John Q. Hammons is one of two finalists to develop a convention hotel if voters approve an arena.
DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, April 9, 2008 7:00 pm
“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.
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.