By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council is going to let City Manager Jeff Cantrell try to make a deal with the owner of the Atrium Hotel to get it under city control. Christopher Parker with the NJCAA came to the meeting while he was in town to express his support for making a move.
"From my seat as the President and CEO of the national organization, I think it's critical," Parker said. "I hate that our teams are staying an hour away and not spending their dollars right here in Hutchinson, when the tournament's in Hutchinson. Having that convention center, having some type of more available hotel rooms, again, we've maxed out and that's just in a year when there aren't a lot of people coming in from out of town."
Parker also alluded to potential future opportunities for the city if it can get those additional rooms.
"If we want to bring more tournaments here, we're going to need that space," Parker said. "Those are commitments we can make as those opportunities come forward. I would highly encourage all of you to evaluate that and to give a blessing for moving forward with anything that you can."
The goal is to ultimately pay for the improvements with a transient guest tax increase of 1%, but there may or may not need to be bonding for the demolition of the old hotel depending on how quickly a developer could be found for a potential project.
"There's some occasions where you could even use temporary notes to front fund a project like this," said City Manager Jeff Cantrell. "Normally, those are short term, 36 months is about the most you see on those, but you might even be able to use those to blend into the streamlined collections, anticipating that 1% addition."
This would take the transient guest tax from 7% to 8% in the community, but that would still leave Hutchinson competitive in that rate with the close in communities that would be competing for conventions and the like.
"There are at least 10 cities in Kansas that have a higher transient guest tax than Hutchinson," said Chamber CEO Debra Teufel. "I think some were in the order of 9% and then there were a fair number that were at 8% and then some that match our 7%. I think, if you increase by 1%, it would still keep us in line with the competition in Kansas and we'd still be less than some."
It's not that fixing the Atrium would likely fix the whole lodging issue, as a new developer would probably build a hotel portion with fewer rooms than the Atrium previously had.
"We think the amenities of this convention center still have value," Teufel said. "I think what Jeff is proposing, to acquire the property, would not be scraping the whole property clear, but maintaining that 30,000 square feet of convention space that's already built that does have some value and then building a hotel adjacent to it that's probably in the 100 hotel room space."
The Atrium had over 200 rooms when it was operating. State Fair General Manager Ed Berger also talked about how the activities at the fairgrounds draw guests as well and not just in September.
"The Kansas State Fair is a strong draw for ag tourism throughout the year, not just the ten days of the fair," Berger said. "Don't just look at those ten days. Look at 360 days, that's what that's all about. We have events, everything from Skills USA to livestock shows. A couple weeks ago, we had a horse show, we had a rabbit show."
Berger put a bottom line to it. He's concerned about the fair's finances if they can't bring in the crowds they need for their events due to a lack of hotel rooms.
The council would still have to look at and approve any agreement made between the City Manager and the current owner, as well as any potential development agreement when it occurs and those moves would happen at public meetings where input would be sought.
It's also important to remember that the transient guest tax or the bed tax would be paid by the people that come and use the hotels in the city, the general population of Hutchinson would not incur that tax, unless they chose to rent a room for the night for some reason.