By Mike Draper

As one of the main critics of the city’s plan to give Hampton Inn more than $4 million to build on the river, I breathed a sigh of great relief when I saw The Des Moines Register’s Editorial Board giving me the “complete background” before “judging whether the city should have offered financial incentives.”

Phew!

But after reading, I realized that the Register only looked at one view of the project’s financials, appeared to use the City Manager’s office as its only source, and didn’t address any of the major concerns this project raises. This led me to ask two things:

1) Why do I have to write my own editorials when Rick Clark and Chris Hensley can have the Register’s Editorial Board write theirs for them?

The Register writes that, “City Manager Rick Clark points out, the developer was prepared to build… regardless of whether the city participated financially,” so the city handed over the $4 million to have some say in the design. The Editorial Board’s reporting skills must have been furloughed that day, because this isn’t true. Rita Connor at the City says that, “There was always an ask” from Hampton Inn, and as stated during the Nov. 21 City Council meeting, Hampton Inn only said they would build without help while trying to get more money from the city.

On the one hand, the city is the forward-thinking linchpin to any development plans, but at the same time claims it is a helpless bystander against a marauding Hampton Inn? The city has successfully killed many projects with ease, and if the city pulled all support for this project, it would not go through.

2) Do the Register and City Council really not think there are no concerns other than whether the city’s best case, 23-year scenario looks good on paper?

There are so many citizens concerned with this project that at the Nov. 21 Council meeting, Councilman Skip Moore said, “I’ve received more emails that oppose this project than any set of emails I’ve received before.”

While the council agreed with Skip that, “if they wanna send us emails opposed to this project, fine, we’ll still read ’em, if everyone just had the information the council was working with, they’d feel downright giddy about this project.”

And Skip is probably right on that. If other critics and I were only looking at a three-slide Power Point showing an empty lot making only $1.5 million over 23 years, versus a Hampton Inn (plus a possible second hotel within five years) making $10 million over 23 years, I may think that looks like a good deal as well.

But I’m not a City Councilman or a Register Editorial staffer. Instead, I have built a company from one employee in 2005 to 23 in 2011. And many of those who have commented are running some of the fastest growing companies in Des Moines. We understand balance sheets, long-term projections, marketing, complex planning, customer loyalty and issues on a deeper level.

We understand that TIF money is useful to development, but TIF needs to be used appropriately — on projects that are locally supported, use local or union construction companies and actually contribute to a long-term strategy for a successful city.

A long-term view is one that encompasses more than rudimentary financials.

For instance, this will be the only hotel in all of downtown without a restaurant, bar or ballroom space. In that sense, it will be the only hotel downtown that locals won’t use. Yet it is being built between two of Des Moines’ most successful residential projects on the river.

Building on this site is guaranteed to kill the city’s only opportunity to build a true, residential neighborhood on Des Moines’ Riverwalk.

Likewise, this project will most likely also kill a hotel project Des Moines really needs: one just south of Hy-Vee Hall. A hotel connected to the Events Center will not only help draw more events to Des Moines, but will not detract as much from other downtown hotels.

Hampton Inn looked at Des Moines and decided the city could only support a $14.4 million, 129-room hotel. But with the city’s support, it has become a $32.3 million project that includes two hotels and a parking garage? This is the deal that is the “clear path” for Councilman Chris Coleman? How do they expect the local developers working on a convention center hotel to be able to secure financing when we’ve already over-built? What do they expect will fill in the YMCA they plan to tear down?

The city hasn’t run the numbers on the opportunity cost of losing projects like that. I haven’t been able to get a hold of numbers showing what this scenario looks like if the second hotel on the site doesn’t happen and the city has to buy back a portion of the land. The city’s projections compare a hotel with a vacant lot over 23 years, but do they really think that a block of real estate on the river that has seen three residential projects go up within three blocks of it in the last year will sit vacant for the next 23 years? These are the more in-depth financials that critics of this project would like to see.

But most importantly, how will this project undermine citizen loyalty?

The city can, and has, assisted in many projects. But remember that the East Village was built by local developers, residents and business owners; the art in the Sculpture Garden came not from ING but from a local family; the World Food Prize was born not from an Embassy Suites’ investment but from one local entrepreneur’s passion.

Pride in your city is often the most important element to a project but may be hard to quantify — unless you’re measuring Pulitzer Prizes won by a locally-owned paper versus that same paper owned by an out-of-state corporation.

How little respect for our city does Hawkeye Hotels have when it wants to build a cookie-cutter Hampton Inn plus a “long term stay” hotel on our river, amongst some of the most beautiful buildings in Des Moines? I want a city that will fight that project tooth and nail. A City Manager who says he has no tools to do so besides handing over more than $4 million isn’t being imaginative enough.

I love Des Moines and wanted to, “Be the change I wanted to see,” so I built my business downtown, have raised my family downtown and have become part of the New Des Moines that believes in the city’s potential.

This project is sad. It is, as the Register puts it, “the opportunity to make a questionable deal better.” Wow! Call the Downtown Community Alliance; I think we have a new city slogan on our hands! I now understand why I don’t see Clark or Hensley in my store a lot. “Des Moines: Hell Yes” is probably too positive for them. Maybe something to match their outlook would be, “Des Moines: We’re Making the Best of a Bad Situation.” CV

Mike Draper is the owner of RAYGUN in East Village and a passionate blogger of all things Des Moines. View his posts on this subject and others at http://www.raygunsite.com/blog.