New Westin 'fulfills a dream' in Lombard

When 150 monarch butterflies take flight in Lombard between the AMC Yorktown 17 theater and a Target store, a decade's old vision by village leaders will have become reality.

A butterfly release is part of the welcoming ceremonies for the new 18-story Westin Lombard Yorktown Center, scheduled to open today.

With 500 guest rooms, 39,000 square feet for conventions and meetings, and a 19,000-square-foot grand ballroom, it will be Lombard's largest hotel facility.

Among the hotel's other amenities are an indoor pool and health club, 24-hour room service and two restaurants -- Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse and Holy Mackerel! American Fish House.

For parent company Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the butterflies will mark the opening of the 150th Westin hotel.

For Lombard Village President William Mueller, the opening has a special meaning all its own.

"We are fulfilling a dream," said Mueller, who led efforts along with village staff members to change state law to create the first public-private partnership for a community of Lombard's size -- less than 45,000 residents -- to finance the venture.

"In many ways," Mueller said, "this is Lombard's hotel center."

Lombard leaders successfully lobbied state legislators to allow the village to borrow $185 million through tax-exempt bonds that the village will repay through sales, food and beverage and hotel tax money created by the project during the next 30 years.

At the end of the 30-year period, the village would own the hotel, which could have an estimated value of $240 million, said Community Development Director David Hulseberg.

Hulseberg has estimated the hotel center could generate about $1 million in sales revenue in nearby stores.

Officials said Motorola and the Illinois Association of Realtors are among the civic groups and companies scheduled to hold events at the new facility over the next two years.

Already, village and hotel officials said, roughly 25,000 rooms have been booked totaling $5.4 million.