Evansville - Construction on Evansville’s Downtown convention hotel will be delayed again because bids came in above budget and utilities at the site must be moved, the Redevelopment Commission was told Tuesday.
The commission approved developer HCW’s request for 90 additional days to close on the project’s financing. The city’s closing deadline had been June 30. Rick Huffman, CEO of HCW, said the hotel project is “100 percent financed,” but a closing has not occurred because some aspects must be redesigned and rebid.
Huffman said such delays are not unusual.
“What we’re needing is to go back and do a little bit of redesign and get it back into budget,” Huffman said. “We also have had a lot of ‘fun things’ that we found underground that are taking a little bit more time. We’ve got some sewer lines in the way and things like that ... Other than that, things are actually in good shape.”
Huffman said he expects construction to take 18 months, although weather patterns could speed it up or slow it down. City officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking in March, but various delays have stalled the start of construction. Local hoteliers asked Hilton to not allow a DoubleTree franchise for the new hotel, arguing it would hurt existing local Hilton properties.
Hilton considered the objection for a few weeks before allowing the DoubleTree license.
The Water & Sewer Utility Board last week hired a consultant to plan for the relocation of a large sewer line along Chestnut Street which is in the project’s way. On Monday night, the City Council voted to vacate Chestnut Street between Southeast Sixth Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard, as part of that relocation.
HCW says the hotel will have 258 guest rooms, 6,000 feet of ballroom space and two restaurants, including a 10th-floor bar open to the outdoors with retractable windows.
The project also is to have an apartment complex, a parking facility which is to be shared with the Indiana University School of Medicine-Evansville campus, sky bridges and streetscape improvements.
The cost is projected to be $71.3 million, with $20 million in bonded financing from the city.