Planned BCEC expansion may result in higher hotel taxes

Plans to expand convention center could include hotel tax increase
By Thomas Grillo | Monday, November 23, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is expected to reveal plans this morning to expand the complex on Summer Street to include more hotel rooms and meeting space at the Seaport location.

A source told the Herald that the proposal includes expansion of the center’s existing space on Summer Street and an addition to the Westin Waterfront or a second hotel connected to the center.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the plan is a hotel tax increase to pay for the project, the source said.

“There’s not much appetite for a tax hike,” said the industry veteran who declined to be identified. “At a time when hotel tax revenues are plummeting, hotels are laying off people and business travelers are concerned about prices, hiking the tax won’t go over well on Beacon Hill.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who is at home following surgery to repair a knee injury he sustained in a fall earlier this month, will not attend the morning press conferences, according to the mayor’s spokeswoman.

Dorothy Joyce said the mayor would not comment on the plan because he is recovering.

This summer, Menino told the Herald that he had not been briefed on the project, but noted that an expansion of the convention center is a “great opportunity for us.”

“The convention center is doing extremely well and they’re trying to figure out how to be competitive down the road,” Menino said at the time.
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