Quandary: What comes first, the events or the lodging?

We did a story not long ago looking at the viability of bringing industry to Fremont.

The catch-22, we found, was that natural gas lines don't extend to areas where industrial complexes or manufacturing facilities could be built. So the companies that would come were reluctant to without the gas lines in place, and the gas company has said it won't extend the lines unless it is guaranteed that a business is coming there and the lines won't lie dormant.

Somebody's got to budge first, right?

Well, the city and county met Wednesday to discuss shared business, and the chief topic quickly became apparent. The new $20 million convention center being built out on Wayne Memorial Drive is near completion, but the Maxwell Center is having trouble booking acts and events to come because it has no hotel nearby. The plan all along, it seems, was to build a nice hotel and perhaps a restaurant near the center so that acts, vendors and visitors coming to attend the functions at the facility would have somewhere nice to stay  that was also conveniently located.

Well, so far it seems no hotel means no bookings, and no bookings means no hotel or restaurant.

So what kind of incentives or concessions are the city and county going to have to conjure up to make the deal more attractive to bring the hotel and restaurant developers to the table? And are we all on one check or is the bill going to be split?

One thing is for sure, like the folks out on the fringes of Fremont -- at least for the time being -- it doesn't seem like anybody is cooking with gas.

Published in Editorials on January 10, 2018 10:54 PM