Utilizing interest rate “swaps” is the only way this project could have been financed as built. The convention center is far too expensive to be justified by a market the size of Lancaster’s and the revenue of the “hotel tax”. The construction bonds are so highly leveraged that conventional financing became completely out of the question, there is simply far too much risk.
Had some variation of the original project been built, it might have been feasible. The Queen Street lobby alone, with its costly marble and wood finishes accompanying a massive glass wall and outrageously high ceiling, is far too grandiose and expensive to be justified by the overall capacity of the “integrated facility”. Forcing taxpayers to pay for ALL of the hotel’s meeting space AND its restaurant adds insult as well as injury to the people of Lancaster.
