A rift has developed between one of Hamilton County’s top elected officials and developers in charge of an expansion to the convention center and the development of a new headquarters hotel in Downtown Cincinnati.
Hamilton County Board of Commissioners President Alicia Reece called out what she said was “totally disrespectful” behavior she experienced in a recent meeting with Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., better known as 3CDC, which is leading the convention center expansions and hotel development.
The drama comes as Cincinnati officials are pushing ahead on one of Downtown’s biggest projects, one officials say will help the Duke Energy Convention Center remain competitive in attracting large events and the crowds they bring.
What happened?
Reece said developers aren’t answering her questions about the amount of exhibit space and the number of hotel rooms the two projects will entail.
Reece said she wants to know how much exhibit space the expanded convention center will have and how many rooms the new hotel will have. She wants a guarantee in writing the new hotel will have 800 rooms, the same number of rooms the now-demolished Millennium Hotel had.
“We’ve got to get 800 rooms back,” Reece said. “That just puts us even-steven.”
She said her questions were met with anger that she would even ask them.
“Is this how we allow people to come up into our county and treat a commissioner, whether you’re for them or against them?” Reece said during Thursday’s meeting of commissioners. “We’ve been elected. Nobody hired us here except the people. So to come in (with) so much anger, so much audacity. How dare you ask me a question?”
3CDC: We have a ‘positive working relationship.’
Reece described the behavior as a double standard.
“I know that if such behavior was done and it was reversed, an African American had behaved in such a way, they probably would have been escorted out of here almost like Pacman Jones was escorted off the airplane in handcuffs,” Reece said, referencing the recent arrest at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport of former Bengals player Adam “Pacman” Jones on charges of alcohol intoxication, disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening.
Reece didn’t mention anyone by name as committing the disrespectful behavior. Reece returned a missed call to a reporter and did not respond to follow-up messages and texts.
“I don’t want to express what really happened, because it was totally disrespectful,” Reece said during Thursday’s meeting of commissioners, referencing the meeting with 3CDC.
The Enquirer reached out to 3CDC for comment about what happened at the meeting and received a two-sentence statement credited to the organization:
“Over the years, we’ve had a positive working relationship with officials from the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. We will continue to do so in the future.”
What does this mean for the convention center and hotel?
The public would be outraged if they knew what happened to her, Reece said, and “would be in this place tomorrow and say we’re going to shut this whole convention center headquarters down.”
Exactly what this will mean for the convention center project wasn’t clear.
“I have asked us for some additional time to let this cool off, because this is going in a really bad, bad, bad direction,” Reece said. She didn’t say how much time or what a cooling-off period would entail.
Reece could have served on convention board
The president of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners usually serves on the board of Visit Cincy, the city’s convention and visitor’s bureau.
Reece had declined an opportunity earlier this year to serve on the Visit Cincy board, based on text messages from and to county officials and obtained by The Enquirer through open records requests. Reece, according to the texts, had cited time constraints for why she couldn’t be on the board.
The Board of Commissioners appointed Commissioner Denise Driehaus to the Visit Cincy board instead.
