The CVB is excited to announce the hiring of James Wood (“Jimâ€) as incoming President and CEO. An extensive nationwide search guided by an executive search firm and local committee was conducted in recruiting Jim.
John Chaszar, the CVB’s Commission President stated, “We were encouraged that through the national search process we were able to find someone with Jim’s experience and tenure in the industry. Our CVB has seen Evansville’s occupancy and room rates grow over the last decade with a keen focus on youth sports, including investments at the Deaconess Sports Park and Goebel Soccer Complex. With the nearing completion of I-69 and recent Old National Events Plaza investments, the meeting and convention business is also poised to grow. We are confident that Jim will bring the energy, skills and knowledge necessary to keep our momentum moving forward for years to come. We look forward to Jim leading our team, with an anticipated start date of January 15, 2020.â€
Wood comes to Evansville with extensive managerial and sales experience in the Louisville, Providence, Atlantic City, and Tampa markets, as well as with the Marriott hotels. Jim is well known in the industry and has been active with many trade organizations. He has exhibited skills of building consensus within a collaborative environment, as well as working from a strategic plan. Jim is a doer and a very productive individual. He takes tasks with enthusiasm and accomplishes a lot. He is a salesperson at heart and by trade. Jim’s willingness to understand what others are trying to achieve is what helps him find creative solutions to any situation set before him.
Wood’s knowledge of events extends past hosting events, as he has also overseen the operations of destination businesses nationally, as well as in this Ohio River Valley. He was seeking a midwestern middle-market destination and Evansville was fortunate to be looking to recruit just such an experienced leader.
“I want to thank the commission and the many community leaders whom I met during the selection process for putting the destination marketing of Evansville in my hands,†said Wood. “I am thrilled to be named President and CEO of the CVB. Evansville is a dynamic community that I am excited to use my skills and abilities to continue to grow the region on the strong foundation that is in place. I was particularly impressed with the community’s charming destination and finding it that is poised to grow. Evansville’s central location, convention and gaming facilities, its sports market, and position at Indiana’s 3rd largest city make it a strong foundation for growth of the destination market. As well, continuing tourism industry growth boosts the community quality of life not just for visitors the tourism industry employs, but also for the region’s residents.â€
 Evansville, IN – Below are the felony cases to be filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office today.
Dustin Wayne Carver: Strangulation (Level 6 Felony), Domestic battery (Class A misdemeanor)
Destennie D. Holtzclaw: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 4 Felony), Possession of paraphernalia (Class C misdemeanor)
Daniel James Neahring: Dealing in marijuana (Level 6 Felony)
John Robert Clevenger: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 6 Felony), Possession of a controlled substance (Class A misdemeanor)
Paul Allen Overby Jr.: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 5 Felony), Attempt Obstruction of justice (Level 6 Felony), Resisting law enforcement (Level 6 Felony), Resisting law enforcement (Class A misdemeanor)
Amanda Josephine Porter: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 6 Felony), Possession of a narcotic drug (Level 6 Felony), Possession of a controlled substance (Class A misdemeanor)
Brandy Renae Newcom: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 6 Felony), Possession of a controlled substance (Class A misdemeanor)
Chad E. Miller: Dealing in methamphetamine (Level 2 Felony), Possession of methamphetamine (Level 4 Felony)
Clarence W. Grubbs: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 5 Felony), Possession of a narcotic drug (Level 6 Felony), Unlawful possession of syringe (Level 6 Felony), Possession of a controlled substance (Class A misdemeanor), Possession of a controlled substance (Class A misdemeanor)
Ebon David Wolf: Auto theft (Level 6 Felony), Theft of a firearm (Level 6 Felony), Theft (Level 6 Felony)
The University of Southern Indiana Department of Athletics finished the fall season ranked No. 28 in the IMG Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which were updated following the conclusion of the NCAA II Football Championships.
The Screaming Eagles, who finished 94th in the 2018-19 Learfield Director’s Cup standings, are aiming for their first top 25 showings since finishing 25th at the end of the 2015-16 campaign. They were 59th at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.
USI, which currently has 141.00 points, got scoring contributions in the fall semester from Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Cross Country, and Women’s Soccer. Women’s Cross Country earned 63 points to pace USI following a 13th-place showing at the NCAA II Cross Country Championships.
Men’s Cross Country earned 53 points with a 21st-place showing at the national meet, while women’s soccer’s first trip to the NCAA II Tournament since 1998 netted USI 25 points.
USI was just four points shy of Northwest Missouri State University for 25th in the fall standings and is the second-highest Great Lakes Valley Conference program in the standings—the University of Indianapolis finished the fall ranked ninth. Scoring is based on each team’s finish at the NCAA II Championships.
At the conference level, the Eagles are currently second in the GLVC All-Sports standings with 53 points and fifth in the GLVC Commissioner’s Cup standings following the fall season.
The Eagles are off to a strong start to the winter season as the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams have a combined record of 13-3, while Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track & Field already has three NCAA II provisional qualifying times under their belt heading into the New Year.
USI Basketball hosts Drury University Thursday in a men’s and women’s doubleheader at Screaming Eagles Arena.
Following a break for Christmas, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team looks to begin Missouri Valley Conference play on a high note, traveling to face preseason favorite Missouri State on Tuesday. Game time is 4 p.m. at JQH Arena with ESPN+ and the Purple Aces Radio Network having full coverage.
 Setting the Scene
– On December 21, Evansville wrapped up the non-conference portion of its schedule with an exciting 78-76 overtime win against Murray State
– The Aces finish the opening portion of their slate with a 9-4 record
– DeAndre Williams continues to rank in the top five nationally in shooting, standing third hitting 72.3% of his field goal attempts
– UE heads to JQH Arena, where the team picked up its first road win of the 2018-19 campaign, earning a 70-64 win over the Bears on Jan. 16, 2019
Last Time Out
– In a back-and-forth game that went down to the wire, Evansville was able to hang on for a 78-76 overtime win against Murray State on Dec. 21
– Artur Labinowicz had his top game at Evansville, totaling 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting; he also drained all four outside attempts
– With 18 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, DeAndre Williams was within sight of the third double-double in program history
– The Aces shot 50% for the game and led by as many as 17, but the Racers stormed back in the second half to take a late lead before Evansville finished off the win in the extra period
– A total of 7,316 fans were in attendance, the 6th-highest for a UE game at the Ford Center
On a Roll
– Artur Labinowicz had his best game of the season against Murray State, scoring 24 points
– He hit 9 out of 12 attempts and all four 3-point tries while eclipsing his previous season mark of 21 points versus IU Kokomo
– Labinowicz opened the season averaging five points per game through the first two contests
– Since then, he has found a nice rhythm, averaging 13.3 points per game, third-best on the team over that span; he has scored at least 9 points in nine of the last 11 games
Up-Tempo Sophomore
– Sophomore Shamar Givance continues to lead the Missouri Valley Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio with a tally of 4.0
– He has 28 assists against just 7 turnovers in his 258 minutes on the floor
– In the triple overtime thriller against Morgan State, he set his career scoring mark with 15 points while going a perfect 2-2 from outside and 4-7 from the field
– Givance was one of the Aces’ most productive players in the opener versus Ball State and finished with five points; three of those came on a triple at the buzzer to finish the first half
Scouting the Opponent
– Preseason Missouri Valley Conference favorite Missouri State enters the conference opener with a 6-7 mark after dropping their final two non-conference games at VCU and Oral Roberts
– Leading the Bears is Keandre Cook, who has tallied 15.5 points per game; he leads the Bears with 26 3-pointers
– Gaige Prim is second on the team with 13.6 PPG and has connected on 52.3% of his attempts while Tulio Da Silva checks in with 10.5 points and a team-high 7.8 caroms per contest
– MSU outrebounds the competition by 6.8 per game, a tally that is second in the MVC and in the top 50 nationally
7,300 children and caregivers benefited from an Access to Everyone initiative. These families represent 8.8% of our total audience as they engaged in critical discovery learning and developmental play at the museum.
81 tri-state area families used the Museums for All program.
6,297 children and caregivers visited Free Family Nights.
292 children visited the museum through Helping Hands Scholarship field trips.
Conway is a 2-year-old male hound dog. He’s a very unique-looking pup likely mixed with several breeds. He has successfully lived with another dog in the past, Hank, who was surrendered with him. He does great with other dogs at Cardio for Canines, and he is currently the VHS veterinarian’s lunch break running partner! Conway’s adoption fee is $110 and includes his neuter, microchip, vaccines, and more. Get $10 off when you adopt Friday-Saturday 12/13-12/14. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 for adoption details!
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Some of the most tangible impacts of Evansville’s Downtown Economic Improvement District are along Main Street right now, during the holiday season.
Selfie spots are on every block of the winding, brick-covered path. There’s a glittery snowflake and tree, a letters to Santa mailbox, a light-draped backdrop in front of a burned-out property, and a garland-covered steel arch with nutcrackers on each side.
But the Downtown EID, which is now two years old, is about more than decorations. President Joshua Armstrong said the larger benefit is in taking Downtown development and activity to higher levels.
The Downtown EID is a unit of city government, created by a City Council vote in November 2017. It is bordered by Lloyd Expressway to the north, Fulton Avenue to the west and the Mulberry Street area to the east (it does not include Haynie’s Corner).
All property owners within the boundary pay an additional tax levy, which is .0021 percent of assessed valuation on commercial properties. For residential properties, the cost is a flat fee of $150 for those on Main Street and $100 for those off Main Street.
“Our goal is to proportionally provide benefits throughout the district, and in order to be proportional, the Main Street parcels have to pay more,†Armstrong said.
The only entities who may opt out are nonprofit organizations. Armstrong said about half of nonprofits pay, and about half decline.
Salaries of Armstrong and two other full-time staff members come to $257,000, about 37 percent of the total budget.
Armstrong places the Downtown EID’s goals into three categories, and he recently gave the City Council an overview of progress on each.
Clean, safe and beautify
During 2019, the Downtown EID planted 65 trees and 26 shrubs, as well as hundreds of perennials and annuals.
The organization funded graffiti removal, trash pickup and added security patrols. It also contributed an extra hour per day of daily services at United Caring Services, a nonprofit that assists people experiencing homelessness.
A game room alley was created off the 300 block of Main Street.
Main Street property owners derive the greatest benefit from the Downtown EID activities, but  Armstrong said the agency’s biggest expense of 2019 was a tree planting and beautification project on the western end of the boundary, along Fulton Avenue. The total bill was nearly $63,000.
Events and marketing
Promotion through Social media is a major part of the Downtown EID’s mission and strategy, Armstrong said, and the agency is active on all platforms.
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It was the first year for Market on Main, a new farmer’s market program that ran on Wednesdays from June through September, on the plaza in front of the Ford Center.
There was a wine walk, craft beer trail, movie night and more. The Downtown EID also has taken over the annual Fourth of July fireworks event.
Business attraction and retention
The year’s biggest new development announcement in Downtown Evansville was the 5th & Main project, which is a plan to put new housing and commercial space in the 18-story former bank tower building.
Armstrong said the Downtown EID was involved in that from the beginning, funding a study that showed a demand for more market-rate housing and quality office space Downtown.
Domo Development of Carmel, Indiana, announced in September its intent to fill the 50-year-old tower with 60 apartments, as well as some office spaces and ground-level retail spaces.
The $25 million to $30 million project is expected to start in the spring and take about 18 months to complete.
Completion is expected in 2020 for the Post House, which is residential and commercial development, as well as the Hyatt Place and the former Riverhouse hotel.
Several small businesses also have taken up residence Downtown since the EID’s creation — Parlor Doughnuts and Myriad Brewing among them.
What’s next
Armstrong said more can be done to improve Downtown.
He noted the area’s empty office space — hundreds of thousands of square feet of it — across multiple buildings. But he said it is not good enough for today’s companies.
“We need to get that space reused as apartments or hotels or otherwise disposed of,” Armstrong said.
The Downtown EID also wants to bring more investment to the so-called NoCo (north of Court Street) area. That’s been “challenging,†Armstrong said, although the redevelopment of a former Nabisco factory at 401 NW Second St. is a good start. A restaurant and apartments are going there.
Officials would like to find occupants for the former WNIN studio on Carpenter Street, as well as the former Pearl Cleaners building.
Armstrong said the Downtown EID wants all property owners in the boundary to benefit from their investment, pointing to things like snow and ice removal and special events that include areas off the Main Street corridor.
“I think half of our efforts still have not been realized fully,” Armstrong said. “We’re here setting the table for future development, whether that’s a nail salon or a $40 million project. Both are important.â€
Jones’ influence
Former Old National Bank CEO Bob Jones, whose name is now on a section of Walnut Street in the Downtown EID boundary, was the EID’s first board chair and is credited with being a visionary for the organization.
Jones is from Cleveland, and about 15 years ago, he was part of efforts to create a similar organization in that city’s Downtown. Cleveland’s downtown district is credited with helping revive the city and land major events such as the 2016 Republican National Convention.
“They did an additional levy on top of property owners, and the priorities were safety, cleanliness, accouterments with flowers,” Jones said. “You get pride and development in the downtown. It was almost an exact parallel to Evansville, on a larger scale.”
As in Cleveland, Evansville’s Downtown EID has sought to change people’s attitudes about the area, Armstrong said.
“That really is the core of our work, the things you can’t measure or see, but yet have outcomes that are more tangential or powerful,” he said.
IS IT TRUE that Downtown Evansville CEO Joshua Armstrong has been around Evansville for about 2 decades now with 2 failed restaurants under his belt?…one was called the Firefly that specialized in Louisiana cooking in a building on the Lowe’s parking lot on the Eastside?…the other was a smaller version of that inside the eating space in the ONB Building?…after these two failures Armstrong did a stint at the Olive Garden before being recruited to take on the Presidency of Downtown Evansville?…Armstrong comes to us from Southern California where he earned degrees from UCLA in political science and art history?…these are not degrees that typically lead to commercial positions and it is sort of suspect to ask what qualified Armstrong to be President after two failed enterprises and a stint working at Olive Garden?…he must have a decent reputation where it counts though because the “Mole Nation” tells us that he is being paid over $100,000 per year and recently was given a $10,000 raise?…that is pretty good pay for making sure the Christmas lights are up and claiming to be an important deal maker?…we wonder how many other people who work for the City of Evansville or its surrogates make that kind of money and got a $10,000 raise last year?
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Tax credits awarded to three affordable housing developments in Evansville will allow them to start construction, taking a few more bites out of the city’s much-discussed affordable housing shortage.
One project is being developed by Memorial Community Development Corp. That is Memorial Lofts, which is spread over two locations: an old Boy Scout office on Bayard Park Drive and in a Lincoln Avenue strip mall near Lincoln School.
The other two projects are Evansville Townhomes II, spread across different locations, and Erie Pointe, on the former Erie Homes site at Southeast Tenth Street and Lincoln Avenue. Those are projects of the nonprofit Evansville Housing Authority and its for-profit arm, Advantix Development Corp.
Memorial Lofts will have a total of 50 units at its two sites, and Memorial CDC hopes to start construction in 2020, said Serita Cabell, executive director.
The two other projects also are anticipated to get going in 2020.
Erie Pointe will have 38 units. The Town Homes II project involves rehabbing 60 existing housing units with new appliances and other upgrades. Those developments will provide housing for families earning up to 80 percent of Evansville’s area median income.
“We’re able to rehab and sustain units we already have, and we can fold in new ones,” Evansville Housing Authority Director Rick Moore said.
The three Evansville developments are among 18 in Indiana announced this week as recipients of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits by the Board of Directors for the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
The program incentivizes private developers to build new affordable housing or acquire and rehab old housing units.
In total, $170 million in new tax credits were announced. These credits often are the final piece of funding needed to get a project going, said Kelley Coures, director of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development.
Evansville is hardly alone in its need for more decent, affordable housing.
“The award announcement is an important step toward tackling the growing affordability problem Hoosiers are facing,†Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch of Evansville said in a news release. “Once completed, these developments will provide much needed affordable housing to over 900 individuals and families across the state.â€
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Two pieces of taxpayer financial assistance were approved Monday for a $28.4 million housing and commercial project in the impoverished Jacobsville neighborhood.
House Investments of Indianapolis is to receive $1.5 million from economic development bonds, as well as a 10-year phase-in on property taxes. Each measure was passed by the Evansville City Council in 7-0 votes.
The construction site is at North Main and Illinois streets, which since the 1980s had an IGA grocery store. The store closed in January 2018.
Evansville government officials have since aggressively recruited a new food outlet, as well as new housing opportunities in Jacobsville.
The four-building project planned by House Investments has 15,000 square feet of commercial space and 180 apartments. The studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are to have rents ranging from $530 to $1,200 per month.
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Officials described the apartments as “workforce” housing. Occupants’ annual incomes are to be from $28,000 to $57,000. One of the buildings will have four stories and an elevator. The other three buildings are three stories with no elevators.
House Investments officials said their goal is to bring a grocery store to the commercial space as soon as possible, once the development is completed. The old store building is to be razed.
Construction is expected to start in spring 2020 and take 12-18 months to complete.
The Vectren Foundation is a $750,000 investor. The development company received tax credits because of the project’s location in a low-income area.
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Public bonds approved by City Council Monday are not to exceed $2.25 million, and they are to be retired annually with Jacobsville Tax Increment Financing District revenue.
Of that $2.25 million, only $1.5 million is for the developer, while the rest is for costs related to bond issuance.
The bonds mature in 2040, according to city officials.
The 10-year property tax phase-in, meanwhile, is worth about $330,000 to the developer, said Ellen Horan, director of Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville.
City Councilors showed enthusiasm for the project, although Finance Chair Jonathan Weaver, D-At-Large, said he thought the city administration left councilors “out of the loop” about it.
“It’s taking a dead piece of ground and putting something really good on it,†said Dan Adams, D-At-Large.
“Thank you for this project and for helping to bring more affordable housing to our city,†said President Jim Brinkmeyer, D-6th Ward.
The two absent councilors Monday were Missy Mosby, D-2nd Ward, and Stephen Melcher, R-3rd Ward. Melcher’s ward contains the Jacobsville neighborhood.
