Renovated Normal hotel scheduled to open in June

Posted on April 6, 2017
The renovated hotel on Normal’s north side is scheduled to open in June. (Photo Facebook/Radisson Hotel Normal)

By Howard Packowitz

NORMAL – An $18 million hotel and conference center will open about two months from now in North Normal at a location that has stood vacant for years.

Freeport-based Swift Hospitality Group refurbished the former Sheraton and Holiday Inn at Eight Traders Circle, aided by almost $4 million from a town government-created single-property tax increment financing district and about $1.7 million in hotel-motel taxes.

Swift’s Executive Vice President of Operations, Matt Jacobs, says the Radisson is hiring 60 full-and-part-time employees to staff the 158-room hotel and 12,000-square foot conference center, Atrium restaurant and bar.

Jacobs expects to receive an occupancy certificate from the town about June 1st and the Radisson will open its doors before the middle of the month. He says the facility offers more affordable banquet space compared to competing facilities in Uptown Normal.

Swift manages 12 other hotels in Illinois, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected].

 

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…