Developer has a different idea for proposed indoor UI sports arena.
Excerpts from article:
Champaign developer Peter Fox believes there's a better site for an indoor University of Illinois multisports center: right across the street from State Farm Center, at the southwest corner of St. Mary's Road and Fourth Street.
"I think it's an easier, cheaper, more logical site," he said.
That's in comparison with another plan, unveiled in July, to build an arena in downtown Champaign as part of what developer Hans Grotelueschen said could be a $150 million project that also would include a hotel, conference center, office building and expansion of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District's Illinois Terminal building."
"What we're trying to say is that it can be ready quickly, it's a suitable site because all the utilities are at the site, and in addition we built two new drainage ponds that will handle all the stormwater, including the feed mill site if something were to be built there," he said.
"It also is the only site in C-U with chilled water (part of a 2004 UI project extended to the site). The benefit of the chilled water is that it's substantially cheaper, 15 to 20 percent, in terms of utility bills. And it's quiet because you don't have those massive condensers, and the reliability is better."
"There also are 4,000 parking spaces nearby, Fox said, and 700 hotel rooms within a quarter-mile."