Nov. 06—Construction officials told a city board Wednesday that work on the Downtown convention hotel will begin Nov. 19.
The news comes on the heels of Mayor Lloyd Winnecke’s announcement earlier this week that Standard & Poor’s reaffirmed its A rating on Economic Development Revenue Bonds to finance the project.
The hotel project, which will include a parking garage, an apartment tower and sky bridges, will cost $71.3 million. That figure includes $20 million in city bond debt.
It will take at least 16 months to complete the Hilton DoubleTree hotel.
On Wednesday, representatives of Hunt Construction asked members of the Evansville Safety Board for lane shifts and road closures for the project.
Walnut Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Sixth Street will be shut down for the duration of the project. The southeast lot of the Ford Center will be used for construction trailers and equipment laydown, and Walnut Street will host a crane and be used for deliveries.
Walnut Street’s closing won’t start till after Thanksgiving due to the Hadi Shrine Circus at the neighboring Ford Center over the holiday weekend.
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will be cut from four lanes to two lanes for the project, and Sixth Street will shrink from two to one lane.
The hotel project has dealt with several hurdles and stumbles in recent months.
The City Council heavily debated financing the project last year, and only approved it after the city trimmed down its contribution to the project.
A groundbreaking was held in March, but the lot bordered by Walnut Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Sixth Street and Chestnut Street has sat empty since.
Difficulties securing a Hilton DoubleTree franchise knocked the bid proposal process back by a few weeks. Then after the first round of bids came in over budget the project was pushed back a few more weeks.
A second bidding process resulted in Hunt Construction of Indianapolis—the same company that built the Ford Center—being named the lead contractor.
Excluding any major weather delays, the hotel could start having rooms filled by summer 2016.
In other business:
The Safety Board approved a contract between the Evansville Police Department and Audubon Motor’s, Inc., for the transfer of six 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 trucks. Like the Jeep Wranglers donated by the company in 2013, the trucks will be used by the department for a few years then returned to the company.
The board also permitted the Evansville Fire Department to advertise bids for a custom cab rescue squad vehicle and a commercial cab rescue squad vehicle to check pricing options. The board also gave the go ahead for the fire department to seek bids to buy a rescue squad vehicle, with bids likely to be opened Dec. 3.