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The judgment is a step toward an eventual sale of the 1,635-room property at 17 E. Monroe St. at what could be a fraction of its pre-pandemic value. The hotel was appraised in March at $328 million, which is well below the value of what Thor owes on the property and far from the $560 million appraised value in 2018 when Thor took out the mortgage.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Full service hotels – gift shop, restaurant & lounge, banquets and room service – are a really challenging and expensive business to run. Really hard to bring 10% +/- to the post-tax bottom line. Wasn’t always so hard. They used to be all over – Best Western’s, Ramada’s, Holiday Inn’s (3 of which I worked at as Food & Beverage Director or General Manager in the 80’s). Wasn’t unusual to find a staffed gift shop, in addition to a restaurant-lounge-n-room service – at even a family room-rate Holiday Inn. Those places took lots of staff of very different skills –… Read more »
So are you saying that this giant multi-service hotel has a scant chance at a future? Your expertise is impressive – I say that because wearing multiple hats running hotels is no easy feat. It strikes me that a 1600 room hotel has to have a high occupancy rate and a high banquet/party/wedding rate, all very difficult given the economic circumstance of Chicago frankly the ever present crime problem. Am I making sense?
So sad. Hope the Palmer House can make it. Such a grand place.
I still miss Trader Vic’s at the Palmer House.
I got married there. Very sad to see indeed.
Hmmmm…..Now it’s revealed why Lori ran off to Europe! She probably cut a deal to sit on it until her aircraft reached top of climb. Everything is fine!
So all that crap about Loop hotels making a comeback was pure BS
It’s Chicago the city of mendacity! From the highest offices to the lowly ward healer it’s all BS. Crains, the Civic Federation, the everything is lollipops and sugarplums media. They’re all going to try and BS their way out of this! I don’t remember, I don’t recall! It’s Russian disinformation!