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PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (AP) -- Pleasant Grove city officials have asked Utah County commissioners for tax money to help fund a hotel and convention center.
The city is purchasing 37 acres of land off of the Pleasant Grove interchange on Interstate 15 for the hotel and convention center. Plans for restaurants, a corporate center and an auto mall have also been made for an additional 13-acre parcel of land.
City officials offered the land to John Q. Hammons Hotels and Resorts as an incentive for choosing Pleasant Grove as the site of the project. The city proposed an agreement with the county that would return a portion of taxes generated by the convention center and surrounding businesses to the city.
The taxes would help pay off a bond issuance that will cost about $35 million over 25 years.
"We think our proposal is fairly straightforward," Pleasant Grove Mayor Mike Daniels.
Pleasant Grove wants the county to give the city one-third of the transient room tax from the hotel, all of the restaurant tax generated by the project and a flat rate of $85,000 per year to compensate for other restaurant business generated outside of the project.
"The justification is there are going to be many, many other restaurants coming to that intersection on the other three quadrants (of the project)," said Richard Bradford, Pleasant Grove economic development director. "Rather than anticipate what those collections would be, the item being negotiated is they would just have a flat amount."
All totaled, the city is looking to get about $18 million from the county. City officials proposed the plan to county commissioners last week.
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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
