The East Peoria developer who is planning to convert the downtown Bloomington Front 'N Center building into a hotel says he's moving forward regardless of what city officials think of his plan. Jeff Giebelhausen says he's working with owners Merle and Carol Huff to transform the building into a 91 room, Route 66-themed limited service hotel.
"This isn't some flea bag-type structure that would be a blight on downtown. We can build a limited-service hotel, granted without a lot of the frills, without a lot of the amenities that perhaps we'd like to see. But we can build that without any type of public-private partnership," said Giebelhausen.
Mayor Tari Renner said a budget, or cheap hotel, would be devastating for downtown.
"We would hope that people wouldn't characterize it as something negative," Giebelhausen added. "In reality, we're talking about a substantial investment."
Giebelhausen said the adjacent Commerce Bank building is no longer a part of a planned hotel. He said instead, it would be converted to office space in a separate project. Giebelhausen said he envisions spending between $7 million and $8 million for the hotel.
While he emphasized his plan doesn't involve the city, Giebelhausen said he welcomes municpal involvement. He said a parking deck, for instance, built at city expense, would free-up dollars he could pump into the quality of the hotel.
"Parking's expensive, and in an urban environment, parking is something cities typically provide," he added.
