BREAKING NEWS: MAYOR TO PULL THE PLUG ON DOWNTOWN HOTEL PROJECT

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    Executive Inn
    Executive Inn

    Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke just called a emergency 10 a.m. news conference at the Labor Temple on Southeast Eighth Street, regarding the latest developments on the Downtown convention Hotel project. The news conference was disclosed by the office of the Mayor. The labor temple is a curious choice of venues for a republican Mayor. There has been speculation that labor may bail out this project with a loan from their pension funds.  There is also speculation that the Mayor shall announce that he is pulling the plug on building the Hotel with HCW and shall go back to square one.

    The hotel despite 3 golden shovel events and claims of funding is still not started. A solitary backhoe is gathering dust on the lot that supposedly serves as proof that construction has started.

    According to HCW, the developer, they have already spent $1 M on the project and have permits with a signed construction contract. HCW has also asserted that the Old National Bank contribution is not secure nor is the amount defined leaving the financing up in the air. City sources point the finger back at HCW for not being ready.

    The facts are that the $20 Million in bonds have not been sold and ONB has not paid a dime toward the naming rights. It is unlikely that HCW has a firm financial commitment from any bank without the other two funding sources secured. It seems as the the trinity of Mayor Winnecke, ONB, and HCW are forming a circular firing squad to assign blame.

    The CCO hopes that Mayor Winnecke tells us where the million bucks will be coming from in the event this deal falls apart. Please see our feature article on this deal in today’s CCO.

    This is a developing story please stay tuned for further information. 

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    42 COMMENTS

    1. If the local unions invest their pension fund money in this sure money-loser, it’s a sad day for the members. Of course, when you don’t vote, your input is lost.

      • But they did vote. Winnecke was the #1 choice for mayor on the list prepared by the union leadership and he won. He is exactly what we deserve. If weinzapfel was mayor the hotel would have already been built, the CC would have given him a blank check. The full financial impact of the weinzapfel regime has not been fully disclosed, we are just now getting a glimpse of the financial disaster called the fraud center. According to union members they make so much more money than everyone else that they should have enough in savings that their pension is not a big deal.

    2. After reading the CCO article from the editors today it might be worth advising all those people at that labor temple, just as well as ought to bring their tall boots with’um. Tucking in the pant leg cuffs, real good might not be a bad idea either.

    3. Confirmed on C&P site: stick a fork in it, the Hotel is down for the count (for the 4th time).

      Good riddance !

    4. The Mayor just finally came out and said what most people who can do basic addition and subtraction had already figured out. I guess it finally became clear to the out-of-touch “beautiful people” that the peasants can’t pay for a rooftop bar for them to frequent. The next step for the Poop is to get in touch with the Governor and start trying to undo the harm to the city he did when he fought “like the dickens” for the Med School to be put in his neighborhood. We can’t afford that luxury for him and the First Lady, either. We have sewers to build.

      • I have always said, “never underestimate a republican’s ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

    5. All the lies, all the posturing and there never was a private nickel committed to the project. Surely he went hat in hand to Ole Gnat before going with tail tucked to the Labor Temple. We’ll see how much they like him now. He must be betting it all on the jobs the medical school construction would bring. The IU Trustees should step up and resite that thing out by Gateway. We’d get the benefits without the liability. IU would get a medical school surrounded by thriving medical facilities. It’s time for good governance not time for more giveaways to anointed groups or geographical areas.

      It would be refreshing to see us go after the money we were scammed out of for a change. Won’t happen but it’d be the right thing to do. Failing that, or even if it happens, let’s change mayors.

    6. The Poop should publicly apologize for the siting of the Med School and ask the Trustees to do the right thing. I would not be surprised if early 2015 sees him announcing that Carol has decided they won’t seek another term. I’m sure she’s going to want to get hers and Kelly’s pics on the Society page another couple of times before Nancy Drake looks for a new “darling.”
      If he does run again, I expect Wayne Parke to be looking to make another “pinky shake deal”, but to get rid of Winnie. I hope the Dems don’t give them an opening.

      • The Poop is blaming the council. He has also vowed, in fact assured us, he will find a way forward for a ‘full-service convention hotel’. Says it’s because ‘that’s what we need’. Lock up your valuables, change all your passwords. The little Boss has been hung out there and is looking for money.

    7. I would like to congratulate our astute mayor for this brave action in protecting the investments of citizens of Evansville.

      Some things you might find helpful as we move forward, the trees are the forest, and red flags do mean stop.

      I wish you well in your new career, whatever that might be. Please feel free to keep to your office for the remainder of your term. I would advise you to order pizza in for your lunches, but it would be cold by the time it went through security. So have Mr’s Mayor pack you a sack lunch with a Kool-aid juice box. Nothing more satisfying than drinking kool-aid for lunch.

    8. At this point, I’m not sure that any of us can ridicule these two Laural and Hardy impersonators(Winnecke&Jones),
      —- anymore than they have themselves!
      What a living cartoon they must have looked liked at their confession of the “poorly written”, unfunny Hotel “routine”.
      Karma!

    9. “The project as originally proposed would have worked financially, however the line drawn in the sand by City Council made that impossible,” Winnecke said.

      For whom would it have worked financially? The City Council did not make it impossible; they made it realistic.

      • He’s grasping at straws that have blown loose from some of the local “straw men”, IE.

        • I have to admit LKB, the more I hear from Winnecke, the better Urbanna looks. When I read his statements, I don’t think this hotel is dead in his mind.

      • Enoch? Was your hearing aid turned on ? Here’s what I HEARD:

        LW: “Those mean, mean Councilors; always putting numbers, numbers, numbers in front of me. Did I mention they were mean ? I want to build things, I am a BUILDER. I work in vision and flowery, artful words and phrases. If it wasn’t for these numbers, numbers, numbers, I could get things done ! Really, I could !”.

        • Pretty well my sonic bat ear picked up also Batman. The Johnson deal was pretty well dead also, but Winnecke saved it from it just fate to plague us with that expense. I think he still might want to rescue this hotel for “us.”

    10. TIME OUT ON THE COURT !

      What an excellent time to SHUTTER THE CENTRE ! If ONB’s valuation of naming rights over 20 years is only worth $ 50,000 a year for 20 years, then $ 1,000,000 will be forthcoming from ONB (not sure where it would be used at this point, no Hotel). If that $ 1,000,000 injection from ONB covers 20 years, during that same 20 years we can expect The Centre to predictably lose $ 700,000 per year x 20 years, or a loss of $ 14,000,000.

      If we take ONB’s money, we are obligated to keep the facility open. So for $ 1,000,000 coming in, we will lose another $ 14,000,000 over that 20 years period (with that $ 14 Million loss in addition to the $ 9,000,000 that facility has already lost through 2013). Is that a good trade ?

      • Hang on there, Chin Ho.

        I am going to Straight No Chaser on Saturday, I will toss out any ONB person sitting in their boxseats (which have not been paid for) , and enjoy the show using the tickets they have no right to be using.

        THEN, proceed with your plan.

        • I think it is the legal obligation of Billy Bolin to evict the trespassers from their perches. Maybe he can throw a couple of flash-bang grenades into the midst of the squatters. It would made for good pre-show entertainment.

          • Actually the Centre / ONB building is County property, so the Sheriff of Sleaze will have to put jackboots on the necks of the citizens there, not the chief of po-leece.

      • Wow, that’s going to leave a mark ! Sounds like an uphill battle now. I noticed that the Higher Ed Commission picked right up on “downtown revitalization” vs. true need. This is exactly what Dr. Emil Weber said in a community comment in C & P.

      • The local people fighting like the dickens for it are going to get a chance to make their case. It would be a much stronger case if they would plead to build it out among the medical facilities near Gateway. In fact, I think the hotel was part of their earlier presentation and it apparently didn’t get them funded. It’d be nice to have around here but has no business downtown.

      • I hope they are opening the door to reconsidering the siting of the school, to where it belongs. We can’t afford the $57 million the Mayor put us on the hook for. There are three viable alternatives that cost the taxpayers $0. The Promenade and Gateway make the most sense, but the USI campus could work, too.

        • An 8 million dollar classroom expansion of the USI health professionals center is among the 7 projects the state Commision for Higher Education recommended that the state legislature fund. That could mean anything and I don’t claim any insight as to just what, but it would not seem to bode too well for a downtown medical school.

          If the mayor is dead dickens set on putting that downtown I think we might as well forget about it until a new administration gets a chance to take a swing at it.

    14. So the CCO and its commentators scored a big win today. So take a bow and a victory lap today(Ok maybe 3-4days) and celebrate, but not to much as I told you sos aren’t the best way to win friends and influence people.

      Then put your thinking caps on and try to come up with an alternative plan for the empty lot and convention center with no hotel attached.

      Today the CCO was vindicated, but Evansville as a whole, took a body blow.

    15. In other news Missy Mosby and Jonathan Weaver vote yes to whatever Bob Jones and Lloyd Winnecke said in that news conference. They also request that you own a home to comment in this section but only if you have your homestead tax credit applied…so they can steal it.

    16. Can’t really see this creep in the temple, It wouldn’t have been to many years ago they would have thrown his honors ass out the back door, Ole `John had a distaste for the likes of him. Our pension fund is already in deep shit and loaning money to this bunch of money blowing shysters is insane…

    17. Today’s events just go to prove what my Grandmother taught me. No good can come from something that was begun with a lack of ethics and no good intent. They are reaping what they sowed with the horrible way they treated Rick Davis.

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