In a recent presentation, Madison city officials heard new testimony from an expert on public policy and convention centers, who said he had serious doubts about the city’s plan to build a new hotel at Monona Terrace.

University of Texas-San Antonio professor Heywood Sanders conducted a presentation arguing the hotel would not be beneficial to the city, according to Ald. David Ahrens, District 15, who attended the presentation.

In agreement with Sanders’ research, Ahrens said he opposes the project.

“There’s no evidence to support that [the] hotel and office complex would be successful,” Ahrens said. “The record for other municipally sponsored hotels is a record of, with a few exceptions, unmitigated failure. Professor Sanders was here to present the actual evidence in his research to that effect.”

However, Ald. Mark Clear, District 19, said although Sanders’ presentation contained “interesting information,” he is skeptical of the research.

“I think the data that he cited was cherry-picked to try to demonstrate a particular position that he’s interested in, but that it doesn’t necessarily apply very directly to this project or to Madison,” Clear said.

Clear said the plan for the hotel has promise and will benefit the city. He said the extra hotel rooms are needed for the complex at the terrace to “fulfill its potential.”

Still, Ahrens said he sees no positive aspects to the plan.

“The consultants that the city hired were misleading and would take the city down a path of a tremendous cost and risk,” Ahrens said. “Not only would it be unsuccessful, it’s completely unnecessary.”

Ahrens said Madison is in the process of a large expansion of private hotels, perhaps one of the largest the city has ever seen.

He said more than 650 rooms have been built in the downtown area alone due to that expansion, and the construction of the Monona Terrace hotel would add an additional 350 rooms.

Ahrens said the city should first look into the results of the current expansion before taking on new projects.

“The city is building […] without first determining what happens with the results of the private expansion, and seeing what happens first,” Ahrens said. “This has been a case of very poor use of taxpayers’ money in terms of getting so-called expert advice, and what’s worse is that if the so-called experts are listened to, we’ll really be in the hole.”

As of now, the project is progressing as developers continue to vie for the opportunity to adopt the project, Clear said.

However, Clear said the project would not be approved until the spring of 2014, and construction would not begin until the following summer at the earliest.

He said it is unclear if the efforts made by Ahrens and Sanders will slow the production of the project.

“There will be a whole discussion of land use approvals and public assistance that will probably take several months,” Clear said. “There are many, many, many, many details to work out between now and then.”

Sanders could not be reached for a comment.