Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Hotel Coronado Update

Posted By on Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 10:50 AM

Dave Devine files the following report from yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting:

The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to move forward with bidding on downtown's Coronado Hotel. For the last two decades, the building has been used as affordable housing for low-income residents. But in October, the Coronado was put up for sale by its co-owner, the Downtown Development Corporation, with bids being accepted through Dec. 10.

Board Chairman Richard Elias pushed the county's plan to purchase the hotel, which he said "makes sound real-estate sense."

"We don't want to continue to lose affordable housing," Elias added.

Supervisor Ann Day cast the lone dissenting vote. Day argued that the purchase was being rushed and too many questions were unanswered. Day said the county's affordable-housing committee had yet to discuss the issue and the current housing policy is the disperse affordable units, not concentrate them in one place.

Elias said that preserving existing affordable housing units is better than trying to expand the number.

The board will take another look at the issue at its Dec. 8 meeting.


You can read more about the Coronado controversy in this week's TW.