Left In Lowell

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya…

The Sun reports that the UML hotel deal is going forward, but the Arena deal not so much.

Work to transform the Doubletree Hotel into the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center is moving right along, but plans for the university to acquire the Tsongas Arena from the city have veered down a rockier road.

“There are a number of factors at play as far as the arena is concerned, regarding both funding and the arena’s deficit,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan. “The whole deal has been contingent on getting $5 million from the state to fund capital improvement at the facility.”

Well, duh. I could have told you this was a bad deal for the state U system, on top of leaving the city with the current debt despite the fact we’ve been paying the deficit and UML got breaks on usage. Of course, nothing right now is good for the city regarding the Arena save a very big plan for turning it around (itself requiring an influx of cash for infrastructure investments), but still. I wondered back when this all came about, who in the University system was going to pay for the Arena and its costs, since it’s gotta come from somewhere. Student fees? Faculty layoffs? Who’s gonna pay?

The Arena remains something of a big expensive football being kicked down the street. The City Council majority pushed and pushed Lynch into making this deal (very publicly), so…now what? Are they going to take blame for it too?

I also still question the idea that the University should be in the business of commercial development with regards to the adjacent parcel. That’s not part of the University’s mission. (And trust me, you do not want an inexperienced entity trying to learn how to do this sort of thing on the fly. That’d be a mess.)

All the solutions about the Arena, I’ve come to believe, suck pretty hard. Keep paying a deficit, or get it taken off our hands and not have to invest more but be stuck with its debt, or spend money on it to make it better and get more development adjacent and bear the short term increased costs in hope of a better return later…all pretty harsh. But it would be nice to recoup the city’s cost in running it at a deficit all this time, if we can.

As to the hotel thing, again, I hope it works out. It’s shameful that UML was forced to house students in Nashua hotels (again leaving me wondering why not the chronically-vacant Doubletree all this time?) and though college kids can be rough, especially with regards to late night drinking, it could be good for downtown. Time will tell.

Tonight is the city council meeting where Councilor Milanazzo has produced a motion to ask for an independent investigation into whether the budget cut to the Assistant to the City Manager was legal by the City’s Charter.

6:30pm, City Hall.

Also, this is your open discussion thread for all things political (or not) as I’m busy this afternoon working another deadline, and the web code is just not cooperating today!