Four development groups submitted responses to the city’s request for preliminary proposals from companies interested in building a replacement of the Executive Inn hotel in Downtown Evansville.
They were Browning Hotel Associates of Indianapolis, The Kunkel Group of Evansville, White Lodging of Merrillville, Ind. and Woodruff Hospitality of Evansville.
Hotel developers had until 4 p.m. Friday to submit responses to a preliminary request for proposals issued by the Evansville Redevelopment Commission last month. Local officials have been trying to have a new convention hotel built ever since the back part of the Executive Inn was demolished to make room for the arena.
City officials declined today to release the proposals they received. John Kish, arena project director, said he will discuss them when the Redevelopment Commission meets at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room 307 of the Civic Center.
Chuck Harper, a vice president with Kunkel Group Realty, said Kunkel has enlisted Sheraton Hotels & Resorts in a plan to build a four-star hotel on the site of the parking garage that stands across Walnut Street from the former Executive Inn. The structure will contain between four and six floors and the top floor will be reserved for condominiums.
The hotel will have a restaurant and movie theater with six screens. At least two of the screens will be set aside for dinner theater. He said the rate charged for rooms will be about $135 a night.
The Kunkel Group also plans to build a structure called “The Concourse” on the site where the remaining part of the Executive Inn now stands. The building’s 15,000 square feet of space, divided among three floors, will contain another restaurant. The Concourse itself will be connected by footbridges to the hotel, Downtown arena and The Evansville Auditorium and Convention Centre.
Harper said Kunkel plans to make up for the loss of the parking garage by building parking areas both beneath the hotel and The Concourse structure. He said there will be 390 spaces in total.
He estimated the price of the project to be $30 million, which includes the cost of demolishing the parking garage and the remaining part of the old Executive Inn. He said lenders have agreed to finance the project so long as The Kunkel Group can obtain a loan guarantee from Evansville, meaning the city would be responsible for paying off the debt in case of a default.
“We are not asking the city to give us actual money,” he said.
Harper said The Kunkel Group recognizes that arrangement would pose a risk to taxpayers and therefore wants the public coffers to share in the profits that would result if the hotel does well. He said The Kunkel Group is proposing to give the city a dividend that grows larger in proportion to the percentage at which the average annual occupancy rate at the Downtown hotel exceeds 60 percent, which is the average occupancy rate for Evansville hotels in general.
The Kunkel Group also wants to share with Evansville any profits made from the sale of condominiums, Harper said. The company also plans to pay $100,000 a year to lease the hotel site.
“This is a true public-private venture,” he said. “Many times the public side takes on the risk and doesn’t reap the awards.”
Woodruff Hospitality LLC likewise proposes building a 220-room hotel on the site of the parking garage for about $30 million. Martin Woodruff, the principal owner of the company and a State Farm insurance agent, said he plans to undertake the construction entirely with private financing.
He said Hyatt Hotels and Resorts has agreed to put the Hyatt name on the new property and to manage it. He said the hotel will contain a restaurant, banquet areas, meeting spaces and an atrium lobbying opening to the second floor.
He said Woodruff Hospitality’s plan will provide enough parking spaces at the site for guests of the hotel. But the city may need to build additional spaces to replace those lost from the demolition of the parking garage.
“We have worked really hard to come up with something that I believe Hyatt and the city can be really proud of,” he said.
Browning Investments, for its proposal, formed a partnership with a group called Marina Holdings LLC. Jamie Browning, vice president of real-estate development with Browning, said Browning Hotel Associates has submitted a plan calling for the construction of a 220-room hotel on the site of the parking garage. He declined to give a cost estimate.
Browning said the proposed building is to contain six stories, an indoor water park, complete with a pool and slides, and a restaurant. It will conform to the standards of a three-star hotel, he said.
Browning said Browning Hotel Associates is looking at various ways to replace the parking spaces that will be lost if the parking garage on Walnut Street is demolished to make room for a new Downtown hotel. He declined to identify the possibilities under consideration.
Browning also said Browning Hotel Associates proposes to lease the site of the new hotel from the city for $100,000 a year.
Browning said Browning Hotel Associates is asking for financial help in building the hotel, declining to name a specific amount. He characterized the proposed arrangement as an “investment,” explaining that the city will get returns if the hotel manages to bring in a certain amount of money.
A representative of White Lodging couldn’t be reached for this article. The company owns 150 hotels in 18 states. It opened a 250-room hotel Courtyard Marriott hotel in downtown Fort Wayne on Sept. 1. The hotel has foot bridges connecting it to the nearby Embassy Theatre, a restored historical movie house, and Grand Wayne Convention Center. White Lodging also opened a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott near the University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend on June 16.
And the company is building a 1,000-room J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis as part of Marriott Place, which will bring together five different types of Marriott hotels in one location. The entire project is to cost about $450 million project is largely being paid for by Dean White, the founder of White Lodging.
Meanwhile, another developer that had initially expressed interest in building a replacement of the Executive Inn has decided to not submit a proposal. David Dunn, president and chief operating officer of Dunn Hospitality, said Dunn Hospitality choose to not submit a proposal. He said the company is busy with other projects, such as its plans to renovate the Plaza Hotel & Suites on U.S. 41 North, and was reluctant to take on additional work.
Dunn, who also sits on the Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the fact that four developers responded is a good sign that the city will have another Downtown convention hotel.
“They wouldn’t have wasted their time putting together proposals that weren’t going to be viable for the community,” he said.
The Evansville Redevelopment Commission decided to send out a preliminary request for proposals after giving Browning Investments slightly more than a year to undertake a renovation of the former Executive Inn. Browning quickly decided that project was impracticable and began working on designs for a 220-room hotel on the site of the parking garage, bearing many similarities to the proposal it submitted to the city today.
The company then found it couldn’t get the type of loans needed to build a hotel that would meet the standards demanded by city officials. In August, the Evansville Redevelopment Commission voted to take advantage of a contract option that allowed the city to take possession of the remaining part of the Executive Inn and the parking garage from Browning. Commission members then sent out preliminary requests for proposals, giving other developers an opportunity to submit plans for building a replacement to the Executive Inn.