The Trenton Times published the following article on May 15, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack says it’s up to the city to fund transition costs for Trenton Marriott to become Wyndham

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on May 15, 2013 at 11:21 AM

TRENTON — The state Department of Community Affairs told Mayor Tony Mack yesterday that it is up to the city to fund transition costs for the city-owned hotel, Mack said.

Mack met with Tom Neff, director of the DCA’s Division of Local Government Services, to determine if the city needed approval from the state to fund the transition from a Marriott to a Wyndham hotel.

“Tom Neff made it abundantly clear that the DCA is not interested in seeing the hotel close,” mayoral aide Anthony Roberts said in an e-mail.

Neff told the mayor that the hotel funding request made by the administration, which was pulled from the city council docket at their meeting last week, is “within the purview of the city to fund,” Roberts said.

Council pulled a request for another $200,000 for hotel transition costs from the docket after learning the DCA refused to authorize anymore city financing until seeing a clear, concrete, written plan spelling out how the 11-year-old hotel will become profitable and find the estimated $3 million needed for a renovation.

Next month, the hotel’s management company is scheduled to leave the hotel and the Laffayette Yard Community Development Corp., the city agency that oversees the hotel, is still in negotiations to have the hotel re-branded to a Wyndham. The transition is scheduled to happen on June 15.

The Laffayette Yard has said it will cost an estimated $2.3 million to renovate the hotel and another $550,000 for other transitional costs.

Mack, when reached by phone yesterday, said he and the administration made a presentation to Neff and other DCA officials at their meeting. Laffayette board president Joyce Kersey also attended the meeting.

Kersey declined to comment about the meeting, saying she wanted to update the other board members of the mayor’s proposal at their meeting scheduled for tonight before speaking publicly.

Roberts said the $200,000 for the most recent request for transitional funding is allotted for in the 2013 budget. He did not address where the additional amount to fund all of the transition costs would come from.

When asked where in the budget the funding for the transition is allotted, Mack said he was unsure.

“I don’t know the specifics of the budget document,” he said.

Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward said she would like to see a full proposal from the administration on how the total transition expenses will be funded before approving any more spending on the hotel.

“I think they could have done a better job at bringing the key people to the table,” Holly-Ward said. “Then they could have looked at the alteratives.”

She said if the funding is already in the budget, the mayor should come to council and point out where the funding is.

“Nobody told us where (the money) would come from,” she said.

Mack extended an invitation to council members to meet with him today to discuss the hotel and related issues.

Holly-Ward said she would not attend the meeting with Mack, saying he should come to a council meeting or send a memo regarding the funding proposal because it would be a more transparent process.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.