On the council’s agenda for Tuesday night is a request to hire yet another consultant to determine whether Peoria needs a hotel connected to the Civic Center. This one costs $21,000 and will look at demand for hotel rooms, what impact the proposed Civic Center hotel would have on existing hotels, and the quality of existing hotel space downtown.
According to Paul Gordon’s column in the Journal Star yesterday, every one of the requests for proposals for a new hotel connected to the Civic Center said such a hotel would require public assistance, such as a TIF district. I’m no business genius, but that would indicate to me there is not enough demand for hotel rooms to make a new hotel profitable.
If there’s not enough demand for a new hotel, and if a new hotel were built with the help of public money, what kind of an impact do you expect that would have on other downtown hotels? The new hotel could leverage its room rates on the taxes the other hotels are paying. Is that fair?
The last criterion is the most curious: the quality of existing space. What purpose does this serve, exactly? And how is quality going to be measured? And suppose the consultant finds that existing hotels don’t meet these quality standards? Would that be used as a justification for building a competing hotel with the help of public funds? Why not use those public funds to help the existing hotels instead?
I think the RFPs speak for themselves, and this consultant is unnecessary. Until a hotel can come into Peoria, attach itself to the Civic Center, and be profitable under the same conditions as Peoria’s other hotels, we don’t need one. The city shouldn’t waste its money on the hotel or the consultant.
Right, C.J. If it was such a popular or profitable idea, you think that one of the major hotel chains would be knocking down the city council & Civic Center’s doors with some sort of proposal. I wonder what the combined average occupancy rate of downtown hotels is when no conventions etc. are going on.
Average Occupancy is around 63% ———– Less when no conventions are in town.
This “expenditure” is valueless as any and all quality motel/hotel organizations will rely ONLY on market studies they preform. This is just another example of hiring a consultant to set the ball on the tee…………………………….. and the IF will follow the T when the Council and the Civic Center hears what it wants to hear from the “independant consultant”.
Just think how many fancy garbage cans or GPS systems could be purchased with $21,000
“…when the Council and the Civic Center hears what it wants to hear from the independant consultant.” Gee, sounds alot like the Lakeview – White Oaks bull sh**. A million $ spent just to be told that a larger version of Lakeview is the way to go. They could have hired me for half the cost!
SC
Insanity prevaileth in Peoria. Doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result — fiscal responsibility never cometh! 🙁
Dude, hasn’t this thing died yet? If they (the Civic Center) wants a hotel so damn bad, they should build it by themselves – quit bothering the city and just pony up the cash. They are a for-profit corp., yes?
I would like to know something… is there a major difference between those who represent the “city” and those who develop the infinite number of ridiculous proposals/projects in Peoria? It still seems to me that there are to many small group and/or individual interests motivating what goes on in Peoria. I know; politics is politics is politics. All of these “project” groups are busy trying to convince Peoria [and the people of Peoria] that they know what is best for everyone.
S.C.
Another expample of irresponsible spending by the City council. Does anyone remember that taxpayers already artificially supported the Pere Marquette? When will this foolishness stop? If a legit business doesn’t see a reason for any motel, why does the City council insist on bribing some multibillion corp. to build one anyway? What can the justification be? Now they will spend more money on another study to tell them there isn’t a need. Will they just keep trying to buy the opinion that they want? Maybe that should be a requirement of the next contract,”You MUST recommend paying for a new hotel, otherwise you won’t get paid.” At least then we can save the money of the next 3 or 4 “studies” that taxpayers fund to get the Council the answer they want. Has anyone bothered to add up the cost of all these downtown projects, and compared them to the “created jobs”? The money losing Civic center has cost over 100 million dollars already, and according to the fine fiscal conservatives on the council, that isn’t enough yet. Come on, folks, show even a little fiscal responsibility with tax money for a change, maybe we can hire another police officer to sit in the patrol car that was destroyed last week, and possibly actually arrest some criminals for a change.