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thePeorian.com
A few months ago, after he
finished cutting the ribbon on his
development “baby,” Gary
Matthews took his niece to see
a movie. He needed to unwind,
get his mind off of his biggest
worry of the last few years and
enjoy some free time.
The movie? “Man of Steel.”
A fitting choice, perhaps? After
all, Matthews had just pulled off
a feat many people didn’t believe
was possible: Gutting and then
rebuilding the Hotel Pere Mar-
quette from bottom to top, turn-
ing it into a remarkable building
that blends old and new and
gives downtown Peoria another
jewel with which to market itself.
“
Oh, man,” Matthews said
while scoffing at the suggestion
of a connection between his feat
and the subject of the film. “I just
always liked Superman growing
up. And it’s a great movie. But
really, I just wanted to get away
from everything for a couple
hours.”
“
I’m not trying to suggest we
didn’t accomplish something spe-
cial here, because we did,” Mat-
thews said. “But it took a lot of
work by a whole lot of people to
get it done. I may have been the
driver, but I wasn’t alone, or else
it never would’ve been done.”
He will admit to almost
throwing in the towel on the $90
million project when the City of
Peoria decided in August 2011
to terminate its redevelopment
agreement with him. That agree-
ment spelled out how the financ-
ing the project, including city-
issued bonds, would be done.
Already, Matthews had dealt
with problems getting financ-
ing because the recession hit just
after he announced the project
and public opinion about the city
helping with the project put him
in the crosshairs of naysayers.
He was tired; he felt the city’s
decision was unfair considering
he’d gotten the 30-year manage-
ment commitment from Marriott
Corp., which will manage the
Pere Marquette as well as the new
Courtyard Hotel under construc-
tion next door, a companion piece
of the project.
Instead, he worked with the
city manager to change the rede-
velopment agreement to some-
thing both sides could live with.
“
My thing is, and it is a problem
sometimes, I just don’t know how
to quit. It’s just not in my genes.
I grew up in a tough neighbor-
hood and I learned
if I didn’t defend
myself, nobody was
going to do it for me.
I thought, ‘This is my
baby. I’m riding this
one out,’ he said.
But Matthews
stops short of saying
he feels vindicated
now that the tough-
est part of the project
is completed. “I don’t
go down that path. It
doesn’t solve anything.
And I don’t take things personal-
ly in this business. You can’t take
what people say or do personally
if you’re going to get the business
done,” he said.
It also helps him sleep at night,
though he acknowledges that
isn’t always the case. “By nature,
I’m a worrier. It’s always been
that way with my projects and
this one… man, it seemed every
day there was some new surprise
to have to deal with. Well, I don’t
have any more surprises.”
Many of those surprises were
quite costly, such as finding after
workers opened all the pipe
shafts in the building that the en-
tire sanitary system would have
to be replaced as well as all of the
plumbing and electrical. “But you
know what? What we did was
make this the safest building in
all of downtown Peoria,” he said.
Matthews said he is pleased
with the public reactions to
the refurbished hotel. “What
people are saying is that from the
outside it pretty much looks the
same but when you step inside it
doesn’t look like the same hotel.
That is what we were going for,”
he said.
He believes the Pere Marquette
will be a catalyst for more de-
velopment downtown as well as
helping other local hotels. “This
is the community’s hotel and the
community should be proud of
it. I walk around now and I see
something different and new
every time and a lot
of times I remember
making the decision
about a certain item.
The feeling is kind of
surreal when I think
about how hard it was
to get to this point,”
he said.
The entire project
has close to another
year to go before it’s
completed and when
done it will include the
new Courtyard hotel
with it and the Pere Marquette
sharing many amenities. Also,
both will be connected via sky-
walk to the Peoria Civic Center.
After that, what will Matthews
do for an encore? That question
elicited another “Oh, man.” But
for sure, he said, he isn’t finished
once this project is completed.
“
I’ll have something else, you can
count on it. Like I said, I don’t
know how to quit.”
WHAT’S
NEXT?
His ‘baby’
almost finished,
Matthews not
ready to quit
by Paul Gordon
At the ribbon cutting
for the refurbished
Pere Marquett
