The Peoria City Council approved funding for the 100 million dollar Pere Marquette Marriott Hotel expansion.

As News 25's Gina Ford reports tonight....it's a big decision which could have big consequences for both the city's tourism and hotel industries...

The Peoria City Council voted nine to one, approving almost 40 million dollars in bonds for the construction of a new downtown Marriott hotel.

"This is the biggest project to happen to downtown Peoria since we originally built the Civic Center", said Mayor Jim Ardis.

With the Embassy suites just across the river, some Council members say a new hotel in Peoria could bring business back to the west side of the Illinois.

"Occupancy rates in excess of 80 percent. They are very dangerous and competitive threat to our downtown hotels", said Councilman Bob Manning.

There had been talks of building a downtown Hilton Hotel two years ago. City officials said it's smaller size might have hurt other downtown hotels rather than bringing in more business. The Marriot/Pere Marquette hotel would be a better draw.

"Certainly none of them in my mind are comparable to the scope and size and quality of the project that's before us tonight", said Councilman Ryan Spain.

The new hotel is expected to bring hundreds of jobs to the River City.
The development company is in the process of buying the Pere Marquette, which will become a Marriot. It will then be renovated, and connected to the new structure.

"This project pays for itself, these aren't dollars we could use to hire firefighters or fix our roads", said the Mayor.

The city's contribution will be repaid with revenue from the new hotel.
Now that the council agreed to pay part of the bill, it's up to the Developer to come up with the rest...which may be a difficult task during this recession.

"Financing climate right now is just very difficult to predict", said Gary Matthews, President of EM Properties.

Matthews says he'll look to private funding first, and with 40 million dollars on the table, it might pave the way.