Hopes dashed for early opening

Source: Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.迷你倉Sept. 19--A Denark Construction Co. superintendent on Wednesday put the official kibosh on any lingering thoughts that the Owensboro Convention Center might be completed earlier than scheduled.When construction began last year, local officials and a senior Denark manager held out the hope that the 169,000-square-foot building might be open by Christmas of this year. But the official completion date of Jan. 27 is now the real target for the actual completion, said Richard Ogle, a Denark senior superintendent.An early finish was predicated on very favorable weather, Ogle said, which did not materialize."It was a tougher winter than we hoped for," Ogle said. "We didn't have any good luck."The winter, followed by a rainy spring, slowed the $39.5 million project, and Denark has been in catch-up mode ever since. But the Jan. 27 date is doable, Ogle said. Actually, it had better be. The center's first convention, an ag expo, is set to begin Jan. 29.Ogle's remarks came during a tour of the facility by several sitting and former Owensboro elected officials and a few others. Mayor Ron Payne and Assistant City Manager Ed Ray led parts of the tour and were assisted by Dean Dennis, general manager of the center and vice president of Global Spectrum, the company the city has contracted with to operate the center. Members of the group walked all through the center's three floors and got to see dramatic views of the Ohio River and the Owensboro riverfront from the upper ballroom level. Meanwhile, construction work continued as workers finished drywall, hung electrical fixtures and toiled at scores of other jobs.The tour group included former city commissioners Cathy Armour, Candance Brake, David Johnson and John Kazlauskas, sitting Commissioner Debbie Nunley, Fred Reeves, former downtown development director; and Nick Brake, former president and CEO of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., which spearheaded the downtown redevelopment planning process. He is now superintendent of Owensboro Public Schools.Candance Brake, Johnson and Kazlauskas, along with Payne, all voted in favor of raising the local insurance premium tax to support downtown revitalization in 2009, the centerpiece of which will be the convention center on the former Executive Inn Rivermont site.The group entered the convention center through a door leading directly through a glass wall 58 feet high into the ground floor lobby. Dennis said blown glass art depicting the bend in the Ohio River will grace one of the lobby walls. The 16,000-square-foot lobby will serve as prefunction space for such things as registration, ticket purchasing and coat check, Dennis said.The next stop on the tour was t文件倉e massive ground-floor exhibition hall -- 270 feet wide with no interior columns and a 30-foot-high ceiling."With this height, we can do volleyball, gymnastics and a lot of other sporting events," Dennis said. "This is the largest exhibition space in western Kentucky. It's larger than Evansville's and Bowling Green's. When we compete for shows, it makes us very competitive because of its size and no columns."The doors to the exhibition hall are large enough to admit a farm combine, Dennis said.After a quick trip up a freight elevator, the group emerged on the upper real level, which is divided into two large ballrooms and a bank of meeting rooms, separated by a kitchen. The ballrooms overlook the Ohio River through 18-foot-tall glass walls, and visitors can walk out onto open-air balconies. Each 13,000-square-foot ballroom can be subdivided into smaller venues by movable partition walls. The river facing side of the convention center will be brightly lit, Dennis said."When you come across the bridge and see this place lit up, it will be rock and roll," Dennis said.Ray said the convention center is 74 percent complete, based on the amount of the budget spent.The soaring glass walls on the front of the convention center are in place. Inside, three escalators have been installed. Much of the concrete floor in the exhibition hall has been poured. A window opening has been cut into the building's east side on the ballroom level to allow for views to the east of McConnell Plaza, Smothers Park and the newly painted Glover H. Cary Bridge.On the river side of the convention center, work has not begun renovating the former Executive Inn Showroom Lounge pad, which city leaders want turned into a pavilion. But Payne has high hopes for the venue."The other really attractive part is that pavilion," Payne told the group as the tour embarked. "I want you to see how huge it is. We're going to have another RiverPark (Center) patio bigger than the RiverPark patio."Ray said the old Showroom Lounge pad will be made to look like the RiverPark Center patio and is expected to open next spring or summer.Before the tour reached the convention center, Payne pointed out various improvements to the downtown riverfront, starting with Smothers Park and continuing to Mitch McConnell Plaza, where a new performance area opposite the front of the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel is under construction."There are so many different possibilities of things that can happen all down the riverfront," Payne said.Steve Vied, 691-7297, svied@messenger-inquirer.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) Visit the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) at .messenger-inquirer.com Distributed by MCT Information Services存倉