Joes management is weighing down Joes.

We need to focus on improving our transportation options (especially the airport) before considering this investment.

Does anyone have the financials on the Waco convention center? In looking at their calendar, they appear to be pretty busy with trade shows, conventions, conferences, etc. Is it turning a profit?

Is the Waco airport larger than Easterwood?

All things considered, I would much rather be in BCS than Waco.

Captn_Ag05 said:

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Does anyone have the financials on the Waco convention center? In looking at their calendar, they appear to be pretty busy with trade shows, conventions, conferences, etc. Is it turning a profit?

Is the Waco airport larger than Easterwood?

All things considered, I would much rather be in BCS than Waco.

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ZOMG!!!! Pilgrimage to Magnolia Homes!!! Chip and Jo!!! Shiplap for everyone!!!! [/every middle aged white woman on my FB friends list]

Magnolia Homes is a bigger draw to Waco than anything non-TAMU in BCS.

Captn_Ag05 said:

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Does anyone have the financials on the Waco convention center? In looking at their calendar, they appear to be pretty busy with trade shows, conventions, conferences, etc. Is it turning a profit?

Is the Waco airport larger than Easterwood?

All things considered, I would much rather be in BCS than Waco.

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For FY24, Waco Convention Center revenues are $860K with expenses of $7.9M.

https://city-waco-tx-budget-book.cleargov.com/7354/departments/convention-center-visitors-bureau

Not particularly promising since I would say the markets are pretty similar and both locations lack large airports but are close driving distance to large metros.

The $6.5 million they attribute to HOT tax closes the delta, but I always wonder how accurate those estimates are.

It looks like the $7.9 million expense is their cost for the entire entity that they call the convention center and visitor's bureau.

The closest thing I could find for a cost for the convention center was under "performance measures" that listed the CC revenue as $852,970 that yielded a cost recovery of 28.47%. That would put the cost of CC at about $3 million.

The same section goes on to claim that the convention center sales generated 75,045 hotel room nights that collected $6,120,368 in hotel tax revenue. That's $81.56 tax per hotel room night!!

Sorry, but I think that's some very fuzzy math being applied. A quick check on Hotels dot com shows that the hotels near the Waco convention center during a weeknight go for $100-$140/night base price, or $114 to $165 with taxes and fees.

maroon barchetta said:

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HWY6_RunsBothWays said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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Well I appreciate the feedback. The more research I do the closer I get to concluding we need it. As a fiscal conservative, it's strikes me similar to economic development. In a perfect world, economic development would not exist. Private sector businesses would locate themselves without incentive and we would all go on our merry way. But the moment ALL cities pursued it then every city was compelled to follow suit. Had we not done so, world class employers like Fujifilm would've located in one of those cities, instead of here. These are the rules by which we play, even if they don't comport perfectly with our world view.

In some ways a convention center is the same. It's not that simple but in many ways, it is. If you don't have a place to accommodate large trade shows, you'll never get large trade shows. The city that has one will.

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So…Fujifilm came to College Station because of the city? I believe TAMUS might have something to say about that.

https://fujifilmdiosynth.com/about-us/press-releases/fujifilm-completes-acquisition-kalon-biotherapeutics/

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No kidding.

Brett Giroir was the reason so much was previously being pulled in to the biotech corridor. Management ran him off and that corridor development slowed to a crawl.

The city was not the reason those businesses were showing up.

This "fiscal conservative" sounds ready to spend the money of taxpayers to bring in something that isn't needed here because it won't draw good conventions.

And LOL at someone mentioning Alexandria, LA as a comparison. I get a number of trade publications each quarter that advertise conventions and conferences. Not once have I seen Alexandria in there. Or Baton Rouge.

New Orleans? Sure. But nowhere else in Louisiana.

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I didn't say nationwide stuff. No, no one is flocking to Alexandria out of state. I said they draw the state stuff because of their central location.

Yikes. Coming to a city near you…. Massive loss.

I'd be curious to know how the San Marcos Conference Center was funded. It's basically built in conjuction with an Embasssy Suites. Did Hilton pay for any part of that?

AggieBaseball06 said:

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I'd be curious to know how the San Marcos Conference Center was funded. It's basically built in conjuction with an Embasssy Suites. Did Hilton pay for any part of that?

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https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/3430/fulltext.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Thank you.

I'm almost afraid to ask, but what do you folks think about this? Full disclosure: I think it's neat, helps with branding and identity, and yes, I supported and voted for it…I'll hunker down in my foxhole now and standby for incoming…

I think TENS of people will utilize that fiscally conservative expenditure.

Bob Yancy said:

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I'm almost afraid to ask, but what do you folks think about this? Full disclosure: I think it's neat, helps with branding and identity, and yes, I supported and voted for it…I'll hunker down in my foxhole now and standby for incoming…

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After $39M what's another $85K for a sign?

https://wtaw.com/college-station-city-council-approves-more-amenities-around-the-new-city-hall/
https://wtaw.com/college-station-city-council-awards-contract-for-preparing-site-of-new-city-hall/

And $19M coming from Certificates of Obligation that did not require voter approval.
https://wtaw.com/college-station-city-council-approves-more-debt-then-decides-to-discuss-how-to-handle-future-debt/

Jeez man. First of all those stories are years old! Secondly, I worked at City Hall starting in 1992 and we were stuffed in that building even then.

Bob Yancy said:

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Jeez man. First of all those stories are years old! Secondly, I worked at City Hall starting in 1992 and we were stuffed in that building even then.

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Are the news articles factual? If yes, what's the issue? One is from 2023, one from 2020, and one from 2019.

Rather than building a $39M Taj Mahal, the city could have moved some personnel to the old police department building rather than leasing it to IL Texas.

maroon barchetta said:

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I think TENS of people will utilize that fiscally conservative expenditure.

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I was trying to figure out how people would utilize a sign... then I saw the I in the sign is hollow... is the purpose of this thing for people to stand in the I and then have someone take a picture????

Please tell me i am wrong.

You have to be standing so far back to get the whole sign in the picture that you won't be able to recognize the person standing in the I part.

They are copying a sign near The Zone at Kyle Field.

People use that one.

This one…congrats to the taxpayers for your new purchase.

ukbb2003 said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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I'm not saying this is the same thing, but this debate reminds me so much of something. Back in 2010, there was this wonderful organization here. They'd been around awhile. For years they kept their head down and did a great job. Nothing flashy. Then they had a vision. The vision was a commitment to this community. The vision was to build a state of the art hospital and medical campus. "This town will never support another hospital," many said. "There's better use for that land," they exclaimed.

Today, the parking lot is full, a thousand+ people have fantastic jobs and they're in the middle of a $90 million expansion. They're part of the largest nonprofit health system in Texas and the most awarded health system in the country, according to US News & World Report.

And the quality of life, and health, for an entire community improved.

Totally different scenario. Agreed. Feels familiar, all the same. I repose the question: "Exactly how big are we going to get in Brazos County and STILL not have a convention center?"

300,000 population? (2027) Half a million? What's the number?

Respectfully.

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And it canibalized The Med in the process.

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That it did. Although the Med was run by a corporation full of idiots.

That said, how much did the litigation with Weingarten associated with that tract cost the College Station Taxpayer? I guess much like the land parcels the city recently sold, it gets washed out because the hospital ended up there? How about this novel idea? Let's see the city not commit massive blunders that need to be purportedly "canceled out" by profits later from land sales? This is like my daughter saying the dress she paid too much for and never wore, was offset by the next dress she bought at clearance for 80% off. SMH, these people really do forget who they work for at all levels of government in this country.

Can you come out of your foxhole long enough to explain how this is being responsible with taxpayers' money?

Diddler_44 said:

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Can you come out of your foxhole long enough to explain how this being responsible with taxpayers' money?

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That's a little rough. Where else are you going to find a guy using his real name and responding politely to a board with a reputation of negativity toward city expenditures? Got to respect him for this.

I think I'd rather just wait to respond on this one, and measure it's success by community and visitor response. Have a good evening.

Agreed. Bob is doing good things by even having this discussion. I can't imagine many other folks in his position would consider the same.

We may not agree on this issue but he's here and he's being open with us.

Thanks for that. Much obliged. Civility would be great, and in keeping with Aggie tradition, but I understand frustration with govt quite well. It's part of why I ran. Y'all have a good evening.

Quote:

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Although the Med was run by a corporation full of idiots.

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And now they are run by a CHI and they are even bigger idiots.

Cartographer said:

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Agreed. Bob is doing good things by even having this discussion. I can't imagine many other folks in his position would consider the same.

We may not agree on this issue but he's here and he's being open with us.

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That he is, and he should be commended for that. There are others on council who have their agenda and don't even seek out the opinion of those who they serve on council. This country is historically the greatest in the world because people on both sides of any argument could disagree and maintain civility in the face of disagreement. That is all but gone in this country today. There is no more middle ground on anything.

The councilman coming to this board to seek feedback is commendable.

If you come to this board and say "I'm fiscally conservative" while sidestepping bad land deals of the past, using analogies that don't work, and admitting you voted in favor of someone's dream pet project of a sign for tens of thousands of dollars, you are going to get feedback. It will not be positive. Thus, the posts above.

Councilman, some of your posts remind me of Rafiki from The Lion King:

Rafiki: *whacks Simba on the head with a stick*

Simba: Hey, why did you do that?

Rafiki: Doesn't matter! It's in the past!!!

maroon barchetta said:

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The councilman coming to this board to seek feedback is commendable.

If you come to this board and say "I'm fiscally conservative" while sidestepping bad land deals of the past, using analogies that don't work, and admitting you voted in favor of someone's dream pet project of a sign for tens of thousands of dollars, you are going to get feedback. It will not be positive. Thus, the posts above.

Councilman, some of your posts remind me of Rafiki from The Lion King:

Rafiki: *whacks Simba on the head with a stick*

Simba: Hey, why did you do that?

Rafiki: Doesn't matter! It's in the past!!!

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^ This!

Transcript of a recent closed door council session:

In all seriousness. Is this a joke?

I'm not sure what you'd have me do about a 2009 land deal. I wasn't on council then. I am now, though, and you and the rest of my bosses have done very very well liquidating municipal land holdings to the private sector since November. I'm looking forward to that report. I can only hope it's met with your approval, keep doing my job, and try to have a vision for our future that you can support.

Respectfully

Bob, It is commendable you are on this platform having a dialogue with us. Thank you!

The frustration with the city is they keep building new things and wanting to build new things when we have existing issues that need to be addressed first. What is the city's purpose:

"Health, safety, and welfare…is the basic function of the city," John Nichols said.
https://wtaw.com/college-station-mayor-john-nichols-on-wtaw-15/

I don't see how a baseball park or convention center fits into the basic function of the city. MAYBE a YMCA does (health and welfare), but then the city and YMCA are competing with businesses--and the city should be business friendly.

First responders: fire, police, and paramedic need to have increased salaries and more equipment. We also need more of them. The city does not have enough ambulances. CSPD STEP needs more officers for Northgate and Aggie football games. Yes, the voters approved a new fire station but it my understanding that even before the new station opens, the FD is understaffed. I believe Public Saftey was your #1 campaign priority. Let's fix this before a convention center.
https://www.bobyancy.com/platform

Simply, if the city focuses on the basics, the core services, and can get that right--then I think we'd all be more open to having a civil discussion about a convention center.

HWY6_RunsBothWays said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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I'm almost afraid to ask, but what do you folks think about this? Full disclosure: I think it's neat, helps with branding and identity, and yes, I supported and voted for it…I'll hunker down in my foxhole now and standby for incoming…

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After $39M what's another $85K for a sign?

https://wtaw.com/college-station-city-council-approves-more-amenities-around-the-new-city-hall/
https://wtaw.com/college-station-city-council-awards-contract-for-preparing-site-of-new-city-hall/

And $19M coming from Certificates of Obligation that did not require voter approval.
https://wtaw.com/college-station-city-council-approves-more-debt-then-decides-to-discuss-how-to-handle-future-debt/

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They will make that 85K up in no time, they'll have CSPD stake out the sign and hammer every student that tries to take a picture with some sort of ticket. This might be a revenue generating for the city long term.

It's not even close to the same thing.

We all want PRIVATE business to do these things. We don't want PUBLIC entities doing it.