DECATUR - The city finalized the sale of the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel on Friday, a year after buying it to preserve it as a hotel, according to a news release Wednesday.

Steve Horve, owner and operator of Forsyth-based Lakeview Hospitality, said he will spend about six months updating the hotel, including better lighting and new carpeting, and he has courted some major hotel franchises to see if they will put their name on the structure. Horve named Doubletree as one candidate.

Horve said any improvements would be in line with what franchises that are looking to opt into the hotel would accept.

"The things I'm going to do won't be for naught, because what I'm going to do will be accessible for any franchise," Horve said. "I'm going to make the lobby like a four-star hotel."

Lakeview Hospitality closed a deal with the city to purchase the hotel in November for the same price the city paid, including operational and financing expenses, meaning taxpayers did not lose on the deal, according to the release.

Interim City Manager John A. Smith said things have worked out well for both parties.

"This officially closes a sometimes difficult but ultimately successful chapter in the city's history," Smith said. "We never really wanted to be in the hotel business but had to do so to save an important community asset when it became known that no one else would do so."

The city paid more than $7 million to acquire and provide operational expenses for the hotel after discovering it would be put up for auction and possibly could be changed to something other than a hotel, city staff said.

Assistant City Manager Billy Tyus said the hotel is an important asset to city revenue, as evidenced by its use as base camp for the crew of the Matt Damon film "The Informant" while they filmed in Decatur and as the setting of the Illinois GOP Convention in June.

The auction for the hotel presented the possibility of the hotel being converted to a nonprofit business, which could have been a blow to Decatur's revenue stream, said former Mayor Paul Osborne. The city's 2 percent hotel-motel tax provides funds for, among other things, various Lincoln heritage projects.

"The participants in that auction were individuals who would not keep it a hotel and would have converted it either to a nonprofit or something that would not be generating taxes for the city, and that represents a pretty hefty tax flow to the city of Decatur," Osborne said.

Osborne said he feels it is good to see an initiative for which he felt strongly come to fruition.

"This could not have worked out any better for the community," Osborne said. "I'm certainly very happy with the way this turned out."

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