Over on my LilburnDwellings blog a few weeks ago I wrote about Big League Dreams possibly coming to Lilburn, GA. At that time, the city was thinking about spending $450,000 (refundable, according to the City) for a feasibility study from Big League Dreams regarding building a facility here in Lilburn.
Last week, the City approved the feasibility study based on a market study conducted by BLD. According to the market study, Gwinnett is ripe for their type of facility. However, there seem to be some problems that I see in the study... running counter to the goals of the facility. The most glaring is that the City of Lilburn wants to bring people here to eat in our restaurants and stay in local hotels, but according to the study, the vast majority of users will be from within Gwinnett County. Another item (that I didn't see mentioned in the study) is that there aren't many hotel rooms or a variety of restaurants within the city limits... where it would increase tax revenue.
There is more information here on the Gwinnett Daily Post.
I think that there needs to be a LOT more public input before the city commits to $20,000,000 for one of these facilities. And I think that there need to be some studies done apart from BLD... they have little risk, they would build the facility, but the city would pay for it, then BLD operates it... and charges the city to do it. Even if it falls radically short of expectations, BLD can still profit.
Related articles
- Big League Dreams in Lilburn? (lilburndwellings.com)
from LaneBailey.com
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