The other day, I was reading in the Journal Star about former mayor Bud Grieves’ plan to publicly unveil his all-hotels-connect-to-the-Civic-Center idea, and this just jumped out at me:

City Manager Scott Moore said the city is looking to do its own market study on Grieves’ plan, a similar process the city took in 2008 when Matthews of EM Properties Ltd. pitched the $102 million Marriott project.

The city did a market study on the “Wonderful Development”? Really? I don’t remember any council action authorizing funding for that. I immediately sent a Freedom of Information Act request to see this market study of which the City Manager spoke. Here’s the response I received:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding a “market study on Gary Matthews’ hotel plan.” No official market study of Mr. Matthews hotel plan in 2008 was conducted. [emphasis added] Over the past few years, the City has worked with HVS – a global hospitality services consulting firm – to determine the feasibility and reasonableness of a variety of hotel projects. Their largest work for the City was conducted in 2006-7 in support of a plan to build a Hilton at the corner of Kumpf and Jefferson. HVS was involved in the discussion regarding the December 2008 Matthews plan, but never produced any written analysis. They provided us with advice and counsel on the scope and need for the project and the parameters of the Redevelopment Agreement. Their involvement included a series of phone calls with City staff, representatives of EM Properties and our respective attorneys.

So, as it turns out, there was no market study. No independent analysis of Matthews’ plans. There are references to a feasibility study that took place before the recession started. This is evidently what the City of Peoria calls “due diligence.” And this is the process they’re going to use on Grieves’ plan as well.

I suppose we should be grateful that the City didn’t spend money on doing its own market study, since they’ve been known to ignore them anyway and just go with the developers’ promises, like they did with MidTown Plaza. That certainly turned out well; I’m glad we’re doing the same thing again, and with higher stakes.