The Gwinnett County Commission voted unanimously last month to move forward with plans to lease land at the county’s convention center to a hotel developer.
Plans call for the $1-a-year lease ultimately to result in a four-star Marriott hotel next to Gwinnett Center in Duluth. The hotel would help woo bigger conferences to the center and bring in as much as $60 million in new tax revenue over the next 30 years, county officials say.
Commissioners had last discussed the issue publicly in November 2012. The recent vote, which came with no advance notice or public discussion during that meeting, raised eyebrows in a county that’s seen a string of public corruption scandals.
Gwinnett Tea Party founder and co-chair Steve Ramey said the commission’s actions suggest that recent efforts to bring more transparency to Gwinnett government are falling short.
“The clarity in how we run government is about as clear as mud,” he said. “I think that there are dealings that take place that would make a lot of people blush.”
Gwinnett Center is owned by the county and operated by the Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau. It includes a convention center, a ballroom complex, a performing arts center and a 13,000-seat arena.
Convention bureau officials say the lack of an on-site hotel has cost them business. So, in December 2011, they solicited proposals from companies interested in developing a hotel offering food and beverage service, meeting facilities and at least 300 rooms.
The convention bureau received four proposals from companies interested in building the hotel.
In February 2012, Commissioner John Heard, an architect who specializes in hotels and schools, disclosed that he had served as a paid consultant for a company affiliated with one of the bidding companies, Nilhan Hospitality LLC, since January 2012. Heard recused himself from any discussions or decisions related to the deal and resigned from the convention bureau board.
In April 2012 the convention bureau recommended the county accept the proposal from Nilhan.
Heard has said he has not worked with Nilhan since August 2012. He was not present at the recent commission meeting where the vote on the lease was taken.
For the past year, county attorneys have been negotiating the terms of the lease with Nilhan. The proposal calls for the county to lease Nilhan 2 acres at the convention center for 25 years at $1 a year, Executive Director Lisa Anders said.
The convention bureau board discussed the hotel project at its public meetings throughout 2013, Anders said.
A resolution authorizing Nash to execute a lease agreement with the county’s Development Authority was added to the commission agenda at the start of the Dec. 17 meeting. The Development Authority will, in turn, lease the land to Nilhan.
Nash said no deadline forced the commission to vote on the deal that evening, but with a longer than usual holiday break before the next meeting, she thought it better to hold the vote before the end of the year.
Sabrina Smith, head of Gwinnett Citizens for Responsible Government, an organization that advocates for open government, said she thinks building a hotel for the convention center could benefit the county.
“A lot of what they’re doing, we agree with, but we’re saying just do it properly, do it above board,” she said. “They should be pending over backwards to follow the rules so that people like me don’t have any room to ask questions.”
Lease details are expected to be finalized by the end of March, Anders said. After the hotel design plans are finalized, builders could break ground by early fall, with the hotel opening as early as spring 2016.
“This is one of the best economic development opportunities that Gwinnett County has seen in years,” she said.
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