Time to move forward on hotel-conference center project

for the downtown Frederick hotel and conference center dominated floor debate last week in the Maryland General Assembly — more so than any other item in the governor’s capital budget, which lays out funding for brick-and-mortar projects across the state. The discussion was robust and warranted for a project of this scope.

Ultimately, however, legislators voted overwhelmingly to keep the $1 million provision that will allow the city to go ahead with the project’s planning, and also the bookmarks that authorize the governor to appropriate $15 million in bond funding, via the Maryland Stadium Authority, split between 2018 and 2019. On Tuesday, Gov. Larry Hogan announced he would allow the capital budget to pass into law without his signature.

The way the funding was included took some maneuvering on the part of lawmakers, and was an end run around unsupportive members of the delegation that prompted one of the hotel’s chief opponents, Sen. Michael Hough, to call the amendment “egregious.” The funding was slipped into the capital budget at the last minute by a conference committee of five delegates and five senators, who met to hammer out the differences between House and Senate versions of the capital budget bill. A $19.8 million Maryland Stadium Authority bond was never voted on in either chamber’s financial committee. Amending the capital budget at the last minute wasn’t the best approach, but had that not happened, there would have been no discussion of this project’s importance to the city and no chance for either chamber to debate this investment in Frederick’s future.

Summarily killing the project without allowing it to be aired before the Senate and House bodies would have been a disservice to so many who have worked long and hard to bring the hotel and conference center proposal to this point.

While the financing didn’t have the support of the bulk of the delegation, it was championed by the senator and delegates who actually represent the city — Sen. Ron Young and delegates Karen Lewis Young and Carol Krimm. Ultimately, their perspective held sway over the opposition of the delegation’s five remaining members, members whose districts are outside of Frederick. Support for the hotel and conference center is strong and widespread within the city. Both Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Michael Busch spoke in favor of the project last week. “Our goal is to try to give cities some pizazz, bringing people back downtown,” Miller said. “A conference center would really be a home run for downtown Frederick.” What all this underscores is that opponents’ claims of “corporate welfare” for this one project never quite surmounted the truth — that numerous other economically beneficial projects around the state have received similar or greater public support. Arguing against public financing for this total $82.5 million hotel- conference center would also mean having to oppose other similar publicly supported, economically beneficial projects throughout the state — a position no lawmakers want to put themselves in. During the Senate floor debate, Hough could muster only 10 votes against the conference committee amendments.

We’re glad lawmakers took the long view.

After all, had Hough and other delegation members’ views held sway in the 1980s, Maryland wouldn’t have stadiums for either the Ravens or Orioles, or its world-renowned Inner Harbor, nor would Bethesda have a similar successful hotel and conference center like the one it built in 2004 with money from the stadium authority. And dozens of other worthy projects never would have happened, from convention centers in Ocean City to parking garages on the University of Maryland campus.

But here we are. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the capital budget will become law and it will be time to move ahead.

Frederick is no Baltimore — it has a low crime rate and small-town charm, and it is steeped in U.S. history. It draws millions of visitors from around the world, visitors who have no place to conveniently sleep downtown. The hotel will be built at the site of the old Frederick News-Post building, right on Carroll Creek within walking distance, instead of a car ride, to most of the places that attract those visitors to the city.

The Randall family, which owns The News-Post and that vacant building, is not donating the property to the hotel project. The family will benefit to a degree by selling it at a market-driven price. We’ve been transparent in our support for this project from its conception because of the benefits it will bring to Frederick. Those benefits will ripple outward in an economic wave to the advantage of all of us.

There’s still a long way to go with numerous hearings and public meetings to come. We hope the Frederick community can coalesce around this project to help shape it to be the best it can be.

Hogan

An artist’s rendering of the downtown hotel and conference center project, as viewed from Carroll Creek park, is shown.

Image courtesy of Frederick’s Department of Economic Development