SIUE to evict failed developer
Alestle Staff Report
Issue date: 7/1/09 Section: News
The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees and University Park are seeking legal action to free up land designated to a hotel and conference center to be built by WLS properties in 2004.
A declaratory judgment action was filed in Madison County Monday, to remove construction equipment from the site of the proposed Spring Green Lodge and to free up the plot on Route 157 and University Park for future tenants. As a requirement of the lease, WLS would also have to remove the foundation it constructed when the project began.
"This project has been in the works for a very long time and it is unfortunate it couldn't work out," University Park Director Jim Pennekamp said.
Pennekamp said the lease to WLS was granted in March 2004, and construction began on the project in August 2004. In the spring, the developer ran into financial problems and aborted the project.
The plan was officially put on the shelf in 2007, when the ground lease between SIUE and WLS expired.
"Clearly the university wanted this project to go through," Pennekamp said. "There were efforts made by the developer and the university, but it never worked out."
If SIUE is granted closure on the failed $7 million project, the land will once again be available to lease.
A declaratory judgment action was filed in Madison County Monday, to remove construction equipment from the site of the proposed Spring Green Lodge and to free up the plot on Route 157 and University Park for future tenants. As a requirement of the lease, WLS would also have to remove the foundation it constructed when the project began.
"This project has been in the works for a very long time and it is unfortunate it couldn't work out," University Park Director Jim Pennekamp said.
Pennekamp said the lease to WLS was granted in March 2004, and construction began on the project in August 2004. In the spring, the developer ran into financial problems and aborted the project.
The plan was officially put on the shelf in 2007, when the ground lease between SIUE and WLS expired.
"Clearly the university wanted this project to go through," Pennekamp said. "There were efforts made by the developer and the university, but it never worked out."
If SIUE is granted closure on the failed $7 million project, the land will once again be available to lease.
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