By Lane Boldman
In late March, it was announced that private investors had purchased the nearly 900 acres of land owned by entrepreneur Ian Teal that is the property being proposed for a private resort development near Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. This is the latest activity in a multi-county economic development proposal anchored around the development of an upscale hotel and conference facility at the gateway to the Red River Gorge. This site that was recently purchased by the newly-formed “Red River Property Holding Group” was selected as the “preferred site” for development in a report by the design consultant, Santec, in September 2020. The intent of the investor group is reportedly to “hold” the land until a suitable developer can be found. The recent pandemic has had an impact on the tourism and hospitality industry, and we presume this is why there was interest in going ahead and forming a holding company to secure the land until the economy stabilizes and can attract a suitable developer for the project. The hotel and conference center are the main components to anchor comprehensive vision for the four counties around the Red River Gorge to expand local businesses and tourist attractions.
One issue of concern, now resolved, was that the Red River Holding Group included among its board two members who also were part of the nonprofit guiding the development, Red River Economic Development LLC, and therefore raised questions about conflict of interest and “self-dealing.” Those members were Charles Beach of People’s Exchange Bank and Elmer Whitaker of Whitaker Bank.
These two board members have now stepped down from the Red River Holding Group to avoid the perception of conflict of interest. The buyers will hold the land until Red River Economic Development can find a developer to build the resort project. Red River Economic Development is the nonprofit arm of the Kentucky Chamber Foundation.
That raised plenty of questions about self-dealing, and did not help some public perceptions of the project. Now the holding company owns the land and the RRED will market it to developers. Other board members of RRED include entrepreneur Jim Host, Central Bank CEO Luther Deaton and Community Trust Bank CEO Jean Hale. While the land now remains privately owned and the future development would also be a private initiative, the original master plan for the fo was funded with state and federal grants, and therefore we should continue to watch this development proposal closely. The Red River Economic Development group was created by the Ky. Chamber task force as a public-private partnership to oversee this project and to be the applicant for the federal and state grants involved with the planning process, and secured funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and from coal severance funds.
We will continue to monitor the activities related to this proposed development and multi-county master plan as there are updates available.
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