Aurora says no to new hotel
Several Aurora hotels won the fight Tuesday to keep a new 93-room Hampton Inn and Suites from being built on the Route 59 corridor. But a local developer who claims his property rights were trampled in the process says he's ready to fight.
At the urging of nearly a dozen hotel industry representatives, aldermen voted 7-4 against developer Lee Fry's site plan for a 93-room Hampton Inn and Suites to be built in the Meijer lot he owns on Route 59 north of New York Street.
Fry and his partners have been working with city staff for nearly two years but were delayed six months, last October, by a city moratorium on limited-service hotels, which expired in March.
Wilda Torgrim, the longtime general manager of the already existing Hampton Inn and Suites Aurora brought several of her employees before the council and warned many may lose their jobs should the proposed second Hampton Inn and Suites be allowed.
"I'm asking the city council to reconsider letting another hotel build in Aurora at this time," she said, citing that her hotel occupancy is down more than 22 percent since 2007. "You continue to let builders tell you they are in a different segment and will only steal business from Warrenville, Naperville and Lisle but that's an outright lie. Every hotel in this market competes for the same business."
Aldermen, including Eighth Ward Alderman Richard Mervine and Alderman at Large Richard Irvin, opposed the plan based on the city's market analysis that shows an "oversaturation" of hotel rooms in the city.
"My concern has to do with the economy as it stands now. It's a very unusual situation and in normal circumstances I would be in complete accordance with the idea of everyone competing on a level playing field and winner take all," Mervine said. "I don't want this hotel or any other hotel to fail and turn into a blight on the community because they are very difficult to repurpose."
If built, the new hotel would have landed in Alderman Lynda Elmore's 10th Ward and she supported the development. Elmore said she wasn't comfortable telling a developer what he can or can't do on land he owns, especially when the land is properly zoned for the project seeking to be built.
"If we, as a city, truly believe that our hotel stock is too full coming out of a moratorium, our city should have prepared something for us to look at to pass to stop the building of hotels and we did not do that," Elmore said. "I also have a basic philosophy that I do not think it's the government's place to determine what businesses can be developed and how many. I do believe in the competition of markets and I do believe we have to go forward with that."
Fry was too distraught to speak but his attorney John Phililchuck said legal action is not out of the question.
"I'll have to talk to my client," he said. "Obviously we're very disappointed because that sends a very, very unfortunate message to other developers."
Jack Moran, president of Indianapolis-based National Lodging and Leisure, which develops and manages Hilton Hotels said he intends to ask the city to reimburse hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees before seeking legal action.
"That's some real home cookin'," he said after the meeting. "That cost us a few hundred thousands of dollars to go through the application and approval process and do everything they asked us to do. They didn't even give us a chance to ask if they're going to reimburse us for those expenses."