IS IT TRUE JULY 29, 2015

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IS IT TRUE “when people fear the government we have Tyranny but when government fear the people we have Liberty”?

IS IT TRUE that Normally, this space is reserved for our daily IS IT TRUE.  Today, it will be, although in reverse with you giving your thoughts and observations.  You, the reader, telling us your opinions and how you feel about this lengthy Downtown Hotel process.  We ask that you stay on topic, refrain from personal attacks and stay focused.

This Hotel project was started early during the second term of Mayor Weinzapfel.  During the beginning phases of Ford Center, Mayor Weinzapfel contemplated that the Executive Inn would need a major renovation or be replaced.  It turned out the decision was determined when the operator of the Executive Inn defaulted on the loan and the bank holding the note took over the hotel.  Within months, the Bank defaulted and was taken over by the Feds and the hotel was closed. BAM.  No hotel. Weinzapfel at first attempted to find a developer to renovate the Executive Inn, but that failed.  Then another developer was selected and again that failed.  By the end of his term, he had signed a development agreement with the Kunkel Group to build a new hotel.

Upon entering the Mayor’s Office, Winnecke terminated this agreement with the Kunkel Group and sought new proposals.  He dramatically changed the scope of the project by adding apartments and commercial space.  Negotiations continued and a new developer was selected. Cost began spiraling out of control and the City Council set a firm lid on the financial size of the project.  This financial figure was based on expected revenues and later proved astutely correct after a new IU Medical School was selected to also be developed.  These financial amounts are still very very close.  Had the Council not set these maximum amounts, a new I U Medical School would not have been possible.

OUR QUESTION TO YOU.

Give us your opinion of the progress and development by the Mayor and City Council. Grade their performances.  Cite their success and failures.  Finally, give us your opinion on where we are headed and what roadblocks you expect.  It’s rather a forum today on this very complicated and long process in obtaining a Downtown Hotel.  Will we ultimately have what we want?  Do we need it?
Will be able to stay within the very close budget?  IS IT TRUE It’s your day to speak out?

Please take time and vote in today’s “Readers Poll”. Don’t miss reading today’s Feature articles because they are always an interesting read. New addition to the CCO is the Cause of Death reports generated by the Vanderburgh County Health Department.

Copyright 2015 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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20 COMMENTS

  1. Stop throwing good money after bad. HCW got a couple million for free. Let it die there. Republican cronyism at its finest.

  2. I firmly believe that anything built on a foundation of Lies, will ultimately fail.
    The “Plot” has already been written by a ” motley cast of characters”,–and time will tell,–“The Tale”.

  3. Thinking back to the Weinzapfel days, and Browning of Indy the first of 5 development teams who have “tried” to build this folly. Browning wanted to rehab the Executive Inn. Browning couldn’t get a loan. Next thing you know, some engineering studies come out to say that the remaining part of the Executive Inn is unbuildable. Browning basically deeded the (worthless) property back to the City after being paid over $ 11 Million dollars. The City then forged ahead with the facility known as the Fraud Center. We all know about the subsequent four rounds of Hotel attempts, counting the current HCW round.

    Is it True, that the rehab of the Executive Inn by Browning was a ‘planned failure’ , in order to send dollars to Indy ? I am a blind man, and it seems I have just wandered into a sushi bar ?

  4. Here are the five rounds of the Hotel Development, beginning in 2008:

    1) Browning–Indy: couldn’t get a loan to rehab the Executive Inn;

    2) Woodruff –EVV: local, insurance agent. No loan;

    3) Prime vs. Kunkel: Kunkel anointed, but no loan;

    4) HCW # 1: ONB can’t come up with the dough for Centre naming rights, no cigar; and

    5) HCW #2: 5 stories vs. 10; no indoor pool, no rooftop bar; box fans in every room. Add in Hunt Construction for mojo and a fixed cost deal; add in “another” ONB investment of unspecified terms, and here we are !

    And for the past 8 years, no private money would touch this deal . . . .

  5. It just boggles the imagination that the owner of a hotel like the former Exec could inform prospective lenders that the City of Evansville was committed to building a $120. million arena right next door to my property and I would like a line of credit to do a major renovation to my Inn to coincide with the opening of the new arena, and they would turn him down. There simply has to be more to this story that is not being told.

  6. Lloyd Winnecke has been all that the honest person feared and everything the soulless person wanted. He and the people surrounding him are devouring any and everything they can. They are dishonest, wicked and greedy. Lloyd Winnecke is the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.

  7. It is truly mind boggling to realize city officials are willing to spend $80-$100,000,000 of taxpayer money on two downtown buildings and have zero ownership in either one.
    BTW, who is officially the owner of the Ford Center?

    • The city will get its turn to own the Ford center when it becomes a big enough liability. Maybe, if we are lucky that time will hold off until its demolition. We will then pay for that.

  8. Don’t build a monument to the tackiness of this embarrassing era in Evansville history! Let the property sit vacant until it can be given to a private developer who sees a credible need (emphasis on “credible”) for a hotel on that site. Spend our money sparingly, wisely, and to benefit the city in a way that recognizes all of its residents and their needs, and run Winnecke and the other vermin out of the Civic Center in November.

    • Those “empty lots” are also overgrown with tacky looking weeds, as are allot of the flower beds and grassy areas around the civic buildings and the ONB events plaza on the “boulevard of broken dreams” located in old downtown Evansville. They have sprayed nearby for west Nile mosquitoes, the vectors of the disease itself. So, expect a influx of the pesky little buggers in the overgrown weed habitat at the proposed doublewide tree high motel site soon.
      Someone ought to at least fog the “notell” site even if they can’t muster the funds to cut and trim the weeds. The spot is laden with rocks, chunks of stuff, empty beverage containers and some over zealous signage, save the mower blades , send a crew out with heavy duty weed eaters and a couple gallons of the preferred mosquito beater as well.

  9. You’d like to give these people the benefit of any doubt, but after a while it sure looks corrupt.

    Don’t forget the parked bulldozer when no agreement with Hilton was in place. Window dressing, cheap con. They think you’re stupid. Don’t forget the repetitious references to ‘our’ new Hilton when as currently planned it is one of their lesser acquired brands (Hilton only recently started allowing them to be called Double Tree by Hilton) and it is not ours at all, we just get to pay for it. Keep in mind our 20 million is the same outrageous public contribution that was planned when it was something we could maybe be proud of. Winnecke and his cronies are not explaining why the public share stays the same for half the hotel. They ignore questions about the convention business waning nationwide and that we are situated in the middle of several cities with authentic draws for what remains. Don’t forget that we have successful, legitimate hotel developers right here in Evansville that aren’t interested in doing business with these people.

    Remember the guy pushing this is the same one who, when caught going south with your Homestead Tax Credit, said it wasn’t his best hour in public service. Contrition be thy name. Winnecke has now eclipsed his closed door moves on the tax credit, he has outdone himself and is not to be trusted. He has a new ‘not best hour’ and isn’t done yet. Look at the quality of the people he has surrounded himself with. He is on the glidepath to coasting back into office, this time with a handpicked council. This administration couldn’t run a brothel in a gold rush and they want to get into the hotel business, with your money.

    Lastly, know if you don’t already, that there is nothing you can do about it.

    • good post Bandana. Just like Weinzapfel approving the Johnson Controls contract on his way-out-the-door in 2011, so too will this Hotel get started only to find its champion Winnecke is no longer in office.

  10. Don’t forget, John Dunn offered to build a hotel if the city gave him the land…..

  11. Room occupancy in Evansville shows there is no immediate need for additional rooms in the city. The additional rooms would only serve the convention and arena business. The most logical thought for the city of Evansville would be to follow through with the building of the Indiana University School of Medicine and after it is further along, the hotel would be an investment private hoteliers would consider. There is no immediate need for a hotel downtown. If the hotel goes through as it is currently designed, ten years from now when the city center is prosperous, the current designs will be looked at as one of the biggest mistakes the city of Evansville has made. Development for current needs does nothing for the future of the prosperous downtown. The correct choice would be to plan the future of downtown and build accordingly.

    • The high point on occupancy is likely the Eville- Irons frog follies event for the entire tri-state as far as heads in beds goes. That’s once only a year but a large influence on room profitability to many venues.
      Can’t see where the Downtown motel would influence that one way or the other. Many of the car enthusiasts stay 50-60 miles away from the Vanderburgh county fair grounds. Its your towns largest visitor event and will most likely remain that while the club controls the event. If the city ECVB ever had a hand in it, that would probably die on the vine as well. “Picture a frog leaping scoreboard with no inches or feet shown”……………

  12. When people disagreed with Missy Mosby’s tweet on use of city funds for the hotel to be built yesterday, this was her answer:

    Missy Mosby: Sorry but the debate is over – it’s going to happen and it’s a great thing for Evansville!

    Like everything this administration and his buddies before him “presents for public input” it has already been decided by the powers that be. Do not let them fool you into thinking your opnion counts. It doesn’t and it looks like all but the 6% that voted in the primary are just fine with that!

    • She’s not sorry, unless we are talking about a sorry excuse for a representative. She’s too stupid to be sorry. Her and Weaver think they are winning, but they are just two lonely, daily drinkers who both missed the opportunity to have stable marriages and families. All for a bit less than $20k a year and invitations to parties wherein they will never truly fit in with the other guests. They are tools to be used and cast aside when their handlers’ jobs are done. We really should all feel sorry them. Nevermind. I tried for a few seconds and threw up a little bit in my mouth.

  13. One very large inquiry into all the money that cann be reconciled in he City of Evansville’s books. Cannot understand why this is not being investigated and looked at it and an answer provided.

  14. It is difficult to state more than what has already been said without being redundant. The facts concerning the “Bait & Switch Hotel” have been revealed, and the bottom line is that “Proposal A” was presented and accepted while “Proposal B” is being pushed through without a vote. Ultimately, corruption has been exposed from somewhere within the “backrooms” of our city, and will continue to be exposed. Corruption is why Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, and many of the pastors and congregations have invited Him to do so in this city as well so that the people can have a just and balanced scales.

    If we continue to accept corruption on any level (especially with the mindset of “Let’s just build a different building than what was approved so that the city can make “some money” rather than nothing.”), corruption will continue to flourish, and the city will still be broke. The only answer to this ongoing problem is going to be a Publicly regulated and monitored Government Accountability Program. Every penny spent or earned should be published openly for all to see in real time. Then honesty and integrity can be restored.

    We live in a highly technological day and age in which Publicly Accessible Financial Records can be accomplished, and is often done in major ministries to dispel any unwarranted accusations, but our current Government Accountability system is full of holes, outdated and ineffective. For far too long in this city the people who know how to move the money around seemingly unnoticed have been playing a “shell game” with taxpayers’ money which is why the city is broke, why the rich get richer and why the poor get poorer.

    Higher Government Accountability is a ‘must’ before any hotel project gets pushed through. Otherwise, we are saying that we agree with corruption and empower it to continue… which is what got us here to begin with.

    And that’s my take.

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