Downtown tourism tax dollars back after pandemic
On Oct. 15, the Memphis City Council approved the city administration to ask the state to make the Sheraton a qualified public use facility — an essential step in some of Downtown’s captured sales tax paying some of the debt. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
Downtown Memphis’ finances continued to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic last year, according to financial documents obtained by The Daily Memphian.
The Downtown Memphis Tourism Development Zone saw its lowest losses since before the pandemic, indicating Downtown continues to recover economically. The growth in sales tax captured Downtown showed city taxpayers will not bail out Bass Pro Shops at The Pyramid, the Renasant Convention Center and other Downtown projects for the first time since the pandemic.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
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