>Mayor Winnecke Seeks Supporting Documentation on Convention Hotel

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Lloyd Winnecke

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
LLOYD WINNECKE

February 7, 2012 Contact: Ella Johnson-Watson
For Immediate Release 812-436-4965

Mayor Winnecke Seeks Supporting Documentation on Convention Hotel

EVANSVILLE, IN – Citing the need for more data to make sound investments for the City of Evansville, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke will ask the Evansville Redevelopment Commission to conduct a market analysis to determine how large of a hotel needs to be built Downtown to support the Convention Center and Ford Center and the fiscal impact. The mayor will make the request at Evansville Redevelopment Commission’s board meeting Tuesday, February 7th, at 8:30 a.m. in Room 307 at the Civic Center.
Mayor Winnecke said discussions began almost three years ago about the prospect of building a new convention hotel. The previous city administration negotiated an agreement with the Kunkel Group to construct a 220 room hotel. Negotiating a specific agreement with the city was left to the Winnecke administration.
“I do not believe we have all of the necessary data to begin discussion on a development agreement,” Winnecke said. “For instance, there is no supporting documentation that we have discovered in our first five weeks in office that suggests 220 rooms are sufficient to support the 280,000-plus square foot Centre and the Ford Center. Conversations with the Convention and Visitors Bureau have led us to believe a larger hotel would be a better match for the size of our convention center.”
More specifically, the mayor wants:
• A market analysis to determine how large of a hotel is needed
• A financial impact analysis to determine the level of public investment
• A planning recommendation to provide prospective developers with criteria for an overall plan on how to integrate major public and private projects in the immediate area of the hotel site.

“I believe once we have this information we’ll have all of the data we need to move forward,” Winnecke added. “The project has seen delay after delay. Slowing it down two or three more months to ensure we have all of the necessary information to act will only benefit the city.”

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12 COMMENTS

  2. Public investment is pretty much tapped out at this point in time.

    http://www.cotohousingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/empty-pockets.jpg

    I did see on the business page of today’s Courier&Press the the Casino Gambling Industry took in $125.Billion in 2010. Since that segment of the economy seems to be doing so well, perhaps their taxes could be adjust upward a little.

    There is another segment of business that, judging by its proliferation locally, must be doing well. I am talking about the Pawn shop Business. And why wouldn’t an industry that is basically a loan company with rather “relaxed” rules, when compared to a bank or savings and loan:

    “Pawnshop loans are nearly all state-regulated, and ‘finance charges’ can vary from 5 percent per month to 25 percent per month. In Indiana, the ‘interest rate’ is capped at 36 percent APR or 3 percent per month, but pawnshops can charge an additional 20 percent per month service charge, making the total allowable finance charge 23 percent per month,” says Krupnik.”

    So, when state and local government go looking for more revenue to finance their dreams, why not go where the money is, instead of bleeding the poor working stiff again.

    Please bear that in mind Mayor Winnecke while you are “collecting data” to see just how grand a hotel Evansville needs.

    __

  3. Interesting that Mosby spoke out against Mayor Winnecke’s proposal to conduct a market analysis, so we know what size hotel will best suit the area. The statement she made was that we need to go ahead and let the Kunkel group break ground- that this project has taken way too long.
    Hmmmm- wonder whose to blame for that???
    What a promotional nightmare that would be when booking events & conventions. “Sorry folks. We are unable to book your entire group here at the hotel for your Event. Half will be here and we will shuttle the rest back and forth from another hotel.”
    If we’ve waited this long, at least make sure it’s done right the first time.

    • Reminder re: “done right the first time”: we are on Round # 3. If a study is undertaken, that implies we are on Round # 4. Hard to believe Councilman Mosby’s position that we should approve it because ” the project has taken too long”.

      • Actually, as I mentioned on another thread, I wonder how much of Missy’s vote to move ahead with Kunkel is tied to the fact her campaign treasurer is Kunkel’s attorney in this matter. Hmmm….

  4. A feasiblity study should have been ordered for both this hotel and the McCurdy project from the the start. When your former mayor and one of your commission members have a banking background, you would think this basic of all analytical tools would have been orpder. What they got before, which cost $5M was not a feasibility study and should have never been ordered to start with.

    I would call Cornell University and see who they would recommend to do this study; they have the top school in the country in analyzing hotel developments and given the importance of this hotel, Lloyd had better get all the help he can get. The best in state developer is White, but he knows his business and he would ask for the moon with respect to incentives, which is what is probably going to have be offered. Whatever is done, you can not rely on homegrown talent and an outside recommendation for who the consultant should be shouldobtained be obtained. The cost of the study should not be an issue. Finally you need someone to vouch the study by obtaining Smith Travel data and running some of your own numbers.

  5. I can’t blame the Mayor one bit for wanting to “start over” with a new study. The Kunkel proposal was a fiasco, they were trying to bag two “tax deals” of $ 500,000 each to raise the money, and were relying on an SBA loan ! An SBA loan to build a hotel, really ? And then there was that sterling “vetting” process by Hunden. That was a joke commenting on a travesty. If I remember, Hunden was not hired to “write a report”. Now that is good consulting work if you can get it ! I thought the Mayor had the authority to kill off the City Council vote to “negotiate with Kunkel” ? If so, he needs to whack that prospect off post-haste. I would have the study prepared to right-size the hotel, kick Kunkel to the kurb, and have Hotels and Restaurants pony up the “subsidy” to get a developer to do the gig. Wonder if some of the hotels on US 41 will have a problem throwing in money for a downtown competitor ? Wonder if instead the hotels & restaurants–the beneficiaries of conventions–will try to get taxpayers to put in the money, a ‘public subsidy’ so that they (hotels & restaurants) can profit from other people’s money ?????

  6. It amazes me a market analysis has not been done before now on the proposed convention hotel. This hotel is supposed to replace the old Executive Inn which had 470 rooms. The proposed new hotel has half that number of rooms. The new hotel is supposed to support the convention center and our city’s convention business. I think Mayor Winnecke has a good point that possibly the new hotel is too small. On the other hand I am not sure Evansville can support 3 (downtown) hotels. The Casino Aztar hotel has 250 rooms while the LeMerigot has 100.

    On another note, I hope the Winnecke administration revisits the vetting process for the proposed hotel developer.

    • I laugh every time I hear refer to what was done my Hunden as vetting. Hunden made it clear that they were not hired to vet the proposals.

      • Big Pappa, you are precisely correct. Remarkable that Hunden admitted that they were “not hired to write a report”–do vetting– but instead to determine ” what type of incentives were needed to attract a developer”. Would have been handy if the ERC could have admitted that they falsely positioned Hunden and London Witte to “vet” the developers/ yet that was not the assignment !!!!

        • I’ll bet Johnny W. kicked a few trash cans and said several choice words when Hunden let that cat out of the bag. Too bad our news media (besides the CCO, of course) and elected officials don’t have the stones to make an issue out of the ERC’s misdeeds.

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