$39 mil in public financing to bring Marriott Hotel downtown on the Peoria.com Forums - Page 5

hmmmmmmm... how do you "cool kats" keep the turds off your side of the river Crodseth? I'm amazed by that probability. And from your own crime chart your not exactly looking pretty either. What? I'm just saying....

Next, I could get behind any project that generated jobs for locals. If that meant funneling public funds into the expansion of local businesses including a restaurant for you Chef, so be it... just promise to hire locally. I've long believed that the city needs to do more to develop our side of the turdy river so I nominate you Crodseth to see to it that it gets done. Just remember to tax our cheap @ss neighbors to the East to come up with their share for sh*t removal. After all, it's their river too. Oh, and by the way... in order to satisfy that little residency requirement you have to move over to the west side of the river. South End's nice this time of the year. We could be neighbors. Wanna borrow some sugar, sugar?

Last... they are in our pocket books anyway guys. It's just all going to social welfare programs. I see nothing wrong with plunking a few tax dollars into a project that will generate jobs. It's certainly a lot more respectable to watch them cash their check that they EARNED from rubber band stretching then the ones they get for the underprivileged breeding program.

You want to fix the crime level in this town? Yank the guns out of their hands and stick a broom in it. Until they get a little self respect they have nothing to look forward too. Then fire the principal down at Manual High School and replace (him/her whoever it is this year) with that go getter from Roosevelt (assuming you can coax her over there) find her twin to run a few of the other screwed up schools and start requiring the underprivileged kids to behave like the ones at Richwoods. In fact, lets have a little admin swap in the school system. Let each school principal spend a few weeks in the other schools principal schools. That way the ones running the good schools can learn to appreciate their students and the other ones may learn how to run theirs.

Just a thought.

yeah... any public funds going towards anything that makes a privately owned business money, needs to offer everyone in peoria stock options in exchange. otherwise, take your business elsewhere.

there are plenty of nice hotels this side of the river (some even affiliated with marriot) that aren't any more of a commute downtown than from east peoria.

we're talking about a handful of new jobs, a very small handful. not worth it.

A small handful?

How big are your hands Tape? I'm thinking this hotel will need plenty of laborers to build it, engineers, architectures, carpenters, iron workers, electricians, plumbers, the little guy to hold the sign that mucks up the traffic, the little guy to yell at the guy holding the sign that mucks up traffic, two guys to hold a shovel, one guy to sit on the shovel and another two or three guys to coordinate the union members to make sure the other three guys each have a shovel to sit on and does not lose one second of shovel time. Then there are the other guys that actually do the work. This is just the building phase.

Afterward they will need administrative personnel, marketing, tourism, banquet employees, food, beverage personnel, front desk, custodial, housekeeping, and management at all levels. Then of course they will have the obligatory union officials to make sure there's someone out there treating the maid and bellhop appropriately when their caught mucking up the sheets in the honeymoon suite on break. I've never run a hotel so forgive me if I've forgotten someone.

That doesn't even take into consideration the increase in traffic to local businesses (restaurants, clubs, bars, food carts...etc.) when that hotel is actually in operation. Now we've got all the brand new paychecks being cashed, where do you think they are going to spend all that money?

Usually your a little more astute than that Tape.. please tell me you were just being facetious because that made little to no sense.

Sorry Christi, the ONLY way a local construction company will build that hotel is if they are the lowest bidder. Possibly, and I'm not sure who it is, there may be a local developer that get's the General contract, but even who he subcontracts too, will be the lowest bidder, and that bid comes from all over the country. WHen I worked construction, I worked everywhere, except home.
That doesn't mean local people aren't going to be able to apply for a job. but if it's a contractor from Kentucky, he's gonna be sending his guys from kentucky.

He may take a few Kentucky boys Kat, but you don't haul general labor half way across the country. Besides, we can, should and do have the ability to restrict bidding to the local area contractors as well as require that they hire locally. In the least we have the ability to apply greater weight to local contractors.

In a contract situation we have the right to impose any stipulations we choose and they have the right to make a bad deal. They want the money? Let em dance for it.

By the way, my father's a civil engineer and I did all the contract/notary work on those bids you referred too. They can and do hire local laborers. You bring them from "home" and you have to provide them with housing and meals. That would sure screw up their bids. It makes no sense to eat that expense especially when we've got the ability to provide the workforce.

Besides... how likely is it our local Unions will stand by and idly watch them truck in scab labor for this project? It would not be a pretty sight.

christi, you seem to be under some delusion that, if this projected was approved and paid for by the city, that you'd actually have some say about what happens from there.

also, well more than half of the "new positions" you mentioned are either temporary or simply transfers of existing positions (aka not new). the new positions that WILL be created will likely be minimum wage with more than a 100% turn-over rate. tourism will not increase, because there is nothing new to see.

I'll laugh at you later worm... I'm running late for my 100% turnover job.

Gary Matthews is the local developer and the construction will bid and most likely will be built by a local company, steel will also most likely come from a local company. There will be jobs created from this project and there will be additional traffic downtown, the addition will also aid in the attraction of more convention business as many convention planners have criteria including attached lodging of a specific size with private meeting rooms in the mix when they book for big shows.

And while what Raoul says is true, the construction jobs are temporary, Hyatt will bring in its own upper and mid management to start off to run the place leaving the min. wage jobs for Peorians.

Thanx for the thought, but I don't want to own another restaurant. It sux. Big time.

And while what you say is true Chef, those big wigs will have to set up housing and reside here while the project is underway. There isn’t a laborer around earning “minimum wage” and their wages will be spent here while they reside here. This may be temporary, which is the standard rule for any construction project, when the job is done, it’s done. However, it will also spike interest in our community as well as infuse a little life. When the money begins to flow it will not stop in it’s tracks just because a job is done. Get one big corporation to take a chance on our little town Chef and others “will come”.

I love you Chef and respect you whole heartedly.. but this may be a very promising opportunity.

I have often wondered this. Maybe Radar can answer it...when the Civic Center books a big name, (the first names that pop in to my head are James Taylor and Jerry Seinfeld), where do the artists usually stay?

But are the Marriott people going to hear horror stories of crime and poor schools in Peoria and set up home in EP, Dunlap, Morton, etc.?

We've been fed so many promises Christi, that some of us long time Peorians just don't believe what we are force fed anymore. The Civic Center was supposed to be the savior for downtown, yet we are still paying, 20+ years later, to support it via HRA tax. Where are all the restaurants and other venues this was supposed to help develop? More places have come and gone downtown than exist. The Rec Plex loses money. Is O'Brien Field really turning a profit? "Stiltsville" (where Old Chicago is on the riverfront). the TIFs formed to create Campustown. Cub Food "plaza" on Knoxville. The "med Tech" district. The Gateway Building. All boondoggles to make developers rich, IMHO. Every project we "needed", but what is it doing for us now? Little, if anything. If it is something, it is not near what was promised. So when there is skepticism over new hotels and museums, well......

Most artists are put up at the Pere Marquette simply for convenience.  But I can't tell you how many times I've had bands/artists complain about the hotel.  The best one was that there was NO coffee anywhere in the entire hotel at 10:30AM.  Mr. Guthrie was not pleased. 

There ya go. We need top notch, state of the art, modern, up-to-date facilities in downtown Peoria if we are going to be considered as "players". Imagine how embarrassing that would be to have to send our best acts across the river.

I'll bet even as we speak East Peoria is listening to our scuttlebutt and laughing their asses off...all the way to the bank.