Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register
A zoning variance for the troubled downtown Wyndham City Centre has been refiled with the city’s Office of Public Works Planning and Zoning Commission, meaning a deal regarding its possible sale may not be dead after all.
Twice after Springfield City Council members voted down a variance which would have paved the way for a possible sale to a New York developer, it will be heard before planning and zoning on Sept. 21, Julia Frevert, a spokeswoman for the city, said Tuesday.
That means it could come before the full city council again sometime in late October.
This time developer David Mitchell of GoodHomes asked for 275 apartments and 125 hotel rooms, a number favored by Mayor Jim Langfelder.
Council members thwarted votes on a variance at the July 19 meeting and a reconsideration at its Aug. 3 meeting.
The Wyndham currently operates 370 hotel rooms along with 27 apartments. It is owned by Al Rajabi of San Antonio, Texas.
Rajabi has championed the sale of the hotel to Mitchell’s group, which also wants to install an observation deck and a food court as part of a $40 million refurbishment.
Rajabi and Tower Capital Group purchased the Wyndham in a foreclosure sale in 2019. He had a bank note due Wednesday on the original three-year loan.
Rajabi told council members he has money not to let the Wyndham go to the bank, but his plan would be to shutter the hotel and convert 200 rooms to government-assisted housing.
Rajabi would not need a zoning variance for that many living spaces. He has said the 40-year commitment would leave out any businesses operating in the hotel.
According to information obtained from the Sangamon County recorder’s office, the city has a lien of just over $839,000 against the hotel for nonpayment of utilities.
Planning and zoning voted 4-3 on the initial variance, though two commissioners were absent, and one commissioner voted “present.” Without five votes, the council had to pass the variance with a “supermajority,” or seven votes.
It failed by two votes both times.
The new variance starts with planning and zoning. The Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission provides independent staff analyses of all city zoning cases, said executive director Molly Berns. The analyses are prepared and forwarded to the planning and zoning office and its commissioners. The analyses include a staff recommendation based on if the petition meets the findings of fact and standards for variation, which are part of the legal requirements of approving zoning relief.
The variance would have a clean slate, however, meaning if it got the requisite number of votes from planning and zoning, it wouldn’t require a supermajority from the council.
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Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said he would welcome the $25 million in improvements from Mitchell’s group, which would maintain a strong convention business and repopulate downtown with residents.
“We have to find a way to make that happen,” McMenamin said. “We have to get the improvements made. That’s the biggest thing, because then the value of the building goes up and all of downtown will prosper from an improved building.”
McMenamin said the council needs “to respect what (Mitchell) needs and make sure the finances work. A transfer of ownership is definitely better than what we have now because the current owner doesn’t want to invest in that building. We’ve seen that. He has growing debt, low occupancy levels. That’s not a good outcome at all, to leave ownership the way it is.
“We have a real problem building in the works here if we don’t get new ownership.”
Langfelder agreed.
“Do you want to do business with the current owner or the developer? That’s what the council has to take into consideration as we move forward because one has the clear path to more dollars and resources to bring it up to today’s standards that everyone would like while the other ones, it’s questionable the way we’re going to go,” Langfelder said.
“My preference is to go with (Mitchell), but we’ll have the discussion when it comes back before city council.”
Langfelder said Mitchell “sees the value of the building itself. It’s iconic to Springfield, but it’s iconic in its design.”
Mitchell’s most recent project was in converting a Warwick, Rhode Island Sheraton hotel into 150 “workforce apartments,” a term he has used in Springfield. The cost of that project is estimated at $15 million.
The Wyndham began as the Forum 30 in 1973. It was renamed the Hilton Tower in 1980 but became known simply as the Springfield Hilton. The hotel switched its brand to Wyndham in late 2015.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 