During emergency coronavirus meeting, Fort Worth OKs $40 million for hotel development
As Fort Worth businesses began to grapple with the fact that they would likely suffer significant losses from coranavirus-related shutdowns, the City Council approved without discussion a $40 million grant for the downtown Omni Hotel to expand.
The grant appeared Thursday on the consent agenda of an emergency meeting held over a video call focused on extending the city’s state of emergency related to the ongoing health crisis.
The item needed to be approved this month, said Deputy City Manager Jay Chapa, because of a contract to purchase the May Owen Center, Tarrant County College’s administration building at 1500 Houston Street. The council was set to vote on the incentives March 24, but that meeting has been canceled.
Omni representatives asked the city to move forward with the incentive package before their contract to purchase the land expires at the end of the month.
“They wanted to be able to move forward with negotiations with some assurances from the city,” Chapa said. “It’s timing more than anything.”
Chapa acknowledged that given the coronavirus outbreak, a grant for luxury hotel development might seem odd, but he said the deal was unrelated and would need to be processed regardless.
Because of a series of coronavirus-related meetings and calls, Mayor Betsy Price was unavailable for comment Thursday evening.
The the incentive is in the form of a grant capped at $40 million paid through hotel tax generated from the expansion. The city won’t pay anything until the hotel is completed in 2023 and can lower the grant based on several factors.
The Omni must invest at least $175 million into the expansion, with 15% going to women and minority-owned businesses. The building must front on Lancaster Avenue and include at least 400 hotel rooms and 50,000 square feet of combined meeting space, including a ballroom.
Councilwoman Ann Zadeh, who represents downtown, said in an email she felt comfortable moving forward with the vote because city staff had discussed the project at length in previous meetings. The project is expected to bring in $43 million in new tax revenues for the city and activate an under-used area of Lanacater, she said.
“Had we not been in these challenging times of canceled meetings this proposal would have come forward in a regularly scheduled meeting after progressing through the regular process,” she said. “This proposal has the capability to continue the improvement strides we have witnessed on this end of downtown.”
Spread of the novel coronavirus forced Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to close dine-in restaurants, bars and other businesses Thursday, a move Tarrant County officials took on Wednesday. Hundreds of businesses owners had either called the local Small Business Administration Office or filled out a city-sponsored survey about the economic impact of the closures.
Because of concern over the virus, the meeting was held virtually through video calls. Members of the public were not allowed into the council chambers, where Price appeared with Councilman Dennis Shingleton and City Manager David Cooke.
Public comment was taken through written cards, but no one submitted a comment for the item.
State law allows the council to meet virtually as long as the public has access to a live feed of audio from the meeting and can submit comments.
Chapa said all of the items on the agenda for the emergency meeting were originally consent agenda items, which are voted on together with no discussion, like the Omni Hotel grant. However, for the purpose of discussion, council members requested separate votes on a resolution extending the city’s state of emergency and an ordinance granting authority to the city manager.
Omni Expansion
The expansion of the Omni Hotel has been harolded as a much needed addition to the downtown convention center.
The city is in the early stages of preparing for a nearly $400 million expansion of the downtown convention center that may break ground by 2023, but even now conventions often struggle to find hotel space near downtown.
By the end of March, the Omni Hotel is expected to purchase the Tarrant County College property to the south. The college has wanted to sell the property since 2018 as it works to consolidate administrative offices.
An early rendering shows a more than 20-story tower that mimics the architecture of the hotel and condo space with a combination of reflective glass and masonry. The tower sits on top a 50,000-square-foot meeting space that appears to have entrances along Lancaster Avenue. The concept includes a tree and shrub-lined rooftop patio adjacent to the new tower.
When the Star-Telegram originally reported on the planned Omni expansion earlier this month, city staff said a special tax district would provide a $5 million grant to the Omni upon completion, but other details about incentives had not been ironed out.
With conventions canceled due to the coroanvirus outbreak, the Fort Worth Convention Center is being used to house those facing homelessness.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 5:46 PM.
