By Rachel Leingang | Arizona Republic
Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s lawsuit that seeks to undo a deal to bring a hotel and conference center to Arizona State University’s campus can move forward, albeit in a more limited scope, a judge decided Tuesday.
But only one part of that lawsuit — that the deal to bring an Omni hotel to the Tempe campus violates the Arizona Constitution’s prohibition on public gifts to private entities— is going ahead.
The hotel is slated for University Drive and Mill Avenue, a prime location in Tempe. It would be the university’s first on-campus hotel. Plans call for a 330-room hotel and a 30,000-square-foot conference center to be built on land owned by the regents.
Arizona Tax Court Judge Christopher Whitten said the attorney general doesn’t have the authority to bring the lawsuit otherwise, a similar denial to one Brnovich’s office received in a lawsuit against the universities over tuition costs.
