The City of Greensboro released a study that said the proposed downtown Wyndham Hotel would generate 29.3 Million Dollars a year in economic impact. We now know that developer Randall Kaplan provided the numbers for the study and that the numbers he provided assumptions that can only be described as falsified before being entered into the IMPLAN software by Jeff Sovich, Neighborhood Planning Coordinator, City of Greensboro.
Allow me to be clear, I am implying no wrongdoing on the part of Mr Sovich, whose job it is to enter accurate figures given to him by developers and calculate economic impact based on honest assumptions.
Why would Randall Kaplan do this? Two reasons: to entice the City of Greensboro into $8 in incentives and to use the incentive package to attract other investors-- anything to keep from risking his own money. You see, in that way Kaplan makes money even if the hotel goes broke.
Watch the local blogosphere, this blog and Greensboro101.com for updates.
Update: I'm now being told that Andy Scott and Jim Westmoreland provided data as well.
