Banking on the BOS Center

Hotel taxes will rise 3% one month from now to pay for a $60 million expansion of Springfield’s publicly owned convention center after a 20-5 vote by the Sangamon County Board on Sept. 1.

The bipartisan vote on the Republican-controlled County Board came after arguments from advocates who said the 47-year-old BOS Center, last renovated in 2013, desperately needs a proposed doubling in size and the addition of high-end features to both attract and retain conventions and rejuvenate the downtown.

“It is a project that has broad support – Republicans, Democrats, business and labor,” County Administrator Brian McFadden said before the vote. He is among county government leaders who have spearheaded discussions surrounding BOS Center improvements since 2018.

The County Board is expected to vote in summer 2027 to finalize the low-interest borrowing through a bond issue that would pay for the project over a period of up to 30 years. Construction then would begin in fall 2027, with completion two years after that.

Steve Galbreath, chief development officer for Dallas-based Garfield Public/Private, which is providing consulting services to the county, said the expanded BOS Center will include public spaces that will become “the front porch and living room of downtown.” He said the project will lead to the opening and expansion of more businesses in the local hospitality industry.

Opponents of the new tax, including those from the local and statewide hotel industry, called for more study before plunging forward with a plan that could have the opposite intended effect and cause Springfield to lose conventions and visitors to other regional markets such as Peoria, Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana.

“Why this big rush?” Alan Filer, acting general manager of the Crowne Plaza Springfield and adjacent Holiday Inn Express & Suites Springfield, asked board members. “Occupancy is not increasing, and there’s no guarantee with the expansion of the BOS Center that it’s going to do so.”

All eight Democrats voted to impose the special tax of up to 3% that will be tacked onto hotel room rates throughout the county. Those voting “no” were all Republicans – Lanae Clarke, Pam Deppe, Tracy Sheppard, Cathy Scaife and Craig Hall.

County Board Chair Andy Van Meter, a Springfield Republican, joined state Rep. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, Rep. Mike Coffey, R-Springfield, and Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher at an Aug. 25 news conference to announce the latest effort to improve the BOS Center.

The center is operated by an elected board that governs the Springfield Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority (SMEAA), which Coffey also chairs.

Local officials have decided to pursue expansion of the BOS Center alone and not wait until the Illinois General Assembly acts on proposed legislation that would pair the project with construction of an upscale, $140 million hotel with 200 to 300 rooms.

That hotel, which would be owned by the county and operated by a private company not yet selected, would bring even more economic benefits to the area and help attract convention business, Van Meter said.

But the county wasn’t willing to wait after the Legislature failed to take action in the spring. Delaying decisions on the project for three to nine months while waiting for action in the fall 2026 veto session or spring 2027 session would add $700,000 a month in inflation-related construction costs and would cause the project to be scaled back as a result, McFadden said.

If the General Assembly takes action before the county issues bonds, the county could reduce the new hotel tax below 3%, because the legislation could provide additional funding for the overall project, McFadden said. The county would face lawsuits from bond holders if it changed the hotel tax after bonds are issued, he said.

The Springfield Hotel & Lodging Association and the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association said the new countywide hotel tax will bring Springfield’s total hotel tax – which includes the state hotel tax – to 17%, the second highest behind Chicago’s 17.39% rate.

Filer said that even with the March 2025 shuttering of the Wyndham Springfield City Centre, average occupancy for the Crowne Plaza, four miles away, is projected at 52% in 2026. He said the entire Springfield hotel market “will be lucky” if it finishes the year with 58% occupancy.

“There is no data showing that adding more space downtown will increase conventions or room nights,” Filer said. And if a new hotel is built next to the BOS Center, “adding more hotel rooms downtown will dilute the market, not strengthen it,” he said.

Darin Dame, president of the Springfield hotel association, said, “We haven’t seen the numbers that justify the 3% hotel-motel tax.”

Van Meter said two feasibility studies conducted for county government confirm that the BOS Center expansion alone, and the expansion paired with a new downtown hotel, would bring in additional tourism and convention business to the community, leading to more guests for all hotels in the county and more than offsetting any negative impact from the 3% hotel tax increase.

The county has released parts of the studies to the public. But Van Meter said the county won’t make public the parts that include calculations of the net economic and fiscal impact of the new hotel tax and the BOS Center expansion and the more comprehensive project.

Doing so, Van Meter said, would release proprietary information that could be used by hotel chains and management companies when they submit future bids to operate the expanded BOS Center and a future hotel. The county and SMEAA could end up paying more for these management services than if the proprietary information remained private, he said.

“We’ve released to the public information that shows that the project will be a success,” Van Meter said. “We’re just not releasing the mathematics behind that judgment from the professionals.”

Scott Dahl, a former hotel operator who is director of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he supports the new tax and noted that Springfield has lost conventions because of inadequate meeting space.

“This is dire straits,” he said, noting that tourism promotion efforts in similar-size downstate communities will lead to total hotel tax rates of 15% to 17% in the next three to five years.

Several County Board members complained that Springfield city government won’t help pay for the BOS Center expansion with any taxes that the city controls. The Springfield City Council may be asked to chip in some revenue from the city’s share of hotel and sales taxes if the larger project is authorized in state legislation, Sangamon County officials said.

Hall, a Loami-area farmer, called the condition of downtown Springfield “pathetic” but said he wouldn’t vote for the new hotel tax unless it included a “sunset” provision to eliminate the tax after a certain date.

However, McFadden said attorneys advising the county believe such a provision would doom the bond issue by making the bonds unattractive to investors.

Board member Tony DelGiorno, a Springfield Democrat and lawyer, said he voted for the new tax in hopes of boosting the local economy and creating more jobs and more entertainment options.

DelGiorno, a Springfield native, said his daughter is almost 16 years old. “She’s going to college in a couple of years,” he said. “I want to give her a reason to want to come back to Springfield.”

“We’re a dying city,” DelGiorno said. “Every time we have an opportunity to try to do something around here, to advance what Springfield is and to try to recapture what we used to be … we sit here and we wring our hands, and we chicken out.”

DelGiorno added: “Voters, I believe, our constituents, they understand that this is a tax on people visiting our town, visiting our county,” DelGiorno said. “If we don’t do something here, who the hell will?”