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Report on Hotel-Conference Center Project
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Presented By: Kurt Hodgen, City Manager.
Recommendation and Review
A framework is coming together for the development of the Hotel and Conference Center. This is a project that has been in discussions for over two years. Both the City and JMU received unsolicited proposals from dPM Partners to construct a 205-room Hotel and a 21,000 sq ft. Conference Center on land owned by James Madison University (JMU) at the corner of South Main and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.
Under the proposed project parameters, JMU would provide the land for the project, and would build a 1,000-vehicle parking deck adjacent to the Hotel/Conference Center to support those facilities. dPM partners (the Developer) will pay to construct the Hotel and the JMU Foundation will pay to construct the Conference Center. dPM will operate and manage both facilities upon their completion. The City, through its Industrial Development Authority, will implement an economic development program to provide annual grants to the JMU Foundation which will be used to reimburse the Foundation for its cost in constructing the Conference Center. The annual grant amount would be based only upon the revenues generated by the Hotel and Conference Center during each fiscal year.
The estimated costs for the project include $30 million cost for the Hotel; $10 million for Conference Center, and $15-16 million for parking deck. An artist's rendering of the Hotel and Conference Center is attached.
The next steps will be to schedule a public hearing for the June 24 meeting to allow citizen comment on the project and to finalize the language of the contract documents and support agreements that will be needed if the project moves forward.