When the biggest convention center in the south suburbs opens this fall in Tinley Park, it will be nothing less than the “dawn of a new era, not only for Tinley Park, but for the entire south suburban region,” according to Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki.
At the groundbreaking for the Tinley Park Convention Center in October 1998, Zabrocki predicted it would “become the crown jewel of the I-80 corridor.”
Located just off Interstate Highway 80 at the southeast corner of Harlem Avenue and 183rd Street, the center and an adjacent six-story Holiday Inn now are drawing considerable interest–and even some bookings.
“The construction is coming along as well as we expected,” said Carl Vandenberg, the village’s project manager and liaison to the builder, McShane Construction of Rosemont. “The buildings themselves should be finished this summer.”
“I’ve gotten dozens of phone calls about bookings, but I don’t handle that and have passed them along,” Vandenberg said.
“I can truly say we are getting a load of inquiries, and also some bookings,” said Harry Wouters, the designated general manager of the new Holiday Inn, which also will be managing the convention center.
Wouters said associations, corporate groups and consumer show operators are asking about bookings as far ahead as 2005.
The convention center is to be built in two phases. The initial 64,000-square-foot structure now under construction will later be expanded on its north side to a total of 100,000 square feet. In the same way, the hotel will begin with 207 rooms and later grow by another 96 rooms.
The interior of the center will feature 40,000 square feet of exhibit, meeting and banquet space. A 17,688-square-foot, column-free exhibition hall will have a concrete floor with multiple outlets for electrical and computer hookups. A 16,560-square-foot carpeted grand ballroom will be divisible into banquet and meeting rooms as small as 920 square feet. Both areas will be linked by a 5,544-square-foot “pre-function” space that can be added to either the exhibition hall or meeting area through the use of partitions.
Other areas will include a vestibule, lobby, offices, storage space, two truck docks and a 4,300-square-foot kitchen that will serve both the convention center and the Holiday Inn.
The hotel will feature a restaurant, pool, exercise facilities, 24-hour convenience store and around-the-clock business center with fax machines, computers and copiers.
Each guest room will include a refrigerator and two phone lines with high-speed Internet access.
“It is a facility unique in the Southland in terms of size,” Wouters said.
Wouters listed the advantages of the facility and its environs.
“Besides the newness of the facility is the fact that we have a lot of attractions in the area. For instance, within a 4- or 5-mile radius there are premium golf courses. That is important because corporate groups often like to start off their events with a golf tournament. There are casinos nearby in both Indiana and Joliet, and they are easy to reach. Plus, there is the obvious fact that good local restaurants are not as pricey as the ones downtown and their parking is free–people look at all those factors.”
Although the facilities are impressive, location is one of the center’s top attractions.
“The location makes sense,” Wouters said. “The convention center is just off I-80, and connections are nearby to (Interstate Highways) 294, 57, 55 and 355.”
Besides the over-the-road connections, Tinley Park also has established a free public helicopter-landing pad one-half mile west of the convention center and adjacent to the village’s police station at 7850 W. 183rd St.
The convention center has been a longtime goal in Tinley Park, said Village Trustee Patrick Rea.
“Years ago our economic-development commission had a series of meetings focused on a convention center–but the economy went out from under us,” Rea said. “By 1985 the economy had turned around and we commissioned a study that indicated a strong yellow light–some would say a green light–that we should go forward with this.
“When the study was completed, we looked around to see how we could finance it.”
Number-crunching showed it was possible to put together a fiscally sound financing package that could cover construction of what initially was going to be a 45,000-square-foot facility, Rea said.
“Before a final action by the Village Board, an updated study which we secured showed the project going from the strong yellow to a definite green light,” Rea said.
The operation of the Tinley Park project was patterned after Jumer’s Convention Center in Bloomington, Rea said, with the convention center and the hotel serving it under the same management.
From five firms initially interested in the project, the village narrowed the contenders to two.
“We finally gave the nod to Holiday Inn because of its literally awesome booking capability and that they promised to build a (first-class) hotel,” Rea said.
Moving the project along was difficult at times.
“Sometimes there were slammed doors and Maalox was passed out,” Zabrocki said. “But reasonable people achieved a reasonable common goal.”
The convention center will receive additional promotion by the Chicago Southland Convention and Visitors Bureau, based in Lansing.
“We are very excited about the new opportunities the convention center is offering us,” said bureau president James Garrett.
The Tinley Park Holiday Inn and Convention Center can be reached at its temporary office in Tinley Park by calling 708-444-1100. The facility also has a Web site at www.tphicc.com.
