Nearly three years after the Executive Inn Evansville was torn down to make way for the Ford Center, a few hundred people gathered to watch as Evansville officials broke ground March 10 for a new 10-story, 257-room Hilton DoubleTree hotel.
With shovels in hand, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and several Evansville City Council members turned dirt at the construction site at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Walnut Street.
“The groundbreaking is yet another important milestone for this project and our local workforce is eager to begin construction,” says Winnecke. “The 257-room hotel will put our city back on the map for convention business, as well as spur additional downtown development.”
Construction on the $71.4 million development is expected to take 18 months and is projected to open in the fall of 2015.
HCW LLC, an Indiana corporation headquartered in Branson, Mo., is developing the project. The company is contributing $40 million to the project.
The hotel plan moved forward last year after several weeks of debate mostly surrounding its level of public financing. The City Council’s majority chose to cap the public subsidy at $20 million. A group of investors, led by Old National Bank, came forward to fund up to $14 million, which made the project possible.
An “objection to a hotel licensing application” filed by Dunn Hospitality Group could cause a delay in the final approval of private financing. Dunn Hospitality states the hotel would pull business from three existing Hilton properties in the Evansville area.
The project includes a hotel, a 6,000-square-foot conference center, residential apartments, and parking garage, which are all connected with above ground skywalks.
For more information on the Downtown hotel and convention center, check out the December/January 2014 issue of Evansville Business or visit hcwdevelopment.com.
