IS IT TRUE July 3, 2013
IS IT TRUE hospitality industry legend John Dunn of Dunn Hospitality has set off a speculative firestorm with on simple statement that his company will be embarking on the biggest project it ever has right here in Evansville?…Dunn Hospitality has invested private dollars in a portfolio of upper end hotels all around Evansville with a strong presence on the east side and a growing presence on the north side?…these are the areas of Evansville that have experienced consistent growth over the last 30 years so it only makes good sense that a well run business would locate in those locations?…the most speculation is revolving around the possibility that Dunn Hospitality could be considering entering the convention business with an east side convention center that would be served by Dunn’s hotels that are already in place?…a chorus of shock waves has been ringing from the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to the Civic Center about the Centre and the on-again-off-again corporate welfare hotel being placed in a competitive position with an industry juggernaut?…it is an interesting concept to bring the conventions to the hotels with private money rather than government logic that dictates gifting $37.5 Million to an out of town company to bring a hotel to the Centre that actually costed less to build than the hotel subsidy?…one thing we are confident in is that whatever John Dunn’s “big†project is will be well researched, well planned, fully funded, and appropriate for the market it enters?…if one were to bet on or invest in the future earnings of Dunn or the City of Evansville’s dalliance into the hospitality business, one would be well served to invest in the one that has a long track record of financial success?…that would be Dunn Hospitality?…investing in put options on local government would be the best option?
IS IT TRUE that Pat Keepes of the City of Evansville Engineering Department reached out to the City County Observer to clarify the speed hump purchases in March?…Mr. Keepes explained that speed humps have been on his mind for a while and that the purchase was for evaluation units in advance of some future call to install speed humps somewhere in Evansville?…the CCO finds Mr. Keepes’ explanation to be rational and reasonable and accepts him at his word?…getting in front of big ticket orders with evaluation units is a best practice used across the country?…we commend Mr. Keepes for taking this action so that some future City Council can have access to real local data when pondering a really big decision?
IS IT TRUE that Haynie’s Corner has a couple of new banners hanging from City of Evansville owned light poles that can temporarily make one think they were driving through San Francisco’s Castro District?…the rainbow banners and flags that have come to symbolize gay pride in LGBT enclaves across the country are welcome and appropriate in a part of town that is an aspiring arts district?…the CCO encourages the acceptance of these banners as a symbol of progress in a part of town that has struggled to get any real traction for 50 years or more?…if Goosetown can attract people who fix up their homes and tend to the neighborhood the way that people do in the Castro it will be a remarkable transformation?
IS IT TRUE that the Obama Administration announced yesterday that the employer mandate for ObamaCare will be delayed by a full year?…there are many reasons for this the first of which is that the federal government is just not ready after 4 years of blah, blah, blah?…the second reason is that the recent defections of the architects of ObamaCare calling it a trainwreck are not something that the White House wants to have unfolding in a mid-term election?…the third reason is that big business doesn’t want this at all and the White House caved in to that pressure?…it takes more than pretty words and dreams to implement changes and from the JOBS Acts failures with respect to crowdfunding to the failure to implement ObamaCare in 4 years it is obvious that the President has surrounded himself with people of words as opposed to people of deeds?…another year or even another 5 years will not make any difference to people who cannot do?…expect more delays, more false starts, and more broken promises until this collection of academics and community organizers is replaced with people of action?…the same goes for hotels and conventions in downtown Evansville?
The Dunns will beat the City and the CVB senseless if they go into this business. I don’t blame them for being disappointed by a $37.5 M handout to a competitor. If the Dunns team up with Tropicana to go after the convention business the Centre and the new welfare hotel will be doomed.
I wish John Dunn the very best in his new hotel/convention center investment on the east side. Why did he did not elect to spend his capital downtown for the hotel/convention center that is needed at that location? Was it because he thought it would be a high risk investment? Likely so. John is a successful business man and knows the hotel business.
Evansville needs a downtown convention hotel because we need to attract more conventions/events to our great City to help raise revenue. We taxpayers already have a big capital investment made by the City and County in Ford Center and the Centre Complex. In order to protect that already sunk money–good or bad—we need a convention hotel downtown that is next door to these facilities. The people who decide what City to hold their convention/event want to have hotel facilities next to the convention/event facility so they can walk a short distance wherever they need to go.
In order to a attract a convention hotel downtown, the City/Taxpayer must share in some of the cost in order for the hotel owner to build the facility downtown. When I examine all the facts in this unusual situation, I fully support building a downtown convention/event hotel as currently planned. I believe we are going to get one–the sooner the better.
So assuming the City would be as willing to hand out free money to a local boy what this tells us is that Dunn doesn’t even see a downtown hotel as a good investment with a $37.5 Million bribe to build it. Do you have any idea how stupid this makes Mayor Winnecke and the Redevelopment Commission look?
Which is precisely why government should not be competing with the free market in these areas in the first place.
The business community certainly is not without fault either. By being only too willing to take the government goodies that were offered, they have perpetuated a system that has held taxpayers hostage while stripping them of any effective voice in these matters.
A market is a market. If it does not exist as a viable project for private enterprise, then it is not an option for public funds either unless one can prove a compelling public safety issue. This would go a long way towards putting the brakes on ever increasing taxes across the board.
At the same, I would not deny, through the referendum process, the citizens right to approve a project that a two-thirds majority of voters approved.
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Says the peon for Mayor Winnecke.
Mr. Parke, you just said it yourself… Dunn doesn’t want to invest downtown because that’s not where the market is! It’s all reliant on government pumping money into the area. As a supposed “conservative” carrying the local Republican banner, you of ALL PEOPLE should know this is not preferable, fair, or equitable to the other privately owned small businesses in this city for good tax dollars to be thrown after bad in an effort to prop up what are turning into multi-generational mistakes by leaders just like you, who do nothing but fumble the ball, however well intentioned, into your own damn goal.
I hope our Party comes to its senses and routes you out and the horse you rode in on.
I will say though, you certainly display balls by posting this nonsense under your real name. Unfortunately, it also displays your imprudence even further.
The Politicos and Elitists teamed up to bring together a Financial Disaster Plan for Old Downtown. Now they tout that with just one more piece put in place, just a “few” more millions from the worker’s, and the Old Jalopy will be good to go.
Smart Money doesn’t think so?
Why Mr. Parke, Smart Money MUST, MUST be wrong,
The Politicos and Elitists CAN’T, CAN’T be wrong, because they’re smarter than the Average Citizen don’t you know!
You couldn’t get People to go to Old Downtown if the Ark of the Covenant was enshrined there!
I would have to think that this may be a tactic Dunn is using to scare off support for the new hotel downtown. It is no secret that he is concerned about the competition.
One has to understand that the hotels Dunn operates and a downtown convention hotel are not attracting the same clientele. I travel quite a bit. When I am visiting various accounts in a particular city, I always stay in hotels and areas exactly like what Dunn has on the east side. When I am attending a convention or trade show, I always stay in the convention hotel. I have attended a few trade shows located in suburban type convention centers like what would be proposed here. The attendance is never as good as when they are located in a convention center with an attached hotel and center city offerings. In fact, my company has declined to participate in some shows in these suburban type of facilities because of the lack of attendance.
Seems to me, we rushed the ball on the entire Ford Center project. Maybe I am just a simpleton, but I think had we planned the Ford Center out a little more, and then allowed bids from companies wanting to be a part of it with a hotel from the very beginning, we would have had quite a bit of interest without having the shell out the money we are now to bait them in.
If we had taken the money we are using to subsidize this hotel, and used it on a better Ford Center, we could have had a 15,000 seat arena, hosting NCAA tournament games, state finals, large concerts, etc..and with that, the hotel people would have been begging to be adjacent.
That folks, is a total lack of vision and extremely poor planning.
Not to mention a storage facility that is adequate for the Ford Center. Poor planning or no planning from the Weinzapfel Adminsitration is what created this mess. The only thing Weinzapfel spent any time planning was his own move to the governor’s mansion in Indianapolis and how to steal the Homestead Tax Credit. Too bad he failed as Mayor while dreaming of things beyond his reach.
+1
I disagree that attendance would suffer for a convention located in a more suburban setting like the east side Burkhardt area. That area is thriving without constant government subsidies propping up the businesses there. This is where the market is going. There are more restaurants and shopping choices in that Green River Rd to Burkhardt area than most of the rest of Evansville combined. What does downtown have? A couple little bars on Main and the Casino.
The difference between downtown Indianapolis and downtown Evansville, for example, is like night and day. If you’re comparing Evansville to any of the surrounding larger cities, it’s not an analogous comparison. First of all, anyone looking to cater to the Evansville market by holding a convention here will want to hold the convention where the “market” actually IS. In Evansville, that’s on the east side between Green River Rd and 164.
The Mayors legal counsel approves 30 crosses and now the Rainbow (flag) banner to be displayed on public property what will he approve next?
Whats going to happen when the city is forced to remove the Rianbow Banner proudly being displayed on a public light pole in front of the fountain at Haynie’s Corner? Looks like another police and private citizens comflict coming. Hope I’m not working that evening.
When a mosque is allowed to place 30 – 8foot crescent moon symbols on the riverfront is when you may want to come down with pink eye because a drone attack is almost inevitable.
Leave our rainbow color flag alone. We worked hard to get it approve to display it by the fountain.
Gay Pride forever. Power to the people. Thanks Mayor for your support to our community.
Display your banner at your home not on the city streets!
Then remove the crosses from the riverfront. Also, one is religious and the other isn’t.
I would much rather see the gay pride banners than the new police signs going up all over downtown.
The banners are welcoming, the police signs scream that the area is unsafe and to get out. Next, the EPD will be encouraging downtown businesses to install bars across all the windows to reduce break ins.
I was also wondering when someone was going to bring up the blatant hypocrisy of not allowing temporary crosses on the riverfront while allowing gay pride flags to fly for who knows how long now in an area that should reflect art, not gay pride.
I feel like I’m back on a university campus again.
One is religious. The other isn’t. It’s really quite simple.
You can put up any kind of flag that you want, but only one means anything to me. That is the one my family fought for and some of them died for.
Woodpilereport.com June 2, 2013
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Legitimacy
The federal government was not intended to be a charity, nor an insurance or retirement agency, nor doctor, pharmacist or health advisor, champion of the poor or rich, changer of foreign regimes, protector of the planet, educator, space explorer, diet and nutrition czar, arbiter of interest rates or prices or wages, nor trafficker in currency unsecured by gold or silver. As legally constituted it may neither promote nor restrict transfats, sugar, tobacco, alcohol, coal, gasoline, drugs, salt or food of any kind; nor may it enact legislation favoring or victimizing or exempting any gender, race or ethnicity. In short, those things DC is doing outside of its enumerated powers are unlawful.
This is a recitation of plain, obvious, acknowledged fact. DC is not the federal government the Constitution describes and, just as a degree in dentistry confers no authority to pilot an airliner, it exercises powers is does not rightly have art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif.Not only is the institution that represents itself to be the federal government an artful fraud, it understands and conducts itself as such, down to using surveillance, threats and violence to crush dissent and punish the enemies it creates. Even its ardent supporters concede DC is an unconstrained thuggery indistinguishable from any other third world, rule-by-law kleptocracy. In fact, they’ll point out DC is a ship run by mutineers, gladly and proudly.
Our one party two-party system conducts national elections as an auction on productive people’s future earnings, and the professional voters win every time. How is it not a joke when “our” representatives argue mere details of policies they hold in common, then vote on bills they haven’t read, mainly because they amount to a long list of benefactors, favors, payoffs, immunities and exceptions? For its part, the Supreme Court continues to endorse malfeasance with ever more bizarre rulings, as in this one where art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif the right to remain silent is voided if the right to remain silent is actually used, no, it must be specifically invoked, not by knocking on a tree to summon Woden, but by reciting a Kourt Koan to summon its sprite, the populace being held incompetent to administer its own natural rights. And please notice it wasn’t enough for the court to protect depravity, and then to endorse it art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif. They’ve now made it mandatory.
The pressure relief valve is being screwed down tight. Those folks who use the established, legal avenues of redress are officially and openly designated as terrorists and treated as such, even at the local level art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif. Civil disobedience and street theatre—common in resumes of the old “speaking truth to power” activists in office—now rate death squads, contract killers with federal collusion art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif if need be. And investigative journalists are having their phones tapped, with some dying in unlikely ways on a Just In Time basis—”Breitbarted”, as it’s known.
Remus tells you these things not to convince the undecided or to commiserate with the persuaded but to inform his readers of a cheerless conclusion imposed upon him by facts on the ground. While he still believes we can rescue our beloved country from the squatters in DC, he’s also come to believe legitimate, peaceful avenues of reform may have been pinched off sufficiently to make them functionally nonviable. This understanding, valid or not, has long been the touchstone for the fringe from all corners, but it’s now heard in public discourse and private conversation from parts of the populace that would have dismissed the notion out of hand not so long ago. People believe DC is a criminal enterprise with speech writers. And what people believe to be so, is so.
DC, in the unwisest of its many unwise moves, exacerbates this understanding by fulfilling the darkest expectations of its critics, thereby converting tinfoil hat paranoia into perceived reality at a handsome pace. Perhaps the present progressive administration disbelieves the polling outfits who put liberals at about twenty per cent of the populace, with committed left-liberals at less than a third of that number. Perhaps they don’t know politics can be likened to a circle where the extremes blend together on the backside. Or perhaps DC is content to be the designated useful idiot, after all, it pays well and requires but little effort.
The transactions handled by elected DC are little more than clerical exercises. Input from the populace is treated as an ill-informed annoyance, in fact, outcomes of the legislative process are known with such certainty that post-enactment persuasion is their main consideration. When they use preemptive browbeatings instead of honest consultation, it’s understandable the electorate would see it as an abusive relationship.
It’s enough for now to say DC is staffed wall-to-wall with lightly qualified cadets whose loyalty is only upward. DC’s “enemies list” now includes everyone much beyond the beltway, yet they seem surprised when those on the list take them at their word. Be alert. Be wary. The more hermetic and self-referential DC becomes, the more unstable and intolerant it becomes.
Yes, let’s abolish government and plunge into anarchy. Good idea.
Could you point out where in this article you see the word abolish?……I didn’t think so.
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It’s now official. The Mayor is changing the name of “Front Pride” homes located in the Ole Town District to “Gay Pride Homes”.
Oh, rk812 tell me where you live so I bring by a “Rainbow Banner” so you can put it in your front yard.
You would have to try and put it by my flag and that is not going to happen!!!!!!!!!!
If the Dunns offer to buy the Roberts lot for this CC and are respectable about the history of Roberts on the lot, I would definitely support it.
It would make much more business and marketing sense to design the facility with two triangled sides and four easily accessible gates anyways. That design would resonate more with the locals who would be going to this facility as well. Plus, Legeman’s design was constructed too maximize space which is what they would need.
It would be a much better sell with the public and it would still be close to their hotels, close to UE, and close recreational things that business travelers enjoy (OKC is building their second CC next to a huge central park).
Eventually, they could expand their center to include trade show and exhibit hall space as well as a small 3-5k basketball sized only arena in similar fashion to the pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD.
One other thing: If this sports corp were genuinely a sports corp and not a political yes organization to Warren & Winnecke they would be lobbying for this facility to have a small to mid-sized arena so that they could house the GLVC Tournament in a proper setting as well other minor league tournaments and games that don’t belong in the Ford Center.
These tournaments would boost revenue for Dunn’s hotels while freeing up the Ford Center for bigger and much more adequate events like Icemen home games who would be able to cross promote these tournament fans to their games while they were here.
A: The city will NOT sell the Roberts property to a private developer.
B: The ONLY benefit for Dunn to build a CC would be to place it next to his hotels. The Roberts site is not beneficial to him.
It makes no sense now that the parking lot and building is gone, to go back in there and rebuild another Roberts. If Dunn is going to build such a thing, I am sure he will do it on land that is attractive to his current hotels, that he may already own instead of a total new build on the Roberts site.
He would not be building another Roberts at all, David Dunn specifically selected the Roberts site for ball fields because of it’s proximity to their hotels which is easily closer to their Green River hotel and within reason of the I-164 ones compared to N. Burkhardt, and if the site is eventually sold as advocated by multiple members of the CC it will have to be open bidding I would imagine- not to mention it now makes no sense for the city to fight a convention center there when Dunn would just build it on private land down the road.
It seems to me Dunn would have advocated tearing down Roberts precisely because he didn’t want the building to go to auction and risk a competing convention company snatching it up. Now it’s gone. Problem solved.
The business strategy for Dunn Hospitality should go something along the lines of the following…
1. Send a notice to the city requesting to buy the Roberts lot knowing full well that it will be rejected.
2. Call a press conference in one of your very, very, very small conference rooms. Surround the room with people holding up signs in support of the group with several other members standing outside. At the press conference say “We’re offering to buy this land to save the city $5-10 mil and there are people lined up outside this room wanting to come in to support it.”
3. Once the news hits the media, the dog whistle of “free enterprise using private capital vs city wanting to waste millions” will be too much. Sites like this will erupt and the mayor’s hand will be forced. Start the asking price at $1.
4. Once you have secured the land for a price lower than what you would have paid on Burkhardt, construct the CC on the old northern lot next to Swonder. This solves two problems: it avoids that horrible flooding in the southern area and it leaves room for expansion. It also takes advantage of the already constructed parking lot to the east (another financial advantage).
5. Once the contract with UE and the city is up which I think is 10-15 years but don’t quote me, UE is going to be looking to downsize and go back to campus as well as find a place where the majority of fans who are elderly can park. At that point in time, you offer the lot to either the southwest or the southeast of the facility to UE in exchange for them chipping in on construction. You also petition the ECVB for financial assistance saying, ” This facility will help put heads in beds with smaller tournaments that are comparative to those of the ball fields project as well as compliment the downtown arena.”
6. Now you own the property and have a major tenant with plenty of parking and still plenty of room for further expansion of maybe a tiny hotel or waterpark resort should a future developer show interest.
The bottom line is is that UE basketball is not like Icemen hockey. They are an older demographic with demands for a much, much, much smaller facility. Now is the time for a company like Dunn Hospitality to coordinate their assets to take advantage of something like that.
Lastly, I would imagine UE will eventually conduct research. If that were to ever happen, a CC down the road from UE is gold.
Yep. I agree, there seems to be little incentive for Dunn to build on Roberts lot. I still think the proper way forward for that lot is to auction it off in a transparent and fair manner and cut our losses, but the time to advocate selling the property to a convention developer passed away the minute the first wrecking ball hit. Unfortunate.
I had hotels, I’d build in close proximity to them too. That’s a no-brainer. If we start throwing up all these restrictions on what should or shouldn’t be built there, the incentive to build on the Roberts site is even further diminished.
“I had hotels, I’d build in close proximity to them too.”
What? How many hotels does Dunn Hospitality have on N. Burkhardt?
The answer is zero. Again, why do you think he wanted the Roberts lot instead of Goebel for the ball fields? It’s because they in closer proximity. The people developing that disaster called the Promenade have already said he isn’t building there and that they are going after the IU Med School so this CC is likely going to be almost as far north as Goebel is on Green River.
If the Med school were to somehow someway land out there it may be better to build next to it, but there’s not even a snow balls chance of that happening. That would make the city look like fools after they said it’s going downtown.
Just looked at your poll results (I refused to vote for either Turd Tornatta or Windsock Williams).
Williams is just barely beating out TT. Just barely.
How bad did Davis thrash Tornatta by?
Put Davis’s name on the poll! THEN and ONLY THEN will I vote!
That doesn’t just go for this poll – it goes for the next mayor’s election too.
None of the turncoats democrats – I repeat NONE of them – are going to get my vote. And I know a lot of other city democrats who feel the same way.
Windsock?? I thought it was “Consolidation Poster Child Williams” vs. “The Scarecrow”. I ain’t voting for either of them either.
Ditto
Tornatta is smarmy even for a politician.
Williams would never get my vote due to his support of consolidation.
Why not a poll with Commissioner Melcher, City Councilmen Adams, O’Daniel and Lindsey. Melcher is the highest ranking elected Demo in city or county.
Bring back Brad Ellsworth … FOR MAYOR!
I would have supported that if he hadn’t gone to Vectren after leaving office. I can’t think of one Vectren official who should be on any ballot of any kind.
I really don’t think Ellsworth would even consider running for mayor. LOL. I just wanted to see who would react and how they would react to such a suggestion.
What I’d really like, after the Editor finishes posting pretend Democrat primaries (which so far have only revealed the CCO reactionary readers’ Democrats du jour), is to see the “winner” pitted in a poll against the current mayor.
Dunn never considered coming downtown partly because he’s old enough to remember how the city failed to support another hotel baron, the legendary, Bob Green. Mr. Green had a dream of making Walnut a beautiful boulevard leading from Highway 41 to the heart of downtown EVV, even with Green’s massive personal/local investment, the politicians failed to support the plan. Instead, they opted destroy his belief in EVV, and killed the project along with “buzz” at the Big E – what a shame. Owensboro became his sweetheart, he spent millions developing an extraordinary new hotel and country music showroom.
Oh well oh well, we need the hotel regardless of who builds it, if it takes local $$$ so be it, new world order, maybe with a vested interest we the people will be more likely to support the venture and surrounding infrastructure, like a new Walnut Boulevard.
Hundreds of east side homes basements flood every time we have a storm event, black sludge mixed with storm water backup sanitary sewer lines that don’t have backflow preventers creating a dangerous situation for families with children. A lot of this is attributable to “undersized” city storm sewers in areas built as combined sewers. Is the city going to bear the costs to separate the sanitary from the storm at each of these homes as part of their EPA consent decree?? If not, why not?
Now is the time to fix this blunder. How can spend millions to control storm water flooding and not address this serious problem throughout the east and south sides of town.
But we need new ball fields and dog parks first!!!!!!!!
Ellsworth was a great sheriff, a poor congressman, and now is a sell-out Vectren lobbyist. I’m very disappointed in him. I wouldn’t vote for him as dog catcher now.
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