NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The owners of the Hyatt Regency New Orleans
have sold only 10 percent of the special bonds needed to help
finance the hotel's post-Hurricane Katrina overhaul, but that's
enough to keep a redevelopment plan alive through 2010.
State Bond Commission director Whit Kling said Poydras
Properties LLC sold $22.5 million in tax-exempt bonds at the end of
September for the 31-story downtown hotel, which is near the
Superdome.
The developer has struggled to sell its $225 million allotment
of Gulf Opporunity Zone Act bonds during the recession and had
faced an Oct. 17 sale deadline under bond commission action taken
in February. But Kling said Tuesday that under federal regulations,
the limited sale locked up the entire bond issue until Dec. 31,
2010.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
