Cobb‑Marietta authority asks Kennesaw to extend hotel‑motel tax agreement to support convention center renovation

Charlie Byrne, chief executive officer and general manager of the Cobb‑Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority, told the Kennesaw City Council that the authority is preparing a major renovation of the Cobb Galleria Centre and asked the city to sign revised funding and operating agreements that would permit the authority to issue bonds for the project.

The authority, Byrne said, operates the Cobb Galleria Centre (a 320,000‑square‑foot convention center opened in 1994) and the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (a 2,750‑seat theater opened in 2007). Byrne said the facilities have hosted thousands of events and that the authority is nearing the expiration of existing intergovernmental funding agreements tied to a share of hotel‑motel tax receipts.

Rob (last name not provided), the authority’s chief operating officer, described the current funding formula and the proposed changes. Under the existing formula as described to council, Kennesaw remits 62.5% of hotel‑motel tax collected within the city to the authority; the authority returns 40% of that amount to Kennesaw and pays a collection fee, leaving the city retaining roughly $0.64 of every dollar collected. The revised, amended and restated agreements would keep the core funding formula intact but add potential pro‑rata distributions to signatory cities from any annual excess tax distributions and from certain reserve (R&E) fund caps if reserves exceed stated thresholds.

Byrne and the chief operating officer said receipts would continue to be used first for debt service on bonds secured by the revenues, contractual payments to the county and cities, collection fees, funding for bridal and tourism programs and, if available, annual excess distributions to participating cities. The authority also plans to expand a parking deck and redevelop adjacent retail space into additional meeting and convention space as part of the renovation.

Council members asked whether other cities had signed revised agreements. Byrne said Powder Springs had signed and that Marietta was not expected to sign in the near term; he said Marietta’s mayor currently sits on the authority board but that any replacement would be the legislature’s decision. Council members also asked whether cities that sign on would receive complimentary or reduced‑rate access to venue space; the authority representatives said they do not have a policy granting free use to signatory cities and that any concessions depend on the scope of the request and any out‑of‑pocket costs the authority would incur.

Council consensus moved the related agenda items to the consent calendar for a later formal vote, with no roll‑call tally recorded in the transcript.

The authority cited economic impact figures for fiscal year ending September 2023: the two venues combined generated what the presenters described as “over $10,000,000” in county economic impact and “over $69,000,000” statewide for that year, supported hundreds of jobs locally and reported cumulative economic impacts the presenters described as in the billions since opening. The authority said the agreements were first created by the state legislature in 1980 to operate amusement, recreation and exhibition projects and are governed by a seven‑member board representing the county and several cities.

Byrne closed by saying the changes are largely non‑substantive edits tied to the bond issuance and renovation plan and asked Kennesaw to sign the revised agreement along with the other participating jurisdictions.