Living It Up at the Hotel Brookline.
By Jim Conley • May 22nd, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Remember when the Town of Brookline essentially gave away a parking lot on Webster St. so that a local developer could build a hotel there? And remember how all along it was said that the Town needed to be accommodating to the developer because it wasn’t clear that a hotel would be viable in that spot? And remember when the developer sold the hotel to an investment group for $54 million and the Town got nothing?
Remember that?
Well, according to the new owner’s - Hersha Hospitality - 2006 Annual Report, the Webster St. Hotel is one of their top performers. In 2006, they essentially doubled room revenue to $9.6 million and posted “revenue per available room” (the most important measure of a hotel’s financial performance) of $130. And though they serve breakfast only, the Hotel generated $760 thousand in restaurant sales, putting it among the portfolio’s highest earners.
Has the healthy performance of the hotel translated to additional room tax revenue to the Town? We don’t know, because the Commonwealth doesn’t break down the source of tax payments sent to the Town. And we don’t know how much of this revenue comes from temporary student housing (on which no room tax is paid).
One thing is clear, though. The taxpayers of Brookline are left holding the bags on this deal. What else is new?
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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And to what extent are Town residents taking advantage of overnight parking at the Hotel? As I recall, this was one of the benefits to the Town for giving up its parking lot.
Do we know to this day who chiefly negotiated the sweetheart deal for the Hotel development on behalf of the Town? If he/she is still around, what deals is he/she working on currently for the Town? Until I find out, I’m keeping my hand on my wallet.
Today’s TAB features an “OpEd” coauthored by Bob Sperber concerning EDAB which he chairs, offering the Webster Street Hotel as a crowning achievement of EDAB. Were he and/or others at EDAB the ones who chiefly negotiated the sweetheart deal for this development on behalf of the Town? Yes, the Hotel contributes to the Town’s coffers, but consider what it might have contributed had the Town made a better economic deal.
I have on several occasions on this Blog suggested a cost/benefit study of EDAB’s efforts, going back to its establishment. Sperber offers some of the benefits but none of the costs associated with EDAB. And the article’s lauditory remarks concerning the B-2 parcel ring hollow.