URBANA, Ill. (WAND): In the heart of downtown, the Urbana Landmark Hotel is hard to miss.
"It was built in 1924," Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin says. "A group of Urbana citizens decided that a hotel would be necessary."Â
And necessary it was.
"It was considered the best place to stay, the best place to eat." Mayor Marlin says. "Even when I came here as a student many, many years ago the restaurant was still quite the place to be."
The grand ballroom and quaint study's appeal, lost in time. Despite the welcome sign above the door, the hotel hasn't welcomed guests since March of 2016.
"It's fallen on hard times, it's been in foreclosure twice," Mayor Marlin says.
Then a glimmer of hope. A $24.5 million dollar proposal offering to restore and to renovate by developer Crimson Rock Capital. Though the city doesn't own the property the developer asked leaders to give almost $10 million dollars to the project.
"This would have required the city to borrow the money and pay it back over a 20 year period," Mayor Marlin says. "So total cost to the tax payer would have been close to $15 million dollars."
This was a commitment the mayor says Urbana can't make.
"This particular proposal just is not feasible for the city. The numbers do not work," Mayor Marlin says.
So for the now the doors to the Urbana Landmark Hotel will stay closed.Â
"I'm confident we will have a project here, it just won't be this particular project," Mayor Marlin says.
