We ask the City of Peoria to cease any and all financial involvement with the proposed Pere Marquette/Marriott project.

In a time when crime is up, infrastructure is crumbling, city staff and police have been cut, schools are bad and people are leaving Peoria, the City Council wants to hand a developer a $29 million gift to rehab a hotel. This is not a good deal for the Peoria taxpayers, who are actually paying the bill for this gift and who will receive no return on their involuntary “investment.” While the renovation of the historic Pere Marquette is a worthy goal, we ask the Peoria City Council to encourage and support it as a privately financed project. We strongly request that the Peoria City Council turn its attention and resources to address the many issues that are within its legitimate purview and leave hotel financing to financial institutions.