"We’ve lost the fight and now it’s up to us to make a bad deal better," said Councilman David Catania, R-At Large, one of the Shaw project’s most outspoken critics.

Plans to build the new convention center north of Mount Vernon Square cleared a major hurdle June 2 when the city council voted 8-5 to approve the first reading of the financing plan for the facility. The second reading of the bill will be held tomorrow.

Catania said there is no chance the council will vote down the bill at the second reading.

The legislation allows the District to issue 34-year bonds to finance nearly $616 million of the cost of the new convention center. It also eliminates the Hotel Occupancy Tax and increases the Hotel Sales and Compensating Use Tax 1 ½ percent in order to finance the rest of the cost of construction.

The Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) estimates the final cost of the project to be $650 million, a figure that has been hotly contested since the General Accounting Office issued a report in April estimating costs of $767 million or higher.

"My concern about the convention center at the Mount Vernon site is the cost," said Councilwoman Sharon Ambrose, D-Ward 6, who voted against the legislation. "The guaranteed maximum price is neither guaranteed nor maximum.

"The site is really too small and it’s making them go three levels below ground to build it," said Ambrose, who strongly supports the alternative Union Station North site at the intersection of Florida and New York avenues in Northeast Washington.

Catania said the contract’s guaranteed maximum price for construction at Mount Vernon Square does not include items such as the interior masonry, a truck bay and the sophisticated electronic communication equipment that is supposed to make the convention center state-of-the-art.

"It’s going to be a billion-dollar mistake," said Catania, noting that the district will be paying 5 ¼ percent interest on the life of the bonds, pushing the final cost of the bonds to $1.34 billion. The city’s consultants estimate the new convention center would most likely reach full capacity in about 10 years.

Supporters of the project hailed the financing vote as a major victory for economic development.

"No one questions the need to build a better designed and larger facility in order to regain the convention market and economic spin-off which the city has lost in recent years," Council Chairman Linda Cropp said in a written statement. "The city will receive the biggest bang for its buck by building a well-designed convention center closer to the heart of downtown."

Both Ambrose and Catania said they were in favor of building a new convention center but not at the Mount Vernon Square site. Additionally, Catania complained that facts and figures were being misrepresented.

"I’m so sick of the false information being circulated by proponents of the (Mount Vernon Square) project," said Catania. In particular, Catania objected to a $58 million parking garage being tacked onto the price for the Union Station North site despite the fact that not only will a garage not be built at Mount Vernon Square, but a new convention center there will actually displace 1,100 parking spaces.

Catania also noted that backers of the Mount Vernon Square site have claimed it would cost $50 million for the environmental clean up at the Union Station North site, despite indications from CSX, which owns that property, that the site remediation costs would be included in the purchase price.

Council members Kathy Patterson, D-Ward 3; Hilda H.M. Mason, Statehood-At Large; and Kevin P. Chavous, D-Ward 7, joined Ambrose and Catania in voting against the financing legislation.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator