That opening statement of Mayor Bruce Hendrickson set off applause in city hall, Monday night. “I want to thank the city council. Without their cooperation we would have never got to where we are now. The Hotel Committee worked so hard to get things done,” Mayor Hendrickson stated.
A hotel and location has been under discussion in Pineville for better than 20 years. The last two years an interested developer came before the city council asking help in building an upscale hotel. Maurce Elledge, of North Carolina was interested in Pineville to build a multistory hotel. Elledge has developed buildings, in a number of states, and with the Pineville project, four are in some phase of construction.
“While the hotel prospect has been an off-on project for many years, it finally came together through the efforts of Elledge, attorneys Mike Bowling and Steve Keeney, and help from various offices in the current state administration,” Mayor Hendrickson said.
While local residents view the coming of the hotel as taking agonizing years, Pineville City Attorney Steve Keeney saw it differently.
“We got this done in sound barrier shattering time, on government standards, in Frankfort,” he said.
The quickness came about as the Pineville project is the first of its type in the state. Getting the government to give up a portion of its land to a private developer had to involve state government all the way up to the governor. It was through the help of the endorsement of the governor on the project that helped it move through the appropriate offices in record time as well as local individuals and groups showing support for the project.
“This is the greatest example of what real leadership is about. Leaders are not about being elected. Leadership is about using that trust in becoming unpopular, at times,” stated Mike Bowling.
“We are building economic development. We are building a place in the community that will be a destination,” Bowling added. He said the community still has to stand behind the project and keep pushing to completion.
Elledge said it was the mountains that first attracted him to Pineville. “I was looking in this area to invest. I talked with the mayor and others and this looked like a project that was much in need.”
The hotel is to be six stories high and will include Kentucky Off Track Betting, an indoor swimming pool, exercise lounge, spa, full kitchen and a full-service hotel under one roof.
“We are going to have 104 guest rooms. Some are suites, there will be different combinations of single rooms, king, queen, double and suites,” stated Elledge. “There will be plenty of parking,” he added.
The hotel will have dinner facilities that will seat up to 150 and theater seating up to 400. The facility will be able to host all types of class reunions, senior proms, family reunions, wedding receptions and more.
The land currently houses the Kentucky Division of Forestry. As this is fire season, the forestry will not have to move its facilities until December 15. Elledge says his construction crews will move in early spring to start building the hotel facility. He says it will take 12 to 14 months to build. That means people will be able to book rooms starting in the spring of 2008.
There have been a lot of questions about the property from local people asking if the land was large and stable enough for such a structure. Elledge, a developer for many years, just did not “jump” at the property.
“One of the first things I did before I ever visited with the mayor and city council, I had my architects and engineers to do discovery work to see if they thought the site would accommodate a large hotel. Obviously it would have been stupid to have gone to the city council, mayor and everyone else, getting them involved, if indeed I didn't think it would accommodate the building. I didn't want to get the cart before the horse, so I had architects and engineers in town before I even meet the mayor, to make sure it would accommodate the site. As it turned out, it accommodates our proposed facility very, very nicely,” explained Elledge.
“The people in Frankfort have already certified these plans. They are well aware of how we can position the building where the parking is gong to go. We are not out of compliance in any area of design,” Elledge added.
The hotel will be located next to Wasioto Winds Golf Course and Pine Mountain State Resort Park.
The proposed facility will give people an opportunity to stop and take in the historical sites at Pineville, and may keep them as they vacation in the place that opened the United States to western development.
C.J. Harte is a Correspondent for the Daily News. He can be reached via e-mail at charte@middlesborodailynews.com.
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