[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/mar...t-1556003.html

Marriott deal is worth the wait
Editorial Board

Published: 6:48 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Austin needs the rooms, jobs and income the planned Marriott Marquis hotel project would generate. And the proposed deal does not require the city to put up tax dollars as incentives. It's a good deal with minimal risk to taxpayers. Nonetheless, Mayor Lee Leffingwell is right to ask that today's scheduled City Council vote be delayed by a week.

White Lodging Services Corp. had postponed plans for the hotel, on Congress Avenue between Second and Third streets, since 2008 as the economy plummeted. Some might remember that the site was home to the beloved Las Manitas restaurant, which closed its doors and has not reopened. White Lodging wants to start construction in nine months, and a delay will not upset that timetable. An extra week would help Austin residents get a better idea of what the project is and what it is not.

The hotel project is not another deal in which the city is giving away financial incentives in the way of public dollars or tax abatements to private companies that move to Austin. What the city is doing in this case is waiving $4.3 million in development-related fees to White Lodging. So the city won't be putting up public dollars, but rather waiving fees it otherwise would have collected.