In no way should the government subsidize a hotel. It would be unfair to all the other investors who have put money into downtown hotels. I'd love a hotel in Uptown but the City hasn't spent money to study its feasibility, nor should they. The market will figure it out. The City or County could just encourage private operators to examine the feasibility given that the City/County thinks there is gain to be had.

Lisa Goodman: "No study is needed to form my opinion that if this is something the private sector will not finance or do on their own with private equity then government has no business funding or financing it." Granted, she's likely representing her existing "constituents" who own large hotel franchises downtown, but I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with her on something for a change!

The convention business nationwide is in the crapper due to internet and other social media. Travel to traditional convention cities is way down. The need to visit conventions in-person to see new products unveiled and demonstrated no longer exists because they can be announced and revealed and questions asked and answered online. Even employee training in far away cities is no longer needed. So the idea of Mpls. needing or building a 1,000 room hotel next to a convention center that is being used LESS today then when it was built is an example of a BOONDOGGLE that a DFL-party would come up with to create phoney-baloney jobs for its labor-union supporters similar to those that will be created to build a new stadium. In other words, high-paying busy-work. On top of this, the convention season in Mpls. is less than 100 days in length. We are not and never have been a major convention destination because we are not in the sunbelt.

Minneapolis city officials are constantly looking for ways to spend money.

Well perhaps if we allowed gambling to come to downtown then maybe???

Right on. NO public money.

Remember when the reason we couldn't get the conventions was because we needed a new convention center paid for with a short term sales tax? Then of course we needed city help with a new Hilton. Then of course the new convention center was suddenly declared not complete and we needed to add a dome and extend the sales tax and hey what about the Target center we suddenly owned. Fix that up to. But wait,if we change the law and keep the bars open to 2AM then we will get the conventions. Now it seems we need another subsidized hotel. Or is it that HennCo needs to get rid of some property so they can build a new monument to the welfare system. Go ahead build that hotel don't think for a moment that there won't be another sudden need in order go get the convention business. Our future economic growth lies in more waiters, hotel housekeepers, bar tenders, and hookers. Go for it.

Minneapolis city officials are constantly looking for ways to spend HENNEPIN and STATE money. Then they'll explain to us what a draw Minneapolis is and that they should get more LGA.

There are plenty of hotel rooms in downtown Minneapolis already, just a few blocks walk from the convention center. I live downtown and from what I've seen, most of the convention attendees could use the exercise. The idea to replace the Century Plaza building with an ugly (probably) hotel leaves me cold. This building is one of the few remaining examples of Art Deco architecture in Minneapolis and should be preserved, not razed. Typical Minneapolis thinking; if it's not a tall glass and steel box of a building it's not worth saving. Sad.

Here's another great money-losing idea. Are these the same people who thought Block E and Target Center were good "investments"?