Lodge development back on table

Local News

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus

Somerset — The search for a private developer to build and operate a lodge on General Burnside Island State Park is back on the table.

Gil Lawson, spokesman for the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, said proposals have been received from the private sector in response to the state’s most recent Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a lodge at the state park in Burnside.

The proposals are currently being reviewed by the Finance Cabinet, Lawson said. “I can’t say how many proposals we have ... all I can say is that it’s more than one.” He said the proposals will be “...under review for the next few weeks.”

At least two previous prospective developers are in the mix.

“We’re still very much interested,” said Mike Czer-wonka, president of Czerwonka and Associates, Louisville. He said his group submitted one of the proposals the Kentucky Finance Cabinet is currently considering.

“We believe this is a huge opportunity for both the Commonwealth of Kentucky and General Burnside (Island) State Park,” Czerwonka commented. And, according to Czerwonka, his group has a grandiose plan for a resort at the Burnside state park.

Czerwonka said the proposal he presented is for a four-star resort. He didn’t specify, but generally a four-star rating means amenities such as conference or banquet facilities, good restaurant, and plushly furnished guest rooms, among other luxuries. Czerwonka has told the Commonwealth Journal he is prepared to invest $100 million in the project.

If successful, his group would operate the entire park and its facilities, including the newly renovated golf course. Residents of this area apparently would get special attention at the resort’s facilities, if developed according to Czerwonka’s plan.

“We did make a proposal for local residents and golf fees,” Czerwonka revealed. He also said he has assured the state that all employees of the park will be American citizens, “...something we feel very strongly about.”

Czerwonka believes a four-star resort at Burnside would be a financial success.

“This would be the first state park in history that makes money,” Czerwonka predicted. “With professional operation, we think it would make money and we would pay a significant amount to the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the privilege of operating the resort,” he said.

Czerwonka said his group has no problem with paying the prevailing wage rate, a hourly pay scale with benefits and overtime paid in the largest city in each county. This court-ordered requirement cooled the project during the latter days of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration.

The Louisville developer said his group’s proposal is not predicated on the $4 million originally promised by the state for infrastructure and then allegedly shifted to the horse park in Lexington.

Lawson told the Commonwealth Journal Wednesday afternoon that “...there are no $4 million in the current proposal (for the lodge at General Burnside Island State Park).”

A copy of the most recent RFP was not available, but Czerwonka said the scope of the proposal has not basically changed. Previous RFPs called for lodge and attendant facilities to be developed on a 22-acre site on the north end of the 430-acre island.

Kentucky Department of Parks, based on previous RFPs, wants a lodge with at least 50 rooms, a swimming pool, gift shop and other features found at state resort parks. Burnside Island State Park currently has a newly renovated 18-hole golf course and campground.

The Webb Companies, a Lexington-based con-glomerate, has expressed intense interest in building and operating a lodge at the park for 30 years. The Webbs are currently developing CentrePointe, a $250 million skyscraper in downtown Lexington.

“We submitted an official proposal with a deposit,” Dudley Webb said Wednesday afternoon. He said the project hasn’t changed much except the state has deleted all incentives, including the $4 million for infrastructure.

“It’s a bare-bones project,” Webb said. However, he expressed confidence that the “resources are out there” and it is going to take a concentrated effort to find the assistance.

“We submitted a proposal because we believe in the community ...we believe in the project,” said Webb. “That golf course is beautiful,” he added, referring to the recently renovated facility.

“We got to the point (in the late 80s) where we submitted a proposal (for the lodge),” Dudley Webb recalled. “But we never heard back (from the state).

“I don’t know what happened. ... It was sort of weird. ... I don’t know if the politics changed down there,” he said.

The project appeared dead late in the Fletcher administration. Interest waned when the state deleted $4 million for infrastructure and a Franklin Circuit Court’s temporary restraining order demanded the prevailing wage rate be paid.

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