Preliminary approval given to Paducah Convention Hotel, Maker’s Mark Distillery

FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 9, 2014) – The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority today approved incentives for two projects – a hotel development in Newport and a distillery visitor center in Frankfort.

Musselman Hotels LLC applied for incentives for a 150-room lodging facility to be located adjacent to Newport on the Levee. Development costs are projected to be $33 million.

The Buffalo Trace Distillery development in Frankfort will include a 6,000-s.f. expansion of existing visitor facilities, including additional meeting and event space, expanded tasting area and an enlarged gift shop. Total investment is projected to be $2.2 million.

Reports on both applications found that they met the requirements necessary to receive incentives. This includes meeting a minimum expenditure requirement, being open more than 100 days a year, attracting at least 25 percent of visitors from outside the state by its fourth year of operation and having a positive net economic impact on the Kentucky economy.

The Musselman Hotels project is eligible for up to approximately $8 million in incentives and the Buffalo Trace project is eligible for up to $550,000 in incentives. The incentives are in the form of a rebate based on sales tax generated by the tourism attraction over a 10-year period.

The authority gave preliminary approval to Paducah Convention Hotel LLC for a 121-room downtown hotel and to Maker’s Mark Distillery Inc. in Loretto for expansion and renovation of its visitors’ center. This means that studies will be conducted to see if these applications meet the legal requirements for incentives.

The authority considers applications under the Kentucky Tourism Development Act, which allows eligible tourism attractions a rebate of sales tax up to 25 percent of project capital costs over a 10-year period.