Developer Courtland Dusseau told Augusta commissioners Wednesday that they couldn't pay him to move the site of his planned Hyatt hotel.

Addressing a meeting of the commission's TEE center subcommittee, Mr. Dusseau, a managing partner for Alabama-based Legacy Hospitality LLC, said he wants to build next to the Augusta Common and near a new trade, exhibit and event center on Reynolds Street, putting him in the center of the "hospitality section of the city."

He dismissed notions of moving to the James Brown Arena property or the old Watermark site in return for tax incentives or free land. Projects that start that way usually don't sustain themselves in the long run, he said.

"If the city's willing to pay someone to do something, then there must be a problem," Mr. Dusseau said.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver brought up a recent deal in Raleigh, N.C., where taxpayers footed a $20 million subsidy so a developer would build a Marriott downtown.

"We've been to that site and looked at it," Mr. Dusseau said, "and I don't know if $20 million is enough."

Wednesday's meeting was the third for the subcommittee, which was formed in September to recommend a compromise on building a TEE center and funding redevelopment projects in the Laney-Walker and Bethlehem neighborhoods, issues that have had the commission at a 5-5 stalemate since early May.

Mr. Copenhaver, drafted by the commission to assemble and head the five-member panel, has tried to restart the conversation from the beginning. For the first meeting, he had Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Barry White explain why the Reynolds Street location -- next to the existing convention center inside the riverfront Augusta Marriott Hotel & Suites -- was deemed the best place for the TEE center out of the sites evaluated.

For the second meeting last week, the mayor had Jesse Wiles, the president of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Asset Property Disposition Inc. and the city's consultant on the Laney-Walker/Bethlehem initiative, explain how if the gridlock doesn't end Augusta will miss out on generating nearly $100 million in economic development for the inner city, the vast majority of it coming from the private sector.

For the fourth meeting next week, Mr. Copenhaver said he'll have attorneys from the Law Department go over the implications of not spending the $20 million approved for the TEE center in 2005's sales tax referendum, and whether the $1-a-night hotel fee can still be collected for Laney-Walker and Bethlehem if it's not also being used for exposition center operations.

The mayor said he then wants to hash out a solution with other subcommittee members -- commissioners Joe Bowles, Joe Jackson, Corey Johnson and J.R. Hatney -- and hopefully see a commission vote by the end of the year. He said he's not factoring the Dec. 1 District 1 runoff election into his timeline. The race is between Reynolds Street TEE center supporter Matt Aitken, and Bill Fennoy, who leans toward moving it to the James Brown Arena. One of them will take a seat on the commission in 2010.

Mr. Dusseau said Wednesday that downtown has incredible potential and that moving the TEE center away from the Marriott and the Augusta Common wouldn't make sense. If conventioneers can walk to and from their hotel rooms, the restaurants on Broad Street and the river, that gives Augusta an edge over other cities competing for large events, he said.

"Any time you have transportation, there's a cost of time and money for the event," he said. "This is the best site. This is why we want to be here."

Mr. Dusseau said the $25 million Hyatt Place Hotel & Business Center would create about 50 permanent jobs. He said in an interview after the meeting that he would raze the elongated buildings on the west side of the Common so the hotel sits directly beside the park.

Also at Wednesday's meeting, Downtown Development Authority Margaret Woodard announced a possible solution to the parking deck dilemma, a sticking point for commissioners who don't want to issue bonds for a $12 million to $17 million deck along with a $38 million TEE center.

Ms. Woodard said a developer involved in a planned mixed-use parking deck in Athens, Ga. -- which would incorporate retail, restaurant and office space and a park on the top floor -- is interested in something similar in Augusta.

In the Athens deal, developer Batson-Cook is contributing about $6 million to the $17 million public-private venture, according to the Athens Banner-Herald .

Mr. Johnson said Wednesday that he's ready for the presentations to end and for discussions on a resolution to begin. Though he spoke in past weeks of wanting to consider other sites, he said now he wants the TEE center built on Reynolds Street, but without issuing bonds to spend $18 million more than what voters approved for it. He said it could be built with $29 million already on hand -- the sales tax money, plus interest earnings and judicial center construction savings -- with 30,000 square feet of exhibition space rather than 40,000.

It could be designed to leave room for expansion, Mr. Johnson said, and voters could decide whether to raise more money in the next sales tax vote. Meanwhile, he said, a $9 million bond could be issued to jump-start the inner-city projects, paid off with hotel fee revenues.