Since I started writing on this proposed hotel project, I’ve gotten some calls and e-mails about issues directly and indirectly related to it. Rather than put up an individual post on each item, I’ve decided to just lump it all together under “Odds and Ends.”

Details, Details

I was contacted by a person who is close to the hotel project but wishes to remain anonymous. He told me a lot of the same things Billy has already mentioned in this post, but he added some information and elaborated on other issues:

• This project has been in the works for over a year and a half.
• The Hospitality Improvement Zone TIF (HIZ TIF) was proposed because of this potential development. However, the TIF was spread out to include the other existing downtown hotels so they could all take advantage of it if they so desired. Since the establishment of a TIF was open to numerous public hearings and ample public discourse, they feel that the public interest in this project has so far been served.
• They’re not asking for any additional public subsidy other than those already available (TIF, Enterprise Zone, etc.). So it’s not going to cost the city anything that would directly impact their capital or operational budgets.
• Part of the business plan of the investors is to be the convention hotel for the Civic Center. And that’s why they want the skyway (climate-controlled pedestrian walkway/bridge) to connect the hotel to the Civic Center. You may recall that the Civic Center Authority believes an attached hotel is “critical” to their expanded Civic Center’s success.
• Their plan is to tear down the current parking deck and build a new one that will have retail shops on the ground floor. Hence, even though they would be adding a skyway, they believe they will actually be helping rather than hurting pedestrian activity on the street as they will be generating pedestrian traffic with the new street-level shops.
• There has been some confusion over whether there will be two hotels or one. There will be one. These investors will buy the Pere Marquette and acquire the rest of the block. The other buildings on the block will be razed and a new tower built that will be as high as the Pere Marquette, built of brick, masonry, and glass, and designed to complement the Pere’s architecture. Once the new building is up and running, the old Pere building would be temporarily closed for top-to-bottom renovations. However, they would maintain the historic character of the Pere — i.e., they will be cleaning it up, but not changing it in architecturally-significant ways (meaning some changes will have to made for ADA compliance and things like that). Once it’s all done, it will be one big hotel under one flag.
• They claim the project will be fully compliant with the Land Development Code and the principles of New Urbanism (except for the skyway, of course).
• The reason they want/need to move quickly is because they currently are paying for options to buy all the properties — they haven’t actually purchased them yet, pending approval of this deal by the city and all the pieces falling into place (e.g., Big Al’s moving, approval to raze the remaining buildings, etc.). The longer they wait, the more they pay for the options, so it’s in their interests to conclude this process one way or the other as soon as possible.
• They want to raze Big Al’s and the other buildings north of it on that block during the winter months when they can’t do any construction anyway, then start construction on the new tower in the spring.
• The major hotel chain that they want to bring in won’t fly their flag across the street from a strip joint, so if Big Al’s moves across the street to the former Euro Jack’s at 500 Main, it will have the same effect as them not moving at all. Thus, it would seem most likely that 414 Hamilton would be the new location for Big Al’s at this point, although recent news reports say that Al Zuccarini is willing to consider other sites.
• Carnegie’s will be elevated to a fine dining establishment again.
• Perhaps most importantly to the investors, it will be locally owned and operated. To those who say local ownership makes no difference, this source simply points to the difference between the Mark Twain hotel (locally owned by former mayor Bud Grieves) and the Pere Marquette and Holiday Inn City Center (neither locally-owned). The Mark Twain has decent occupancy and is making a profit. Not so with the other two. In fact, rumor has it that the Holiday Inn will be losing its flag before long… again.

Historic Buildings on Main?

I’ve already had inquiries as to whether there will be an attempt to save any of the buildings the developers want to raze:

No doubt some people are just being facetious. But guess what? There has been a fight over historic buildings on this very block in the recent past.

In March 1993, Duane Cassano announced he wanted to raze the circa-1848 building at 531-533 Main because it was crumbling. He struck a deal with the Central Illinois Landmark Foundation, saying he’d replace the building with an “authentic 19th century facade.” Everyone was happy.

And then, in August 1993, Cassano reneged, saying it would be too expensive to do what he’d promised. Instead, he put up a “wood decking” facade. While he was chastised verbally by the city council, it doesn’t appear from published reports that there were any real consequences for going back on his promise.

I have no idea if any of the other remaining buildings have any historic value or if anyone is preparing a last-minute application to the Historic Preservation Commission. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. Anyone who gets in the way of this project is liable to get run over.