The Redevelopment Commission unanimously approved the walkway plans that will connect the Courtyard by Marriott with the Grand Wayne Center. This walkway will be an indirect connection that will span from the new hotel to the Indiana hotel and then attach to the existing Embassy walkway.
The cost of this project will be $1.85 Million. The Goldstein Foundation will generously supply $550k of that amount, $1 million was already budgeted and the other $350k will come from either the interest on the HS bond or the proceeds from the land sold to Barry Real Estate for the condominium development - both these options were unallocated in the HS budget. The Redevelopment Commission will be responsible for the maintenance and utility cost for this walkway which Steve Brody estimated between $6-7k/year.
The commission has broken the project into two parts - the first benefits the hotel developer and the 2nd benefits the Embassy and the Indiana Hotel. The first part includes the walkway, pedestrian corridor, stairway connecting the corridor and existing walkway and a lift for accessibility (~$1 Million). The second part includes a storage area, new elevator shaft (on the west side of the embassy), constructing a stairwell and installation of an elevator (~$850k).
Greg Leatherman saw this as a "win-win" that would satisfy the hotel developer's needs and bring the Indiana Hotel that much closer to redevelopment. Leatherman said he wasn't sure if this would interest the hotel developers enough in the Indiana Hotel for them to redevelop the site but others were interested.
The agreement still needs the approval of the Historical Preservation Board which meets in the Omni Room tonight at 5:30pm but Brody expected the board to approve the plans and that they would be executed tomorrow.
As usual, readers should check out DFWB for the actual drawings and documentation which should be posted shortly...
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8 comments:
Jeff - The "generous contribution" of the Goldstein Foundation could be looked at as a return of commissions earned by Martin Goldstein Knapke on the purchase of the HS properties. The $550,000 was very close to the earned commissions, not including the bill that MGK summitted for " consultation fees". So this money would not have been available without HS - and therefore it's hard to look at it as "private" money. John B. Kalb
Darn, I missed by about 100 grand the total cost of round one. There is more to come but that is down the road.
Keep in mind there could be "cost overage."
John,
To be fair I doubt all the money from the HS properties made it to the foundation...
Jeff - Will you be checking on what the Goldstein family puts into the foundation in 2007? I sure will be. Follow the money, Jeff - With the way this project was railroaded on us, SOMEBODY (somebodys) put lots of dollars into someone's pockets. Look what's happening on the OmniSource property! John B. Kalb
I wonder if Ms. Goldner would be so kind to post a comment here if she ever saw a letter from White Lodging demanding this walkway?
No, I didn't see a letter from White Lodging. But the requirement isn't really surprising. The Courtyard is anticipated to be used significantly by people coming to events at the Grand Wayne Center. I cannot recall ever going to a convention anywhere where the conference hotel (a.k.a. "my first choice") was not connected to the conference center. Yes, if you wait until the last minute for reservations or are staying in a very high-cost market, you might stay elsewhere, but that is not typically the first choice. So if you are building a conference hotel, you need that physical connection.
Karen - Thanks for the comment.
The problem I have with that is if it's so obvious that the walkway was necessary then why wasn't it in the memorandum of understanding? Not really a question for you, just rhetorical...
I am starting to grow weary of the "railroaded up our ass" type rants with respect to HSQ.
Here's a URL from the early days of my blog:
SUPER FUNKY COOL J4TR LINK!
That was from February of 2006.
Groundbreaking for HSQ is tomorrow.
That means the so-called "train" took one year and nine months from my first published mention of the Belmont debacle until now.
Let me axe you this: If you saw a baseball flying toward your head, and 1 year and 9 months later it finally hit you, could you really blame the guy who threw it for the bruise? I think not. All of the frothing pie-holes and chest-pounding Libertarian wannabes have had a REALLY REALLY long time to slow this down. They waited too long and didn't gather enough momentum once they finally got off their couches.
Boo hoo.
:-)
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