No doubt the hearing for the proposed Victory Village in Portsmouth was a highly charged one. The project, a conference center and hotel being put together by Portsmouth Senator L. Louise Lucas and nearly 600 investors, was shot down in its attempt to use up to $50 million in bonds. According to The Virginian Pilot:
The majority of the bonds would have come from the federal Empowerment Zone program, run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1999, Norfolk and Portsmouth joined the program, which allowed them to access more than $100 million of the bonds.
The bonds were to be used to stimulate growth and create jobs in both cities.
From where I sit, it sounds like a good use of the bonds. The sticking point, though, was that the language related to the city’s responsibility.
[Portsmouth council member Elizabeth] Psimas said she and several other council members asked Lucas’ attorney, William Nusbaum, to consider allowing them to make it clear that Portsmouth would not have to invest any public money in the project.
But she said Nusbaum denied that request and said such language would “raise a red flag to prospective bond purchasers about the commitment of the city to the project.”
I understand Nusbaum’s concern. At the same time, I understand the city’s concern. Perhaps some compromise can be achieved here?
But, of course, that wasn’t the real story. The real story is that this project was one proposed by blacks, with the investors being described as “a Who’s Who of prominent and civically active black residents.” I think it has been a mistake from the beginning to call this project a “black” project. Only one color matters when it comes to stuff like this: green. And comments like those of Portsmouth mayor James Holey certainly didn’t help.
He [Holley] said the Renaissance hotel and the Lucas project would attract two different groups of people.
The city needs a hotel that targets blacks, he said.
“It’s got my black picture in the lobby, but it’s a white hotel,” Holley said of the Renaissance.
This was one of those times (not unlike his endorsement of George Allen) when Holley should have heeded the advice of Mark Twain:
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.
Holley nearly lost his last election to an unknown, winning by less than 300 votes. With comments like this, I suspect this might very well be his last term as mayor.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
One thing the media has not focused on is the amount of money raised among investors. While the breadth of the investors is impressive, $1.8 million is not. Having less than 3% equity going in is an issue.
Since there is “more than $100 million in bonds that both Norfolk & Portsmouth has access to”, one question is why isn’t/hasn’t that money been/being used? Also, I must admire the black Portsmouth community and Ms. Lucas for coming up with this idea and supporting this project with their own money. While less than 3% equity might be an issue – this IS Portsmouth – the poorest city in the area… ANY investors, black, blue, greem, or orange should be welcomed and encouraged to invest in Portsmouth! I’m really disappointed in the City Council for their actions.
The mayor has done his city a dis-service. If he has problems with his picture hanging in a white hotel then he should have the balls to ask to have it removed…
Signed,
a white citizen of Portsmouth
I agree. It’s great that citizens want to invest in their city. However, that does not absolve the developers from practicing sound business principles. Some would argue that this is a high-risk investment in a section of town that has struggled to improve it’s economic condition. Absent a guarantee from the City, which is unrealistic given its financial condition, increasing the equity stake in the project is the only thing that could make it more viable.
So what amount of equity is reasonable? Seems to me, though, that there is already some kind of plan to get more equity investors – after all, they were only asking for $50 million in bonds, not the $65 million that the project is supposed to cost.
I haven’t been following this closely. Who has to repay the proposed bonds if the project fails?
While I enjoy Mark Twain’s anecdotes, I do not agree that the quote used above applies to Dr. James Holley. This man has served Portsmouth and has been a staunch activist on behalf of the Black community for most of his eighty-two years.
Here in the Twenty-First Century, our citizens are guaranteed the right to speak freely and each citizen is encouraged to participate in rigorous debate in our electronic and actual public squares, all across this country.
That Dr. Holley happened to think aloud that it would be nice to have a hotel that catered to the tastes of the Black community is neither racist, nor should the purveyors of political correctness have their way and have him silenced.
It would be a step forward for our society leave behind this recent era of various groups being perpetually offended. We are a society that is an amalgam of citizens who have real differences. We should find ways to acknowledge those differences and find ways to accommodate, to the extent possible, those real differences among our People.
Dr. Holley recognizes those differences and is certainly entitled to express his preferences. I appreciate his honesty and forward thinking approach to this issue. Dr. Holley’s example should be constructively followed, and if it is, we can enter an era where citizens can openly discuss issues including racial differences, without having their honesty mislabeled as “racist” by the uninformed or by others who are simply political opponents.
My hope is that we shall now enter an era where such enlightened tolerance is practiced across all spectra of political discourse, so that we shall have an environment where even the most fervent supporters from opposite sides of the perceived racial/gender/political divide may be able to openly air their respective ideas, debate merits and reach real compromise and common ground solutions that will better serve present and future America.
Holley is carrying a lot of racist baggage! His latest comment is just a continuation of the same. Not all people with racist baggage are white. His latest comment certainly does nothing to unite the Portsmouth community, or encourage folks to visit Portsmouth. And this remark came from OUR mayor! No wonder Portsmouth can’t move forward! I think that the black community certainly could find a better representative! We need a leader to unite the city for it to progress – not divide it!
BS
It’s really a shame Holley had to inject race into what, really, is a case of Lucas trying to use her clout to bully Portsmouth into giving her some money. When that didn’t work, she tried to bully them into passing on some Federal EV or EC bucks that, one can easily argue, could be put to better use than building another large hotel/meeting place when Portsmouth can’t support the one it has already.
Lucas needs to come up with a business plan that’s not based on her elected office. Since she can’t do that, she should return the money to the [mostly] suckers and saps who provided it.