According to our friend and weekly contributor Rob McAllister, a group of local hotels are ready to jump in the entertainment and sports complex conversation. From KFBK.com:
“Six figures at the very least, more likely seven figures,” said Mike Testa, the Senior Vice President of Convention Sales & Business Development.
Based on a 30 year span, which is typically the life of an arena, that could mean between $20-million and $30-million of the estimated $400-million cost of the proposed downtown sports and entertainment complex.
According to McAllister, final numbers are not etched in stone, but the Sacramento Hotel Association is already working to increase the Sacramento Tourism Business Improvement District fee.
This comes on the heels of an article today by Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee, who says that parking companies from all over the country are lining up to place bids on Sacramento’s parking assets.
Twenty-five entities, including most of the country’s largest parking companies, notified the city they are considering applying to manage city downtown parking facilities, in exchange for paying hundreds of millions of dollars upfront to help the city build an arena.
According to Bizjak, Sacramento is expecting the starting upfront cash bids to reach at least $245 million for garages and meters in the downtown area.
Mayor Kevin Johnson and his Think Big Sacramento group have been working overtime to figure out the financing puzzle. It’s good to see local businesses throwing their hat into the ring to help.
Parking, hotels…it’s starting to feel like a game of Monopoly here in Sacramento.
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