2 thoughts on “Gaylord, Gaylord, GAYLOOORD. Ga…D’OH”

1. Lots of questions remain to be answered. Perhaps, the largest is will the State of Colorado be subsidizing a huge business in Aurora that directly competes with existing businesses in surrounding cities like Denver?

   Gaylord CEO tap dances, but the obvious answer is yes. If the Gaylord project gets approval under the Regional Tourism Act, it will receive a sweet, sweet deal.

   The boundaries of the regional tourism zone are what determines the amount of state sales tax Gaylord would receive for eligible costs (which includes pretty much everything from construction, to legal, to interest payments). If the zone is just Aurora, Gaylord would be eligible for a portion of the sales tax earned above the base rate of the previous year. If the zone is broader and extends into unincorporated areas, the state sales tax revenue could also be siphoned from Arapahoe, Douglas and Adams counties.

   The amount of state sales tax given to Gaylord could be $50 million.

   Interestingly, within the regional tourism zone, for example, Aurora, additional tax incentive financing incentives could be offered. Aurora could then dedicate future local government tax revenues, from the city and the counties (even though the counties aren’t in the tourism zone).

   The timeframe for these incentives? For the RTA program, 30 years (or more with good excuses). For the local tax increment financing – anywhere from 5 to 25 years.

   And Aurora holds all the cards. Surrounding local governments are left scratching their heads wondering what the f*ck just happened?!

   Confused yet?  This only accounts for some of the incentives offered to Gaylord. We haven’t even discussed the lost business to downtown Denver in terms of conventions, hospitality revenues, entertainment revenues and more.

   If Gaylord wants to come to Colorado this bad, make them pay their own way.

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2. “We do not compete with convention centers. Do convention centers try to steal our customers occasionally? Yes. And do we talk to the same customers sometimes? Yes, we do. … [But] the downtown convention center in Denver need not worry about what we’re doing in Aurora.”

   Folks I’ve worked in hospitality industry on both sides (from venue & being the client) and Gaylord unequivocally DOES take business away from Convention Centers.

   Gaylord’s model is to build overwhelming meeting room space, adjoin that to huge sleeping room space, and build so many outlets in-house that there is little to no incentive for event attendees to leave.

   Denver’s decision to locate DIA 25 miles outside of town was made to allow for build-up & out.  Ideally they should have cheap light rail trucking folks back & forth but rather than spend $s to do what’s right they’re gonna piss away $s and give away the house.

   Denver & Aurora are being led by the tempting smell of room night taxes (far easier to tax visitors than residents) but what is gonna be the draw to this mini-Denver on the plains?  

   LoDo, Cherry Creek, 16th St and most of Denver aren’t gonna see more business from all these extra room nights so overall economic impact just will not be borne out.  Gaylord is gonna soak Denver/Aurora for $s, drain conventioneers dry, and hauling ass back to Nashville w/ their bags of moolah.    

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