![]() ![]() That’s money that otherwise would go to other taxing districts, such as the County, District 150, the Park District, ICC, etc. This hotel will be in the Downtown Conservation TIF (tax increment financing district), and the City has promised to pay the developer up to 100% of the redevelopment costs out of the increase in taxes attributable to the project site. They’re also promising a new restaurant and retail, just like they did with the last hotel project, but which never materialized.Īnd there’s one more similarity worth mentioning: This does come with a cost to taxpayers. ![]() The occupancy predictions presented at the council meeting tonight (brought to you by Hotel & Leisure Advisors, a consultant for the hotel industry who reportedly did the feasibility study for this project) are unrealistically high, just like they were for the Wonderful Development. As mentioned, one entire hotel downtown is still closed–try to book a room in the Courtyard. It’s highly debatable that we need more hotel rooms downtown. Can’t remain bitter about that forever, am I right?īut on the other hand, there are a lot of similarities. But hey, we all make multi-million-dollar mistakes with other people’s money now and then. They’re also not handing $33 million to the developer up front (backed by municipal bonds that we’re still on the hook to pay off), although they swore that was an awesome idea the last time. The City isn’t loaning $7 million from underfunded pension funds this time. This project includes apartments on the upper floors in addition to hotel rooms on the lower floors. Everybody says so: the developer, the developer’s attorney, various other people with a vested interest in the project, and the City Manager. Oh, and it’s absolutely, positively, nothing at all like that Wonderful Development from a decade or so ago. Incidentally, artists’ renderings show Fulton Plaza replaced with two-way vehicular traffic again, but there’s nothing in the redevelopment agreement about it. Plans call for the two properties to be razed to make way for the new development. The new hotel is planned for Adams street, across the street from the new OSF Health Care corporate headquarters, in place of the former Sully’s bar and the former downtown Illinois Central College campus (also known as the Perley building). The Peoria City Council has just approved another redevelopment agreement with another hotel developer that’s promising 70% occupancy, a national flag (this time it will be a Hilton Garden Inn), a restaurant/bar, and a convenience store. It turns out that what downtown really needs to start bustling like it’s 1939 again is - wait for it - another hotel! Yes. And since the pandemic, the Courtyard has been closed, ostensibly due to low demand.īut no worries. Taxpayers lost the $7 million loan and is saddled with ongoing lawsuits with developer Gary Matthews. In fact, the interior was never even finished it still looks like a construction site inside. You may recall that they remodeled the Pere Marquette, opened the new Courtyard Marriott, and had plans to put in restaurants and bars and retail, and oh, goodness, that block was going to be hopping! And the best part was, it wasn’t going to cost taxpayers a thing because, “It pays for itself,” an exuberant Mayor Ardis said at the time.Īs it turns out, not one restaurant, bar, or retail shop has ever opened in the storefronts along Monroe. I stopped blogging for several years shortly after the big Wonderful Development opened downtown. Why aren’t these kids being held back from advancing to the next grade until they master the material? Are we really helping children by inflating grades and practicing social advancement? Does the district administration care more about the money that comes from enrollment and reaching certain metrics (on paper, though not in reality) than they do about the education of children? Even with this inflation, there is still not one student doing math at grade level out of 386 students.Īnd yet, all these children will get passed to the next grade level regardless. The lowest grade students can get on their assignments or tests is a 40 (out of 100). It’s even worse than it looks when you consider all the efforts the school district has gone through to inflate student grades. ![]() That’s over six million dollars being spent with nothing to show for it. And not a single student proficient in math. ![]() There are 386 students in Trewyn at $15,936 in tax money expended per student. Courtesy of Wirepoints, Trewyn Primary School is on a list of 53 Illinois schools where not a single student can do math at grade level. ![]()
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