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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indianapolis City-County Council voted this week to authorize bonds to pay for construction of a $510 million Signia hotel at Pan Am Plaza that the city will own and that will be attached to an expansion of the Indiana Convention Center.
All 19 of the city’s Democratic council members voted to approve the measure, along with independent Ethan Evans. The council’s five Republicans voted against the financing.
The city plans to hire Hilton to manage the hotel, and officials say they will use the revenue from operations of the hotel to pay off the bonds.
Republicans have raised questions about whether the city should own a hotel that competes with privately owned hotels that are also in the convention business downtown. And some question whether the hotel revenue will be enough to pay off the bonds—or whether taxpayers could end up holding the bag.
Democrats told IBJ they believe the project is needed to keep the city’s tourism and convention industry competitive. And they said they’re confident—based on data and studies provided by Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration and area tourism groups—that the project will bring in enough money to cover the bonds.
Some of the key information they considered came from a draft of a feasibility study authored by LW Hospitality Advisors for this specific project. The Hogsett administration provided a summary of the consultant’s report to the councilors. But it wouldn’t provide the report or even a summary to IBJ or any other media organization.
IBJ sought the information in advance of the City-County Council meeting in an attempt to provide it to readers so they could give input to their councilors in advance of the vote. But the Hogsett administration declined to provide the information, saying it gave it to the councilors “on a confidential basis.”
A city spokesperson also said the “draft study will be finalized and made public later this summer as part of the bond offering for the project.”
Of course, that’s well after residents have any chance of weighing in or influencing their elected representative. And that matters—whether you think you are for the city’s plan for the hotel or against it.
The numbers could persuade someone who is skeptical that the revenue will be adequate to pay off the bonds. Or they could raise concern among some who believe the project to be a great one. Wanting to see the information the Hogsett administration and the City-County Council members are using to make these decisions isn’t about taking a side. It’s about being educated about a complicated and expensive project.
In denying IBJ’s request to see the draft report—or even just the summary—the city cited two provisions in the state’s public records law that allow governments to keep information a secret. We do not believe those exceptions apply here. But we are not unbiased in this argument, and there was no time to have a drawn-out battle over who was right or wrong.
We will continue to press for the information in the study and all other information we think the public has a right to know.•
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