IS IT TRUE August 31, 2013 Special Saturday Edition on Fort Wayne Hotel
IS IT TRUE The City of Evansville thinks what Fort Wayne did by subsidizing a hotel is great? In fact, the Mayor may have the Ft. Wayne mayor testify on Sept. 9. This is the project that the City of Evansville’s experts told them has similarities to our own hotel project and is worth looking into?…the available data indicates the City is wrong?…the following summaries and links will shine some light on just what the reality was in Fort Wayne from the city inserting its money into the free market when it shouldn’t have?
* The Indiana Economic Digest wrote an article in 2007 about the then
proposed Fort Wayne hotel laying out that in order for the project to succeed, Fort Wayne as a City will need to bring in new tourism and raise occupancy rates. This is the same point the existing hotels in Evansville are making – the project is over sized and cannot succeed given the limited data available. Click below to read that Economic Digest article.
http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&subsectionID=155&articleID=35188
* It did not work. In fact, according to Fort Wayne’s CVB equivalent, occupancy rates were at 53.8% in 2007, the year Fort Wayne decided to move forward with their project. As of April 2012, they were at 46.1%. The occupancy rates never even got back to where they were in 2007. Click Here for the data.
http://fortwaynecvb.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/STR-Report-Occupancy-ADR-Trends2.pdf
* Here is what might be most telling: In 2012, the Fort Wayne Marriott was foreclosed on by its bank due to nonpayment on loans. This is what the Indiana Economic Digest suggested was the problem, and is the “cannibalism” that can result when the market cannot sustain the supply. Click here for an article on the foreclosure.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120831/BIZ/308319927/0/biz09
IS IT TRUE that this is what the existing Evansville hotels are trying to tell people?…you can have all the hope in the world that people will come to Evansville to support this huge investment, but when it doesn’t work – businesses fail, people lose jobs and those unfortunate results come from seeds planted and purchased by the City?
This factual article should be printed in the CP. The lemmings who follow the propaganda wagon of the combined political parties would throw a fit.
CCO–Do you consider this “Fair and Balance Reporting”?
Fort Wayne had 35 conventions last year. In 2013, they are on-tract to have over 50.
Is the Hotel you referring to the Convention Hotel? I do not think so.
It was a Marriott outside of the downtown as was clearly stated. So the incremental business they attracted was 15 conventions in what is now the 5th year. How much economic impact will these 15 conventions have? That is the question.
“All politics is Local”
Spend, Spend, Spend. Borrow, Borrow, Borrow.
The sooner demigod egos like Parke’s are pushed aside,the better for the Local Citizens and America.
Crash LaRue–
Please point out to me specfic examples where I have supported “Spend, Spend, Spend. Borrow, Borrow, Borrow” I do not recall any.
I believe: This convention Hotel is a very unusual situation. It will not be built if there is not big finanical assistance from Government. The citizens of Evansville will be better off if the hotel is bult.
Is there some reason you use Crash LaRue instead of your real name?
Wayne Parke
Supporting and pushing an agenda to give away 37,500,000 dollars for a hotel we get no stake in is one example of spending. Supporting a 225,000,000 million dollar arena is another example of spending which operates at a loss that has to be covered by tax monies! Posing as a republican while acting like a democrat just like our mayor!
You are wrong about the arena.
I not only post as a Republican–I am one.
Why don’t you post using your own name?
Wayne Parke
Republican County Chairman
Besides subsidies for this hotel, you have supported the unnecessary smart water meter scheme by Johnson Controls and the tearing down of a surplus property (Roberts Stadium) in favor of a dog park.
Both of these spending schemes will have consequences to the taxpayer and both were touted by you as the right thing to do, but most importantly, both of these schemes had alternative options which were the true conservative options you chose to ignore.
Is There An “Option C†for Roberts Stadium?
https://city-countyobserver.com/2011/12/07/is-there-an-%E2%80%9Coption-c%E2%80%9D-for-roberts-stadium/
Do We Really Need Water Meters?
https://city-countyobserver.com/2013/06/13/do-we-really-need-water-meters/
Brad–As usual, you are wrong again as you are on most things. Please try to get your facts correct.
I did not support Weinzapel’s deal on Johnson Controls.
After the Ford Center is built, I did support tearing down Roberts Stadium. That act saved the taxpayer lots of money.
I’m not even going to sugar coat this one, Wayne. What you have just said is a lie.
You lent your de facto support by asserting the previous Mayor had entered into a contractual agreement that could not be broken, despite the IURC ruling which gave this current Mayor a golden opportunity to get out of the deal, and despite the fact that the City Council still needed to approve the spending, which they could have withdrawn, and which you COULD have opposed.
You did not oppose funding. Your silence and insistence the Mayor’s hands were tied were your weasel’s way of supporting it without having to say you supported it. Did you send emails to your Precinct Committeemen like you have been with this hotel deal urging them to call their Council Member and ask them to defund it? No, you didn’t. You shrugged your shoulders and tried to cover for the Mayor, as always.
Brad–Regarding your 4:19 PM posting— You are wrong again about Johnson Controls.
Winnecke was forced into doing the Johnson Control deal by Weinzapel’s previous commitments. Winnecke and others did make the terrible Weinzapel deal much better for the City. Having made it better, does not mean it was good thing to do.
It may come surprise to you, I do not put all of my thoughts/comments/believes in the CCO. But when I do, it is an honest opinion.
Excellent, kindly copy the emails you sent to your PCs urging them to oppose the Johnson Controls spending. Do that and I will publicly apologise and eat my own hat, sans salt.
“The citizens of Evansville will be better off if the hotel is built”
REALLY!!??? That’s mighty bold talk.
Then stop yapping about it and show us the numbers. REAL numbers like marginal discounted cash flow ROI and break even points.
It doesn’t have to be precise just directionally accurate(i.e. positive or negative) and in the ballpark/neighboorhood of accuracy.
Give us the break even point of nightly occupants needed to just break even on OUR investment. Yes OUR investment since if this happens they bond issuance will have to be general obligation bonds.
$37.5M out in year zero and then the positive cash flows to the TIF from real estate taxes, the food and beverage tax and the inn keepers tax.
Don’t you want to know what your hurdle rate and break even points are to manage this business we’re about to get in?
This isn’t hard to do at all, a recent USI/US finance grad should be able to whip this calclation out in a couple of hours on an excel spreadsheet. Heck I bet you can go to Best Buy and get some off the shelf hotel accounting software for 39.99 to do it for you.
These are basic business tools, not partial differential equations.
Put up or …. you know the rest.
“$37.5M out in year zero and then the positive cash flows to the TIF from real estate taxes, the food and beverage tax and the inn keepers tax.” (Brains Benton)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I noticed you did not mention the COIT. Will the COIT appear in the bond description or not?
I doubt that the bonds could be sold anywhere without the COIT included, but say by some miracle the bond issue sold without COIT, it would not eliminate the possibility of its future use if the sources stated in the bond description were insufficient to meet the payments. At that point the Common Council would pass a resolution allowing the COIT to be used to make up any shortfall.
___
I use a screen name because Evansville is a “small” town.
I have said nothing here I would not say to your face. Not to worry Parke, I will at my first opportunity introduce myself to you, and yes, I do hold your views concerning the Public Treasury pillaging and “gift” to a Private Company with contempt. The Devil is in the Details, look them over, or are they, as I suspect, irrelevant to your way of thinking. The Republicans need to dump you at the first opportunity.
–once you know my name,–will it really make a difference?
Yoda notices misspelling patterns and common trains of thought. True it is that Mr. Wayne Parke seems to have at least 12 different names he is using to post comments here. True it is with such a stable of stage names it seems a bit conflicted for Mr. Parke to call anyone out for using a screen name other than their own. True it is that Crash Larue has only one screen name.
Wayne,
Obviously your support for “Roberts Park” is the primary example of “spend,spend”. Instead of using $4-4.5 mil from the Innkeepers that is designated for tourists only events (and wouldn’t you agree that both Dunn Hospitality and this new convention center would benefit from a mid-sized arena hosting multiple smaller scaled tournaments as well as trade shows like the Boat Show?)the city is now going to use FOUR YEARS worth of Riverboat money for a park that will NEVER bring tourists and will certainly NEVER make money.
With all of that being said, I want to give you one last chance to do the right thing. You’ve argued in favor of building this hotel. Well, wouldn’t it seem right that the ball fields project be located just down Main Street from both the FC and this new hotel? Just like it’s a better thing for IU Med School to be downtown, it’s a good thing that this ball field complex be close to your hotel (and btw, isn’t Kleymeyer closer to Dunn’s hotel on 41 than Goebel is to their hotels on the east side?).
As a supporter of building a sustainable and first class hotel, I urge to you to support building the ball field complex just up Main Street (and over on Don Mattingly Way) from the hotel. Please sign on the following link…
http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-winnecke-of-evansville-in-and-bob-warren-director-of-the-ecvb-move-the-proposed-ball-fields-to-kleymeyer-park?share_id=DmowZiKOOJ&utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
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