The sun sets on the entrance of the Mall of America. Aine / Flickr

A $250 million tax break passed in the closing minutes of the legislative session is expected to resurrect expansion plans at the Mall of America.

The owners of the Bloomington megamall, Triple Five Group, said the $1.5 billion project would double the size of the mall, add hotels, a waterpark, performing arts center, officer towers and hundreds of additional stores. The owners have not indicated when the expansion project would begin.

The plan was developed in 2006 but remained on the shelf as backers hoped for a subsidy. Lawmakers came through with that subsidy as part of the main tax bill just before the session ended at midnight Monday.

Around 42 million visitors come to the 21-year-old Mall of America each year, making it the state’s top tourist attraction. Boosters project Phase II will attract another 20 million visitors a year.

Construction is expected to take several years, and mall officials could not say Tuesday when the work might begin. But they pledged that “an even grander guest experience” is coming.

“Through this action, our leaders have said ‘yes’ to Minnesota, ‘yes’ to new jobs, ‘yes’ to new tourist revenue and ‘yes’ to investing in our communities,” Triple Five Group said in a statement.

But not everyone is cheering. The tax break comes from a program meant to spread out the property tax benefits of new metro-area development among slower growing communities, called Fiscal Disparities. During the Senate debate, there were complaints about using that money for private development. The mall’s $9 million-a-year subsidy would tap about 2.3 percent of the fund.

“We’re really worried. Who’s going to come along next?” said Bob DeBoer, project director for the Citizens League.

But the expansion passed with bipartisan support, thanks to the promise of new jobs, more tourists, years of construction and buzz for what is already the nation’s largest shopping and entertainment complex.

Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, who crafted the proposal, said the subsidy is structured to spur the maximum amount of development possible at the old Met Center site north of the mall. She noted that Bloomington is the biggest contributor to the Fiscal Disparities pool.

The money will pay for the mall’s roads, water and sewer pipes.

“They’re not the sexy part of the building, but the infrastructure that supports it,” said Schane Rudlang, administrator of the Bloomington Port Authority, which coordinates development for the city.

Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to sign the tax bill this week.

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The Brazilian Day parade in New York CIty in 2010. Bobby Plasencia / Flickr

As the head of NYC & Company, New York City’s official tourism board, Fertitta has witnessed the meteoric rise of Brazilian visitors to the Big Apple. Last year, Brazil became the second most important overseas market for the city after the UK: 826,000 Brazilians came to visit, compared with 112,000 in 2006.

“We have never seen anything like it,” said Fertitta. “We have had big surges in visitors from Ireland but the surge from Brazil is unique in scale.”

For all the talk about Brazil losing economic might, Brazilians continue to flock to NYC in ever greater numbers. And their numbers are helping to offset the decline in tourists from more obviously stricken countries such as Italy and Spain. They are also outspending the Europeans during their stay. With an average spent of $2,262 per trip, Brazil is right up there with Australia and the UK as the biggest total spending tourist groups in New York.

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This April 29, 2013, photo made with a fisheye lens shows the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn. Mark Humphrey / Associated Press

After nine years of discussion, controversy, planning and construction, Nashville’s mammoth, gleaming new $585 million convention center opened with two days of public events and concerts Sunday and Monday.

The new Music City Center is three times bigger than the city’s existing convention center, which opened in 1987, and nearly 3 1/2 times bigger than the Memphis Cook Convention Center that opened in 1974. An 800-room Omni Nashville Hotel under construction next door will open this fall and has already booked 250,000 room nights through conventions and meetings in the years ahead.

Those facts have Memphis convention planners concerned, even as they applaud Nashville’s chutzpah in building the 1.2 million-square-foot, architecturally unique MCC.

“I think it’s bold news on the part of Nashville, a smart move on the part of their community,” said Kevin Kane, president and CEO of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It’s clearly going to pay huge dividends for Nashville tourism for years to come. And it’s clearly going to have an impact on Memphis because of the size and scope of the facility.

“We’re very concerned about what the long-term impact will be on Memphis. Nashville is a strong convention and meetings destination to begin with. They got stronger with this move. Will it put us out of business? Of course not. Will it make our job a little more difficult? You better believe it will.”

Music City Center occupies what had been six square blocks of parking lots, one-story office buildings, service and repair shops, a strip joint, a Greyhound bus station and an electrical substation — all demolished or moved when construction began in March 2010.

The center is the latest project in a massive transformation of the “SoBro” area, south of Broadway’s famed honky-tonks, that includes 20,000-seat Bridgestone Arena, a Hilton Hotel, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 29-story Pinnacle office tower and a 21-story luxury condominium tower.

The $250 million Omni shares the block east of the center with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which is being expanded and integrated with the hotel as part of a separate $34 million city-funded project.

The project dwarfs Memphis’ modest renovations to the Cook over the years, including the 2003 expansion that added the city’s high-end performance center, the Cannon Center.

The convention center’s most striking feature is its wavy, flowing and open architecture, which combines artistic themes evoking guitars, sound waves and rolling hills. Four acres of the roof is an undulating space covered with live vegetation; the rest of the roof is a giant outline of guitar hiding a 200-kilowatt solar panel grid. Rainwater from the roof is stored and used for restrooms.

Seven outdoor balconies of varying sizes jut out of the building on three sides, encouraging visitors to walk outside, and much of the building’s exterior walls is glass. Even the main 350,000-square-foot exhibition hall is glass-walled on one side.

“Unlike a lot of convention centers, this building is filled with windows. Visitors are going to have natural light and are going to be able to orient themselves with our city,” Mayor Karl Dean said during a preview tour last week. The center has 60 meeting rooms totaling 90,000 square feet.

Dean spearheaded the project after his first election in 2007, following three years of indecision by city leaders and opposition by former mayor Bill Purcell, who focused his efforts on the city’s neighborhoods after years of big civic projects by his predecessor, Phil Bredesen. Dean persuaded the Metro Council to approve the project in January 2010.

The city sold $623 million worth of bonds to finance the center, to be repaid with revenue primarily generated through visitors: half of the 6 percent hotel-motel tax, an additional $2 per-room per-night room tax, a 1 percent surcharge on rental cars and a $2 “airport ground transportation departure” fee every time a taxi, shuttle, bus or other commercial vehicle exits the airport. Also earmarked for paying the debt are all future increases in sales tax revenue collected from a downtown tourism development zone and all sales tax collected at the center and the hotel.

After the open house, tours and free concerts, the first paid event is a sports festival this weekend. The Country Music Association’s annual Music Fest is scheduled. The 2014 NCAA women’s basketball Final Four is set across the street at the arena, but it wouldn’t have come without the new convention center. The National Rifle Association’s huge national convention is booked for 2015.

The center enables the city to go after 75 percent of the nation’s conventions and exhibitions, said Charles Starks, MCC’s president and CEO. “The average size of the group that’s booking with us now is about 6,500 attendees. The old center is about 1,500 attendees. So the sheer size of the groups coming is dramatically increasing.”

In Memphis, studies commissioned by Mayors Willie Herenton and then A C Wharton have recommended new facilities, and Wharton said in January he’d take up the task again with a new committee that would explore the city’s overall convention business and operations.

Dean, 57, a Massachusetts native and Vanderbilt University Law School graduate, is the county’s former elected public defender. Dean won re-election in 2011 with 79 percent of the vote, and clearly feels vindicated by the project, which was loudly opposed by some council members and others. ___

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In a forest in New Hampshire. McDowell / Flickr

New Hampshire tourism officials are predicting an increase in visitors and spending this Memorial Day weekend, though the outlook is not as optimistic as it was last year.

Citing a report by the Institute for New Hampshire Studies, tourism officials say they expect more than a half million visitors from out of state during the holiday weekend — a 1 percent increase over last year. They anticipate those visitors will spend upwards of $88 million — more than a 2 percent increase over last year.

Division of Travel and Tourism director Lori Harnois says many of the state’s parks, attractions and businesses are opening for the season this weekend.

“New Hampshire is a great place to get away to for the long weekend,” Harnois said.

Officials say most of the visitors come from New England and New York, although they are also expecting an increase in visitors from Canada.

Last year officials predicted a 2 percent increase in visitors and a 5 percent increase in spending.

Memorial Day weekend is considered the fourth busiest holiday period of the year for tourism in New Hampshire.

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Sail boats race on the river near Mystic, Connecticut. Rusty Clark / Flickr

Connecticut’s “Still Revolutionary” tourism marketing campaign is succeeding and deserves continued funding, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday.

The campaign, unveiled last year as part of a two-year, $27 million initiative, generated 270,000 additional visits to Connecticut in the past year and yielded an extra $161 million on dining, entertainment and vacationing, according to Malloy. The campaign attempts to draw attention to Connecticut’s role in historic events such as the Revolutionary War and the Industrial Revolution.

“We put $15 million aside for promotion of tourism,” Malloy said. “It has a profound impact. It pays for itself.”

His comments came at a conference for the tourism industry at the Connecticut Convention Center where the “Still Revolutionary” campaign was celebrated. Malloy said he would defend the funds allocated for the marketing campaign and push to market the state in new venues.

“I’m proud that I’m the governor who got Connecticut back in New England,” he said. “But I’m particularly proud that I’m the governor who’s trying to promote this industry.”

Malloy had the state pay $100,000 in dues in 2011 to renew its membership with Discover New England. The regional tourism group left Connecticut off a website map the previous year after former Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell slashed the state’s tourism marketing budget to $1, leaving the state unable to pay its dues.

In his 2010 campaign for governor, Malloy, a Democrat, called the funding cuts an embarrassment and promised to boost tourism as a way to create jobs in industries ranging from lodging to restaurants and historic sites and other attractions. He said Tuesday that one in 11 jobs in Connecticut is in the tourism, culture or hospitality fields.

In his new two-year $43.8 billion budget plan, Malloy is seeking to restore to the tourism marketing fund $3.5 million that the legislature cut last year. Democratic lawmakers’ budget proposal, by contrast, includes a further $3.4 million cut to the marketing campaign.

Speaking at Tuesday’s conference, Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. echoed Malloy’s call to maintain funding for tourism promotion, which he said requires attention to the state’s history, culture and heritage.

“We are the trustees of that history,” he said. “It is up to us to preserve that for future generations but also for our own economic well-being.”

Williams said the key to ensuring funding for such initiatives was to change the definition of the state’s constitutional cap on spending. Malloy proposed changing the cap to exempt the amount Connecticut has to spend on Medicaid in order to receive 100 percent federal reimbursement under the new Affordable Care Act.

Williams said allowing exemptions to the spending cap would free up resources for “critical enterprises” like tourism.

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Royal Caribbean Ltd.’s largest investor is challenging Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fain by supporting a plan that could lead to a board shakeup at the second-largest cruise operator.

Investors vote today on a non-binding shareholder proposal calling for the elimination of staggered directors’ terms at Miami-based Royal Caribbean. The company opposes the plan, which would have each board member come up for an annual vote. The measure is supported by Oslo-based A. Wilhelmsen AS, owner of a 19 percent stake, whose chairman, Arne Alexander Wilhelmsen, is a Royal Caribbean director.

Backing from A. Wilhelmsen may be enough to pass the measure, after a similar initiative in 2009 was endorsed by 29 percent of shares voted. A. Wilhelmsen didn’t support the plan four years ago, said a person close to the company. Both Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co. have recommended in favor of the activist proposal.

“When the largest shareholder wants it, I think that’s a big signal,” said D. Daniel Sokol, who teaches corporate law at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “They’re responding to a larger trend for what constitutes good corporate governance.”

Passage could herald changes at Royal Caribbean, including separation of the chairman and CEO roles as well as turnover at the board, said investor Robert Kurte, who with his father sponsored both proposals.

‘Growing Trend’

“That’s a good, positive sign that there’s some hope for change,” Kurte, a 42-year-old consultant in Weston, Florida, said of Wilhelmsen’s decision. “It’s time for some of these longstanding directors to give up their posts.”

Until 2011 A. Wilhelmsen, which owns shipping and real estate interests, was part of an agreement to vote its shares with the next-largest investor, Cruise Associates, comprised of members of Chicago’s Pritzker family and Israel’s Ofer clan. Together, the three own about 36 percent of Royal Caribbean, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Staggered boards are a hurdle to activist investors because they require a multi-year effort to make changes. Directors at the company currently serve three-year terms, with no more than four standing for election at a time.

“Royal Caribbean shareholders would be better served by a board whose members are elected annually,” A. Wilhelmsen said in a statement last week.

Thomas Pritzker, 62, a Royal Caribbean board member who is up for re-election, didn’t return a call seeking comment. He is chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corp. Royal Caribbean director Eyal Ofer, a 62-year-old shipping and real-estate magnate worth $6.1 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, declined to comment, according to a representative.

Experienced Board

Royal Caribbean fell 2.4 percent to $36.89 yesterday in New York, after larger rival Carnival Corp. cut its forecast for the rest of the year. Royal Caribbean has advanced 8.5 percent this year, lagging behind the 17 percent rise in the Russell 1000 Index.

While board structure isn’t a major concern at Royal Caribbean, the proposal is “part of the move to improve transparency and shareholder returns” at all companies, according to Joshua Herrity, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group in New York. He said the management is viewed as stable.

The cruise operator’s incorporation articles prevent third parties other than A. Wilhelmsen and Cruise Associates from buying more than 4.9 percent of its stock without board consent, according to its annual report.

Today’s meeting will be held at 9 a.m. local time in Miami. In Royal Caribbean’s proxy statement opposing the proposal, the company cited the “increased continuity, depth of knowledge and focus on the long-term” of the present board.

The shareholder plan isn’t unique to Royal Caribbean, Cynthia Martinez, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. She said the proxy outlines the company’s position.

Management Moat

The Kurtes pointed to studies showing an association between companies with staggered boards and lower valuations, smaller gains from buyouts, and less linkage between pay to performance.

“A staggered board can entrench management and effectively preclude most takeover bids or proxy contests,” Institutional Shareholder Services said in its report. “All directors should be accountable on an annual basis.”

Some Royal Caribbean directors have served for 20 years or more, said Kurte, who with his father, Harold, owns 1,000 shares.

“They’re overall a well-managed company, but there are certain oversight questions that the board needs to address,” Kurte said.

<strong>With assistance from Marie Mawad in Paris. Editors: Anthony Palazzo, Rob Golum. To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net./em>

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

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People walk past open attractions along the newly rebuilt boardwalk in Seaside Heights, N.J., Saturday, May 18, 2013. Mel Evans / AP Photo

The boardwalks are back, and so are most of the beaches, even if some are a little thinner this year.

The smell of funnel cakes, french fries and pizza will mingle with the salt air, and the screech of seagulls will be heard, but so will the thwack of hammers repairing what can be fixed and the roar of bulldozers and backhoes tearing down what can’t.

Welcome to Summer 2013 at the Jersey shore, the first since Superstorm Sandy pummeled the coast and upended hundreds of thousands of lives in October.

“The Jersey shore is open for the summer and ready to receive our customers,” Gov. Chris Christie said Monday at a ceremony reopening the newly rebuilt Lavallette boardwalk, three-quarters of which was destroyed by the storm. “This is going to be a really good week.”

Christie cautioned that parts of the shore won’t look as they did last summer, but predicted by next summer they should be back to normal.

Even in many of the places that suffered the most from Sandy, remarkable recovery and rebuilding efforts have been made to get them ready for the summer tourist season. Yet reminders of the storm’s devastation are visible all around.

Denise Gottilla and her husband Daryl stuck their beach umbrella into the sand in Point Pleasant Beach earlier this month. To their right was a wood-shingled home that had been destroyed by the Sandy’s storm surge. To their left was concrete rubble from a pool and patio from homes that also were badly damaged. And in front of them were large piles of sand that still needed to be smoothed down before beachgoers could arrive. But she was encouraged by what she saw.

“The houses took a beating, but I’m pleased with how the beach looks,” she said. “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”

While Sandy damaged or destroyed many shore rentals, there are still plenty to be had, said Randy Sinor, past president of the Ocean County Board of Realtors, who works in Ship Bottom on Long Beach island.

“On LBI, we all have 95 percent or better of our pre-Sandy inventory ready for rental,” he said. “We are open, we are ready, and we have prime weeks still available. It is not too late.”

Countywide, rental stock ranges from about 65 percent of what was there before Sandy to 90 percent, depending on the town, he said. Demand has been about 75 percent of what it was at this time last year.

Not all of the Jersey shore was hurt by Sandy. Famous resort towns including Ocean City and the Wildwoods suffered minimal damage that was quickly repaired. Those areas are girding for a potential spike in visitors this summer as vacationers seeking thrill rides look elsewhere this year.

“Our hearts go out to the areas that were affected, but we have to get the message out that a good portion of the Jersey Shore will be open, and we hope vacationers will support New Jersey’s tourism economy,” said John Siciliano, head of the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement Development Authority.

Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, where the Jet Star roller coaster plunged into the ocean, will have at least 18 rides open this summer including a pendulum ride defiantly named The Super Storm. (The Jet Star was dismantled and removed last week). Funtown Pier, on the south end of Seaside’s boardwalk, was too badly damaged to open this year; it will be back in 2014.

“We are 100 percent ready for visitors,” Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers said. “Please, make your plans to come here, and have Jersey support Jersey. Keep your vacation local. If you want to help us, the best way you can do that is to come here and have your summer vacation with us.”

Most of the Jersey shore’s boardwalks don’t have amusement rides or games; they consist of wooden or synthetic walkways carrying beachgoers from one end of the beach to the other. Belmar finished its boardwalk repairs first, in late April, Seaside Heights is not far behind, Asbury Park is done and numerous other towns have either finished or plan to do so by Friday. Even the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, which was devastated by the storm, started rebuilding its boardwalk two weeks ago and expects to have it open by June.

The beaches themselves may look fine in most places, but many are flatter than they once were, said Jon Miller, a coastal expert with Stevens Institute of Technology. He predicted the coast will remain vulnerable to future storms until much of the sand that was lost either returns naturally with the tides, or is physically put back on the beaches by heavy equipment, and beach replenishment and protective dune projects need to be carried out. He also said dangerous rip currents could appear this year in places they didn’t use to be, due to the changed topography of the ocean floor.

And for all the attention on boardwalks and tourists, this summer will be marked by long, hard work for many shore residents still struggling to recover. Andrea Bowne is elevating her home near the ocean in Point Pleasant Beach, which took on 3 feet (1 meter) of water during the storm. Since then, she has moved from place to place, longing for the day she can go back home.

“Hopefully they’ll be done soon and we can be working on the interior all summer,” she said. “I say I’m moving back in as soon as there’s electric and cable. My friends say, ‘Uh, how about water and sewer? You plan on flushing any toilets?’ And I say, ‘OK, that, too.’ I don’t even care if there’s gas yet; I don’t plan on cooking anything all summer!”

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Thus, at the upcoming confirmation hearing, members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee should ask Foxx the following 10 questions…

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Britain's Prince Harry (R) walks with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as they view areas of the boardwalk that have been repaired in Seaside Heights, a beach town hit by Hurricane Sandy last year, in New Jersey, May 14, 2013. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family are starring in television commercials that are part of a publicly funded $25 million tourism campaign to encourage people to visit the Jersey Shore after Superstorm Sandy, but Democrats say they are simply taxpayer-funded campaign ads.

The ad campaign called “Stronger Than The Storm” launched last week with its first ad, but five more begin today. Supporters of Christie note the ads are not just running in New Jersey, but out of state as well.

In the first ad, Christie and his family are visible at the end of the 30 second commercial.

“The governor’s voice came through loud and clear,” Eis said, noting they were fighting a “massive consumer perception” that the beach is still closed due to the storm.

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Alaska volcano's ash prompts flight cancellations. / Associated Press

An Alaska volcano eruption is prompting regional airlines to cancel flights to nearby communities, including a town that reported traces of fallen ash.

Pavlof Volcano released ash plumes as high as 22,000 feet over the weekend, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Clouds obscured the volcano Monday, but U.S. Geological Survey scientists said seismic instruments at the volcano show continuing tremors.

“Seismically, it’s been pretty steady over the last 12 hours,” geologist Chris Waythomas said late Monday morning.

The abrasive ash has not risen enough to threaten international air traffic passing over the volcano-rich Aleutian arc, Waythomas said. Ash emissions have gone high enough, however, to affect flights of some smaller planes.

Anchorage-based regional carrier Penair has canceled a dozen passenger and cargo flights to several remote communities since Sunday afternoon. The communities include Sand Point, which reported a dusting of ash Sunday.

Penair CEO Danny Seybert said for those flying in the region, flight disruptions are part of doing business. It’s not unusual for the airline to cancel flights a couple times each year because of volcanoes, according to Seybert. To him, it’s not a big deal, not a sky-is-falling crisis.

“If we had that attitude, we would have quit 50 years ago,” he said. “It’s one of the situations that Mother Nature presents itself along our route structure.”

Ace Air Cargo, also based in Anchorage, canceled two flights and delayed others, but for the most part, its planes are flying around any ash, said Greg Hawthorne, a company official. The airline is closely monitoring developments, he said.

“We’re used to those volcanoes going off in that region,” he said. “But if the winds are wrong, you don’t want to test that pumice.”

Pavlof eruptions typically involve gas-rich fountains of lava that can shoot up to a few thousand feet. But its ash clouds are usually lower and less dense than the plumes of more explosive volcanoes that pose a greater hazard to aircraft, according to scientists. That’s not to say it couldn’t spew out much higher plumes, they said.

The volcano 625 miles southwest of Anchorage is among the most active volcanoes in the region, with nearly 40 known eruptions, according to the observatory.

Pavlof last erupted in 2007. During the 29-day eruption, the volcano emitted mud flows and erupting lava, as well as ash clouds up to 18,000 feet high.

In the most recent eruption, trace amounts of ash fell at both Nelson Lagoon and in Sand Point, a town about 55 miles from Pavlof. Residents in the community of nearly 1,000 awoke Sunday to a thin layer of the gritty ash.

Kathleen Harper, a National Weather Service observer based at Sand Point, said it was raining lightly Monday. But on Sunday, ash was in the air, irritating her eyes and the back of her throat. She said the ash fall amounted to about a half teaspoon per hour on a sheet of white paper she placed on the ground.

When the weather is clear, the eruption can be seen from Sand Point, as well as the community Cold Bay, 37 miles from Pavlof. Through her binoculars, Harper saw Pavlof spit out a fountain of rocky lava.

“You could actually see the rocks coming out of the volcano,” she said. “It was pretty cool.”

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