Official Statement on Faculty Center Demolition and Replacement Raises Interesting Questions

In yesterday’s post on this blog about the proposed hotel/conference center that would replace the Faculty Center, the most recent statement on the project from the administration was included as an update/link. The Center is shown here on the right, back in the day (when budgets were flush).

That latest statement is puzzling as it refers to the consultant’s report on the project and yet seems to contradict it. The consultant seemed to assume that there would be outside (non-UCLA) business conducted at the hotel/conference center. The consultant’s report had estimates of taxes to be paid. However, the most recent statement from the powers-that-be at UCLA says there will be no commercial business – because then the hotel/conference center would have to pay taxes and tax-exempt financing would not be available.

Here are some quotes on that issue from yesterday’s declaration:

“If you’re a family from Chicago coming to L.A. to go to Disneyland, you won’t be guests at UCLA’s residential conference center,” Morabito said. “But if you’re a faculty member from the University of Chicago, and you’re coming here to give a seminar or visit with UCLA colleagues, if you’re coming to use our libraries or for a conference, then you’ll be welcome.

…In any case, tax laws prevent UCLA from operating a private business such as hotel, said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor for budget, finance and capital programs. “UCLA has to abide by these private-use restrictions in order to be able to use tax-exempt financing,” Olsen said.

The new statement thus raises interesting questions:

If the consultant assumed there would be commercial business, but now there won’t be, wouldn’t the consultant’s estimates of occupancy rates be too high?

If UCLA pledges to take only UCLA business at its hotel/conference center, doesn’t that still divert business away from commercial hotels in the area that now handle that business? If so, doesn’t that reduce tax revenue from those hotels going to local jurisdictions?

Exactly what is commercial-prohibited (non-UCLA) business? What is the status of the following examples, commercial-prohibited or UCLA?

– Are relatives and friends coming to a student’s graduation commercial-prohibited business or UCLA business?

– If someone on UCLA business – say a guest speaker in a campus program – wants to stay some extra days before or after the official event for personal/touristic reasons – is that commercial-prohibited business?

– If a UCLA faculty or staff member wants to put up a guest here on personal/touristic business, will that be allowed or is it commercial-prohibited business?

– If a retired faculty or staff who now lives out of town wants to come to LA and stay at the hotel for personal/touristic reasons, is that commercial-prohibited business?

– Can a graduate of UCLA who now lives out of town stay at the hotel for personal/touristic reasons or is that commercial-prohibited business?

– If someone coming from out of town to an early-morning program/event or a late evening program/event at UCLA wants to stay overnight, is that commercial-prohibited business? (The UCLA Anderson forecast conference starts around 7:30 am so folks from the Bay Area might come down the night before, for example. Concerts and other performances on campus often end late in the evening.)

– If parents are taking high school seniors on college tours and want to visit UCLA, could they stay at the hotel? Or is that commercial-prohibited business because the senior is only a possible applicant for enrollment?

– If a non-UCLA individual wants to stay at the hotel to visit someone at the UCLA hospital, is that commercial-prohibited business?

You can “Bet your Life” – as Groucho old TV show was entitled, that there will be interesting questions and observations such as these at the upcoming April 6th meeting: