The House Finance Committee seemed more concerned about taking care of one of its own, and less concerned about what’s best for Rhode Island taxpayers last week when it signed off on a bill that would force the Convention Center Authority to subsidize a downtown hotel with $17 million in state bonds.
Former state legislator Vincent Mesolella Jr. is the developer for the project. He wants to transform the site of the vacant Fogarty Building at 111 Fountain St. into a hotel with 250 suites and a walking bridge that would connect it to the convention center.
We hope the hotel gets done. But we think that Mesolella – or some other developer – should use private money to do so.
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Gov. Don Carcieri and David A. Duffy, chairman of the Convention Center Authority, oppose the idea of forcing the authority to subsidize the financing of this hotel.
The governor is calling for due diligence to be completed. He would like to see Mesolella provide evidence of commitments on the part of private entities to finance the bulk of what is expected to be a $52 million project.
The state-owned Westin Hotel building should not be held up as a precedent. It was built at a different time, when private interest in bringing a hotel to Providence was non-existent.
Providence is now a different city.
It’s a city that has seen the Biltmore, the Holiday Inn and others spend millions to refurbish their properties. It has seen private investment in projects such as the Marriott Courtyard, the Hotel Providence – and soon, the rehabilitation of the Masonic Temple into a luxury hotel.
So why should Vincent Mesolella Jr. get a special deal?
The Senate should be prepared to correct the House Finance Committee’s mistake and shelve this proposal.
