The report by Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle will be available Thursday pending notification of stakeholders who funded the project.
The council meets at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
“For transparency, they need to hear what we heard behind closed doors,” Councilwoman Marsha Porter said during the council’s special called meeting Monday.
The council did not discuss the report following an hour and a half executive session.
“Citizens will hear the truth from a third party, not people or individuals with any kind of motive,” Councilman Howard Wood said.
Jones Lang LaSalle specializes in commercial real estate and investment management that helps clients buy, build, occupy, manage, and invest in a wide range of properties across various industries, such as retail, industrial, hotel, residential and technology.
The hotel and convention center, which opened in May 2023, is the largest taxpayer-funded economic development project in the city. The more than 380,000-square-foot facility includes 250 full-service rooms and several large conference and event rooms.
However, due to missed economic projections, the project has been dogged by cost overruns and multimillion-dollar taxpayer bailouts.
In February 2024, S&P Global Ratings lowered the credit rating on the city’s first-lien and second-lien hotel revenue bonds to BB- and CCC+. In May, analysts with S&P Global downgraded the credit rating of the city’s first lien two more notches to a B from a BB-. The ratings indicate the city’s ability to repay the debt.
According to the June 3 report, while analysts affirmed its B rating on the corporation’s first lien, they lowered the rating on the corporation’s second-lien hotel revenue bonds by one notch to CCC from CCC+. On Oct. 14, S&P Global released a new report that affirmed its rating on the first lien but lowered the second lien from CCC to CCC-.
