An Indianapolis company won't build a hotel in Downtown Evansville unless the city also builds a stadium there, representatives of the company announced today.
Speaking at a news conference held at Innovation Pointe, Jamie Browning, vice president of development for Browning Investments, said the company only thinks a four-star hotel in the city's Downtown would be a good investment if it stood near a stadium city leaders are thinking about building. On Monday, Browning Investments said it would like to build the hotel. The announcement was made then partly to show the public that other projects would follow a new stadium were one placed in the Downtown area, Browning said.
Gateway Consultants, hired by the city to help leaders decide what to do with the aging Roberts Stadium, has said that investors would take a greater interest in Evansville if a stadium stood Downtown.
"This validates what you have read in the Gateway report," Browning said.
Browning said the proposed hotel would likely cost from $30 million to $35 million. It would contain about 250 rooms, distributed among seven floors. The first floor would have space for shops, restaurants and similar businesses.
In the company's plans, the hotel is shown to be connected to the stadium by a couple of buildings, which may contain meeting rooms and exhibition space. Another diagram shows the entire complex standing on two blocks bordered by South East Fifth, Walnut and Locust streets and now occupied by the Executive Inn and the D-Patrick Ford lot.
But Browning said the company has chosen no site for the hotel. Both the location of the project and the time in which it will be built will largely depend on the city's plans for the stadium.
Browning Investments is talking to several large hotel companies about the possibility of their running the hotel proposed for Downtown Evansville.
He said Browning is looking at Evansville for several reasons. Beyond the possibility of the new stadium, he believes more of the many companies that have their headquarters in or near the city would like to hold conventions here. Another is the likelihood that Casino Aztar will soon have a new owner, which may make the casino a more attractive destination.
In April, Eldorado Resorts LLC, a Reno, Nev., company, said it would pay as much as $245 million for Casino Aztar. Before that sale may take place, though, the Indiana Gaming Commission must still decide if it will grant Eldorado a casino license.