Tag Archives: Holiday Inn Centre

Kinseth pulling out of Peoria

The Journal Star reports that Kinseth Hospitality, owner of the Holiday Inn City Centre downtown, is bidding farewell to Peoria. The hotel will be managed by Pyramid Hotel Group of Boston. It’s unclear at this time who will actually own the property.

Kinseth was critical of the city of Peoria, which provided EM Properties Ltd. with a $37 million bond to reconstruct the Hotel Pere Marquette into a Marriott Hotel structure.

About a year ago, he wanted the City Council to support a $10 million City Centre renovation project with $8 million in assistance. That, however, did not go anywhere.

“Obviously, the city is not willing to support this hotel at this time,” Kinseth said. “In 10 years, we haven’t made a dime and spent tons of our money and worked very hard. We’ve never made any money on the hotel and worked very hard and care deeply about the hotel and staff. At this time, we can’t do it anymore. It’s time to move on.”

The assistance Kinseth sought from the City would have upgraded their property from a Holiday Inn to a Crowne Plaza Hotel. The plan was remarkably similar to the Wonderful Development, though far less costly. Yet the City wouldn’t even entertain Kinseth’s proposal, despite the supposedly dire need for more quality rooms downtown to support the Civic Center. Instead, the City is using the Holiday Inn’s property taxes and sales taxes to fund their competition to the tune of $37 million. It’s hard to blame Kinseth for giving up on Peoria under those circumstances.