Thanks for the insight Pepsionice.
It makes perfect sense the way you describe things.
Just the City/State going for the free Federal money and doing a favor for their friends. Same as parking busses where you know they will be destroyed by the hurricane or letting a forest fire get really big before you try to put it out. If you know the Feds are gonna pay cost plus then by all means run up the tab.
Actually, this morning in Berlin, there was another update to this story.
The hotel chain involved is only talking TWO hotels, which total out at 93 rooms. They are both considered Pensions (German lingo for a hotel with typical two-star ranking and basic essentials only). For an American, it’d be even a step down from a Motel-6 operation.
The hotel chain stated that 50 Euro a night per room was their bottom line. The Berlin city ‘senate’ said they were only willing to pay 10 Euro. So the deal in this matter is far from over.
Whichever idiot journalist picked up the story...really screwed up because it’s not a done deal and with 93 rooms....it really won’t be much of a solution. I think some insider is trying to work up a deal where the city actually buys the two buildings in question for city requirements.