Work will begin soon on San Luis hotel, developers say
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — The investors in a corporation that plans to build a hotel and commercial complex say they are close to lining up the remaining financing needed for a project that city officials are counting on to spur the San Luis economy.
The partners in San Luis Commercial Holdings, Ross Wait and Andis Dimants, say they will be ready to begin work on the six-acre complex once it qualifies for benefits through the federal government’s New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC).
The corporation wants to develop a commercial complex with a hotel with 80 to 90 rooms as its centerpiece. A self-service gas station and store, a restaurant and another business yet to be determined would also be part of the development planned on a sixacre site on the northwest corner of County 22nd and Main streets.
As an incentive to bring the project to San Luis, the council a year ago granted a 50-percent reduction in the city sales tax that is expected to save the businesses in the complex a little more than $1.82 million over 15 years.
A study by a consultant for the city projected that in that same 15-year period, the complex would benefit the city to the tune of nearly $3.6 million, in the form of jobs, sales tax revenue collected even at the reduced rate, plus other benefits.
Appearing recently before the council to report on the status of the project, Wait and Dimants said the final piece of the financing package depends on the project qualifying for the NMTC, a program administered by the Treasury Department that provides federal tax credits for business and real estate investments
in low-income communities.
They said the project did not qualify for the tax credits a year ago due to the program’s financial limits. This year the program was at risk of expiring before finally being renewed by state legislators in March. The partners said they have since gotten verbal assurances that the San Luis project would qualify for the credits, although they have not yet received formal confirmation of that.
Wait, a commercial developer based in the Yuma area, said the partners are committed to moving forward with the project. “That challenge is (getting) the final piece of the financial puzzle. We have virtually all of the pieces, but we lack the last one, and we are focused on that.”
The financing phase of the project “has been like climbing a hill,” Wait said. “We hadn’t realized how high that hill was, but we are getting there. We feel positive we will do it.”
The complex will be developed “as soon as possible,” said Dimants, a real estate agent based in Illinois. “We are moving ahead as soon as we can on all fronts.”
San Luis Mayor Gerardo Sanchez said appearing before the council allowed the developers to reaffirm their commitment to the project.
“You go out on the street and people ask about the hotel,” Sanchez said, “and all the better that it is them who come here to tell how they’re going ahead with their plans.”
Apart from granting the sales tax credit for the commercial complex, Sanchez noted that the city has also allocated $500,000 toward a new sewer project that would serve not only the businesses but homes in the area.
According to estimates made previously by city officials, the project could have an effect of $20 million on the economy and create 100 jobs during construction and 50 jobs permanently.