Dallas Delays Hotel Site Buy

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert last week delayed action on the purchase of 8.3 acres in downtown for a 1,000-room convention center hotel after the landowners agreed to an extension of the city’s option to buy the plot.

CP-Dallas L&Y LP, which owns the land, extended the city’s option from the end of May to June 20. If the city buys the land by then, CP-Dallas would return all the $500,000 in earnest money put up by the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city would get back $250,000 of the money if it purchases the land by Sept. 30.

The delay comes as the City Council continues to debate what to pay for the land. The land is valued by the Dallas County Central Appraisal District at $7.5 million, but the city has received two independent appraisals showing the land is actually worth more than $40 million.

However, an executive with Crow Holdings, a real estate investment firm that owns a large hotel in Dallas and opposes the city’s involvement in financing the proposed hotel, presented the council with two additional appraisals valuing the land at $29 million to $33 million.

The city plans to issue $40 million of certificates of obligation to buy the hotel site, and approximately $100 million of revenue bonds to finance the public portion of the convention center hotel.

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