Why is it only the same small local few that are always the beneficiaries of these rich publicly subsidized deals? This question arises from the current consideration of the City of Memphis acquiring the Sheraton Convention Center hotel. 

Because Memphis is closed for business and taxpayers pay up for that. A City Council refrain is that it’s the fault of the mean ole Sheraton “out of town investors" that requires the City to acquire the property. And its a local cultural requirement that the public believes such disconnected from reality perversions of truth as "mean ole out of town investors". Other culturally adopted perversions include "Memphis as the most generous city in the country" and "Memphis would be Jackson, MS., if it were not for Blackjack Fred Smith." 

In Memphis it’s always these external enemies like out-of-town investors, the State, a recently departed Mayor but never the same small elitist local few. But the Downtown elitists cannot run from these statistics:

1.5M trolley riders in 2012 and zero today and a Sheraton that has fallen in value from $67M in 2017 to $22M today in a non-depressed market. Do What???

And have you seen Carlisle’s Cutbank Bluff on the Riverfront delivered by the elitist MRPP? Cutbank looks like a blighted lot and was supposed to be a showpiece! Seems the Carlisle’s would either want or have an explanation one way or another on Cutbank. Did the Carlisle’s deliver on their $1.5M MRPP pledge? Seems if they did deliver on their pledge the Carlisles would be publicly upset.

But taxpayers get no explanation regarding a blighted eyesore in Carlisle Cutbank Bluff that was part of the elitist led $60M MRPP Tom Lee Park renovation. And is anyone going to ask why the Sheraton deal fell through with the local team that included Chance Carlisle and Carolyn Hardy? Not that we will ever know the truth, but the question should be asked.

Keep in mind, taxpayers have been generous to the Carlisle One Beale development. The development got an estimated $27M tax abatement, a $1M storefront grant and a $10M garage loan at 2% for 50 yrs. The former really works out to be a $10M grant for a private garage.

And then there is Carolyn Hardy. Hardy was Chair of a Chamber Board of Directors that closed off access to bylaws to their members, kicked people out without cause and botched the workforce development system. And it seems Hardy gets honored every other month with some honoraria or board appointment.

This time Carlisle and Hardy are potentially going to be rewarded for not getting their Sheraton deal closed, while being named as the public operators of the Sheraton upon City of Memphis acquisition. It’s always the same small few getting massive public support.

The above was taken from Mayor Young’s presentation to the Memphis City Council. The closed Memphis culture was evident In Mayor Young’s presentation with the assertion of local operators and developers for the hotel in concert with the $22M public purchase of the Sheraton.

Seems the former local requirement has been the whole goal all along, as Memphis has seen the departure of Hard Rock, which corresponded with their rejected bid for a full service hotel on Beale, and now the Sheraton owners departing after their investment plans were entirely disrupted by the publicly subsidized pursuit of a Loews Hotel, a direct Sheraton competitor.

Local only is fine up to a point but not when it involves supporting a $250M convention center. And when the lack of competition drives public costs up, due to a lack of competition, and property values down due to a lack of organic national demand, taxpayers lose. That’s what happens to operational costs going up with only one local option in the Carlise and Hardy team and what has happened with property values with the lack of organic national demand with the Sheraton plummeting in value from $67M in 2017 to $22M today. The fact is that if Memphis were not closed for business, the City would have 2 full-service hotels that were new or fully renovated downtown operating today.

The refrain by City Council is to blame the external mean ole out of town investors. There should be no doubt, given the riverfront, that the collapse of downtown is home cookin. The type of elitist home cookin the City Council won’t oversee or check with elitist running Downtown and the City of Memphis into the ground, costing the local economy billions. In fact, it’s just like the elitist ran public safety into the ground, with massive benefit cuts that sent trained officers moving out of town.

As far as Mayor Young’s Gaslighting presentation, there are not going to be any material proceeds from a sale of the Sheraton to a non-profit. Nor will there be material operational profits generated for the City with a hotel project involving a non-profit building owner, developer, and operator. Annual profits might reach the $2,000 that was left over after the Depot ripoff.

At the same time, there are likely no other options, given that Memphis is closed for business, thereby eliminating suitors from the national market. So, stabilizing the property with municipal assistance is likely the only option. And, oh yeah, while feeding the same small few that have helped to drive Memphis into the ground.

What’s happening locally is that the leadership legacy of spooners Blackjack Fred Smith and Mr. Memphis Pitt Hyde is front and center as the next generation of elitists are publicly spooned into place…..