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Bettendorf: Events center funding gets public hearing

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By Barb Ickes | Tuesday, August 07, 2007 | No comments posted

Without discussion Tuesday night, the Bettendorf City Council scheduled Aug. 21 for a public hearing on a financing plan for the new downtown events center.

After months of negotiations officials from the city and the Isle of Capri have reached a tentative agreement for filling a $10 million hole in the events center’s financing package.

Under the current proposal, the Isle would pay $666,000 a year for 10 years to make up for a gap in debt service on construction of the $25 million center. It is to be connected by skywalk to the Isle’s new hotel.

The city is to build the events center and turn it over to the Isle to manage. It is not expected to be a moneymaker, but rather to attract more hotel and gaming guests to the Isle’s riverfront campus.

Meanwhile, members of the Scott County Regional Authority, or SCRA, are likely to vote on their pending commitment to the new funding plans at one of two upcoming board meetings.

The group had been on the hook to come up with $1 million annually for 10 years to help pay off the events center debt, but conditions changed. The SCRA was going to use increases in gaming revenue it collects from the Isle for the events center, but the increases did not materialize.

As an alternative, city and Isle officials came up with the new financing plan, which asks for $333,000 a year for a decade from SCRA to go with the $666,000 covered by the Isle of Capri.

The group’s chairman, Jim Mezvinsky, said the SCRA meets Aug. 16 and Sept. 20.

“I am sure at one of those meetings we will vote on it,” he said Tuesday.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at

(563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.