By BisNow
As debt markets have seized up, developers increasingly have pulled back from active construction projects, including a handful of hotels near convention centers in major U.S. cities.
But rather than let those sites sit fallow, some local authorities have decided to step up as financial backers to ensure real estate developments they see as economically critical actually open to visitors, CoStar reported.
When Brookfield Properties pulled out of a $276M expansion to the Savannah Convention Center in May, just six months before the project’s opening date, the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority intervened.
The developer blamed problems in securing financing as well as site issues, the Savannah Morning News reported. Instead, the project will be financed by bonds issued by the SGCCA.
“Arizona law limits public private partnerships and the use of public tax monies for private projects, so local bodies may be limited in what they can do to backstop improvements projects if developers’ private financing runs dry.” – Cameron Carter, Rose Law Group partner and transactional department director
