The threat by the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) to move its annual gem and mineral show to another city has electrified Tucson. Well, it has galvanized Tucson. At least it may have roused Tucson from its lethargy. We can’t allow that to happen.

Yes, they demand that a convention hotel be built nearby. So here’s the exciting news: we — you and I — are going into the hotel business. Won’t that be fun?

Fun, maybe, but probably not profitable. And I can tell you with some authority that when your hotel is losing money, a lot of the fun goes out of it. But why would I assume this hotel is going to lose money? Here’s why:

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In this capitalist nation, crying needs are not left unfilled for long. If this hotel was a project that cried out to be built, private capital would have been on it with both feet. If there were a buck to be made, hotel operators would be competing for it.

But the hotel developer the city has been able to interest in this job is one who is willing to work for fees but not put any of its own money into it. In other words, the development company will do its job then go home. It won’t participate in the profits and losses.

It seems obvious that if no one wants to put private capital into the project, the deal cannot be screaming profit. Tucson’s city fathers and mothers have not demonstrated expertise in negotiating for a hotel, a complex undertaking. If  city council members couldn’t even get Rio Nuevo downtown redevelopment to flow, what conceivable reason is there to think they can put a hotel deal together?

And whose money will pay for the hotel? Yours and mine. That’s why I said we are going into the hotel business. And the city is going to be our operating partner.

Welcome to the Hotel Bankruptcy. Of course bankruptcy won’t likely be involved because the city need only increase sales taxes to raise more money.

There are a lot of sentimental reasons why everyone wants the AGTA show to remain here. Even the gem show people get a little misty-eyed when they have to talk about their alternatives. But we have to face facts. Tucson is not a convention city. We don’t have the travel connections or the facilities, and private interest in providing any is not apparent.

No government at any level has any business owning or operating a hotel. And we should not be trying to figure out what to do under time pressure. The AGTA has set a deadline and it’s a short one; too short in my opinion to do the job right. We should not try to meet that short deadline. This extremely complex transaction will take too long to do right and meet the deadline, too.

Tucson should abandon any idea it can meet AGTA’s deadline because it can’t. If city council members had any experience with such undertakings they would know that. A more prudent effort would be based on a commitment to attract private investment. The owner and operator of the hotel must have equity in the deal. Otherwise they are just hired help. You would be surprised how attentive and creative people are when they are working with their own money and not that of the taxpayers.

The city should take its time with this project so it has a chance of getting it right.

Grit your teeth, we will probably lose the gem show, at least in the near term. Freed from the pressure to do it really fast, we can entertain the luxury of doing it really right.

That means getting hotel people involved, not just lawyers and bankers and governmental administrators. At the risk of redundancy, I emphasize City Hall should back out of this deal, get hotel people who have money involved, and let them tell us what is feasible.

If we do put up a hotel, we should make it the best darned hotel in Pima County, a modest enough aspiration, not something that will soon look threadbare for being forced to cut corners. If private money refuses to do the deal, that tells us everything we need to know about it.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.newflashpoint.com.