Football fans and other campus visitors have a new place to stay this fall that is close to the action at Memorial Stadium. The I Hotel and Conference Center at the corner of St. Mary’s Road and First Street opened Aug. 11. Prior to official opening day it had already hosted two large weddings, an anniversary party and a luncheon for the Women’s Quarterback Club.
The center is a joint development of the UI and Fox/Atkins Development. The names of the 12 meeting rooms in the 38,000-square-foot conference center have campus references – the Illinois room, the Chancellor’s Ballroom, the Quad Room and the Alma Mater, for example – and can provide banquet-style seating for 30 to 500 people or theater-style seating for up to 700 people.
Rich Millar, catering and event planner for University Catering, arranges catering for events, from box lunches and barbecue to elegant fare such as rack of lamb. Anna Dunham Simon, conference center marketing director, books events.
A business center, staffed during events, provides support and assistance to guests, such as making photocopies or trouble-shooting equipment problems. The conference center offers the latest audiovisual technology and provides on-site support. Guests have complimentary high-speed Internet access, and the facilities’ wireless network can support at least 500 simultaneous users.
The hotel’s 124 guest rooms and two luxury suites are smoke-free and furnished according to AAA’s four-diamond standard. Rooms feature granite counters, 32-inch high-definition plasma televisions, walk-in showers in the rooms with king-size beds and in-room safes that can accommodate 17-inch laptop computers. Luxury suites have two full baths, and doors in the sitting rooms can open into adjoining rooms, a feature often requested by performers who travel with their assistants, said Andrea Ruedi, chief executive officer of I Operations LLC, the management company operating the hotel and conference center.
Guests can get massages, hair styling and manicures at the hotel’s spa or work out at the hotel’s fitness center, which offers free weights as well as treadmills, elliptical trainers and other equipment. The hotel lobby features a large stone fireplace, conversational furniture groupings and LCD flat-screen TVs for displaying each day’s scheduled events.
“We’ve strived to make the guests’ experience as pleasant as possible,” Ruedi said. “Everything is very contemporary yet comfortable.”
Designed by architect Patrizio Fradiani of the Studio F architectural firm in Chicago, the hotel, conference center and adjoining restaurant all have their own entrances and designated parking to establish each of them as separate destinations, Ruedi said.
Artwork commissioned from various local artists hangs in the lobby and the guest rooms. Sports fans who want to paint the Hall orange or take home Illini-themed souvenirs can order apparel and other merchandise from the guest directory by 8 a.m. and have it in their hands by noon.
Houlihan’s Restaurant is connected to the hotel and conference center and can seat up to 220 people inside and up to 74 people on its outdoor patio. The restaurant is the first franchise in Central Illinois to boast Houlihan’s redesigned interior – with cherry-toned wood and a large bar; an outdoor patio; exposed, black-painted duct work in the ceiling, and cylindrical light fixtures.
In late September, the I Café, adjacent to the hotel’s front desk, will open and begin selling Starbuck’s coffee, wine and other food and beverages from early morning through late afternoon.
More information, including menus and online reservations, is available on the I Hotel and Conference Center’s Web site at www.stayatthei.com.
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