Questions Without Answers Regarding The Hamister Hotel DealAugust 11, 2015 |
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After two years of delays, will developer/large scale campaign contributor Mark Hamister start building his hotel after the (Sept. 10) primary? By getting parking lot operator John Guido off the city-owned site just before the primary (Aug. 10), will Mayor Paul Dyster campaign that Hamister is going to start building after the primary? With Guido out but with Hamister not closing on the city-owned land until after the primary, will Dyster tell voters that while Guido is gone Hamister won’t start building until after the primary? If Dyster loses the primary to Democratic opponent Glenn Choolokian, will Hamister still build the hotel? Since the Hamister hotel went from an upscale hotel to a midscale and comparatively small Hyatt Place hotel, will the next mayor (if it is someone other than Dyster) try to develop the city-owned property into something that would be an attraction as opposed to a mid-scaled hotel? Will the next mayor (if not Dyster) owe any political favors to Hamister who has paid large sums to Gov. Cuomo and supported Dyster’s council candidates with lavish donations? If Dyster wins reelection, does Hamister have to build? Between now and the primary, will Hamister do more than just move some earth around on the lot but actually starts laying a footer for the foundation? The August eviction of Guido is early enough for Hamister to build the foundation and frame and enclose his fairly small hotel this year and work on it over the winter. Will he? If no footer goes in this year, is it fairly clear that this is a charade to aid Dyster and the $45,000 in state taxpayer money paid to Guido as a “goodwill” gesture merely compensation to Guido for his moving out in August to make way for a “golden shovel” press event to aid Dyster’s reelection? How does the state’s USA Niagara have the right to give $45,000 to Guido as a “goodwill gesture” when it is not contractually obligated? Is that illegal? Can someone give away $45,000 of public money for “good will”? If Hamister doesn’t start his project by Sept. 30, will the lease goes back to Guido or will Hamister wind up with the lucrative parking lot? In the end are there not really only two scenarios?: if Dyster wins the primary, Hamister starts pouring the footer and builds a hotel for real or Dyster and Hamister do a “shuck and jive” – move some earth around and declare that it is too late in the year to start building but next year they will build the hotel in earnest. If Dyster loses the primary, will anyone care if Hamister builds or not? Finally Hamister is claiming the property is going to cost $35.7 million for a 128 room Hyatt Hotel- about double the true cost. Did he inflate the price to double the taxpayer subsidy? USA Niagara gives $1 of taxpayer subsidy for every $9 invested by the private developer. By inflating the price did Hamister double the subsidy for himself? After all Hamister is only building an 18 million hotel (true market cost). But he is claiming (astonishingly) that it is going to cost him $35 million to build a 128 room Hyatt Place. Could anyone get away with this preposterous number anywhere but in Niagara Falls? Will any lender buy into the massively inflated price and lend the money to Hamister? Everywhere else a (inexpensive-to-build) midscale Hyatt Place costs no more than $140,000 per room (with amenities). Hamister is claiming it is going to cost him $280,000 per room to build (double). Why is he doing that? Will he ever build? Was the recent eviction of Guido from the lot merely for show to pretend to build a hotel? Time will tell. But it’s a funny thing: that “time” needed for telling will conveniently take us right past the primary.
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