Hammons offers hotel, help with convention center
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By DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star
“Hammons Airlines” landed in Lincoln this week, but this time John Q. wasn’t jetting in for a football game or to check on his downtown Embassy Suites hotel.
Hammons flew in to make a pitch to a city selection committee on why John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts is best suited to build a convention hotel if the city builds a new arena near the Haymarket.
Hammons is one of two finalists to develop a convention hotel if voters approve an arena. He’s competing with a team led by Lincoln developers Will and Robert Scott.
John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts is one of two firms in the running to build a convention center and hotel near a proposed city arena. (No details are available on the proposal by the Scott brothers of Lincoln.)
Here are details of the Hammons pitch:
* 250- to 325-room, four-diamond hotel. Hammons would pay for hotel.
* Up to 60,000-square-foot convention center. The company would share costs with city.
What’s next: City selection committee will report to mayor, possibly within the next week.
They were selected from five development teams that put in proposals last month.
The selection committee’s meetings are closed to the public, and until now, neither Hammons, the Scotts nor the city has released details of the proposals. The Scotts did not return a call seeking comment last week or Wednesday, but a Hammons official agreed Tuesday to talk about his company’s proposal.
Scott Tarwater, executive vice president of development for John Q. Hammons Hotels, said he, Hammons and another executive flew in for the Lincoln meeting.
They offered to build a 250- to 325-room, four-diamond hotel with an up to 60,000-square-foot conference center.
Hammons proposed to finance construction of the hotel — preferably with a good deal on the land — and jointly finance the convention center.
“Mr. Hammons has no problem funding that project,” Tarwater said. “We have $565 million worth of new projects coming out of the ground and $1.5 billion in the pipeline … Financing is certainly the least of our challenges.”
Hammons did not specify how much of the convention center the company would be willing to finance.
“That would be up to the city to determine,” Tarwater said. “If they want us to come back and get more specific, we would love to do that.”
Last month, a Minnesota consultant concluded it would be financially feasible for Lincoln to build a new arena. It also recommended the city work with a developer to build a 30,000-square-foot convention center and a hotel with at least 250 rooms.
City officials have previously envisioned a convention center with up to 60,000 square feet.
Tarwater said the size of Hammons’ proposed hotel and convention center are based on the company’s market research.
“We do our own homework,” he said. “Mr. Hammons has done this over 200 times now and we pretty well got it down.”
He didn’t release details on the design of the hotel, but said all of their hotels are custom-designed. And the company likes to match the hotel with the surrounding architecture — such as the company’s Embassy Suites in Omaha’s Old Market.
City officials have zeroed in on preferred siting for the arena and convention hotel, but have often said a private partner might have other ideas about where things should be built.
Hammons hasn’t specified a preferred location, Tarwater said: That would be determined once Hammons gets more definitive building footprints from Lincoln officials.
The Scotts would seem to have their work cut out for them in taking on what Tarwater calls “the hotelier of the world.”
But the Scotts’ plans are reportedly innovative and they’ve teamed up with respectable national partners, including Kansas City architects from Ellerbe Becket who designed that city’s new arena, the Sprint Center.
Hammons is the nation’s largest independent developer of upscale hotels and resorts. He started the company with 10 Holiday Inn hotels in 1958 and has since developed about 200 hotels.
He often builds near capitols, universities, airports, corporate headquarters or office parks.
And he’s an avid Husker football fan, often jetting in for games.
“He really likes Coach Osborne,” Tarwater said.
So would Hammons be interested in ponying up money for the naming rights to a new arena?
“You never know,” Tarwater said.
Hammons built a baseball arena, Hammons Field, in downtown Springfield — home to the Springfield Cardinals. And he committed $30 million to his alma mater, Missouri State University, for the $67 million JQH Arena scheduled to open this fall.
Hammons is 89, but still flies all over the country — sometimes hitting four or five cities in a day.
“It takes me (going) a thousand miles an hour with my hair on fire to keep up with him,” Tarwater said of his boss.
Urban Development Director David Landis said the selection committee will likely share its preferences with the mayor within a week. Then it’s up to the mayor to choose a developer — and then negotiations begin on a redevelopment agreement.
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
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he's the only one with his checkbook out! Do you believe that the Scotts's and Lincoln developers are willing to use "their" money for "their" investment?
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I for one will not go near this area because of the massive congestion of traffic, getting in and out is like going through a maize and the parking, although guite available in some of the garages, is not always where you would like it to be and I can not even begin to sense what would happen if 10,000 more vehicles were to have a need to park in the area. Looks like the only benefit to the area would be in the building portion of the project and not necessarily in the final using portion. Now that the State fair has been slated to move to Grand Island, Lincoln will end up with very little summer activity other than a few baseball games and possible some early football, of course Lincoln will have a few more years until the fair is officially moved.
The UNL Research park will not be in operation for at least 5 years and so it appears that construction people will have a large amount of business until both are completed and the antelope valley project is completed. However, I do not see any real pressing need for any of it at this time because of the sagging economy and the higher predictions of inflation, and loss of jobs to the real economy.
One can create a false economy for only so long of a time and then reality will hit and the whole idea could just sit there. When the money runs out then what. "
Mr. Hammons enjoys to make a profit here. But his income tax isn't paid in Nebraska, he doesn't live here, and this is not where he chose to have his family. That's fine, that's business, I would just prefer that any of my tax dollars go to support people who have a vested interest in our community.
Just because an out of state investor wants to throw money at a project is no reason not to make the investment in our own people. The Scott's are on Lincoln's team, Hammons is on his own team. "
We have no idea how the city will move people into and out of this area.Given the lack of a freeway system how does the city propose to move 90,000 people into downtown Lincoln for a night foootball game and another 15,000 for a concert, add in another 7,000 for a Stars game,not to mention appeasing the North Bottoms neighborhood association? With a trolly car that consumes a lane of traffic that runs 3 blocks??? PLEASE!
Before we unleash the dogs of another downtown boondoogle I would think that a more open process needs to happen and more questions need to be answered.
It matters not who gets the development and if you are wondering then look at how the Verizon project was handled and that will tell you how this one will turn out.For those that believe that a vote will happen...remember and I quote J.Stalin "It doesn't matter who votes,it doesn't matter how often they vote.What matters is who counts the votes"
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Should this project advance, I think it's healthy for WRK and Hammons to compete. Personally, I favor the local team. The Scott brothers' projects are economically sound, environmentally sound and culturally creative. We should try to keep the project locally owned and sustainable.
I'd also like to add that renovations or smaller projects might be better served, especially with UNL's research park now on the horizon. The downtown police station is hideous and the library could use some help. Perhaps we could refurbish Pershing as a sweet new library? "
Attending Husker games? Absolutely, he didn't miss them when he could be in town. The man loves sports -- that's why he built the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
Give him a chance -- he's not your typical businessman. You don't see many giving millions of dollars to charity every year, and some of that makes its way back to NE. "
Yes, there was a day when we did not have enough rooms during state tournment time, but all that has changed.
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And as another commentor pointed out we already have high enough vacancy rates in the downtown hotels we currently have so why build more?
Many feel that we should strive to become more competetive with and more like Omaha? Why?
It is time for our citizens to realize that a bigger city is not necessarily a good thing. Quality growth can be a positive thing. But growth for the sake of becoming a bigger city is not good and does not necessarily translate into being beneficial for our community. "