Hotel project 'still on track'
Even though there hasn’t appeared to be work on the site in months, a spokeswoman from the InterContinental Hotels Group told the Herald Tribune last week that the Chester Holiday Inn Express project is still on track.
“The official groundbreaking, as we define it, which includes the pouring of a concrete slab, is expected to take place in 2017,” said IHG Corporate Communications Manager Ada Hatzios in an email to the newspaper. “The hotel is expected to open in the second half of 2018.”
Developer James Best and Paul Martin, of the project’s general contractor in VIP Remodeling and Construction, did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment by the newspaper’s press deadline.
Best and his Chester Hotel Group partners - along with VIP Remodeling and Construction - broke ground on the project on September 14, 2015 and workers completed a retaining wall and installation of utilities before construction was halted due to required changes in the design of the HVAC system.
“There’s nothing to say,” Best told the newspaper in December when contacted for an update. “There’s no change, so when things get going I’ll let you know.”
The hotel was originally anticipated to be open in April of 2016. That spring, Best told the newspaper he was still waiting on IHG, which owns the Holiday Inn brand, to approve the changes before construction could recommence.
“We had to redesign the HVAC system and we’re just in the delay process,” Best said at the time. “Nothing negative, nothing project-stopping. Just delays.”
Best then theorized the hotel would be open by July 1, a date that also came and went with no apparent progress at the site.
The $5 million hotel was originally stated to feature 65 rooms, indoor pool, convention center and workout facility while creating 14 to 16 jobs.
The project also included a 50’ x 100’ detached restaurant, which Best previously said would come after the hotel was completed.
“The hotel is going to be built on its own time, not mine,” Best said last spring. “I have no idea whatsoever.”
Last week also brought news of a different sort, as President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 24 expediting environmental reviews and approvals for high-priority infrastructure projects.
“We can’t be in an environmental process for 15 years if a bridge is going to be falling down or if a highway is crumbling,” Trump said in a video posted on CNN’s website. “So we’re expediting environmental reviews and approvals.”
Missouri Department of Transportation engineer Jason Williams, who is overseeing the project to replace the 75-year-old, World War II-era Chester Bridge, was asked what that means for the environmental study agreement his agency is working toward with engineering consultant CH2M.
“We have not seen any specifics regarding the executive order and it’s too early to comment at this point,” he said in an emailed response to the Herald Tribune seeking comment. “I will let you know if the Chester Bridge study will be impacted as soon as we get more information/guidance.”
Sources have told the newspaper that the bridge, which has been ruled “functionally obsolete” but structurally sound in previous inspection reports, is second on the list for replacement behind the Champ Clark Bridge in Louisiana, Mo.
The Champ Clark Bridge, which was built in 1928, carries U.S. Route 54 across the Mississippi River northeast to Pittsfield, Ill.
Recently, the Illinois Department of Transportation and MoDOT held a meeting at MoDOT’s Northeast District office in Hannibal to begin the process of deciding who will help the two agencies design and build the $60 million bridge.
Roughly 50 contractors, suppliers and consultants attended the meeting, according to a news release from MoDOT. The Champ Clark bridge contract is anticipated to be awarded this July, with construction complete by November 2019.