BREAKING NEWS: Local Clarion Inn Closes Its Doors Today

1. Isn’t that one of the Dunn hotels?

   • don’t think so

   • It’s owned by the Nickolick family.

2. Supply & Demand: The most basic fundamentals of economics, of course, our local leadership, namely Mr. Winneckes must have opted out during his college days along with Obama. In this case, government was apparently completely out of the vortex, but, in doing so, the taxpayers were spared the added grief of their money squandered in economic nonsense.

   Many have gathered at the civic center bearing the hotel coffin, weeping and whaling, you would have thought you were at Ziemer’s East. But, instead, the taxpayers should be dancing in the streets…the mourners, lets see, IN-BED-Ed, look at the bright side, your will not have in crouched into the higher tax bracket, of course, Mr. Jones, and the rest of the Evansville Regional Economic Committee members. Their mistake: hitching their wagon to someone so incompetent. To be assured, in the Mayor’s conferences room, they are saying, “What do we do, What do we do” let’s leave it up to the master of spin, yes, Sinister Scheafer, the charter member of “Focus on the Chicks” let him pull our fat out of the fire!!!

   • This all started with the John. Winnecke was left to tear down a perfectly good stadium, a bridge to nowhere, an arena that loses money and no downtown hotel. We had a decent hotel that the taxpayers bought so it could be torn down to make room for the JOHN. The only time I heard John Friend speak the truth was when he said Winnecke inherited a mess. Winnecke wanted to be mayor so bad that he sold his integrity for an impossible job. Winnecke come clean, most of us already have a good idea of what’s going on, we just want the details. The democrats are already using you as the fall guy, protect yourself, you’ve aligned yourself with a group of weasels. You knew what democrats were before you were mayor and let them convince you they would stand by you. Are you feeling the snake bites?

3. Well, Well, Mr. Liquored Up…the day after Christmas and feelin good…we should be sad that another business establishment has apparently failed…either this establishment failed do to management issues or the saturation of the market, or both…upon reading the Hunden report, Mr. Rob did his damness to paint the picture rosie for the downtown hotel…goes to show pay a consultant enough money, he will report that the sky is green, the color of money…as the moles have indicated, even if the City Council appropriated 38.5 million, when the project ran over budget by 18 million, the project was DOA…wonder if those union fellows still have some extra “Build em Both” buttons…in reference to building the IU Med School together with the Hotel….

   • Dances, there were several bloggers earlier this week who proved that, in fact, the City Council blew it ! The on-paper over budget was $ 10 Million (not $ 18 Million). To repeat: $ 38.5 Million public subsidy (original request) + $ 37 Million commercial loan to HCW + $ 14 Million ONB injection for naming rights = $ 89.5 Million available. The downsized project was $ 71 Million ( $ 20MM, $ 37 Million, $14 respectively) + $ 10 Million overage = $ 81 Million funding required. The City Council shaving $ 18.5 Million off the public subsidy killed the project, as HCW had their loan in hand–they even brought their Bankers to the groundbreaking. The excess cash on hand–using original subsidy– would be $ 89.5 Million raise less $ 81 Million needed = $ 8.5 Million; so even if ONB’s valuation was $ 6.5 Million short, that would not have killed the transaction, as even after that $ 6.5 Million shortfall $ 2.0 Million surplus on hand for contingency. Someone is not telling the truth here . . . . .

     • Pie , we have not been hearing the truth in Evansville/ Vand. County for about the last 25 yrs ,,,the last 7-8 yrs. it has really gotten bad with our present and previous mayoral administrations
       PS: City council has been very sad also ,SBR and Al are about the only 2 I have any faith in
       IMHO

     • Courier quoted the dude from HCW as calling it ” a $ 78 Million Project”. If that’s the case, it would have been over budget (pre-construction) by $ 6 Million.

       Not sure where you get the $ 10 Million over. I hear that City Council members have a talking point around town which says ” the project was $ 18 Million over budget; since ONB came up $ 6.5 Million short, that’s $ 24.5 Million shortfall; so it didn’t matter that we cut out $ 18.5 million of public subsidy–the project was never going to launch, even if we funded LW’s original request for $ 38.5 MM”.

       Nice political cover, City Council; now explain how the project got this far being $ 18 Million over budget ?

     • Not exactly sure where the council blew it….the 38.5 million included the retail.shortage building plus the infrastructure plus the garage….Mr Jones commented to 11.5 million in the deal nothing said about qualifying the commitment basis on some appraisal….lets see how then math works….15 = first mortgage…12 million = City donation….11.5 million = ONB…and 3.5 million = HCW…so, were in the hell did the Council miss it? Were it was missed was bring in the likes of HCW and having IN-BED Ed at the helm…when you miss the budget by 18 million, the project was DOA…when the FOIA request come rollin in on the bids, you will have an awaiting….

       Now, lets come to reality…the downtown TIF revenues are 5.8 million…the Ford Center requires 3.8 million ,the hotel at 38.5 requires 2,6 million per year…the IU Med School requires 3.0 million per year..all totaled = 9.4 less 600k for the property taxes on the hotel…less 500k for the sales tax diversion, less the diversion of the Food and Bev once the Centre is paid off = 1.250 = 7.05 million..looks like you are a bit short by 1.2 million…but, remember the bond underwriters will require 1,25:1 debt to income ratio. at a min…so, the TIF will have to be 8.8 million…if the IU Med goes to Warrick, the hotel project can go as originally plan…unless you can get Winnecke to bring in the retired Greenspan with his printing press…

       • Meter Maid: you are delusional. Either you are a City Councilman trying to excuse your decision to commit $ 20 Million with no due diligence; or you are a goofball.

         You keep trying to slice and dice the project. Look at the ENTIRE PROJECT. The entire project was $ 71 Million. $ 20 Million Public; $ 37 Million HCW Commercial Loan; $ 14 Million ONB naming.
         That’s $ 71 Million, and that’s everything. Don’t start playing slice-and-dice, and so “oh, only this much was hotel”. If you don’t think these numbers–widely reported for several months–are incorrect, then say that. Don’t try to keep spinning the failure to vet by the City Council, and I trust you are one of them, probably Friend.

       • Meter Maid: Here’s what you said less than one week ago:

         Meter Maid
         Dec 22, 2014 at 9:23 am
         Remember the evening when the president of the ERC indicated that “Value Engineering” was in play, code for cheap out the project…two things much have occurred…due to the elimination of certain aspects of the projects, the revenues declined per their original projections causing and the end value to decline even though the cost over-runs went from 17 million to 10 million….so, the adjusted hotel cost would be in the neighborhood of $52 million…and the Fair Market Value of the Hotel declined from $22 million to $20 upon completion…banks would finance only 60%…producing $13 million in the first mortgage…the city money of $20 only 12 was into the hotel and the rest was infrastructure and the garage and so…the first 25 million was public and financial institute funds…now, here comes HCW…under-capitalized, not considering the possibilities of over-runs showing up with only 5 million in cash…even if ONB could have come up with the 14 million, the project was short by 8 million…if it was even close, wouldn’t you think that the City Council would have been included in the process to persuade them to consider upping the funding…we all would have discovered the misleading statements and mismanagement of the entire process…

         Secondly, due to the value engineering, the design and other aspects fell short of their standards… incompetency seems to abound….maybe this is why IN-BED-Ed is no where to be found?

         Obviously, the question: which is more important, the IU Med which appears to be stripped of the funding, at least to some degree, or the Hotel…with ONB’s building value cut in over one half ($1,000,000 less in property taxes per year) or 16,000,000 in lost bonding capacities building them both as the Union button said is pipe dreaming….

         In present day, you keep wanting to carve out and say that the $ 20 Million of City Council commitment (sans documentation), only $ 12 Million was hotel. Stop it John Friend. Own up to the truth. You can spin this all day long. You and your tribe screwed up, and were saved only by the mismanagement of your buddy, LW.

4. It was a nice place to go to for lunch. Their soup and salad bar was execellent.

5. Land lease issue. Who would own a building on someone else’s land. I’ll sign a lease with anyone to build whatever they want on my land for 5 years and then after that raise it to a rate no one would pay. Thanks for the building. Some attorney is getting drilled right now.

   • it’s been there longer than 5 years, probably lost their franchise, all hotels live in dread of this. Without a name brand and a national reservations system all the sudden you are nobody and can’t compete. The hotel chain can usually pull their brand at will

6. Wow! Just the first of the week, when I was stopped at the light at 41 and Lynch, I noticed a “Now Hiring” sign on the Marquee. That’s really a shame that they are closed. I hope the employees didn’t get “stiffed” for their last paychecks.

   • Why would you think the employees would get “stiffed”? What is your basis for inserting such a premise into the thread?

     • Employees should give employers a 2 week notice when leaving employment , it’s only right employers give employees the same ,,,,hopefully they did

       • Nah, can’t ask for any decency from the “job creators.” They might get mad and eliminate a couple min wage jobs with no bennies.

       • 2 weeks is customary for both employees and employers. It does not sound like this happened. Usually in such cases it is due to the company running out of cash. When it is abrupt it is usually the employer got stiffed on a big payment by a customer. When you are out of cash, you are out of business.

7. Just move the guests to the McCurdy Hotel or the Executive Inn.

8. With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
   They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
   They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
   So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

   The Gods Of The Copybook Headings
   by Rudyard Kipling

   Interpretation: The gods of the market are those who believe that they know what’s best for their subjects, who know how to control and manipulate economies, who through centralized planning believe that they make beautiful things out of nothing while denying reality and denying that there is such a thing as “absolute truth.”

   We’re approaching the 2015 city elections, and I hope we can find candidates who won’t give us spin, who have clarity of thought, and who don’t think that they have all the answers as to how to solves all the problems facing our community. Candidates who understand that centralized planning doesn’t work, and that we don’t control the forces of the market. If we’re looking for people with new ideas, please don’t buy into it. There aren’t new ideas, but rather, we need to return to values and principles that are eternal and true, and we need to build our houses on those.

   But, I too have an unrealistic wish. I wish it were possible to sell the Ford Center and the former Center to private investors rather than for the citizens of our community to be the owners.

9. “Brilliant Ideas” from the Elitist Vampires have bled Evansville to near death.
   We need someone who seeks Community Consensus
   in setting long term goals, and short term goals,– that represent the Communities best interests.
   Not the same old Politicos that have been governing/ruling,– while fantasizing that they were born to the Purple,– and their Destiny is to be “King”.

   Still hoping for some more “New Faces”, seeking a better Evansville, to throw their “Hat in the Ring” in 2015.

   • They would lose, a waste of their time and a waste of my vote but I would vote for them. It’s hard for an amateur to win in this area unless they are democrats, like Linda Durham. I think Connie Robinson’s recent act to keep city people in city positions throw a curve ball to the elitist. The elitist also includes those union bosses. Our politicians could learn something from Cleveland Tennessee , they took whirlpool from us and put them into a 30 million dollar building with workers that pay taxes. We could have had that if not for unions and elitist, instead we have an arena that is sucking us dry at the expense of our infrastructure. There’s no way a company in the appliance business can stay profitable with a union workforce and it’s not the pay. It’s the poor work ethic, union created adversarial relationship and lack of enforcement of drug use policies. If unions were concerned about their members they would have abandon Whirlpool and let the good employees have a chance and let the poor ones go. Union employees are too much of a hassle for a struggle company in a global economy. The loss of Whirlpool was both an economic and a psychological loss to this city. But we got a new arena for, supposedly 137 million if anyone believes that. Of course, the high snot construction unions care little about the low snot union factory workers.

10. Citizens, this should serve as a ‘wake up call’. With the closing of the Clarion, there is now a desperate need for additional hotel room capacity. We need to immediately ask our City Council to approach the Downtown Developer with a $ 60 Million cash infusion to make this project work. If not, those travelers may just pass through Evansville and lodge in Henderson or Owensboro . . . .

11. Adam Smith has paid another visit to Evansville. Now, if the river Styx, or even the Ohio, would change course long enough to carry away the poseurs who have broke the city perhaps the healing could begin.

    • It gets more intense . accept, in the present timeline it has intensified. Even, “more”.
      Better applications, and methodology are under development, the approval is pretty much a lock now, like most of the old science already recovered the strategic footprints of a given region in the next 20 years will determine its actual valuation and logistical revenue growth viability. Anywhere.

      Poorly maintained clean water utilities and Combined sanitary and storm water sewers cannot be allowed where strategic global clean water resources are located by national geophysical presentation, verses, building in environmental sustainability.

      In case they don’t realize that, that’s a rather large major to your local social economic environmental profile. Logistically for those business or heath related industries operating in the that mess the cost is rapidly exceeding the locational valuation. Period.

      This will, next up, affect the real jobs, location “might still have a chance to provide there.”
      The science is in, so are the individual discharge profiles, that’s under continuous scrutiny as well.
      The numbers get worse with each CSO event. Its really just a logistical problem now, that’s strategy per point of commerce and that’s working job availability one would have there now.
      The best approach for them if the city continues to lack viable utility infrastructure is to quickly start the exploration of they’re own onsite expenditures and projects needed to remain viable. Or the simple ( Detroit.) way out, shutter the junk, and haul, lock, stock and barrel to another globally festering unregulated irregularity and politically volatile region, where pass go is a given.
      Of course taking on more logistical geopolitical risk, and less product supply chain logistics viability. So.
      Those who do begin building resilience into their global social economic environmental footprints, with the logistical valuation to support the rush, will indeed move forward and sustain balance, while increasing the localized revenues in the new global footprints being presented, globally, and daily by global climate migration.. Notice the dates the articles were listed. “Ok, but, Everybody knows that”. “Yeah,alright but did you know”……………

      “Emerging Issues”

      “Only a small percentage of chemicals are regulated locally, nationally or internationally (Daughton 2004). An emerging concern is contaminants in high population settings that are neither traditionally measured nor regulated, for example pharmaceuticals (Wiegel et al. 2004). Reynolds (2003) reports: ”

      “Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the potential public health impact of environmental contaminants originating from industrial, agricultural, medical and common household practices, i.e., cosmetics, detergents and toiletries. A variety of pharmaceuticals including painkillers, tranquilizers, anti-depressants, antibiotics, birth control pills, estrogen replacement therapies, chemotherapy agents, anti-seizure medications, etc., are finding their way into the environment via human and animal excreta from disposal into the sewage system and from landfill leachate that may impact groundwater supplies. Agricultural practices are a major source and 40 percent of antibiotics manufactured are fed to livestock as growth enhancers. Manure, containing traces of pharmaceuticals, is often spread on land as fertilizer from which it can leach into local streams and rivers. ”

      “Ædificate evolutis Climate”*

12. I am sorry another hotel has closed! However, I am also sorry that so many in our community are “closed minded” to wanting our community to grow and expand in a positive and much needed way! We need a new hotel downtown. We need the medical school downtown. We need forward looking government officials who have a vision for the future of Evansville and the surrounding area. Evansville had an enormous amount of potential! Too bad some citizens can’t recognize that….. Progressive thimking leaders create progressive communities. I want to live in a community that is will to look at the future not complain about the present…….

    • Need, need, need, that is bullcrap. What you really do is want, want, want

      • Yep, that old Evansville downtown is wrong for investment right now, the base utilities and the Water/Sewers viabilities are strictly garbage. The logistical throughput value is practically worthless, and if anyone builds anything do include and apply bullet proof glass. That’s for all the pointed heavy metals sailing around down there after dark.

        Nobodies fault but those idiots who have neglected real stuff for the “bull crap” fluff. You all have blown all the revenue funding on undervalued fluff now.
        You openly tossed money in a rat hole and you expect to see a stead pulling a golden chariot come out of the hole, any second now. Nope, won’t happen, never would never will. It is, what it is.
        And, everybody knows it.

        • —“Everybody knows it.”
          +1

13. Another business failed, and another murder by a Black teen last night! Go Evansville.

    • The one begat the other . . . . more failed leadership, just like in Detroit

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