News Sentinel Corroborates Hotel Financing Troubles
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 11/18/08 @ 1:57 pm - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
Read Kevin Leininger’s column in today’s News-Sentinel. He actually spoke with the same White Lodging spokesman that Fort Wayne News did and he corroborates the FWN report.
Deno Yiankes, president and CEO for investments for White Lodging, blamed “unparalleled market conditions” for the lack of financing, but said the company is negotiating with a potential lender and could have an agreement within two weeks.
“There’s a chance (groundbreaking) will come in the first quarter (of 2009), but we’d still be OK. We’re pretty optimistic. The demand for hotel rooms in Fort Wayne year-to-date is still OK, but that may soften.”
I’m not sure where Leatherman got his data about them meeting with numerous banks but it sounds like that information is factually incorrect. I think everyone would like to know what the hell is actually going on and the city putting their PR spin on everything isn’t helping matters.
And it isn’t just crazy bloggers that are worried. The Grand Wayne Center’s general manager is worried about where this might be heading:
“First they were going to break ground (on the hotel) in October. Then it was November. Nobody has said anything to us. The longer we don’t see something happening, the more apprehensive I get,” said Grand Wayne General Manager Bob Lister. “We have another five conventions pending, but they won’t commit until they know the hotel will be ready. With today’s economy, that worries me.”
The city council needs to take an active role in getting to the bottom of what’s going on with the hotel. If there are scheduling problems ahead then everyone should admit it now and plan accordingly. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away…
H/T: Penny Wise
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Yeah, I wish Turkette would stop stealing stories from the newspapers for his blog postings. - LOL
His apparent redirect of Fort Wayne Newspapers visits to his blog only works from their offices. I’m sure Lanka was at home and saw the story on Sunday, likewise for Leininger. At least Leininger made a phone call.
Many kudos to Dan Turkette. Also to Mr. Leininger for revealing Mark GiaQuinta as the lawyer who is suing FWPD in the fatal shooting. Pro bono?????
Well maybe the most non-consumer friendly bank in the world - Citibank - will bank roll this fiasco. You know, now that they get to jump to the head of the handout line…
[...] remember that White Lodging is the developer for the downtown Courtyard by Marriott hotel that has faced financing trouble and is likely to miss their groundbreaking deadline. Readers will also know that White Lodging [...]