From today’s Word on the Street column in the Journal Star:

The mayor, meanwhile, said the hotel project – which has yet to begin – could be finalized by the Fourth of July. He said Marriott representatives were in Peoria a couple of weeks ago. He said progress is being made toward demolition work on the existing parking deck and the businesses attached to Big Al’s later this summer.

The City Council has to vote on changes to the redevelopment agreement, which are likely to take place in July.

That quote, of course, is about the downtown hotel project that City Attorney Randy Ray dubbed a “wonderful development” during the time the city was suppressing public information about it. It was rushed through the council in December 2008 with only one business day of public disclosure. The information was released on a Friday afternoon, and the council voted for it the following Monday evening. The timing was so crucial, they couldn’t wait a couple of weeks, or one week, or even a few days extra. It had to be passed that night — December 15, 2008 — or else the whole project would have fallen apart.

Interim City Manager Henry Holling (during his first interim appointment) explained, according to the council minutes, “although the proposed development would not be completed until 2012, the timing of the project was critical because convention and meeting planners were making decisions for events three to four years from now.” Councilman Spain said, “time was of the essence.” Mayor Ardis said, “as soon as the Agreement was signed, the hotel could begin booking events
as many events were booked two to three years in advance.” It was all so … urgent.

And now it’s Monday, May 2, 2011, and nothing — zero, zip, nada — has happened to the site. The original deadlines were never met, so the developer, Gary Matthews, returned to the city council on May 25, 2010 — nearly a year ago — to get those deadlines extended and make some major changes to the design and scope of the project. The council obliged.

One of those new deadlines, from section 3.1 of the agreement: “The Redeveloper shall commence construction of the Project not later than one (1) year from the date of the execution of this Agreement….”

That means construction is supposed to commence before the end of this month. But now Word on the Street tells us the Mayor says the project won’t be finalized until July. And Matthews will be coming back to the council for more changes to the redevelopment agreement.

That’s right. The Mayor has essentially announced that the second agreement’s deadlines will also not be met. Instead, a third redevelopment agreement will have to be drawn up and approved this July, more than two and a half years after that time-critical first vote.

One wonders why the council ever bothers writing deadlines into these agreements when they are never, ever enforced.