The headline in last Friday’s N-G was “Developer says he’s found spot for hotel.” The joke was on the readers, who never actually found out WHERE the hotel will be, only that it will be “close to the M2 on Neil office/retail/condominium project he’s proposing on the northwest corner of Church and Neil streets“.
What’s the big secret? There are only so many “spots” downtown. As for available spots, that’s another issue. The developer, Cody Sokolski, reveals plenty of details, including the number of rooms (102), the franchise name (cheeky Hotel Indigo, a boutique line by the same people who own Holiday Inn), and and the estimated cost (between $6-7 million).
I really don’t understand the logic behind this article’s emphasis on the potential “hotel.” It’s just another example of a wealthy Champaign developer floating a project that may or may not pan out. This is still many months from groundbreaking, and it could be well into next year before the mysterious property is purchased, if that even happens. (Here is a link to an earlier N-G article on this subject, which refers to the hotel/M2 project. It’s funny to note that the city called the M2 project “Two Church,” a name never adopted by the developers. Perhaps that’s because it would be too funny to say “I’m going to Two Church.”)
In other downtown Champaign news … in case you didn’t notice this last week, it appears that C-U “bar baron” Scott Cochrane put up enough cash to aquire the building on the corner of Neil and Chester streets, aka the Lox, Stock and Barrel (oops) Bagel building. (OK, who can tell me when that place closed? I’ve been in and out of C-U since 1998, and it was closed then.)
7 responses so far ↓
Don // October 6, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Lox, Stock and Bagel.
Man, that one has been closed forever. They had a pretty good product, but poor management, I think. I used to eat at the one at Lincoln Square back when I was working at Record Service out there.
I vaguely remember Mike Royce had an equally funny tag for “Two Church”, but for the life of me I cannot remember it. Anyone?
liz // October 6, 2006 at 4:16 pm
I used to go to Lox Stock with friends for lunch when my kids were really tiny. They are 14 and 16 now so I’d guess it closed at least 12 if not 14 years ago. Maybe it was when I just had one kid. We used to eat at the one in Bloomington at the mall where Von Maur is too; that one was open longer. That was before Bagelman’s and way before Panera, before we had a choice in bagel places.
gamera // October 7, 2006 at 1:51 am
Ugh. So this whole hotel thing is really not anywhere close to happening?
*sigh*
I looked at the hotel website. Looks like something that would be nice downtown, but the other cities with these hotels are much larger than CU.
I just think a downtown hotel would be a *fantastic* spot for conferences and special events.
Mate'man // October 7, 2006 at 8:48 am
This reader gave up on C-U hotels altogether — and bought my own!
Mimi // October 7, 2006 at 5:33 pm
This isn’t relevant to this particular entry, but would you have any idea why Persimmon in downtown Champaign is closed forever? I’m so bummed.
Lisa // October 8, 2006 at 7:57 am
My speculation is that the new hotel, should it actually come into existence, will be located where the old Howard Johnson’s was, across the West Side Park (has lately been Parkland student housing, maybe still is, I’m not sure). It was odd that the exact location wasn’t disclosed.
Lox, Stock, and Bagel has been closed for many years. I actually worked there, at the Johnstowne Center one - must have been in the late 80s. I’d say that downtown one might’ve closed around 1990? Something like that. I have no idea what the problem has been, that no one else has made a go of it there.
Teresa // October 10, 2006 at 3:49 pm
I’ve been told the Lox, Stock and Bagel building downtown had bigtime asbestos problems and would cost a bundle to clean up. Evidently, somebody felt it was finally worth the money to do so.
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