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| 1/26/2006 | Water park seen as key to growth along I-90 | |
| Published: January 19, 2006 Rockford Register Star Business: Growth & Development By ALEX GARY, Rockford Register Star
Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, speaking at a news conference Wednesday at Clock Tower where detailed plans for the park were unveiled, said the development should spur activity on East State Street east Interstate 90. That's an area that has grown in fits and spurts, while such corridors as Perryville Road and Illinois 173 in Machesney Park have exploded with retail and commercial development. Robin Kirk, vice president of operations at Sage Hospitality Resources of Denver, which bought the Clock Tower in November for $8.4 million, pointed out that when the water park opens, visitors will be able to see from the parking lot ShowPlace 16, Magic Waters, the Clock Tower's tennis center and Elliott Golf Course. He and the mayor would like to see more. "This project is going to raise our profile in the entire region," Morrissey said. "We have a tremendous opportunity to continue to attract investment and development around the Clock Tower from companies who want to benefit from the growth of the Chicago market." The 45,000-square-foot indoor water park will be the first for this area and just the third in Illinois when it opens Thanksgiving weekend. Although the indoor park will primarily be for guests of Clock Tower, where room rates range from $89 to $199, there will be day passes available when the hotel is not full. Kirk said the water park and the renovations will bring more families and business conferences to town and help restore the 38-year-old resort to its former glory. "The Clock Tower has stood here for decades as a sign to travelers on the interstate, 'Stop, stay with us for a while, get to know us,' " Kirk said. "Over time, fewer people chose to stop because the resort didn't change with the times. This will make it special again." Morrissey and tourism officials were on hand Wednesday to applaud the plans by Sage and Wave Development LLC of Milwaukee, which develops water parks for hotels. The project will be entirely privately funded and is part of a larger, $26.7 million effort to renovate the hotel's rooms, lobby and 30,000 square feet, in large part to make all of it more technologically capable with high-speed Internet and other features. The city's role will be to work with the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau in helping market the 247-room facility to residents in the Chicago area, where officials say most business will come from. "The Chicagoland market is coming down I-90, and this will help us capture some of that market," Morrissey said. "We don't need to capture all of it, but we do need to capture some to keep growing." The indoor water park is one of three major developments in the Rockford hospitality industry in the past couple of months. Along I-90 across from the Clock Tower, workers are building a $6.7 million Hilton Garden Inn. And plans are moving forward to build a 50- to 100-room hotel on Simpson Road off Illinois 2 near Chicago/Rockford International Airport. |