It's fascinating to me that this has turned into "solve the homeless problem," when it started as "fund a new convention center." All the news coverage I've read so far (Statesman, ABJ, the linked article from KXAN) pitches it as a sly play from Adler to get tourists to contribute to a relatively vague homeless solution. As a byproduct, we'll get a new ACC expansion. From a purely political perspective, it's a genius move.
It also suggests that the renderings we've seen so far would have to be changed radically. From the KXAN article:
Quote:
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To get hotels to petition the state to allow an increase in the “bed tax” the City would expand the convention center. Under the mayor’s plan, the first two floors could be for stores and restaurants. Then on top of the expanded convention centers would be two towers; one for offices, the other for affordable housing. The property taxes on the increased development could help generate income for the other projects of the mayor’s “downtown puzzle.”
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Which would seem to indicate that somehow he'd like to add two
additional towers to the rendering below -- because the the only tower in the drawing is the new Marriott.
EDIT: I take it back -- there's what looks like a functional "tower" on the north end of the rendering -- so they just need to find room for one more.