Opening
The grand opening of the Ramada Renaissance Hotel was held on Friday, August 30, 1985. The then 37th and longtime, now legendary Governor of Illinois, James R. ("Big Jim") Thompson (1936–2020, served 1977–1991), along with numerous other federal, state and local government officials and leading business and cultural leaders in the state, were among those attending at the Springfield hotel dedication ceremony.
The new center of hospitality was furnished with some unique decorative features, such as marble floors which were imported from Italy. So was the Venetian / Murano-glass chandelier—the glass was originally manufactured on an island off-shore from Venice. The Axminster carpet came from being woven in Great Britain.[10]
At the time of the 1985 opening, the hotel featured two restaurants and two bars. Lindsay's Gallery, one of the two restaurants was named in honor of noted Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931). Displayed at the entrance to the restaurant was an 8-foot rendition of Lindsay's 1913 painting, "The Wedding of the Rose and the Lotus."[11]
The hotel's other restaurant was the Floreale Room. It featured Northern Italian style cuisine and was named after the Italian word for "the flower."[12] That restaurant closed in August 1997.[13] The Globe Tavern, an upper-level bar, is named after the famous Springfield inn where Abraham Lincoln would have occasionally stopped and stayed.
Two special suites were furnished with rare antiques and currently cost $275 per night. Guest rooms started originally at $65 per night. The average construction cost of the 320-room, $28.5 million Ramada Renaissance hotel was about $89,000 per room.[10]
Problems with debt
While the hotel made payments to its state loan initially, it fell behind in payments just two years after opening.[14] In 1990, the state restructured the loan to require payments only when the hotel made a profit.[15] In 1997 regular payments stopped; two payments of less than $143,000 were made in 2002.[16]
In February 1997, Marriott Hotels & Resorts chain bought the Renaissance chain, dropping the word Ramada from the Springfield hotel's name.[17] However, Marriott failed to renew the local franchise agreement eight years later in 2005, and the hotel name was then changed to the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center.[18]
The state of Illinois foreclosed on the property in 2008.
Sale to Horve
In 2009, the state put the hotel up for sale, there were five bidders. Steve Horve, whose family also owns hotels in Decatur, Forsyth and Champaign, as well as one in Dearborn, Mich., submitted a successful bid of $6.5 million for the 315-room hotel.[23]
The sale was finalized in January 2010, and Mr. Horve began improvements to the hotel within a few months. The renovations took nearly 2 years, and included replacing all the laundry equipment.
In 2013, the hotel joined Hilton Worldwide, as a DoubleTree by Hilton property.[24] The name of the hotel was "soft branded" as The President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, a DoubleTree by Hilton. Around the same time, the Prairie Capital Convention Center finished a two-year upgrade to its facilities.[25]
Sale to Al Habtoor Group
Al Habtoor Group [26], headed by multi-billionaire Khalaf Ahmad al Habtoor[27], made an unsolicited bid to buy the hotel in October 2014.[28] Horve decided to sell the hotel to concentrate on his other hotel projects, including construction of a Home 2 extended-stay hotel by Hilton in Champaign. According to the Sangamon County recorder's office, Al Habtoor paid $9.3 million.[29]
