City council members wanted a strong showing at the meeting and they got it.

Roughly two hundred residents packed the meeting space at Union Station to hear Lala Enterprises, HRI Properties and the City of Meridian push their downtown hotel plans.

Each group got about 40 minutes to speak before the floor was opened for questions. While many of the questions more resembled statements, many of the residents were clearly on a fact finding mission before deciding which project to support.

Questions ranged from why can't both projects be developed, why has Lala Enterprises just now gone public with their downtown hotel plans, has HRI thought about changing their hotel plans to allow for a banquet space, as well as if the project fails who would pay back the hotel's tax credits.

Both HRI and Lala Enterprises maintained that having two downtown hotels isn't the ideal situation. Lala Enterprises Project manager Dede Mogollon said their studies show the area just can't support two hotels and they are not willing to open two hotels and have one of them fail. That, she says, would be bad for Meridian.

As for why Lala Enterprises just went public with their downtown hotel plans last Wednesday, Lala responded to the audience member by saying that he has had interest in developing this project for years and made the city administration aware of that at the time. However, news that the HRI Properties Threefoot Hotel wouldn't include needed banquet space convinced Lala that the area's tourism future depended on a hotel being built that includes that space.

MSU Riley Center Marketing Director, Penny Kemp asked HRI Properties CEO Pres Kabakoff if he has thought about changing his hotel plans to include a banquet space. To that Kabakoff said no. He believes that addition would add ten to fifteen million dollars to the project which already comes in at about 50 million dollars without the banquet space included.

Another resident asked HRI Properties who would be responsible for repaying the tax credits if the Threefoot hotel were to fail. Kabakoff said his company would be responsible for that debt and it is something he takes very seriously.

While the projects were outlined in full detail, many residents left still asking questions while others were able to make up their mind in the course of the two and a half hour town hall meeting.

"I think the business side of this is the most important thing. Mr Lala and Lala Enterprises, they are willing to do this and they want to make money, said Lala Enterprises supporter Shirley Lyttle.

"It made it so clear that it would help the city more. It would preserve that icon that beautiful Threefoot building. That is something we have to keep in Meridian," said Jim Brashier who supports the Threefoot Hotel project.

An unofficial vote was taken to get a feel for which project the majority of the audience supported, and according to Councilman John Harris the vote was just about even with half the audience voting.

Four city council members were present at the meeting with the exception of George Thomas who had a prior engagement. County supervisors Ray Boswell, Joe Norwood and Wayman Newell also listened to the presentations. However, most of these elected leaders have heard both presentations before.