NORMAL - Anyone who has taken on a home remodeling project knows it usually takes longer and costs more than originally thought.

It's no different with the uptown Normal redevelopment plan.

"We paid lots more than we expected to in land costs," said City Manager Mark Peterson. In addition, the town faced steep costs to raze buildings and prepare uptown sites for development, he said.

Construction costs also have skyrocketed since the start of construction eight years ago. The town is financing construction of two uptown parking decks and the conference center that accompanies the Marriott Hotel.

It also paid for the Children's Discovery Museum's new building.

On the flip side, Normal's Finance Director Ron Hill said the town is seeing much better interest rates on the bonds issued to pay for much of the uptown redevelopment.

"The budget predicted 5.5 percent interest and it has been an average of 2.3 percent," he said.

That means over the life of the bonds, the town will pay $15.5 million less in interest than expected.

So far, the town has issued five $10 million bonds and one for $24.7 million. It expects to issue a final bond for $5.4 million in 2009.

In addition, the redevelopment project is being funded by tax increment financing district revenue, a one-quarter percent increase in sales tax implemented in 2001, and 4 percent of a hotel/motel tax that was increased from 2.5 percent to 6 percent in 2002. Hill said revenue from the TIF district is above budget estimates. The town created an uptown TIF district in May 2004. In a TIF district, tax revenue is frozen to taxing bodies and any increase in tax revenue goes into a fund used for qualifying redevelopment within the district.

The district typically is in place for about 23 years.

In the 2007-2008 budget, the uptown TIF district generated nearly $300,000 - more than $70,000 above projections. The town has seen nearly $660,000 in TIF revenue since the 2004-05 fiscal year.

Peterson said there has been or is expected to be more than $200 million in private investment uptown.

That includes: $60 million by John Q. Hammons for the Marriott Hotel/conference center; $9.5 million by Bank of Illinois; $80 million from One Main Development; $25 million from JSM Development; and $4.5 million from the owners of Medici restaurant.

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Uptown costs

Listed are some of the key redevelopment projects in uptown Normal, the expected expense when the plan was budgeted in fiscal year 2002-2003 and the cost or expected cost as of today.

Project…2002-03…Today

Children's Discovery Museum (building only)…$3.75 million…$4.6 million

Marriott Hotel/Conference Center (John Q. Hammons costs)…$30 million…$56 million

Marriott Hotel/Conference Center (Town costs including parking deck)…$13 million…$21.9 million

Infrastructure (including streets, sewers, water lines)…$14 million…$24.9 million

Parking deck and surface lots*…5.14 million…$14.6 million

Property acquisition…$9 million…$18.9 million

Transportation Center (including planned parking deck, plaza)** $24.4 million…$24.6 million

*The number of spaces in the College Avenue parking deck was increased from the original 150 to 650. This does not include a parking deck for the hotel or transportation center. Those costs are included with those items.

**The town's share of the cost is estimated at $2.6 million; the rest would be paid by state and federal money.