As we explained in a post last year, Charles (Chuck) Skelton is a nationally recognized authority on the hospitality industry, especially hotel and conference facilities. He is also the chair of the Washtenaw County Accommodation Ordinance Commission (the board to which the Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors' Bureau reports). See the description of his firm and list of clients here.
Mr. Skelton evidently was concerned on hearing some of the plans afoot for a hotel and conference center in his own community and applied his skills and resources to produce a report on the likely financial outcomes of such a plan. It has been reviewed on the Local in Ann Arbor blog, and a scanned copy of the report is here.
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Finally, a real market analysis from a credible source on the feasibility of a Conference Center on the Library lot. This study says it all: Even assuming low-end of construction costs, this conference center would lose over a million dollars a year--to be absorbed by whom? It will not cover its debt service. It will not attract new business. All it will do is cannabalize existing hotel and conference center business.This project would be a gigantic mistake, both from a business perspective, a tax perspective, and an urban planning perspective. There is no public benefit to this proposal, only an incredible risk and loss of the last major downtown open-space.
ReplyDeleteEric Lipson