Have you ever wanted to build your own hotel and not have to pay for it? Move to Lynchburg!
City’s Bluffwalk tab nears $1 million mark
My mind truly boggles. Guaranteeing a $3.2 million dollar loan to a private investor wanks right up there with Buena Vista building their own golf course. I just checked the Craddock-Terry Hotel’s prices out and I just don’t understand why they aren’t at full capacity. Gee, you would think they’d be turning people away because their “Best Available” rate is only $159.
OddsMakers on this business venture going bankrupt and sticking the Lynchburg taxpayers with the entire bill: 97%
Well what i see is. Lynchburg is getting into the hotel business like Danville did with the Coleman Market Place (shopping center business)Which is better to have a hotel or a shopping center.
Lynchburg is in a very odd place. Liberty has grown to be a national institution over the past 15 years. They’ve also had some success with economic development and seen their population (and it’s wealth) grow over that same time frame. The “Hill City” of old may be fading away into a different beast.
The City has to decide whether it wants to be a true “urban” jurisdiction or maintain its “small city” feel from the past. By “urban”, does it want to make a push to go to 80,000 or so residents? Once you get past 80,000 folks, cities really do become a different beast. Lynchburg is estimated to have 73,000 residents right now. This project and some other community development projects show that the city political and business elites definitely want to become more “urbanized” by offering more opportunity, shopping, night life, and amenities. The questions are: 1.) Is there enough money in the area to sustain this type of community vision? and 2.) If there is, can the elites get the populace to buy in to the vision?
I think Lynchburg’s choices over the next 5-10 years are going to be extremely interesting. Roanoke has always been seen as the leading city of Western Virginia. Lynchburg is really trying to get there. Of course, IMHO, they are going to have to do a much better job of regionalism with Campbell and Amherst Counties to achieve the goals that the elites would like to see.