We learned this morning that Crowne Plaza developer Devang Patel wants to terminate his agreement with the Town of Normal for the multi-million redevelopment of a Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Center.
The item will be on next Monday night’s Normal Town Council agenda.
In a way, it’s a relief. 
It means they will attempt to complete the work without any tax increment financing assistance from the Town which would have come in the form of hotel-motel tax rebates after the property opened for business.
The developers told the Pantagraph they are confident they can attract private investors to the project.
In the end, Normal Hospitality, LLC could not meet Wednesday’s deadline for submitting paperwork demonstrating that the company fulfilled its obligation under state TIF law to pay prevailing wages to all construction workers on the job.
Now, Patel and Normal Hospitality, LLC, their general contractor and their sub contractors will be free to hire anyone they want for whatever wage.
In the meantime, their check for the water bill on the construction site has yet to clear, so the water remains off at the Crowne Plaza.
They appear fairly close to finishing the project. Let’s hope they can pull it off.
As an insurance policy, we probably ought to keep the TIF district in place, just in case the current developers stumble and someone else ends up owning the property.
Adam … if the developers are confident they can attract private investors to the project, why was a TIF district created in the first place?
Ben, thanks for the question.
While I hope it is not the case, I suspect the developers are blowing smoke. Unable to pay workers or even the water bill, Normal Hospitality, LLC has encounted severe cash flow problems caused by the extraordinary costs of mold remediation and it will be challenging for them to finish the project.
I have heard they are trying hard to raise cash and I wish them all the best.
The simple answer to your TIF question is that it was unacceptable for a community like Normal to have an unproductive five-story blight like the vacant Holiday Inn North at its front door bringing down the value of nearby properties and negatively influencing the perception of the community.
Wishing the problem away was not a solution. TIF is a proven tool to accelerate the redevelopment process and get blighted property like the vacant hotel back on the tax rolls.