A deadline of April 1 is looming for work to begin on a proposed $50 million, four-star center city hotel by Springfield-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts Inc.
Hammons had hoped to break ground on the 150-room hotel – situated on 1.7 acres between the Springfield Exposition Center and Jordan Valley Car Park – in late 2008.
Hammons Hotels has been unable to obtain financing for the hotel.
In the original agreement approved in 2008, John Q. Hammons was to pay $7 million for the land and car park to build a 150- to 200-room hotel on the vacant property next to the Expo Center.
The schedule approved by Springfield City Council calls for construction to begin no later than April 1.
Repeated attempts to contact Hammons Hotels for comment were unsuccessful.
City Manager Greg Burris wouldn’t discuss details, he said, because the hotel agreement is in negotiations.
“We’re in negotiations with Mr. Hammons right now as to what will happen, so I really can’t talk about it, because it’s confidential,” Burris said. “We are aware of the deadline.”
Springfield City Councilman John Rush acknowledged the deadline but refused to discuss matters covered by council in closed session, in which real estate issues such as the hotel would have been addressed.
“That is kind of an ongoing thing,” Rush said. “It’s an issue I think you can expect the city to respond to soon.”
Other projects temporarily shelved or put on hold indefinitely by Hammons Hotels include a $50 million resort hotel and golf club planned near the Branson Airport, a $46 million convention center in Russellville, Ark., and an $80 million convention center in Boise, Idaho.
According to a March 19 story in the Russellville Courier, Hammons’ agreement with the city of Russellville, Ark., is set to expire April 1, “and the developer is not expected to pursue the project, according to a memo sent to city leaders last week.”
Hammons was expected to begin construction of a 60,000-square-foot convention center and 200-room hotel in 2008, the story reported, but he requested the project’s start date be moved back to this year after the economy began to unravel.
A Hammons convention center project in Boise, Idaho, also was cut short.
According to the Idaho Business Review, a development team of Hammons and Oppenheimer Associates offered to build the convention center in October 2006 for the Greater Boise Auditorium District, then lease it back. The cost was estimated at $80 million, funding that the private partnership would provide.
But when Hammons encountered health problems in 2009, his company decided to pull out of the Boise project, the report said.
Hammons Hotels lists four properties, including the one in Springfield, as future developments on
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