A
tourism improvement district that would finance a $100 million expansion of
Springfield’s downtown convention center cleared a major hurdle recently, with
the proposed district – and a future surcharge on room rates – receiving
majority support from the city’s hotels.
“It’s a big step,” said state Rep.
Mike Coffey, R-Springfield, a downtown restaurant owner who chairs the
municipally operated convention center’s board. “There’s still a lot of work to
be done.”
The Sangamon County Board voted
unanimously Nov. 14 to hold a Dec. 19 public hearing on the proposed Sangamon
County Convention Center Tourism District and take a final vote to create the
district at that time.
The board was able to schedule the
public hearing because owners and representatives of the 19 hotels signing
petitions supporting the concept met the statutory requirement that their
properties pay more than 50% of the state share of hotel/motel taxes in the
proposed district.
Coffey said it’s important to form
the district by the end of December to comply with legislation passed by the
Illinois General Assembly in May and signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in
June.
The measure, tucked inside a
larger bill and sponsored by Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, modified the
February law that allowed communities to create tourism improvement districts. The
latest tweak gave Sangamon County the unique opportunity to form such a
district with a lifespan of 20 years rather than the regular five years.
The longer lifespan would help the district, proposed to cover all of Sangamon County, to arrange for long-term financing that would fund a 120,000-square-foot expansion of the Bank of Springfield Center.
Such a project, which could begin as soon as next year on county-owned land now used for a parking lot immediately south of the BOS Center, would almost double the 44-year-old center’s current capacity.
“More importantly, an expansion
will allow the BOS Center to shine for what it was intended in 1979 – as an
entertainment, expo and concert venue,” said Scott Dahl, director of the
Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The project would be at least
partially financed with a to-be-determined assessment fee of up to 5% of the
room rate.
Backers of the proposed district
say the expansion, discussed for years, would allow the center to attract
bigger conventions and offer more entertainment, filling hotel rooms and
benefiting the hospitality industry throughout the area. All but three of the hotels
in Sangamon County are in Springfield.
Among hotels that went on record
supporting creation of the district were the Wyndham Springfield City Centre,
Ramada by Wyndham Springfield North on Northfield Drive, Statehouse Inn &
Conference Center and Hilton Garden Inn on South Dirksen Parkway.
It wasn’t possible to reach the
overseas owners of the downtown President Abraham Lincoln DoubleTree by Hilton
Hotel, adjacent to the BOS Center, to sign a petition before the Nov. 14 County
Board meeting, Coffey said.
Not all hotels in Springfield
submitted petitions, but the only hotel that specifically refused to sign was
the Crowne Plaza Springfield, according to County Board chairperson Andy Van
Meter.
According to Van Meter, the
out-of-town owners of the Crowne Plaza, 3000 S. Dirksen Parkway, said they
don’t think the hotel would benefit from larger conventions in Springfield.
Representatives of the Crowne
Plaza didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The district would be guided by a
board of directors that would include lodging business owners.
Van Meter, a Springfield
Republican, said there is “very broad support for this project” from local
governmental leaders and the business community in Sangamon County.
“This project has so much good
will surrounding it,” he said, “but the devil’s in the details, and we have to
see if we can get it to work.”
Coffey agreed but said the
project is “a no-brainer for Springfield.”
The Springfield Metropolitan
Exposition and Auditorium Authority Board has decided to pay the
California-based legal consulting firm Civitas $65,000 to $70,000 to guide the
formation of the tourism district. And the board is expected to pay $65,000 for
a feasibility study to further refine and scope of the expansion and help determine
the precise amount of surcharge to be tacked onto hotel room bills.
County leaders could seek state funding to offset some of the costs, Coffey said.
Construction on the project could begin in 2024 at the earliest, Van Meter said. Preliminary drawings done for the SMEAA Board included a skywalk over East Adams Street to connect the main BOS Center with the expansion.
“We’re in the very beginning,
investigation stage of all of this,” Van Meter said.