Tom Kacich | Hotel Royer missed out on double-centennial celebration

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It was almost three years ago — early November 2021 — that a ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the beginning of the renovation of the old Urbana-Lincoln/Jumer’s/Urbana Landmark Hotel in downtown Urbana.

At that time, the developers of the 131-room project, now known as the Hotel Royer, said they hoped to open the refurbished boutique hotel in late 2022. Not even close.

Another goal, unstated but optimal, came last November. Nov. 3, 2023, was the 100th anniversary of the first-ever football game at Memorial Stadium (a 7-0 Illinois win over Chicago), attended by 60,000 fans at the unfinished coliseum. Two days earlier, the likewise-unfinished Urbana-Lincoln Hotel opened its doors for the first time to serve the throngs that came to small-town Champaign-Urbana (combined population: about 30,000) for the game.

“Not all work will be completed,” The News-Gazette reported a week earlier, “but it will be possible to care for the convention as to rooms, dining service and a place to meet. More than 100 cots have been purchased to care for the homecoming overflow crowd.”

An ideal time to reopen the hotel was missed.

Now, this weekend: the 100th anniversary of Memorial Stadium’s Dedication Day game. For those coming to town to mark the events of 100 years ago, what better place to spend the night than the hotel that was built in part “to meet the needs of our growing community,” as hotel promoters wrote around the time of that Dedication Day game? Alas, the new old hotel remains closed, another opportunity wasted.

The hotel’s developers say — and yes, we have heard this many times before — that they are getting close to tearing down the fences and barricades that have been around the old building for three years.

“The Hotel Royer’s anticipated opening is before the end of 2024,” said Haaris Pervaiz, a partner with Icon Hospitality, the project developer. “Renovating a 100-year-old historic building is a challenging ordeal. We want to ensure that this hotel delivers as a luxury boutique historic hotel when it opens, which is a time-consuming process.”

When a building permit was issued for the project in 2022 — it was called an “alteration” of the hotel building — the cost was listed at $8.69 million. I remember telling the partners at the groundbreaking ceremony that I had heard a much higher figure — $20 million — tossed about as the bottom line to rehab a sturdy old hotel with antique guts.

“This will add to the cost, yes,” said Joseph Prior, another of the partners. “But we’re still thinking that we’ll be fine.”

Pervaiz said the cost now is well above that $20 million.

“The over $25 million is including all of the soft costs, furniture, fixtures and equipment,” he said. “All 131 guest rooms and bathrooms have been meticulously renovated to the standard of a luxury boutique hotel.

“All of the 8,000-square-foot meeting space has been renovated, preserving the rich history of the hotel. The historic lobby has been converted into a social cocktail bar. The restaurant has been transformed into an eclectic dining experience.”

He said nothing had been cut from the partners’ original plans for the Hotel Royer.

The optimist in me wants to believe all of this. The skeptic in me wants to recall the delays and all the missed opportunities. I suppose we’ll find out in the next few months, but wouldn’t it have been grand to toast 100-year-old Memorial Stadium at the 101-year-old Urbana-Lincoln?

Faraci in the money

State Sen. Paul Faraci, D-Champaign, who is being challenged by Champaign Republican Jeff Brownfield in this fall’s election, can’t say that he didn’t have the resources to win his first Senate race. (Faraci was appointed to the seat in January 2023, replacing his friend Scott Bennett, who died at age 45 of a brain tumor the month before).

Faraci already had a big fundraising lead on Brownfield, having received about $220,148 in the last quarter to Brownfield’s $28,000. On Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign fund gave Faraci $50,000, and on Thursday, the senator got about $20,000 from various labor unions and lawyer groups.

Budzinski, Loyd imbalance

An even bigger imbalance of resources exists in the 13th Congressional District, which includes Champaign-Urbana, Monticello, Decatur, Springfield and East St. Louis. It’s where one-term U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, is being challenged by Republican Joshua Loyd of Virden.

Budzinski has raised nearly $4 million to Loyd’s $75,879. The district is much less blue than those numbers indicate, but the power of incumbency is paramount when it comes to fundraising. The Federal Election Commission reported this summer that Budzinski already ranked 44th among the 535 members of Congress when it came to campaign contributions from political action committees and other groups.

How we vote

A story in the Washington Post this week noted that in the 2022 midterm elections, about 50 percent of Americans voted on Election Day, 32 percent voted by mail and 18 percent voted early in person.

In Illinois, said the Post, about two-thirds voted on Election Day. But in a number of states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Vermont and Washington among them — the majority of voters cast their ballots by mail.

In Champaign County, about 53 percent voted on Election Day in 2022, about 20 percent voted by mail and about 26 percent voted early in person.

In this spring’s primary election in Champaign County, about 61 percent of the Republicans who voted did so on Election Day, with 22 percent voting by mail and 16 percent voting early. Among Democrats, however, just 31 percent voted on Election Day, while 56 percent voted by mail.