“There are some aspects of it related to confidentiality and review of some of the business plans and trade secrets, really how everything is going to work…,” Young told the Journal-News. “Although they’ve talked about the capital stack, there’s a lot of financial information and operational information that has not been made public.”
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The “capital stack” obtained by this newspaper shows county contributions as “$2.5 million from county-roads/$2.5 million CVB Convention Center.” Young said the city does not expect the county engineer to earmark $2.5 million in his budget, but rather take money from the taxpayer-backed general fund.
“They are in essence asking us and indicating that they are counting on us to contribute $2.5 million toward that…,” Young said adding they don’t have payback details yet. “There is no revenue stream that would reimburse us for that, other than if there is additional sales tax generated from the project.”
Hamilton City Manager Joshua Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
Butler County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Mark Hecquet said his board is also in the due diligence phase so no decision has yet been made about a contribution. He said their focus is more on the hotel stays the giant sports and convention complex will generate.
At least seven hotels are in the planning stages — not due to Spooky Nook necessarily but the whole complement of tourist attractions in the county — one is almost complete, the ALoft Hotel in West Chester Twp.
Two more hotels have been approved in the township, a Hyatt House planned near the new TriHealth development at Cox Road and Liberty Way and a Hampton Inn south of Cabela’s. A 100-room hotel is planned just off of Interstate 75’s Monroe exit. The Middletown Planning Commission has approved an 88-room Holiday Inn Express on Towne Boulevard across from Walmart. There is a pending permit application for a four-story, 82 room Marriott Towneplace Suites in Fairfield. And in Oxford a 12-unit extension of the Elms Hotel has been approved.
Hecquet said they have received some tourism data from the city — 8,000 to 10,000 visitors expected on a given weekend — on the project.
“We’re more about the visitor projections, the overnight room projections and things like that are what we have used previously to base our decisions on…,” Hecquet said. “The county is very interested in the sales tax revenue generation and that angle, I believe that’s kind of the aisle they’re going down, which is not necessarily the visitors bureau area of interest.”
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The county money is apparently needed for infrastructure — like re-configuring roads — around the old Champion Paper Mill on the Great Miami River where Spooky Nook is planned.
County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said the commissioners cannot give money to a municipality for a project, especially once they’re not partners.
“At this time we don’t have enough documentation to meet our needs as opposed to those materials that the city is satisfied to meet its needs,” Gmoser said. “The county has different responsibilities for county money than the city has with respect to city money, as far as how it is utilized by a special interest which would be the city of Hamilton.”
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