UCLA Luskin Conference Center Missing Data, Analysis and Dialogue: Send it Back!
Laura Lake, Ph.D., Co-President, Save Westwood Village A Business-Community Alliance Dedicated to Quality Revitalization in Westwood Village (Established 1997), SaveWestwoodVillage@hotmail.com UC Regents Meeting, San Francisco, March 28, 2012 If Westwood thrives, so will UCLA. The Luskin gift can be the catalyst for a vibrant Westwood Village and successful UCLA conference program: Location on campus makes no sense: visiting faculty want to explore Westwood and Los Angeles, not hang out on campus. Build a 45,000 SF Luskin Conference Center without a hotel near the new Westwood Subway stop on Wilshire or the Uberroth Building on Le Conte without any debt and save the 754 parking spaces in Structure 6 next to Pauley Pavilion. Create conference-hosting infrastructure. UCLA has a huge inventory of banquet and conference facilities, but no conference-hosting infrastructure. Use a portion of the Luskin gift to create one-stop venue selection and support services for faculty. Let the private sector take the risks of operating hotels: W Hotel, Hotel Angeleno, Luxe Hotel, Royal Palace, Hilgard House and the proposed 250 room luxury hotel approved for Wilshire and Gayley can be competitive with the $224/night price upon opening in 2016. Let the City of Los Angeles reap millions of dollars in tax revenue from private hotels: TOT (14%), Tourism (1.5%), Parking Occupancy (10%), Utilities (10%), Property Tax, Business License (gross receipts). For example, last year UCLA utilized about 1500 emergency service visits from LAFD valued at $1.6 million (based on LAFD data). But it does not pay for these services. It needs to be a good neighbor. 1. Acquisition Cost for Structure 6 is about $32 million but not shown in financials. A Parking Services Buyout for 754 parking spaces is required from the Housing Reserve Fund. All other sites were rejected based on acquisition cost. The parking buyout is based on 754 parking spaces at about $42,857/space using Faculty Center Hotel site parking replacement costs. This huge project-related cost to the campus has been hidden from the Regents; and it cannot be externally financed. There will also be lost revenue to the campus if Lot 6 is removed. 2. Planned lack of transparency: “…It would not be prudent for us to release our business plan before it is submitted to the regents…” (Chancellor Block, Daily Bruin, Nov. 9, 2011). Withholding this report was not an option under the Public Records Act. The February 9, 2012 Business Plan was withheld from the UCLA Faculty Association and community groups until March 20, 2012, one week prior to the Regents’ meeting despite repeated Public Records Act requests. 3. Since the business plan has been kept secret, there is zero evidence of broad support claimed by UCLA. There has been no dialogue, meetings, or outreach for this proposal. 4. CEQA violations: a vote today constitutes pre-commitment and piecemeal approval of the Luskin Hotel prior to the certification of an EIR for the project and amendment of 2009 LRDP. 5. Substandard Conference Space. What hotel expert determined that 25,000 SF of conference space was adequate? “The International Association of Conference Centers (IACC) requires 125 square feet of meeting space/guest room for a center to qualify for the prestigious IACC
designation.” (PKF, p. II-9). Furthermore, academic conference centers usually provide 191 SF/guest room. To be a competitive academic conference center, the Luskin Conference Center would require 47,750 SF. 6. Parking: What hotel expert determined that 125 parking spaces are adequate? PKF (p. II-7): “The typical parking space requirement for conference centers falls in the range of 1.0 to 1.3 spaces per guest room.” A 250 room hotel requires between 250 and 325 parking spaces. 7. Occupancy rate and room rates: What hotel expert determined the room rate ($224 in 2016) and the occupancy rates? 8. Academic guest nights: Academic travel budgets have been decimated. PKF estimated only 4800 annual guest nights from academic conferences (PKF, p. V-7). Please provide data from faculty focus groups used by UCLA to conclude that there is faculty demand that would generate 2/3 guest nights to support a hotel. 9. International demand? At academic conferences only 1% of attendees are international (PKF, Table 4-6, p. IV-7). 10. Show debt service during construction. 11. Show payments on principal. 12. Define “UCLA-affiliated guest.” UCOP BUS-72 limits auxiliary enterprise sales to the general public to “incidental.” There is reason for concern that this project is a commercial hotel: Lake Arrowhead Conference Center: “No University Affiliation Required" (www.lakearrowheadmeetings.com). UCLA Conference Services: “The Perfect Location for Your Next Meeting, Conference, Wedding or Event!” (http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.) 13. Show property tax because property not used exclusively for educational purposes. 14. Show UBIT. UCOP BUS-72, Section D. Activities that May Generate Unrelated Business Income: “Auxiliary enterprise activities that serve the community may result in unrelated business income. When an activity is approved that may produce such income, the federal tax liability must be considered in the planning and budgeting of the activity, and the activity will be subject to the reporting requirements specified in Business and Finance Bulletin A-61, Procedures for Determining Unrelated Business Income and Expenses” (emphasis added). This business plan assumes 1/3 of its guest nights are sales to “UCLA-affiliated guests” (alumni, sports fans, donors, parents). Document the substantial causal relationship between the research and teaching exempt purpose of the UC and these “affiliated” guests. Note: other university hotels (e.g., University of Texas) charge bed tax for all visitors and pay UBIT for all guests who are not departmental recharges. Fluno Center, U. Wisconsin, pays bed tax on all guests. 15. Show city taxes in budget. Many campus hotels start out campus-run and switch due to lack of branding.