EVANSVILLE — For at least three years, the debate raged. Crowds filled meeting rooms to weigh in on Evansville's pressing topics: How big a convention hotel did the city need? How much public money should be used? Was the whole thing a waste?
Those headlines and controversies finally concluded five years ago last month, with the DoubleTree by Hilton's opening at Walnut Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The boxy, five-story brick building wasn't the high-rise with a rooftop bar Mayor Lloyd Winnecke wanted initially. But it was still a full-service hotel attached to Downtown's convention center and arena, something advocates insisted the city had to have.
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They promised it would boost Evansville's economy by bringing a mix of events and thousands of guests every year.
The degree to which that's happened is hard to measure, especially when taking the COVID-19 pandemic into account. The DoubleTree does not release its occupancy rate. There have surely been some successes, and high-profile basketball tournaments at Ford Center typically mean March is a busy month.
The hotel's presence helped Evansville secure the Ohio Valley Conference men's and women's tournament and the NCAA Division II men's national championship for multiple years.
Concerts by big-name entertainers also help fill the hotel. The DoubleTree was packed, for example, when country music star Morgan Wallen arrived in early February. Wallen's fans went home unhappy when an 11th-hour ice storm postponed his show, but many said they'd come back when it's rescheduled.
The DoubleTree hosts nonprofit galas and other private functions.
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The hotel's biggest challenge in its first five years was the same one faced by the entire tourism industry — COVID. The pandemic forced temporary closures and furloughs at the hotel.
Concerts and conventions were canceled, sports were played without fans and business travel ground to a halt. Business-people still aren't traveling in large numbers, and the DoubleTree was built with that sector in mind.
Because of the DoubleTree's COVID-related struggles, city government forgave $72,000 in parking garage rent owed for 2021 by the hotel's owner, HCW of Branson, Missouri. The hotel shares a garage with the Stone Family Center for Health Sciences.
Under HCW's initial agreement with the city, HCW could market the property after its first five years, but there is no indication of that happening anytime soon.
HCW Management Chief Operating Officer Robert Allen said in an email: “We are very pleased with the Evansville market and enjoy our relationship with the City of Evansville. Though COVID provided challenges to our industry, we are very optimistic about the full recovery of business travel as well as groups and conventions to the region in the future.”
Winnecke said March's basketball tournaments at the adjacent Ford Center prove the DoubleTree's value to Evansville. He said the hotel puts Evansville in contention for events it otherwise could not get, events that have spillover economic benefit.
A national square dance convention is coming in June, and an international jugglers convention is slated for 2025.
Millions still owed
There will continue to be a public cost tied to the DoubleTree, just as there is to Ford Center.
During that lengthy debate years ago, the City Council capped city government's contribution to the convention hotel project at $20 million. This held the project to 241 guest rooms. Winnecke had sought $38 million for the taller version, which in addition to a rooftop bar would have had an indoor pool. The DoubleTree's pool is outdoors.
Data provided by City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr.'s office shows the city issued two series of bonds, totaling $17,735,000. As of Dec. 31, the amount still outstanding was $15,960,000.
Once the city makes its principal and interest payments this year, $15,392,700 will still be owed. One series of bonds matures in 2037, the other in 2039.
Lloyd said the bond payments are made using Tax Increment Financing and casino revenues. TIF districts are created by local governments to spur economic development activity, but casino revenues may be used for a variety of purposes.
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One of the few city councilors still in office from the convention hotel debate of years ago, Jonathan Weaver, said the project is worth the expense.
"I put my mother up there every time she comes to town from Dallas," said Weaver, an at-large Republican. "I love parking there to go to Aces games. The lobby is nice. A 10-story hotel and rooftop bar would have been an awesome addition but from what I’m seeing here lately, there’s been a lot of activity."
Since the 241-room DoubleTree opened five years ago, Downtown Evansville has seen its hotel room inventory climb even higher. A Hyatt Place with 139 rooms will reach its one-year anniversary in June. The years-long renovation of the former Riverhouse, which will be a Holiday Inn, appears nearly finished. That will tack on 79 rooms.
Winnecke said he doesn't think today about how a skyscraping convention hotel project would have played out in Downtown Evansville, because he's happy with what the city has.
"I don’t spend a lot of time looking over what could have been. I think we’ve been really good at marketing what we have," Winnecke said.