EARLIER: Suburbs question need for tax bailout for Dayton Convention Center
The facility would be located near a hotel as part of a 25-acre mixed use development – called Austin West — now in the conceptual stages, a Dillin LLC project manager said.
Early plans for Austin West, proposed for the southwest quadrant of the interchange, indicate a 27,000-square-foot “meeting/events center,” records show. The development would also include restaurants, office space, residential units, a hotel and a park.
Earlier this month two Miami Twp. trustees criticized a plan to a create a path for a 3 percent lodging tax hike across Montgomery County to fund renovations to the Dayton Convention Center.
The proposal involves a provision in the recently approved state budget bill that allows the county to create an authority to oversee the downtown convention center, now owned by Dayton.
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The created authority would have the ability to increase the current 3 percent county hotel/motel bed tax up to 3 percent more, according to the budget bill provision.
Miami Twp. has about 27 percent of the lodging rooms in the county, Miami Twp. Trustee Don Culp said, but the lodging tax plan to help the Dayton Convention Center was not communicated to local leaders there.
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Fellow Trustee John Morris also called the downtown convention center a failed facility whose time has passed.
While not specifically mentioning the Austin West proposal, a statement from Miami Twp. Administrator Ron Hess earlier this month stated in part: “This tax creates an added burden to the hospitality enterprises found in Miami Twp. and throughout Montgomery County. It also puts the growth of Austin Landing at increased risk with no added benefit.”
-MORE COVERAGE ON THIS ISSUE:
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