Once named the ”Urbana Lincoln Hotel” to commemorate the former president’s visits to Urbana, the 100-year-old downtown fixture has not welcomed new guests since 2016 — and delays have persisted since.
Most recently, in 2020, potential guests were promised reservations would be available in late 2022 at what is now known as the Royer Hotel. Years later, the hotel has still not opened its doors.
The hotel, owned by Icon Hospitality, LLC, requested a fourth extension from the city of Urbana for completion of the renovations, extending their deadline to Dec. 31 this year.
Marcus Ricci, a city developer for the city of Urbana, said rebuilding the hotel has been set back by the difficulties of renovating an older building.
“To build one [a hotel] new is one thing, but to take something that was built 100 years ago and turn it into something that meets the level of expectation of consumers nowadays is actually harder,” Ricci said in an interview.
The extension was unanimously approved by the Urbana City Council. The council stipulated, however, that if the developers do not meet the new deadline, then the $5.5 million incentive from the city will be reduced by $150,000 for every three months beyond that date.
Ricci said this incentive will not be provided until the hotel has completed its renovations, meaning the city has not lost money.
“These are incentives that are created from the future sales revenue of the hotel,” he said. “We’re basically giving it to them a little early. It’s all going to be coming back to the city over 10 years.”
The hotel’s potential to boost tourism and commercialism in the area could prove crucial for downtown Urbana’s financial future, Ricci said.
“We anticipate, and we know, that it is going to help downtown Urbana as a whole,” Ricci said. “I think it’s going to signal kind of a new day or a new decade in the city, especially downtown.”
Currently, the hotel is accepting reservations for January 31, 2025, and beyond on its website.
A web page maintained by the Champaign County Historical Archives, part of the Urbana Free Library, details the hotel’s history.
The hotel has passed through several sets of owners since it was originally built in 1923. It is named after local architect Joseph W. Royer, who designed the hotel in the Tudor Revival style.
It was originally named the Urbana Lincoln Hotel due to the site’s proximity to the Kerr Tavern, where President Abraham Lincoln would stay on his travels serving on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. The Great Depression took a toll on the hotel, causing its first sale in 1954 to majority shareholders Gordon Kamerer and Charles M. Webber.
Just a few years later in 1965, the hotel was bought by the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Co. department store chain, after the Lincoln Square Mall was built between 1963 and 1964.
This purchase is what connected the mall and the hotel. Today, the hotel’s original front entrance opens onto the mall’s food court.
The hotel closed again in 1976 and sold one year later to James Jumer for $85,000, who renamed it ”Jumer’s Castle Lodge.“ During this period, additional rooms and conference spaces were added onto the hotel.
Jumer operated the hotel until its sale in 2001 to Marine Bank of Springfield, which then sold it to Rajni Bhagat.
In 2010, developer X.J. Yuan purchased the hotel for $600,000.
Yuan invested $2 million of his own funds into the project, in addition to $1.5 million in tax increment financing (TIF) funds from the city of Urbana. This incentive money had to be returned to the city after failing to meet the terms of the development agreement, including plans to reopen the hotel’s restaurant and conference center.
In 2015, he put the building up for sale, before closing it down officially just a year later.
Its most recent sale took place in 2020. After three failed attempts to sell to other buyers, the hotel was sold to Icon Hospitality, LLC, for $1 million, over $4 million less than Yuan’s initial asking price.
Upon completion, the hotel will be added to Hilton Hotel’s Tapestry Collection, “a gathering of independent hotels” where “every hotel’s unique story comes to life through elevated design and food & beverage inspired by the locale,” according to Hilton’s website.