The creation of a special taxing district that will help finance construction of a new Courtyard Marriott hotel planned for the corner of Third and Florida streets downtown will go before the Metro Council later today.
If approved, the Tax Increment Finance district, or TIF, will remit 2% of the city-parish sales tax from the planned 137-room hotel back to the developers, South Carolina-based Windsor Aughtry. The developers say the tax incentive is key to the success of their project.
“While we are big believers in the long term success of downtown Baton Rouge, it is crucial for there to be public support to bridge the gap of short-term economics amidst rising development costs,” Bo Aughtry, principal of Windsor Aughtry Co., told Daily Report in May.
The Third-Florida Economic Development District, as the TIF will be called, will also impose an additional 2% tax on itself, which is unlike other downtown hotel TIFs, according to attorney Charles Landry, who represents Windsor Aughtry.
“This is the lowest TIF of all the downtown hotel TIFs,” Landry says. “It’s also unique in that the developers are taxing themselves to help pay for this project.”
All the downtown hotels developed over the past decade have been financed in part by special taxing districts, including The Hampton Inn, Hotel Indigo, and Capitol House Hilton, as well as the Holiday Inn Express and the Watermark, both of which are currently under construction. Each of the taxing districts differs slightly from the others in its structure or in the percentage of sales tax it remits to the developers.
Though some Metro Council members have questioned the necessity of using public tax dollars to finance private hotel projects, the Courtyard Marriott TIF is considered likely to pass tonight. Council members say there’s too much at stake with the redevelopment of downtown to change the rules in midstream.
The Metro Council meets at 4 p.m. in the council chambers on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
—Stephanie Riegel
