LOCAL - Bloomington - Downtown Hotel

Need for downtown hotel resurfaces (Pantagraph) By M.K. Guetersloh mkguetersloh@pantagraph.com BLOOMINGTON - As the U.S. Cellular Coliseum gets ready for 6,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, city and tourism officials alike know the Coliseum is limited at being a true convention destination without a nearby hotel. Discussions for bringing a hotel to downtown as a tool for revitalization started in the late 1990s, well before plans for the Coliseum were drawn. In recent years, those discussions were pushed aside as the city focused on building and opening the Coliseum. With the Coliseum's first convention just days away, those discussions are resurfacing. Because the Coliseum lacks a nearby hotel, Bloomington-Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Crystal Howard said they can market the city-owned building as a convention venue to limited groups. For now those are religious and sports groups. "They don't necessarily need a headquarters hotel and the Coliseum fits their needs for exhibit and meeting space," Howard said. "If we are going to position ourselves as a meeting destination, a hotel near the Coliseum with additional meeting space will give us the versatility to market ourselves to associations." Those planning conventions and officers of association boards need a place close by to stay, too, Howard said. Ideally, she said the hotel would need 200 or more rooms and additional meeting space. Without a developer to step forward, however, the hotel remains just an idea. City Manager Tom Hamilton said he is willing to look at any proposals and the council is still interested in seeing a hotel built. But Hamilton emphasized the hotel would be privately owned and operated. "The city may offer some enticements or incentives to help attract a hotel to downtown, but we would keep it as low as possible," Hamilton said. A timeline for further discussion by the City Council has not been set. The one and only proposal the city received on a downtown hotel came in August 2004 from Twin City developer Larry Hundman. That prompted the city to seek other proposals and about 30 developers nationwide received the specifications for a hotel. Of the 30, no proposals were submitted. Eventually, Hundman withdrew his proposal after the City Council approved a contract with Central Illinois Arena Management instead of Hundman's Bloomington-Normal Arena Management to operate the Coliseum. Real Estate , Bloomington , McLean , Illinois