In an interview for an article in Evansville Living Magazine’s December 2013 issue, HCW CEO Richard Huff stated clearly that “we (HCW) has made application (for a Hilton Doubletree franchise) and totally expect to be approved”. On March 21, 2014 Dunn Hospitality received notice from the Hilton organization that an application had been filed and that they had until April 4, 2014 to respond to that application with a request for an impact report. Shortly afterward Dunn Hospitality did exactly that as both of their franchise agreements with Hilton specifies that they have a right to do.
The contents of the letter and the article in Evansville Living’s December issue make it quite clear that Mr. Huff’s statement to Evansville Living regarding the application was not true. It also confirms that Mayor Winnecke, HCW, and others knew on March 10th when they arranged for a groundbreaking and press conference that HCW had not even applied for a franchise? HCW claimed at that event that they had their financing in place and even pointed to a group of people who were doing the financing. Unless this group of bankers or investors was willing to grant loan approval without a franchise agreement that statement could not have been true.
Mr. Huff is attributed in the Evansville Living article to have stated that before being contacted by Hunden to bid on the project that he “didn’t even know where Evansville was” and that “his wife has never been to Evansville”. He is furthermore quoted as stating that Evansville City Council President John Friend’s requests for financial information to vet the developer was “ridiculous” and that “their record speaks for itself” lending credibility to the assertions that HCW’s response to a request for a business plan being “we are the business plan”.
The link below provides the process for getting a Hilton franchise, the letter of notification to Dunn Hospitality, and the Evansville Living article with the claim of having filed the application for a franchise circled in red.
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke stated recently that Hilton would not grant a franchise without final loan approval. After several examinations of the franchise agreements for both the Hilton Garden Inn and Doubletree brands, several people have concluded that the Mayor’s statement is not true.
If the above statements are true, and I have no reson to believe otherwise; Why are the people of Evansville being lied too, time after time after time???Seems this administration has something very big to hide. HCW had not even applied for a franchise BEFORE the photo-op ground-breaking?? HCW needs to be run out of town before they can do any more damage. Then a thorough investigation should be called for to get to the bottom of this fiasco. Thanks to CCO for breaking this story
If Obama promised to stay at the new Hotel for a long weekend, I’m confident the financing and branding could be finalized in the very near future:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/15m-hotel-bill-president-obamas-one-day-visit-brussels_786515.html
CCO, why must you always jump to conclusions ?
It is entirely possible that Evansville Living Magazine (Dec/Jan 2014 edition) held the printing presses to get the HCW article in, and that edition wasn’t published until March 7. 2014. HCW’s franchise application was sent in just before March 7, 2014; and the boys at Hilton Worldwide took about 3 weeks to review it before sending the e-mail to Dunn Hospitality on March 21, 2014 re: their right to request an Impact Analysis.
As for the Bankers, see the blurb in the magazine article re: HCW not providing all the documents Friend requested. HCW’s response was ” (we) provided City Council with a letter from our bank showing we had funds necessary to pay cash for the development”. So the Bankers didn’t need no stinkin’ Franchise Smanchise Agreement !
CCO: FOIA for that letter provided to Council (and City ) will get you the identity of the mystery bankers. Honestly, I felt they bore a resemblance, years earlier, to the “Hobos” on the grassy knoll area of Dallas in November 1963.
If they had that much money in the bank, this loan would have been approved already and the construction would be under way, assuming they had a franchise agreement approved by Hilton. Of course no mentioned is made if that supposed money is pledged for other projects or loan payments. If that money is not funded via equity then its not really available for liquity.
As you say do a FOIA and ask for the comittment letter..if it exists they have financing..if they have one that looks like a 50 page breach list they don’t have financing.
I wonder if HCW is the “parent company” of Earth Care. Scammers often go in for the “small con” first, and then set the “mark” up for the “big con”.
Evansville, we’ve been “had” again!
+1
Yes we have been had,Karma will find winnecke and weinzapfel
++++1
The real con was Winnecke building an overpriced Hotel so the unions and contractors could rebate some of it back to Winnecke’s campaign account courtesy of the taxpayers.
Of course this is nothing but free speech and is all legal and above board according to our corrupt HUTA
SCOTUS.
“Rebate”? Pretty strong accusation there Brains. Make such an accusation against a Repub, it is “free speech”. Make the same accusation against BHO, a person is a “hater”. Amazing how that works.just sayin……. And, IF all of this plays out the way CCO states, I will be glad to be up front as we lead their lying asses out of town. Say it ain’t so Joe.
You’re correct(never say right). I should have said leave the money on the nightstand.
“Expect to be approved” is a far cry from “will be approved”, or “has been approved”. If I was choosing a cya term I would put “expect” in there too.
I “expect” city government to follow statute. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
___
Evansville Living needs to approach the Marvel Group about being acquired by them as a addition to their line up of Comic Books. Evansville has a extensive cast of “characters” to draw from.
They could be “Super losers” instead of “Super heroes.”
I wonder if, now that the cat is out of the bag and howling the truth on CCO, the Courier will mention this as a Friday afternoon “news-dump” or just ignore it altogether.
10-1 Ignore.
I think you’re probably right, BB!
The Tar Heel Dan Coats has taken over down there, he’s pitched a pup tent where Garret Mathews used to type. It’s notable that no one in D.C. or North Carolina has sent a search party for him yet. No telling what the CP product will look like by early evening.
I think at this point in the life cycle of a person like the CP you don’t think about meaningful reporting and focus your efforts on finding a buyer for your equipment.
They did start couching their pronouncements in more malleable terms about midway through this embarrassment. That provides small cover considering the magnitude of the lies past and those that must still be told.
I hope those ‘bankers’ got the suits back by 5pm per their agreement (gentleman’s agreement: lender to lender). Over 3 grains of trucked sand in the pockets of any one ‘bankers’ suit and the grifters send the bill to…Evansville.
I wouldn’t believe a single word coming from this administration or anyone in it. I believe they have shown the people of Evansville what they think of them.
That’s right! They clearly think we’re nothing but a bunch of rubes. Afterall, we let them get elected, and they know they’re nothing but a bunch of self-interest-driven hucksters.
The problem is that if we run the creeps out before their term in office is over, we’ll just get the “second string” from the same “machine.”
I can think of only a few that I want to see stay in office, but even if the thieves went to jail today, their committeemen will get to elect their replacements. Think about that!
After so many years it’s institutionalized now. So ingrained it probably can’t really be changed. If you hear ‘reform’ run from whoever said it, they could be after your watch. Reform opens doors into whole new rooms for astute thieves.
Look at the caliber of people (.22) that are running things. It’s really almost unbelievable. They seem to have adopted ex La. governor Edwin Edwards terse, ‘never complain, never explain’. Edwards could at least do something. I wouldn’t bet a dime on the local ‘leadership’ on anything except maybe picking up a nasty triple used McDonalds cup off the asphalt as the cameras roll.
I believe professor Harold Hill has come to town.
If Winnecke had lied like this to raise private capital, he would be on the verge of being charged with securities fraud and withholding material information. Imagine if you had invested $500,000 like ONB was originally trying to get well heeled people to do. Perhaps being an accessory to fraud is why ONB aborted that effort and teamed up with Marsha Abell to spend their shareholders money on naming rights proven to have no value.
If President Obama were the president of a private company that made the claims he made about his product (ACA) he would also be heading to prison for securities fraud. His lying lips have done more damage by lying about the ACA than a thousand Bernie Madoff’s could have ever done. Winnecke is a micro version of Obama when it comes to lying to get what he wants. The real problem is that there is no criminal penalty for lying to rob taxpayers.
How was the golden shovel play any different than a classic Potemkin Village?
The phrase Potemkin villages was originally used to describe a fake village, built only to impress. According to the story, Grigory Potemkin erected fake settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. The phrase is now used, typically in politics and economics, to describe any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that some situation is better than it really is.
“One lie leads to another lie that always is the case
Your first lie for deception and your second to save face
And when you are faced with the truth the truth you will deny
And to lie to you comes easy so you tell another lie.”
Duggan
Did anyone read Ethridge’s short opinion piece on the Hotel.
Fox is jealous with envy for all the facts and relevant information he left out.
He put the whole blame on Dunn.
Brains: That’s understandable. Its the Sacred cash cow right now,here’s a flash mob for’em.
http://remainsofthedesi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/cows_on_garbage.jpg
Ethridge also took a slap at Nancy Drake. In the e-edition, at least, he refers to her as a “plain-tiff” in the Cross suit, instead of a “plaintiff”. I’m not always a fan of Nancy, but that was juvenile and disrespectful.
The Editorial was a shill-job for the Mayor, too. The C&P still hasn’t reported on the hotel financing.
Here’s the copy-and-paste of my comment on the editorial:
” …and soon, a new convention hotel.”
“Maybe the Courier should do some investigative reporting on this statement, and verify whether or not the financing deadline was met. Word on the streets is that we were mislead about financing being secured at the groundbreaking event that was held recently on the site.
Such a thing might require that the editorial board of the Courier climb out of the “in-crowd tank” and question the words of the “pillars of the community”, but I thought that was one of the reasons newspapers exist.”
The CP is not likely to do any real investigative reporting ever again. They might take a phone picture of some dilapidated person or area and call for a clean up. They might even win an award from the state press association for such clickery. There was nothing new in Ethridge’s recent editorial, not even anything that would pass for a credible opinion. Not even that first softball score or goofy sports analogy.
If the CP was interested in the amazing saga of the hotel, which they apparently are not, they could get some pretty well detailed information right here. It would come complete with a narrated timeline about the contradictory truths that have attended the non-building of the hotel. The mess has generated such a paper trail by now I doubt that anyone involved would want it to see the light of day. To that end, the CP is doing its part.
The CP long ago lost sight of the original mission of newspapers and the reasons for the constitutional protections afforded them. They will keep enjoying them until the obituary money runs out.
Today’s editorial in the CP underscores the fact that Etheridge has no understanding of business at all. It also reinforces the belief that the CP has now become the Communist Press. The fundamentals of the editorial could have well been written by Karl Marx or some other Bolshevik collectivist.
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