NORMAL -- Employee training is under way and finishing touches are being made so the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center will be ready for its planned Oct. 30 opening.

"We are chomping at the bit to do what we do best," said General Manager Jeff Pritts. "We are ready to go. Our phones have been ringing off the hook."

More than 5½ years after the City Council chose Springfield, Mo., developer John Q. Hammons to build an uptown hotel, the $75 million project that includes a town-owned conference center and 500-space parking deck is almost ready.

"The hotel is one of the key points of the uptown redevelopment," said Mayor Chris Koos. "There were significant delays early on and it had some false starts. It's been a long project but when you look at it inside and out, it's well worth it."

The 228-room hotel at 201 Broadway includes Jesse's Grille and Caffenia's café, both open to the public.

The restaurant includes an upscale cocktail lounge with a variety of seating styles, Pritts said. The menu has "5-10-20" selections, with the numbers equating to the minutes it takes to get a meal.

Caffeina's, an Internet café connected to the business center, will have Starbucks products and a variety of "zones" for singles or groups.

The venues open to the four-story, atrium-style "great room" lobby that has a winding staircase, a 21-foot sculpture and a Hammons' signature water feature.

Amenities available to hotel guests only include a swimming pool and fitness room. The hotel also has two hospitality suites and two presidential suites: one faces west toward the Illinois State University campus and named after ISU President Al Bowman; the other facing east and named after Illinois Wesleyan University President Dick Wilson.

Pritts said the center already has $2.5 million in group business booked over the next three years and $1 million in business travelers' nights booked. Many of the groups are state-wide organizations that have chosen the hotel over those in Springfield and Peoria, he said.

The first booked event is a dinner and social gathering on Oct. 31.

The hotel, which will employee 170 full-, part-time and on-call workers, has booked 16 weddings and sold out of rooms for ISU parents' weekend Nov. 6-7 (at $239 per night with a two-night minimum), Pritts said.

Regular room rates range from $99 off-peak to $299 for high-demand dates.