By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington doesn’t plan to put in any up-front money for a proposed downtown hotel and conference center, but one alderman said the city would still have to assume some financial risk if it agrees to some public financing.

Alderwoman Amelia Buragas told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the city has to figure out to what extent it will support the project.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Buragas on WJBC.

“We need to be as cautious as possible,” Buragas said. “We don’t want any optimistic here. We want to be cautious, we want to be considerate. We want to make sure the numbers are likely to hold up.”

Developer Jeff Giebelhausen has requested $13 million in tax rebates from the city which he says it necessary to make it a viable project. Buragas has suggested the city cover $8 million to $11 million. She said there’s no way to avoid risk.

“If we do nothing, that might be the riskiest proposition, because if we do nothing these properties will continue to underperform and we will continue to allow our tax base to be eroded,” Buragas said.

She added that will leave properties that would eventually have to be demolished.

Buragas said she doesn’t believe the conference center which would include four restaurants would not hurt existing businesses, based on a review of the project by the city’s consultants.

“(Consultants) believe revenue projections are primarily ir not whole new revenue,” Buragas said. “So they are not tapping into an existing revnuew stream, they are not taking away business from somewhere else.”

She added opening a new restaurant anywhere is a risky proposition.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].