IS IT TRUE the City County Observer has learned from an inside mole with respect to building a downtown Evansville hotel that was just cancelled by Mayor Winnecke has no binding franchise agreement with Hilton International?…it was published last December by Evansville Living Magazine in and interview with Rick Huffman that the franchise agreement was already complete?…in March that was found to be false when Dunn Hospitality asked for a franchise review by Hilton?…it was once again asserted in June by both Rick Huffman of HCW and by Mayor Winnecke that the franchise agreement was approved?…we guess approved does not mean signed, or maybe, just maybe, someone or some group has been dishonest in dispensing information about the now dead project?
IS IT TRUE that this a developing story and we shall kept you informed of any additional information?
Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ouch… It’s not been a good Christmas season for Hizz Honor.
I guess the Poop will try to blame ONB or the City Council for this, too. Or maybe this one is on CCO. It surely won’t be his or Schaefer’s fault.
I question whether the announcement–that the valuation of ONB’s naming rights fell short–is truthful. Is there some other reason why the Hotel didn’t go, and ONB just “fell on their sword” to provide a game-ending explanation which is at least plausible?
I remember two years ago when it was discovered that the Downtown Arena funds were being used to pay for the new North High School. ONB immediately stepped up and took the blame–despite the fact that this practice had gone on for many months, and was never detected by the finance people at either the City or the EVSC.
I don’t buy the ONB naming rights line either, if they were only $ 6.5 MM short they would have raised it, and not scuttle the whole deal (especially if it’s as important as they say). Hell, ECVB is spending more than that on softball fields, should ECVB have waited until the Hotel was fully funded before going off on their softball fields joy ride ? Which would have been better: Hotel or Softball Fields ?
Much more likely: is that HCW never got their loan–i.e., even if ONB ponied up the $ 14 Million as originally promised, the commercial banks wouldn’t make the loan to HCW.
All the lies and deceit , pitiful
When taxpayers finally start demanding an audit of the public funds that have been spent thus far on this failed project, there are going to be some real pissed off people in this community.
But Press, an audit won’t happen. City Council will make sure to block it, just like they did the forensic audit of the Ford Center construction.
But he was endorsed by the unions, Steve Bagby, Connie Robinson, Eric Williams, Dave Wedding, Weinzapfel, the democrat party and other important people. The problem is, Winnecke is an amateur, he does not have the experience at covering up like the pros mentioned in the 1st sentence. If Weinzapfel and his team were in charge the hotel would already be built, the med school would be near completion, retirements would be gone and the city finalizing it’s bankruptcy. Winnecke you’ve got one years left, the democrats set you up for failure, fess up, give us all the dirt and the facts. Walk out with a clean conscience and your integrity intact. The city council would have given Weinzapfel the whole 38 million for the hotel and another 5 million for earthscam, no questions ask, so maybe we are lucky to have Winnecke as mayor. When Weinzapfel took the huge political risk of attempting to steal peoples homestead exemption that should have sent a message of a serious financial issue in this city.
Problems ; Oh, hell, poor Old zombie infrastructure Evansville downtown real estate machine fools , Now, that’s a local thingy. isn’t it? Well isn’t it?
And now, from the real clear financial outside, here’s a clue for you, you’ve been owned for all the B.S. during the last 15 years that has sported by your archaic machine political see through, as recovered.
What’s even more cool, is well , someone well beyond your realm of control, set you up for the smash down fall. That was coming, you’ve earned it. And now, that’s all just a rat out race, and those perceived survivors are racing right now.
Boy and girls, that is going to be fun to observe. You stupid political fools you ALL have been…… explored, mined, and worked. By your own.
Who’s going to do it first? Hell you know the drop off, and its imminent currents ,eddies and undertows. In case you idiots don’t know this yet, you’ve been owned. The thing is some of your own,,,, are the ones that sported the ownership, and then lost that hard, as well, only by the greed involved in the survival aspects. We do not care about the local –>stuff<–. Period.
We care about our people there.
Turbo hotel deals, wow, lay that down with the, turbo arena, and see what that breeds ___ord center, ha, ha , what's in your drive way? Dumb asses. 🙂
Idiots you've been set to the balance, and as usual you came out flat faced slapped around their owned realm. Are you ever going to learn?
However now that "they've screwed around with todays real science", that dumb mistake is going to smash those political bents really hard. Period.
"Pot! We just sport honest facts here, you're stuff stinks, show me your heart, then the legs, but believe me your families status won't ever fly, wings mister, are earned here, not given. "
That was said once by a high school football coach from there his name I think, was Gene Logel.
Ole cuz told me that once, but he did say the assistant coach guy was a sorely born asshole. Thinking that might not have been to far off the call. After our scientific observations Genetics I'd suppose.
http://www.indiana-football.org/?q=node/465
Information is out there people, seek it.
Look to the information @ pressanykey sports , those are just facts , no bull.
that's the numbers press, not the personal aspects, we're centrists we won't accept biased BS.
That's the whole of some of the problem there. Good people there need to gather, regardless of the other stuff. "Everybody knows that"
V, you got my vote for Mayor.
Mr. POV…
Are you kidding me, Winnecke together with his sidekicks Abell and Flutey were standing side by side in Weinzapfel’s office requesting that the homestead credit be eliminated. There will be more disappointments around the corner for this amateur. Why would anyone be surprised about the deceit, like Russ Lloyd, McClintoch is running the show, Sinister Scheafer is the hatch man (the guy who had to resign for Dr. John Dodson’s “Focus on the Family” now the chapter member of “Focus on the Chicks”)
POV blames democrats, especially Connie Robinson, if there is an earthquake in LA. As for Sinister Steve, I hear he’s already committed to a one particular chick, but once a person starts cheating it’s hard for them to stop.
If we were all for Rick Davis like we all claim, we also know that Connie, Eric, Bagby, the unions and a host of other democrats backstabbed their own party’s candidate. They stabbed him in the back because he bucked the system. Winnecke is the mayor because of democrats, so the current problems we face are because of the democrats. Weinzapfel is a democrat, all the problems leading up to our current financial situation started with him. We have had 12 years of democrat control in this city and things have gotten worse, loads of money has been thrown into downtown and it’s gotten worse. We have a front row seat as we watch unions and democrats take our city the same route as Detroit. Wasn’t Connie and Eric reprimanded by the state democrat leadership for supporting a republican for mayor? Democrats never take responsibility for their actions, they use projection as a defense mechanism to blame a non entity, the local republican party. The downward spiral started with Weinzapfel and a democrat CC.
You make zero sense. Like no republicans voted for the mayor? I guess they are not faulted for voting for the mayor? Maybe just in your crazy mind.
Were you there? If this is true, which I believe it is, why did democrats support Winnecke? The only one that appears to have paid a price is Abel and she was the choice of the union leadership and the democrats. Until Bruce won the democrats had no plans of running anyone against her.
Starting a fresh batch of popcorn. This is gonna get good !
Maybe ‘approved’ means rolling a rented backhoe up and down the street a time or two. Do it enough and you’ll actually think you’ve got an approved contract. No kidding, try it.
Or … ‘of the franchises available, given the constraints the council forced on us, we (Winnecke and Huffman) approved something by Hilton. ➡︎ Nothing binding or signed, no money involved, just something that met with their personal approval. They can mention the agreement was complete and approved, it just wasn’t signed and meant nothing. This thing was apparently never a go. It was strung out a long time for a reason. It needs to be audited to the cross.
Like Elkay said the other day, they rode into the mayor’s office under tan blazers and tainted circumstances and it’s been downhill since (she said something like that anyway). Preyed on by conmen, unable to do much of anything for the public good, trouble telling the truth, grandiose plans with no financing. I’m not sure exactly how you define a failed administration but I think they’re just about there. If it turns out there was no agreement with Hilton, I guess we can’t ever believe a word the guy says again.
Maybe he’s simply lost his marbles in which case he can be Reindeer Poop for the duration of the season.
H
Does Winnie still go out about the town and put on a big ‘everything’s fine’ front or just go home after “work” and bury his head in embarrassment? Not that it matters, I just wonder.
It appears that the constraints placed on this ill fated project was clearly the IU Med school. No Med School = Hotel…even if the CC had approved the 38.5 million, if people would dust off the records to see that only 20 mil of the 38.5 was dedicated to the hotel, per se….the only 18.5 was infrastructure, garage, and the storage/retail building…so, in essence, the deal was virtually the same, just the elimination of certain aspects.
The failure of this deal has many facets…selecting an under-capitalized outfit such as HCW, placing Ed Hafer in charge of the capital budget and finally, using Hunt as the GC…..
. . . . and relying on the City Council to do even one iota of due diligence on the deal !
I remember the HCW windbag: ” We are the business plan” as he waved his arms to encompass all at the table.
Oh, yes Mr. Tang, as it was reported, when Friend asked Huffman for their “Business Plan” he tapped his crest and said, “I’m the business plan” in attendance was Adams and Huffman’s gang of four…it was said, some though one or two just came off a witness protection program and of course when Friend asked for the due diligent information, well for five straight weeks, Friend was the focal point of Ethridge’s Sunday Morning rant and of course, Huffman was quoted in Evansville Living “Friend’s demands are ridiculous”and we, as a community, wonder why over the years we seem to attract these situations, most recently, “Earthcare”…distant past, the downtown Ball Park and, of course “in-bed-Ed” was on that scene as well…
Yes, I remember quite well that Friend asked for a lot of information, all legitimate in my mind (including personal financials of HCW principals). I believe that’s why Council tried to bring in an accounting firm, privacy reasons.
So no, I didn’t think Friend’s requests were “ridiculous” in the least. Only problem that I had, is that Friend felt obligated to then vote YES for a $ 20 Million subsidy with none of the documents he requested ! I’ll bet Friend would be proud today if he had voted NO (or Hell No) to the $ 20 Million on the principled ground that we didn’t know enough to commit $ 20 Million of the public’s money at that point. City Council, as with Johnson Controls, ends up looking like fools for a 9-0 vote.
BTW, like ‘In-bed Ed’. Great.
The “in-bed-ed” (pun intended) LIARS, producing the “political circus” we continue to see in Evansville are more numerous than alligators in Okefenokee Swamp!
Do you think that all these years they have been breeding in Bee Slough?
Considering the stinking “Crap” that comes out of their mouths,— it seems the only logical conclusion.
Editor,
What would have been the end-game of a strategy in which you are allegedly days away from pre-construction, but without a Franchise Agreement ? I.e., under that gambit you were always going to have to announce that ‘ there will be no hotel’.
More likely is that the Hotel Chain wanted to see all of the financing in place, in escrow, and then–and only then–grant the Franchise Agreement.
Not trying to water this down in any way–these are serious allegations. There needs to be a post mortem audit done on the Hotel, to determine precisely what went wrong, and that will answer this allegation re: a Franchise Agreement. I for one would like to see if the City followed the advice of their consultant in approaching this project.
Agreed, these allegations as serious and some could jump to conclusions that some of the parties may have mislead in the process to receive compensation from the taxpayers…Winnecke’s position is tenuous, is he challenged in these processes or is he deceitful?….either conclusion isn’t inviting.
The reality is most likely that Hilton agreed to approve a franchise agreement but HCW elected too delay signing on the dotted line and pay the 6 figure fee until after all of the financing was in place and until the bids were in order. That is just smart business. Telling the world the have it over the course of the year is not good business. Lying never is good business or good governance.
As predicted, the morning of the Great Train Wreck, Missy Mosby receives her marching orders from her boss, McClintoch and arrives in Winnecke’s office at 7 am sharp….Discussion: what sort of spin can we place on this for damage control…of course Dream Weaver her sidekick, is summoned to contact Ch 14, Winnecke’s media headquarters to run interference and deflection. What do we do, what do we do??? Oh, let’s place blame on what the council approved 16 months ago and BTW let’s hope that the people don’t notice we voted for this deal and never said one damed word about the adequacy of the funding but would it matter knowing our skill levels hoping and wishing that the electorate will not discover the issues in my assorted past…As it has been said, Dream Weaver, don’t let your past become your future….
If there was a strategy discussion with Missy, it proves how desperate the Poop and his Turd Posse really are. If it was anybody but Mr. McClintock, I’d feel sorry for him. Spending the holidays with an unhappy Carol M. is not going to pleasant.
Strategy session with Mosby & Weaver ? See my screen name.
My take on all this is Winnie either has no clue what he’s doing or he’s a bona fide crook. Either one is unworthy of reelection.
I gave him the benefit of the doubt for quite a while, longer than he deserved. He now appears to be a hybrid with light weighting on the no clue side. I don’t think he’s smart enough, on his own, to last long as a pure breed crook. A shameless liar is worse than either in my book.
If this doesn’t get the electorate off their asses it’ll be too late when they finally wake up. If that little clown succeeds in packing the city council it’ll make what’s happened so far look like efficient governance.
http://s26.postimg.org/vab7839ix/Winnie.jpg
You are absolutely right. We all know for a fact that he is in bed with the unions. We all know or should know the unions and their mafia and communist ties. So a linear thought process would take you right up to Winnecke being a bona fide crook. We still have a chance to save our city. We can do this by voting against whoever the unions suggest. If they don’t endorse Winnecke or Gail we will know we are lost for sure.
You’re obsessed with unions. The republicans have pretty much broken them and wages are falling accordingly, so you can celebrate and stop with the crazy rants.
Yes, Winnecke’s party has struck a mighty blow to the Ol’ Brotherhood with the passage of the RIGHT TO WORK legislation…the mark of character is royalty…but BIG LABOR has always been challenged with spelling, especially loyalty. Ms Riecken goes to Urbania, IL apparently on her own dime for weeks in the effort to protect those BIG LABOR BOSSES’ working families futures…but, let’s get back to the spelling thing….Now, Pence with the help of Winnecke’s donations (supplied by THE BOSSES) will finish them off for sure in the coming months…how?…the elimination of the prevailing wage required on government funded projects…so, non-union contractors will then be able to bring in the illegals (Now legal) paying them whatever they wish and our unfortunate working families will be screwed, but, those BOSSES will still be drawing their pay via the rank and file’s dues money. Let hope that THE BOSSES will come to the stark realities that they will soon be an endangered species and learn how to spell royalty because Mrs. Riecken has been placed on the House Ways and Means committee and is respected by many republicans in the hopes that Gail will be able to safe the day for our working families and even obtain the funding for our medical school as well…God bless you, Mrs Riecken!!!!
Mosby and Weaver bragged about the franchise agreement several times. I literally listened to them bragging about it and how successful and progressive Winnecke is despite the “Democrats” on council. When they were saying those things I was wondering to myself – aren’t you two supposed to be Democrats? They spoke of Democrat Party like it was an alien nation instead of the party they are supposed to belong to.
Maybe we could put a small dog park on the hotel lot. You know for lap dogs.
Ha Good zinger
If the Rebublicans want to point fingers and that is specifically Weaver and Abel point the fingers at themselves. Marsha cut the naming deal for the center with Old National Bank ( Bob Jones) who over committed the value by 8 million dollars, that is where the shortfall came in the council’s money was good the county and Jones were both playing with funny money. Congratulations to Marsha for getting the special ordinance passed by the county commissioners to allow her 2 free years of county insurance until she turns 65. A special ordinance for a special person now she knows why she was voted out. that will only cost the county $40,000.00 over the next 2 years. We have enough self serving people in politics and now we have one less. Thank you Joe Kiefer and Steve Melcher for getting this done. Politics at it’s finest. “Be sure to call these commissioners up and thank them for doing this for one of their own.
Kiefer and Melcher: BOO, HISS; how dare you use public funds to pay health insurance for a defeated warrior like Abell. Karma will catch up with you losers.
I think the City Council screwed up on this Hotel. If they had funded the full $ 38 Million, we would have been on our way to lots of revenue from Conventions. This is all on City Council, Winnecke had it right.
Bullcrap.
Could I interest you in bridge to Henderson?
No But I’d sure the hell buy into a tunnel landing for I-69 at the Corps Dam properties nearby Alcoa. As long as the thing supplied a triad of needs for the local logistical infrastructure, by innovative 21st century balancing. A structured infrastructure that could stand alone with its designed inputs. The tunnel would be its own infrastructure supply so to speak.
Someday there’s going to be such a strategic logistical advantage somewhere under the mighty Ohio. Louisville to Jeffersonville? Cincinnati to Lexington, or further up river.
Considering the projected national asset the I-69 corridor is projected to be which community has this will see tremendous logistical commerce growth. And some career type jobs manning the control center and PM technical operators. The construction jobs would be a super economy shot in the arm for people who are equipment operators as well as all the skilled trades needed for the completion. Be an excellent cross blending for a lot of out of work mining individuals. Our group immediately thought of one local asset you have nearby, we have no connection with them, however this is the type of civil project The Traylor Brothers could bore right into. Easy. here it is.
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.901495,-87.348736,15709m/data=!3m1!1e3
If that day happens to be one where most other traverses are iced over or plugged to a crawl by the impending climate migrations. Wherever that interstate tunnel is, will be a logistical commerce hub as well.
I wasn’t trying to sell you a bridge, but if it’s a tunnel you want, Frontier Kemper will dig it.
Putting another bridge there is about as archaic an idea as building more load onto Evansville’s old downtown combined sewers.
We’ve researched Frontier Kemper also, and, as you will see. —-> http://www.frontier-kemper.com/
Mix your wrong on this ,the people of Evansville were told that if we build a new arena (the Fraud ) that we would get a 4 Star hotel at no cost to the taxpayers of Evansville.
Dear Mix…
Here’s your numbers….the financial institutions will NOT finance more than 60% of the value of the hotel which was $22 million…the subcontractors bids were over the top placing the project 10 million over budget…the original projected cost was 43 million…so, 13 mil would come from the banks….20 mil from the City under the original deal…and twenty million from HCW…HCW never had the liquidity, this would have been discovered if the Council would have received what was requested, but, HCW had other challenges, the apartments required another 3.750 million as a down payment…so, the boys from Branson had to come up with nearly 24 million under the old deal..the overages kills the deal regardless if the Council approved 38.5 million or 20 mil..remember, the 38.5 had 18.5 million in the storage building, street infrastructure, and garage…when In-Bed-Ed gets into any projects, the costs always sky rockets…so, stop the non-sense and accept the fact that Winnecke is absolutely responsible for this failure…Harry Truman said is so well, “The buck Stops Here”
Liquor: you are incorrect with your numbers.
The total project was $ 71 Million: $37 HCW; $ 20 Public Subsidy; $ 14 ONB Naming Rights.
Hotel: $ 22 Million valuation @ 60 %= $ 13 Loan/$ 9 Cash from HCW
Apartments: $ 9,375,000 valuation ($ 3,750,000 Cash from HCW/.4) ) @ 60% = % 5,625,000 Loan; you state $ 3,750,000 Cash from HCW required
So take your $ 71 Million + $ 10 Million over Budget= $ 81 Million Needed:
Lloyd’s Original Request for Public Subsidy $ 38 Million
Hotel Loan @ .60 $ 13 Million
Apartments Loan @.60 $ 5.6 Million
ONB Naming Rights $ 14 Million
HCW Cash $ 10 Million
These five numbers total the $ 81 Million needed. If you are telling me HCW didn’t have even $ 10 Million to put in on the project, then there needs to be a cradle-to-grave investigation, with members of City Administration checking in to the Graybar Motel. Also tells me, as I said earlier, the folly of City Council approving $ 20 Million without the ability to vet the Developer having $ 10 Million.
Mix, do you have $38 million to throw in the pot? If so, go right ahead. If not, it’s not your money and you’re dead wrong.
Comments are closed.