EVANSVILLE— Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke said he will make a final push for the City Council’s backing of a Downtown hotel plan, but two council leaders announced their opposition, saying they want Downtown renewal efforts focused on landing an Indiana University Medical School campus.
The City Council is to vote Monday on $37.5 million in public subsidy for the hotel plan. Finance Chairman John Friend, D-5th Ward, and Vice President Dan Adams, D-At-large, on Wednesday joined Conor O’Daniel, D-At-large, and Al Lindsey, D-6th Ward, in saying publicly they would vote no. One additional no vote would defeat the project.
The overall hotel project, a public-private endeavor with Missouri company HCW, is to cost about $74 million.
Winnecke met Wednesday morning with Friend, Adams and Council President Connie Robinson, D-4th Ward. Winnecke said he relayed to them his support for bringing an IU Medical School campus Downtown, but that he was confident city government could provide incentives for both that project and the current convention hotel plan.
The City Council leaders disagreed.
“Unfortunately, (the IU project) is still in its early stages,” Winnecke said. “No decision on location or funding from the state has been made at this time. It’s important to note that even if the state legislature approves (funding) during the 2015 budget session, it will months before ground is broken on that project.”
The hotel project’s final fate apparently will be decided Monday. Winnecke noted that his push for an earlier vote be delayed due to the City Council’s desire for public meetings about the project. Six of those were conducted. A majority of speakers at each meeting were in support.
“As you can tell, I’m disappointed, but I’m not discouraged,” Winnecke told reporters in his office. “It’s incumbent upon the administration to make its case once again to council and encourage them not to pass up a shovel-ready project ... simply to wait two and a half years until the proposed medical school expansion may or may not occur here. So we’ll be working diligently between now and Monday to make our best case.”
In addition to a 253-room Hilton DoubleTree hotel, the city’s agreement with HCW includes a parking garage, an apartment tower, Ford Center storage, retail and restaurant space, and sky bridges.
City Council leaders had been calling for a third-party financial firm to evaluate HCW. When one company last weekend denied the council’s request to do that review, council leaders spoke of trying to find another firm. But Winnecke said that issue did not come up during his meeting with council leaders Wednesday.
An email from Adams explaining his opposition states:
“As our local history teaches us, hotels can come and go. Our projected medical school with its 1200 students, 130 residents, an exciting simulation center, a minimum of four or more hospitals and four major educational institutions is forever! Thus, I know for the best bang for our buck, we must put all of our ‘eggs’ in the downtown medical school basket first ... Many will criticize me for my lack of vision. I contend that vision is exactly what I am providing.”
An email from Friend states:
“Once we have determined the magnitude of our commitment to mandatory expenditures (and) emphasis on the Downtown medical school, I may be supportive for a convention hotel provide it meets our budgetary constraints and makes good common sense. This decision has not be easy knowing that our community must move forward and I will always be mindful of this noble cause. I will be totally committed and will support the administration’s efforts in locating Indiana University’s Medical School in our Downtown. This has to be our number one objective.”
Three City Council members have said they will support the hotel project or are likely to do so. They are Dan McGinn, R-1st Ward; Missy Mosby, D-2nd Ward; and Jonathan Weaver, D-At-large.
That leaves Robinson and Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley, D-3rd Ward, as the only two remaining undeclared City Council members.
Brinkerhoff-Riley declined comment Wednesday. Robinson was unavailable.
Indiana University has announced plans to expand its current medical school operation in Evansville, currently housed at the University of Southern Indiana, into a much larger, new local facility. Downtown and USI are possible locations, and developers of The Promenade — a planned, multi-purpose project off Burkhardt Road — also are pursuing the medical school campus.
Winnecke said Wednesday that efforts to lure that project Downtown have no bearing on the convention hotel plan.
Three previous efforts to build a Downtown hotel which would replace the former Executive Inn have failed. Winnecke, asked what will happen if the current effort meets the same fate, said, “I don’t know. If the vote is no, the current project as we know it will be dead. What happens after that, I don’t know yet.
“We’re going to go to Monday’s meeting with the thought that we can convince five people on council that we have the financial capacity to do both of these projects,” Winnecke continued. “We feel that’s the objective. Some members of council have made up their mind and have already said they will vote no, no matter what. But if I don’t go into that meeting attempting to convince five people to vote affirmatively, I don’t think I’m doing my job. and that’s what we’ll be working on between now and then.”