Tourism council sees upside of Palm Beach County scandals

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Tourism council sees upside of Palm Beach County scandals
By PAUL QUINLAN

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, January 15, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH — The tourism brain trust had reasons to both cry and cheer Wednesday about the latest political scandal to sweep Palm Beach County.

On one hand, the more than four-year effort to build a hotel at the downtown convention center collapsed amid the corruption investigation of former County Commissioner Mary McCarty, virtually guaranteeing a delay of several more years as the center continues bleeding red ink.


But on the other hand, a possible silver lining: Last week's indictment of McCarty and the recent arrest of financier Bernard Madoff wrote new chapters in Palm Beach County's story of political and financial corruption. This reinforces the "aura" that the area is home to the rich, powerful and connected - if not the honest.

Some on the county's Tourist Development Council wondered Wednesday whether the recent ink parade of stories about money, power and corruption could be plied in marketing Palm Beach County to tourists.

"In a strange way, it probably helps us," said the council's James Bronstein. "If that's what brings people in, then we should play off it, in a way."

Without any specific mention of McCarty, Wednesday's discussion drifted from how to resurrect the $100 million hotel project to a broader, more philosophical question: Can we measure the positive or negative impact of all these scandals that put us on the map?

Almost every news story concerning the Madoff scandal made ample reference to the wealth and mystique of the island of Palm Beach, where many of those in Madoff's social circle lost fortunes. To a lesser extent, the McCarty scandal also burnished Palm Beach County's corruption credentials, as she became the fifth local politician in five years to face federal prison time.

To be sure, nobody argued that the corruption itself has done any good.

The group estimated that it will take at least four or five years to open a hotel at the convention center in West Palm Beach, given the dismal economy and the time needed to select a new developer and then design and build the project.

In October, commissioners voted to scrap their 2004 hotel development deal with Delray Beach-based Ocean Properties. That vote occurred amid the federal corruption investigation, which ultimately concluded that McCarty and imprisoned former Commissioner Warren Newell had taken free and "grossly discounted" hotel rooms from Ocean before and after they voted to award the lucrative contract.

McCarty resigned last week and said she plans to plead guilty to honest-services fraud.

The convention center has been in "critical need" of an adjacent hotel since the county built and opened the $83 million facility in 2003, according to Convention and Visitors Bureau President Jorge Pesquera.

Each year since, the center has lost between $850,000 and $1.2 million, in large part because it struggles to compete with centers of similar size that offer adjoining hotels.

Restarting the effort to build a hotel "should be very high up" on the county's priority list, Pesquera told the tourist council.

Several new developers have stepped forward with offers, although most also have sought "significant" subsidies to help finance construction, said Deputy County Administrator Verdenia Baker.

"We're just not in a position to do that," she said.

Meanwhile, the county's corruption headlines could tie in with the theme of some of the county's recent advertising campaigns.

A full-page ad in the state's most recent vacation guide featured an invitation that touts the county as home to the "people you read about on the society page." It says they leave behind "great culture, museums, sunsets, restaurants and hotels" once they "leave for the Hamptons or Aspen or wherever it is they go."

Even if they're going to, say, jail?

"As crazy as it sounds, the Madoff thing, because it's tied to that aura ... it has a positive effect," Pesquera said.