Village outlines progress and hurdles on stalled downtown hotel; arbitration set for October

Attorney Rodney Lewis told trustees the village has been able to step back from direct litigation costs and is monitoring the underlying litigation and arbitration tied to the stalled downtown hotel project. He said parties and lenders are meeting and that an arbitration is scheduled for October when claimants will seek priority for compensation.

Lewis said village staff have convened regular meetings with litigants and lenders since December and that the village's role is to keep the parties at the table and to help assemble a path for a developer to identify a cost of completion. "What the parties involved and the village has helped them come to realize is that there's really not a benefit in continuing on in the litigation...because it's not going to translate into actual dollars while we just have a shell of a building sitting there," Lewis said.

Economic vitality staff reported outreach to developers: 13 developers have been contacted, two declined, several are in preliminary conversations, and three are in underwriting to determine whether the economics work. Trustees asked about structural safety; staff said a third‑party structural engineer report from last October found the building "still okay" but identified items to monitor, such as exposed rebar that may need coating or enclosure.

Trustees pressed about whether settlements could be reached prior to arbitration; Lewis said while earlier momentum suggested more imminent settlement, the timeline remains uncertain and the arbitration is a scheduled forum for claim priority resolution. Officials said they expect to provide another public update in September or October, depending on progress.

No new settlement or developer contract was announced at the meeting.