Convention Center On Ballot State Senator Questions City’S Commitment To Expansion

A committee devoted to expanding Spokane’s Convention Center decided to put the project on a county-wide ballot in March 2001, while a state senator is wondering if the city is doing enough to help the effort.

The Facilities 2000 Working Group, which consists of representatives from the entities affected by the Convention Center expansion, decided a March 2001 vote on the plan made more sense than competing for voters’ attention with this November’s presidential election.

On Friday, however, Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane, wrote a letter to Mayor John Talbott questioning the city’s commitment to the Convention Center expansion plan, particularly given the progress Vancouver and Tacoma have made building convention centers.

Spokane, Vancouver and Tacoma all have access to the same state sales tax credit created for convention center financing by last year’s Legislature.

“The mayor said we needed another feasibility study and the state ought to put up some more money for this thing,” West said in a telephone interview. “While we’re fiddling, Rome’s burning.”

While the mayor did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, Councilman Steve Corker defended the city’s actions and said West was off-base.

“Nothing has been done to encourage that perception,” Corker said at the meeting. “We’re participating in it, we’re supporting it, we’re encouraging it.”

Corker said the project likely has support from six of seven City Council members. Steve Eugster said he opposes the expansion plan.

While the facilities working group voted for a March 2001 election, exactly what plan the voters will see is unknown.

The plan calls for adding 240,000 square feet, plus parking, to the existing Convention Center at a cost of $85 million. The plan would use the state tax credit and other dollars and would also devote funds to a Valley facility, such as Mirabeau Point, in an attempt to gain county-wide support.

However, a financing plan that tapped into revenue streams targeted for the Spokane Arena may have to be significantly overhauled.

Those funds cannot be used for other purposes without refinancing the original bonds, said Shaun Cross, the chairman of the facilities working group and a member of the Public Facilities District board that oversees the Arena.

“They are sacrosanct,” Cross said. “They cannot be touched unless the bonds are refinanced.”

That could cost the project tens of millions of dollars.

The group will continue to look at ways to find the money, including refinancing the bonds and finding other revenue sources such as private partnerships and selling naming rights, said Tyrus Tenold, chairman of Spokane’s Sports, Entertainment, Arts and Conventions Advisory Board. Another possibility is going to the voters for a .1 percent sales tax increase, as allowed by state law, he said.

The group is also exploring ways of scaling back the cost of the project, including possibly eliminating the 800 parking spaces in the original plan.