When supporters of a conference center in downtown Annapolis lost a bid for state money last spring, the project seemed to slip into political no man's land.
But now the group promoting the multimillion dollar plan is back, and it is asking for more money -- this time from the city government.
"We never went out of existence," said Jules Smith, president of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau, a group consisting of representatives from the local hotel and restaurant industry.
"We've had meetings, maybe not as [often] as last year, but the project has always remained on our burner."
The bureau wants a $140,000 grant from the city with which to study the feasibility of a conference center in downtown Annapolis.
At a City Council Finance Committee hearing yesterday morning, the business group requested money for an environmental and traffic impact study of the Taylor Avenue and West Street neighborhood that might be the site of a conference center.
The committee postponed any action until the full City Council holds a public hearing on the funding request on Jan. 5.
"It was dead before, but it's very much on the front table now," said Ward 5 Alderman Carl O. Snowden, chairman of the Finance Committee, which oversees all funding for special projects.
Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins recently helped revive the conference center proposal when he met with business leaders and encouraged the group to lobby for more money, Mr. Snowden said.
In March, the City Council withdrew a proposal to spend bond money on another study, as critics of the project argued that it would cost too much and never pay for itself. Shortly after that setback, the conference center group withdrew its request for state funding.
Some residents say the conference center needs to prove its worth to the community before its backers can ask for public money.
"This project is loaded with red flags," said Cynthia L. Eckard, a Homewood resident who has criticized the project as a spokeswoman for area civic associations. "The administration of that money is premature."
Last year, the Conference and Visitors Bureau joined the city and county in paying for a $30,000 feasibility study.
While the bureau originally proposed a site at Jennifer Road owned by the Anne Arundel Medical Center, the new push appears to be for a location close to downtown Annapolis known as the Menke site.
In other matters yesterday, the Finance Committee voted to grant a lease for the city-owned McNasby Oyster Co. building to a new prospective tenant, Eastport Seafood Corp.
That company would lease the property, which used to house a now-defunct seafood cooperative, at $2,500 a month on a
year-long lease.
NB The full City Council is to vote on the proposal Monday night.