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This is what happens when Government gets involved.
This would have happened no matter what. With the economic uncertainty created by the current administration, I think they’re luckily costs only increased 14%.
Are we “winning” yet?
Yes, the hotel and convention center center expansion actually get built instead of staying done pie-in-the-sky proposal on a commercial developer’s website.
The private sector (aka corporate welfare queens who now run our state & federal governments looking for “savings” to fund their next big tax break) couldn’t manage to get their financing together to build this hotel.
The City of Indianapolis was told by several big convention clients that they would take their business elsewhere unless more hotel rooms were added downtown and the convention center was expanded, and the CIB stepped up to ensure our city’s customers got what they asked for so we could keep their business since so many small and large local businesses depend on the convention industry for revenue.
Swell. I would prefer to get the potholes filled.
Call your local legislator who refuses to do anything about the funding issues.
If legislators in the nine county area worked together they could fix the issue. Being more loyal to their party is the issue.
Which politician’s brother-in-law is the contractor with the overage? How many of the contractors donated to Hogsett’s reelection? Always seems like there’s a hidden backstory… We need an Indianapolis DOGE.
Oh…. You mean a billionaire that just runs rough shod over our elected representatives, while our elected representatives just roll over and play dead? That kind of DOGE?
I would much rather have some say in what gets cut and what gets funded. Otherwise it defeats the reason for having a represenative democracy.
DOGE is too busy sending teenage servants of Musk to invade our sensitive government records looking for “savings” to fund yet *another* big tax break and more mega-government contracts for the multi-billionaire oligarchs who now run our nation.
China is laughing their butts off at us.
No worries, what’s a few more planes falling from the skies or a listeria outbreak as long as Herr Musk gets another multi-billionaire dollar taxpayer financed contract with NASA or the DOD (now run by boozer Hegseth who managed to crash and burn two small nonprofits before being entrusted to run our armed services).
Dan how are we going to get a say on what gets cut and what gets funding unless we know what’s out there? That’s all he’s doing. Anything that’s frivolous and doesn’t really pertain to the operating of the United States should be cut.
Rhea, that’s the exact opposite of what he’s doing. He’s cutting blindly, then determining what’s needed later. If you were operating with any modicum of knowledge, you wouldn’t lay off the people securing America’s nuclear arsenal … then have to turn around and try to keep them.
How do we have a say? We sent legislators to Congress. Let them act. If you don’t like them, vote for different ones.
As said elsewhere, Musk behaving like a private equity bozo determined to asset strip for his own financial gain. The same folks who expend all that effort claiming Hunter Biden is surely ripping people off … are sure really quiet when the corruption happens right in the open and it’s clear as day, like spending $400 million on armored Cybertrucks to prop up someone’s collapsing car company …
Shocker! The city/county has no business investing in a hotel!!
1) Who funds the city of Indianapolis?
2) Who funds the CIB?
The CIB provides the funding to be reimbursed by the city? LOL!
3) How many years will it take to pay the bonds off?
Talk about a cluster!!
Such rationalized reasons and excuses. We all knew this was going to be a Billion Dollar project from the beginning.
The hotel is needed because we’ve promised it to several conventions that said we needed to expand.
The problems stem from going with Kite Realty Group, who never did find the money for this hotel. If they had the money, or if the city had decided to move forward when interest rates were low, it would be a different story.
JOE B. is a deal makes financial sense, then the money is there. If Kite could not find the money, I have to imagine the deal didn’t make financial sense. Fairly simple.
It’s anything but fairly simple. What’s the economic impact of losing (say) Gen Con, PRI, FFA, and the firefighter convention?
People scream up and down that Indianapolis needs to do things to compete with other cities. We’re a convention city, and this expansion allows the city to keep key conventions we have been hosting, host bigger conventions, and host multiple smaller conventions at the same time.
If you want Indianapolis to get out of the convention business, that’s fine. Just articulate the alternative. It’s quite valid to hold the positions that “the city needed to do this project” and “the city needed to execute on this project better”.
I think you mean the debt service economy.
JOE B. I was just referring to a private developer making financial sense of a deal or not. As far as that point is concerned, its fairly simple. I did not say anything more.
I so agree. We definitely need the DOGE here to research the CIB. So we can stop wasting so much money!
And why was the CIB board elected again? They have done nothing but spend our tax dollars unnecessarily.
Oh…. You mean a billionaire that just runs rough shod over our elected representatives, while our elected representatives just roll over and play dead? That kind of DOGE?
I would much rather have some say in what gets cut and what gets funded. Otherwise it defeats the reason for having a represenative democracy.
Bid low, increase price later. Sounds about right. Who was surprised?
Will be even higher when tariffs hit the supply costs.
Glad I moved to Florida
We are, too. Glad that YOU moved, that is.
The exact same things happens in Florida lol Look up what’s going on in Miami and Orlando. Politics as usuals and the most desirable areas in Florida have extremely high property taxes on top of flood insurance. Enjoy
Yes, enjoy living in the New Republic of Gilead as it repeatedly gets slammed by hurricanes caused by “imaginary” climate-change and suffers from a living affordability crisis.
And, it seems if you were so happy living there, you wouldn’t be hanging out in the IBJ comment sections. Don’t you have a pool to lounge by or a Mahjong game to join?
no GMP contract? liquidated damages?
can you share the construction agreement Mickey.
This will be a great case study for undergrads in construction, engineering, finance and real estate.
And folks complained when the Hoosier Dome was built. And Lucas. And Bankers. And every other project that has been built in this city since at least 1970. And yet, they got built, the city grew, and non-residents actually wanted to come here. And big events drew more people to move here, and for businesses to stay here and move here.
Really folks try to develop a time line longer than the next year. These are long term improvements for the city. As noted, this hotel and Convention Center expansion are need to keep some very lucrative conventions coming here. The economic impact of those events in terms of sales taxes, and revenue for all kinds of businesses, and showing off the city to businesses looking to expand or find a new home, is incredible.
Of course, there is the Naptown option…Indy, the cornfield with a few lights. But I don’t think anyone really wants to return to those days…
Add ten more floors and make them apartments. Downtown apartment market here has been strong for decades (strong,
meaning vacancy rate of less-than 10 percent) and will continue to be. Can recover the extra costs over years of rentals.
Our government does not need to get into the hotel business. Complete overreach.
Managing the budget for a high-rise construction project is no small task and requires an Experienced Board with Engineering, Construction and Management experience. None of the Capital Improvement Board (CIB) Members have Construction Engineering and Construction experience to the scale of the Signia Hotel based on their BIO’s. With approximately 1/3 of the steel structure in place and cost overruns totally $70M, alarms should of gone off in the CIB, requesting a Financial Review of the entire effort by an independent third party engineering firm (with demonstrable credentials), to gain an understanding what the total financial exposure is to the City and the areas of concern including recommended corrective action. The odds that this will be the only additional investment to complete the Construction of the Signia Hotel is “zero” percent. The statement “… recent bids for portions of the city-owned project came in over budget ….” demonstrates the Plan and Budget, which are the backbone of any construction project, was flawed and lacked the details including contingencies to deal with unknowns at the time the Plan and Cost were compiled. What is a top reason why Construction Projects do not meet expectations, require major adjustments to scope, incur material cost and schedule over runs, it starts at the beginning with inaccurate/incomplete budgets including associated costs, lack of cost controls, weak inexperienced management and inexperienced oversight Boards. Since we are only a year plus into a multi-year project with cost variances approaching 14%, the CIB needs to hire an experienced engineering firm to review the project and pro-actively report to the CIB in a public session their findings and recommendations. The CIB needs to retain this independent firm to perform monthly and quarterly reviews and report their findings and recommendations to the CIB until the Project receives Certificate of Occupancy.
I understand the point you’re making but how do smaller cities, population wise, get projects like this done more often than Indy? Look at all the high rises being completed in Nashville. Look at Milwaukee and the Couture apartment tower, the 7Seventy7 tower and the tallest timber tower in the country? Maybe Indy needs to higher the developers in those similar sized cities. The city hasn’t even broke ground on the Old City Hall redevelopment and tower on Alabama st.
Those other cities have better local developers and also aren’t entangled in an outdated unified city-county. Nashville also has a stronger economy.
Murray, Nashville has had a consolidated metro government since 1963, six years before Indianapolis and Marion County unified.
Milwaukee is an old blue-Dem rustbelt city not known for “superior” developers.
Not sure how the unified government structure comes into play here. It provides a stronger tax base than just the old city limits, which provides a better bond rating.
And their developers are better than ours? Find that pretty hard to believe.
Things that may be impacting: Neither Nashville nor Milwaukee are trying to build the projects on a swamp…anything west of about Meridian is a swamp. In both towns, the city government spent more on infrastructure over the years…pre-Peterson, Indy was famous in public admin courses for the almost complete lack of spending on infrastructure. It took a federal court order to get the sewers from emptying into Fall Creek. It wasn’t until Hogsett we could get street lights in many parts of Indy.
Now we want to build big buildings on these lands. Since these projects go going, inflation ran rampant as the population started to spend money received during COVID, or saved during COVID. Supply chains for everything: steel, concrete, everything, couldn’t keep up and prices went up.
So construction budgets are a shambles. Not just for these buildings, but for most every major construction project in Central Indiana. I-69, SR 37 in Fishers, 146th street at Allisonville, 465 around the south side. Name the project, its’ probably over budget. LEAP got an extra $100M last year…
Unless the plan is to leave the structure unfinished, and non-revenue generating, you pony up the funds and get the job done. And then enjoy all the convention attendees flooding downtown and spending their money in our town…
The TDS is rampant in the minds of Indianapolis Liberal Dems. Winning !!
I don’t see any “TDS,” but I do read immaturity and insecurity in your comment.
You are free to engage in pathetic bootlicking of Elon Musk and his multi-billionaire cronies who are attempting to hijack our government and turn it into a tech oligarchy to serve their interests. But, the rest of us have no desire to slave away in their little AI run gulag.
Enjoy spending your time hoping they drop you a crumb and trying desperately to convince yourself that you weren’t sold down the river after Trump got your vote.