Minutes 04/11/1989 - Laserfiche WebLink

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T~ESDAY, APRIL 11,~ 1989 o ~ o o~::~ .H o ~J o ~ ~ o o o .H r~ 0 0 .r4 concerns expressed by some of this agency's members that the hotel, if completed, will become a "white elephant" and, as such, a deterrent to downtown development;; whereas, Mr. Stuart Axelrod, owner/operator of Sammy's At-The- Plaza Restaurant, after alleging that downtown parking problems are, for the most part, caused by the abuse of parking privileges by downtown merchants and their employees, stated that, if the City can afford to repurchase the hotel site property, the Council Shouldn't (have need to) impose a tax on meals, as proposed by City Manager Brown. *Meanwhile, Councilman Groden*stated that the City is committed to reacquire the property if the hotel project does not develop and, certainly, the' City still has control over the property if the project fails. As to recent developments wherein Piedmont Trust Bank, as a lender of monies to an entity for the purchase and development of the property as a hotel, first advertised the property for sale because the entity has not repaid loan-and-interest since September of 1988 and then cancelled the auction sale at the last moment to enable another group to assume the loan and develop the property as a hotel (assuming that satisfactory arrangements can be made within thirty days), Councilman Groden indicated that Council is in a quandry in that" .... we don't know who we're dealing with". At the request of Mr. Jan C. Reed, Director of Court Services for the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, 21st Judicial District, Council unanimously appropriated (from General Fund surplus) the sum of $3,500.00 to the expenditure account for detention home expense in the current 1988-89 budget to provide funds for unanticipated expenses in the account. The record notes that, with the initial budget appropriation for this account of $7,000.00 (reduced from Mr. Reed's original request of $10,000.00) and the supplement thereto of $3,000.00 by Council's action on January 24, 1989, the total appropriation therefor is now $13,500.00.