The Wonderful Development (aka The Downtown Marriott Hotel Project) is progressing on-budget and on-schedule, according to a report by the City’s project manager, PSA Dewberry. The new parking garage is still expected to be completed by the end of this year, and the renovated Pere Marquette is scheduled to open as the Peoria Marriott Pere Marquette by the end of April 2013.

Now, if you’ve been following this project for awhile, you should be scratching your head and thinking to yourself, “How is an end-of-April opening considered ‘on time’?” Good question. I thought the deadline for opening the Pere Marquette was supposed to be March 1, 2013–in time to host all the people coming for March Madness.

It turns out, that wasn’t really a deadline. According to the City Manager’s office, there is a penalty if the hotel doesn’t open by March 1, but March 1 is not a deadline. (If that sounds crazy to you, remember that the City has no working definition for “deadline” — the word is simply not in their vocabulary.) Here’s the pertinent part of the redevelopment agreement:

“7.5 Liquidated Damages. In the event that the Hotel Pere Marquette is not open to the public on or before March 1,2013, the Redeveloper will pay to the City on demand as liquidated damages and not as a penalty an amount equal to $41,000 for each calendar month or portion thereof that transpires after March 1,2013 (including March, 2013) until the date that the Hotel Pere Marquette is open to the public. In addition, in the event that the Courtyard Inn & Suites is not open to the public on or before May 1, 2014, the Redeveloper will pay to the City on demand as liquidated damages and not as a penalty an amount equal to $41,000 for each calendar month or portion thereof that transpires after May 1,2014 (including May, 2014) until the date that the Courtyard Inn & Suites is open to the public.”

With an opening date for the Pere slated for the end of April 2013, it looks like the City will be receiving $82,000 in “liquidated damages” … if the City decides to collect it, that is. The City Manager’s office said today that they will collect it if the hotel is not open by the deadline target date.

Without any defined deadline, it should be easy for Dewberry to determine whether the project is on schedule. It’s always on schedule. How could it not be? There’s no reference point against which to measure it. We can just rest assured that the project is on time, whatever time it gets finished.

View the complete report:
Wonderful Development Progress Report as of 9/14/2012