Five developers are in the running to build Evansville's new downtown hotel, and none of the developers are based in the Tri-State.
The names of those five developers were announced Tuesday morning at the Evansville Redevelopment Commission meeting.
Now, it's up to the ERC to decide who makes the short list and continues on in the process toward developing a new hotel next to the Ford Center.
The rundown lot next to the Ford Center will likely remain empty for months, but there is progress being made toward building a new hotel in the spot.
"Well, I think it's good news that we have five proposals from nationally recognized hotel developers," said ERC President Ed Hafer.
Those five developers submitted their qualifications to the Department of Metropolitan Development, and Executive Director Philip Hooper agrees that five is a good number.
"Given the size of our market, and the financing climate over the last five years is a great win," Hooper said. "This process has been very successful."
The five interested developers are:
- Acquest Reality Advisors based just north of Detroit in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
- Corporex out of Covington, Kentucky
- HCW headquartered in Branson, Missouri
- Gatehouse capital in Dallas, Texas
- Swerdling and Associates headquartered in Denver, Colorado
Hooper says these teams are developing hotels all over the country, and if all goes as planned, one of them will add downtown Evansville to its resume.
It's Hafer's job to help figure out which one that will be.
"There's always the experience and the track record that they have with other developments. You know, have they been successful. Certainly, dollars come into it in terms of what they're expecting from the city, in terms of incentives or associated development and these sorts of things," Hafer said.
The ERC recently hired a consultant to do a study about the hotel, and they found the ideal size would be in the range of 240 to 270 rooms.
The next step is for the ERC to look over the five developers' qualifications and decide which ones they want to submit an actual proposal about the project.
As you probably noticed, The Kunkel Group, originally slated to build the hotel, did not submit qualifications.
Copyright 2012 WFIE. All rights reserved.
The rundown lot next to the Ford Center will likely remain empty for months, but there is progress being made toward building a new hotel in the spot.
