Never mind

It took a Grand Canyon-sized leap in logic to conclude that construction of a pair of John Q. Hammons' hotels would be delayed in Colorado Springs, but the Colorado Springs Business Journal took the plunge.

On Friday, the weekly Business Journal ran an item on its daily electronic update with the headline "Colorado Springs hotel developer changes mind." The item went on to say that Hammons -- of Missouri, not the Springs -- had apparently put his proposed southwest downtown and northern Colorado Springs hotels "on the back burner." Because Hammons was moving ahead with a hotel project in Loveland, the Business Journal concluded, he therefore was delaying his Springs' hotels. The item carried no comment from Hammons, his company or local land developers where the Springs hotels will be built.

A Gazette call Friday to Hammons' senior vice president L. Scott Tarwater brought this comment: "Nothing could be further from the truth." He went on to say that Hammons' hotel in Loveland had no connection to the company's projects in the Springs. On Monday, the Business Journal retracted its Friday item -- sort of. The publication now said "it appears Colorado Springs isn't on the hotel construction back burner after all." The Business Journal didn't acknowledge its Friday item, but quoted Tarwater and an executive from Classic Cos. -- the Springs developer which owns land where one of the hotels will be built -- as saying the two local hotels are on schedule.