IS IT TRUE? Part 2 April 26, 2011
IS IT TRUE that Evansville Arena project manager John Kish reported to the Evansville City Council last night that the Arena was on time and on budget?…that the $127.5 original budget is on target and that the Arena is scheduled for a fall opening as Mr. Kish planned two years ago?…that when it comes to the Arena itself that all seems to be according to plan and validates and supports hiring Kish at what some people thought was an exorbitant rate to manage the project?…that up to this point that the City County Observer congratulates Mr. Kish on doing HIS JOB well and encourages him to keep it up through completion?
IS IT TRUE that the Arena is not an isolated project and that as skilled as Mr. Kish is as a manager that the greater management job of orchestrating the entire MLK Entertainment complex has not gone so well?…that the Executive Inn Dilemma that was exposed by the City County Observer cost the City of Evansville over $10 Million to purchase the Executive Inn?…that this $10M has not been included in any of the Arena budgets that we have been privy to?…that excluding the cost of the Executive Inn from the Arena project seems like intentional oversight?…that the grand maestro of the MLK Entertainment Complex also never included the eventual changes needed at Roberts Stadium in the Arena budget?…that sky bridges between the Arena, a new Hyatt Place Hotel, and the Centre were never included in the Arena budget?…that when all of the needed “non-Arena†direct spending is added up it is feasible that the “non-Arena†cost of the Arena will be over $20 Million?
IS IT TRUE that downtown Evansville is also suffering the economic consequences of having no downtown Convention Hotel for a period of at least three years?…that Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau records indicated over 10,000 room nights that were lost in a single year because of this?…that this revenue shortfall hits every hospitality provider and restaurant in greater Evansville right in the pocket?…that some of these conventions lost will never come back?…that the total cost of the Executive Inn Dilemma to the City of Evansville may eventually be as high as the Arena itself when all of the tangible and intangible costs are tallied up?…that if the grand maestro would have hired either Mr. Kish or someone like him to lead the band instead of working in a vacuum that the Executive Inn Dilemma could have been managed much better and maybe even avoided altogether?
IS IT TRUE that the Executive Inn removed over 600 hotel rooms from downtown Evansville rendering it quite limited as a convention destination?…that the new Hyatt Place will have about 220 rooms still somewhat short of the Big E’s total?…that there is a building within an easy walk of the MLK Entertainment Complex that could supplement the number of available rooms by about 100?…that the McCurdy as an apartment complex project is not one that the financial numbers work on?…that the McCurdy was built as a hotel and would make a very fine vintage hotel in downtown Evansville?…that a vintage hotel like the Seelbach and the Brown in Louisville or the Canterbury in Indianapolis is the possibly the only way to make the investment needed work for cash flow purposes at the McCurdy?…that four years of waiting for the financing of a project that makes no sense is enough and that the McCurdy needs to be dealt with in a sustainable manner without relying on government subsidies to exist?
IS IT TRUE that after 10 years without following a master plan that it is time for a new administration to show some vision and start putting together the substance of a new master plan for all of Evansville as opposed to just a few blocks?
Are you forgetting that the Executive Inn went bankrupt, the bank holding the loan was seized by the feds, and the feds closed the hotel. The city could have kept it operating at a loss, but that made no sense. The city didn’t close the hotel, the feds did.
Nobody wants a master plan more than I do, but it has to be as good or better than Mayor Lloyds. I’m talking ballpark, canal, Main St. walkway, and downtown plaza parks. I have a feeling we’d end up getting something dull like Owensboro though.
Mayor Lloyd’s has a baseball park where the District is and no Arena. It has to be changed to be relevant. It also had an esplanade from the McCurdy HOTEL to the Centre. Lot of good ideas in that plan. Too bad it got Zaped. We need a new plan that has lots of ideas integrated in without tearing down the good things we have.
Mayor Lloyd’s plan DID have an arena but was split on the location. It cited John St. or the Civic Center parking lot as preferred locations.
Under the plan where the arena was to have been on John St., a “government services” park was located between the Civic Center and the Lloyd Expressway. I would support this so as long as the McCurdy is left standing.
I will fully with 1,000% effort support a tweaked Mayor Lloyd’s master plan. It was the first thing I brought to Rick Davis’s town hall meeting. Technically the ballpark still could go where it was originally projected but I still maintain that the mulzer lot is 10 fold greater and the only lot that would be a game changer.
However, if the city draws up one of these baby steps Owensboro plan I will fully oppose it.
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