Final Four-friendly Marriott wins
Officials: $260M convention center hotel can open in time for 2010 event
By Jeff Swiatek
jeff.swiatek@indystar.com
December 20, 2006
Timely won out over tall in Indianapolis' vision for its skyline.
JW Marriott was selected Tuesday over a more dramatic, 44-story InterContinental as the flagship hotel for an expanded Indiana Convention Center -- in part because of the belief that the Marriott will open in time for the 2010 NCAA Men's Final Four in Indianapolis.
The winning proposal was chosen by a seven-member committee created by Mayor Bart Peterson, who is expected to go along with its recommendation.
The endorsement comes with tens of millions of dollars in city subsidies. But there are strings, too.
The Marriott hotel that gets built is likely to be significantly bigger and bolder than the early concept shown to the city and the public, possibly rising from 25 to 30 stories.
The Marriott's tentative design was the plainer of the two finalists. The InterContinental proposal called for a 1,016-room, red-granite and glass tower on Pan Am Plaza.
"We believe the JW Marriott project was going to meet the timeline, and it was going to be opened by early 2010," said Barbara Lawrence, director of the Indianapolis Bond Bank that will negotiate the subsidy deal for the city.
Tuesday's decision is only the beginning of the process.
City officials have indicated they want the JW Marriott design to be changed so it's more "architecturally significant," said Michael W. Wells, who runs REI Real Estate Services in Carmel and is a lead developer for the Marriott project.
"We're very open to taking a look at the existing building and trying to come up with a striking architecture for the building," he said.
The city had to choose between proposals involving two influential developers.
The lead developer of the losing InterContinental plan, Michael G. Browning, was one of Peterson's top individual donors in 2002 when the Democratic mayor was raising money for his re-election.
Wells has Republican ties. He was once campaign manager for then-Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, a Republican.
Bill French, a retail broker at Colliers Turley Martin Tucker in Indianapolis, called both proposals "attractive opportunities" for Downtown.
"It was like choosing between Miss Universe and Miss America," he said. French guessed that "the underlying financials (of the Marriott proposal) must have been in the city's best interest."
The Marriott team's deep-pocketed investors include Whiteco Industries of Merrillville, controlled by 83-year-old billionaire Dean V. White, one of Indiana's richest residents.
Wells said he and others popped open a champagne bottle in REI's office Tuesday afternoon to celebrate their win.
"We're very pleased. We're looking forward to building a first-class hotel."
John Miles, a spokesman for Browning Investments, said the InterContinental team members "are obviously disappointed" with not being picked.
Wells said he thinks his proposal won because "We have the best (hotel brand) flag in Marriott, we have the financial capital, we have the hotel experience and we control the property."
The InterContinental team controls development rights to Pan Am Plaza, but it had yet to buy the plaza's underground garage. InterContinental is a British-based hotel chain that does not have a hotel in Indianapolis.
However, the JW Marriott team has questioned the city's call for a 1,000-room hotel, saying it seems too large for Indianapolis' midsize hotel market. But Wells said he and his partners are willing to put 1,000 rooms in the JW Marriott if the city insists.
"My guess is they'll want 1,000 rooms," he said.
With 1,000 rooms, the new Marriott would rise to 30 stories and cost about $260 million, Wells said.
The Marriott bid also includes four other Marriott-brand hotels on the nearly 5-acre site at West and Washington streets. But the other three likely won't be part of the city partnership and would be developed independently by Whiteco, Lawrence said.
Groundbreaking for the JW Marriott needs to occur by early 2008 if the hotel is to completed by March 2010, Wells said.
The Marriott team has said it may need a city subsidy of $40 million. The amount will be determined by mid-February, when the city aims to complete a development agreement with the Marriott team, Lawrence said.
Taxpayer money likely would be used to pay for a pedestrian walkway to connect the hotel to the Convention Center, to subsidize the cost of the ballroom the city wants and to help foot the cost of a parking garage.
Bob Bedell, president of the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association and a member of the Hotel Selection Advisory Committee, said "both were fantastic new developments. We wouldn't have gone wrong if we had gone in either direction."
He praised JW Marriott for being "an exceptionally strong (hotel) brand for the convention and trade show market. It's going to raise us up to the next level" in luring big conventions, he said.
The final proposals were among five submitted to the city last spring. Three proposals failed to make the final cut.
Peterson spokesman Justin Ohlemiller has said the mayor would support the committee's recommendation in picking a hotel project but may get involved in working out the partnership agreement with the city.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...tCIfmhb6XUM%3D