again to justify the hotel deal?
Does 158 East Pascagoula Street and SWEET v. TCI MS, INC. have anything to do with this?
Every dung-drop-bag attached to the ass of a horse in the French Quarter is clearly emblazoned with the following disclaimer: "Due to numerous variables, this shit bag not guaranteed to work".
If you Google the Baton Rouge study cited in the convention center study (website appears dead, you can get access to the BR study on Google Docs (title: An Economic Assessment of the Proposed Baton Rouge Bond Issue, 2009).
Page 11 of the city's convention center study is entitled Jackson Market Study, and lists comparable cities by population (2005 data I assume, as footnoted in convention center study).
Two interesting things.
First, the city populations in the convention center study are pretty accurate, when compared to US Census MSA data with 2 exceptions. Raleigh shows 430,000, and 2009 Census numbers show 1.126 million. Don't know what caused that discrepancy. Course we're not interested in that.
The Jackson numbers are listed at 630,000, when in fact they are approximately 541,000, according to Census data. That's a 16% difference. All the other population numbers are within 1% +or-. We are interested in that.
What caused this change?
The second interesting thing in the chart provided, which seeks to show hotel rooms citywide and also rooms with proximity to each of the cities convention centers, has been altered. In the original study, the Jackson entry shows N/A (or not available) under hotel rooms within close proximity to convention center. In the City of Jackson Convention Center study, that number has magically become 469.
It shouldn't be an update, as the city's study cites the original study that I am looking at. Be curious to know how that number was arrived at. Also would like to understand the definition of "within close proximity". Walking distance? Within one-mile radius?
And was that definition used consistently for each city?
I have lots of other questions regarding this convention center study, and I'm troubled by the lack of footnotes or sources for many of the assertions they are making.
Still reading through it. Be nice if they used spell check or hired a proofreader. How much did we pay for this?
" Also would like to understand the definition of "within close proximity". Walking distance? Within one-mile radius?"
So, the planners think that walking one mile after dark through Jackson to a hotel room will be a big attraction to someone deciding where to have his or her group's next convention?
Riiiiigggghhhhhhttttt.............
Bottom line per the MBJ story KF linked to recently is the Conv Center is failing. Harve's solution? Drop another $125m in debt and do biz with one shady ass outfit. Harve wants to spend like an Obama on the Pearl.
i JUST CAME TO GET ANOTHER LOOK AT THE pkf REPORT AND IT'S APPARENTLY GONE MISSING!
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