Dennis Morrissey
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
For many reasons the City Council should reject the Chesterfield/Acturis (C/A) and Farmer's Company (FC) proposals for development of the Missouri State Penitentiary property and ask the state for the one-year state contract authorized extension. Conference centers are money losers and, given current conditions, conferences may be a thing of the past.
The C/A proposal asks the city for more funds than are available. The initial phase will cost $64 million and $34 million is city funds. The conference center proposal asks for Tourism Tax funds of over $17 million. The 25-year tax will be lucky, with current conditions, to generate $15 million. Bonding costs would reduce that amount. Where will the rest come from?
The C/A proposal costs $154 million when completed. The city will own two parking garages and the conference center. We will have to pay maintenance and upkeep. C/A will build a hotel but there are no guarantees the hotel will stay open. Given already low hotel occupancy, do we need another taxpayer-supported hotel?
C/A proposes an ice arena. Parks has a 20-year plan but bonding for other projects will tie up all their funds. Parks proposes to keep the old ice arena for other use. We recently rebuilt it twice, due to floods. What are they thinking?
The FC proposal gives options for a one- or two-story, city-owned conference center at their St. Mary's site. It would be operated by a third party. Cost is within the available tourism funds. The city would still incur maintenance costs.
The FC proposal has two options for development of the MSP site: athletic fields or a veterans park. FC would own the athletic fields but the park option would be owned by the city. Giving away property given to the city may be questionable and we do not need to use tax funds to put existing athletic fields out of business. The city certainly does not need another park.
The conference center is a waste of taxpayer funds. We don't need or can't afford parking garages, more hotels, restaurants, a new ice arena, athletic fields or parks. Maybe consider leasing MSP property to private developers for more basic needs like housing; be it low income units, assisted living, long term care, or other housing. Let's reject the proposals, extend the contract and look at better options.