The landmark Hartford Hilton Hotel Downtown is in trouble and in danger of closing again. I hate to make this analogy but it is to big to fail. It has to much going for it. The 18 story hotel has 392 rooms, is attached to the XL Center, has an upscale restaurant and bar and most importantly sits in the heart of downtown.
To give a brief history lesson here the hotel first opened in 1971 I believe. A few years ago many of you may remember when the Hilton was in danger of closing because the former owner MeriStar Hospitality had let the hotel fall in such disreapir that Hilton threatned to pull its name from the hotel if extensive renovations were not completed. In 2004 the Procaccianti Group emerged as a prospective buyer for the hotel however they were a non-union company that wanted to buy the hotel, close it for renovations and dismiss the unionized workforce.
This was during a time when Hartford was still getting on its feet. At this time the Waterford Group of Waterford, CT stepped up to the plate after Mayor Perez stepped in to block the sale of the hotel to the Procaccianti Group. Waterford wanted to close the hotel but would honor the existing union contract. I think very highly of the Waterford Group, a company that tends to get overeshadowed by Northland Investment. Even before Northland gave us Hartford 21 the Waterford Group came to Hartford as the developer behind Adriaen's Landing. They manage the Connecticut Convention Center and built the 409 room Marriott Hartford Hotel Downtown. The company also owns the Residence Inn by Marriott downtown.
The Waterford Group came to save the day again and their purchase of the hotel was hailed by the city and especially Mayor Perez. The hotel did reopen in 2005 (I think...) after major renovations. Five years later we are in the midst of a recession that will be impacting Connecticut for years to come. The unionized employees of the hotel have agreed to a new contract that freezes wages and other concessions until 2014 in an attemp to keep the hotel's doors open. The next step in keeping the hotel open was a resolution passed by the City Council that gives the Waterford Group tax breaks. The final step is securing $7 million from the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). That money would go to GE Business Financial Servies Inc. in exchange for releasing the $22 million dollar mortgage on the property. Fianlly the city is converting the Waterford Group's air lease for the hotel to a ground lease so they would only have to pay a base rent but not real property taxes.
Now as I write this many of you may start lambasing the city for giving a large corporation more tax cuts when the mill rate hovers around 70 and the city is frantically searching for more revenue. I can symphathize. Every time the property tax bill comes for my family's property in Hartford it is shocking to see how much the property taxes are and how much they increase each year. It is also shocking to see the significant drop off in property taxes in some suburbs when compared to Hartford. This being said we need this hotel. We cant stand to lose the 135 union jobs put the roughly 70 non union jobs at the hotel. We cant stand to have another large building entirely vacant in the heart of downtown. Finally, the city will be forced to sit out of many competitions for conventions and tournaments whose decisions on where to host events are based on the number of hotel rooms a city has. It has been said over and over Hartford could use more hotel rooms to compete for conventions. I think that can wait until after the economy rebounds. In the meantime we must fight tooth and nail to keep the current number of rooms this city has.
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