We can afford a convention hotel??

From the looks of this article just emailed to me, the city is going ahead with a convention hotel:

Developers, hotel chains bid for Kansas City convention center hotel

An undisclosed number of developers and hotel chains submitted bids Monday, hoping to build a convention center hotel in downtown Kansas City.

Assistant City Manager Bob Langenkamp declined to say how many developers or hotel operators submitted proposals. He said the city’s hotel consultant group, C.H. Johnson of Chicago, will review proposals and narrow them down to a short list by mid-November. By early December, Langenkamp said members of the city’s Convention Hotel Steering Committee will begin interviewing selected bidders. The city’s RFP timetable calls for a developer and hotel group to sign letters of intent by February.

It is still unclear how any convention hotel will be financed.

Yeah, no kidding.

In the first place, I thought the city was, if not broke, then running on "low", money-wise, what with having financed the Power & Light project.

Second, I thought we'd been downgraded, too, on the markets, as for our bonds and so on, because of our status.

Come heck or high water, it looks as though we's gonna' gets us a convention hotel, folks.

Link to original post:  http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2010/11/02/developers-chains-bid-for-kc-hotel.html?ed=2010-11-02&s=article_du&ana=e_du_pub