The trouble came when building contractors submitted their bids at a Nov. 23 Coralville City Council meeting for the proposed 250-room Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, an accompaniment to the much-hyped indoor rain forest slated for development along the Iowa River next to Interstate 80. (The rain-forest project, a $180 million endeavor, has doubtlessly received so much attention in part because it is to be a tropical attraction in the middle of a sea of cornfields. But that's a different matter, of course.)

The current problem with the conference center is that the bids were all at least $10 million over the $35 million to $39 million that had been planned in the city's current budget. In response, the council rejected the bids, and it has enlisted the help of a consulting firm to ascertain the reasons for the discrepancies, the results of its study to be presented at the Dec. 7 council meeting.

This was the right decision on the part of the Coralville City Council; hopefully, the consultants will be able to identify the problem and lead the city to a solution. But this situation does lead us to wonder about the project as a whole. It has met sizable opposition along every step of the way, from the initial planning stages to the construction estimates. Locals are concerned about the effects of these huge - and, by some accounts, blatantly unrealistic - undertakings, and care needs to be taken in all steps of the process. A little more forethought, hopefully, will prevent another major financial miscalculation. The issue, however, is far bigger than just monetary cost.

Conference centers have been, no doubt, a very lucrative enterprise for many cities across the country. When we speak of cities, however, we're talking about the likes of Chicago or Minneapolis, where such events happen all the time. But that's because these are large population centers that have more to recommend them than just a state university or perhaps a man-made rain forest. Don't get us wrong - we're not trying to trivialize all the fine attributes that this region has to offer, and there are many of them. Let's face it, though; Coralville, Iowa, is not the first place that comes to mind when planning where to hold your conference. Granted, it has the university right in its backyard, which automatically generates visitors for sporting events and the medical facilities, but is this enough? If university-related conventions are to be held here, it's reasonable to think that they will most likely take place at the university rather than at an independent convention center several miles away from campus.

And what about those hotel rooms? Sure, they're likely to be booked on football weekends and during graduation time, but will that hold true in mid-January during winter break, when the temperature hovers slightly above zero and students are out of town? Or in early August, during those idle days when summer classes have ended and the fall semester is yet to begin? These are questions that need to be answered. A glitzy hotel and conference center may look nice from the outside, but if it's empty on the inside, the millions of dollars being invested are for naught. We encourage all interested parties to consider the costs and benefits of this project before embarking on an endeavor whose success is less than guaranteed.