City council approved sale of the parking lot and adjacent property at 200 West Elm last night for development of an 85 room Hilton Home 2 hotel. This is located just south of PK's and across the street from the Amtrak station. There has been talk of a hotel going into this location for about 2 years, so nice to see something happening on that front. Two major concerns though:
Location: The location is rather a tight squeeze between the alley running alongside PKs and West Elm. With 4-5 stories and 85 rooms going in, I can see congestion as a problem. Also, locating next to PKs may be fine for the 200+ musicians Curtis Connoly mentions in the article that lodge at the hotels on the east side currently, but what about families coming to SIUC and people coming to take advantage of the SIH medical facilities?
Parking: This is the bugaboo that devils any large development coming into downtown. The area already lost a good chunk of parking space to the Carbondale Flats/Evolve complex and while the city will expand and upgrade parking and this development will remove even more. How will this affect business in that area of S. Illinois?
Location: The location is rather a tight squeeze between the alley running alongside PKs and West Elm. With 4-5 stories and 85 rooms going in, I can see congestion as a problem. Also, locating next to PKs may be fine for the 200+ musicians Curtis Connoly mentions in the article that lodge at the hotels on the east side currently, but what about families coming to SIUC and people coming to take advantage of the SIH medical facilities?
Parking: This is the bugaboo that devils any large development coming into downtown. The area already lost a good chunk of parking space to the Carbondale Flats/Evolve complex and while the city will expand and upgrade parking and this development will remove even more. How will this affect business in that area of S. Illinois?
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