CHAMPAIGN — A Champaign businessman says he hopes to put a hotel on the site of downtown Champaign's Metropolitan Building, destroyed by fire nearly three years ago.

Hans Grotelueschen, president and co-owner of the YG Financial accounting and consulting practice, said he's the owner of Prairieview Park, the entity that recently acquired the site at the southwest corner of Church and Neil streets.

Grotelueschen said he thinks a hotel could be the best use of the property, given the amount of office and condominium space downtown.

Though no plans have been drawn up, Grotelueschen told The News-Gazette the building would likely be five to 10 stories tall.

"I think it would be a great fit for the downtown environment," he said.

City staff members share that opinion.

"A hotel would be an excellent use for that property and an excellent addition to downtown," said Champaign Planning Director Bruce Knight. "A hotel is just one more way to attract people to downtown."

Grotelueschen said a hotel consulting firm, Chicago-based HVS Consulting, has done a marketing study analyzing both the site and the local market. He has also contacted several hotel brands to gauge their interest in such a project.

Now he's trying to solidify a financial package to enable it to go forward. That involves identifying potential investors and investor groups and contacting traditional financiers.

Given the financial climate and the lack of dollars available for development from banks and investors, Grotelueschen said the project "may have to sit for years," but he said he'll do everything he can to push it forward.

Doug Dawson, president of Danville-based Dawson Logistics and a client of Grotelueschen, is also involved in the project, Grotelueschen said.

Dawson — whose company is on Inc. magazine's list of the nation's 5,000 fastest-growing firms — was involved in the recent purchase of land immediately to the south, where the Dobbins, Fraker, Tennant, Joy & Perlstein law office once stood.

That building had to be torn down after suffering damage from the Metropolitan Building fire.

Grotelueschen also co-owns the building immediately to the west, at 115 W. Church St., where YG Financial is located.

The vacant properties where the Metropolitan Building and law office once stood cover about 17,000 square feet. The single-story building at 115 W. Church sits on 5,000 square feet.

Grotelueschen said the YG Financial structure is "a perfectly good building" that may — or may not — be needed for development of a hotel.

Grotelueschen said a couple other potential investors have been identified at this point "and they are nameless."

The Metropolitan Building, which dated from about 1872, was being renovated for condominiums when it was destroyed by fire in November 2008.

Jeff Mellander, one of the investors in the Metropolitan Building renovation, said Wednesday that he "couldn't be happier with the transition" of the property to Grotelueschen.

Mellander called Grotelueschen "the logical owner of the property," given that he owns the building to the west.

Grotelueschen said he started thinking about the possibility of developing the vacant property this past winter and talked with two of the owners, Mellander and Bob Ballsrud, about it.

"We were lucky to have willing sellers and were able to strike a deal," Grotelueschen said.

It isn't the first time in recent history someone has wanted to put a hotel in downtown Champaign.

In 2006, Jon "Cody" Sokolski of One Main Development wanted to develop a "boutique hotel" in league with a hotel management group but couldn't find a site that suited them.

The last hotel to operate downtown was a Howard Johnson's, later known as the State Street Hotel. It was located in the 200 block of North State Street, across from West Side Park. That building is now slated for renovation as a supportive-living facility.

Knight, the city's planning director, said the city has several tools that might help the hotel project.

The project could benefit from being in a tax-increment financing district, and parking could be arranged at the municipal deck a block away, he said.

Knight said the southwest corner of Church and Neil is the only corner of that intersection that isn't developed.

"Getting that filled is very much a priority for us," he said.

Grotelueschen, a certified public accountant, co-founded YG Financial with Tom Yaxley about seven years ago. He specializes in strategic business planning and management consulting projects.

Earlier in his career, he worked for the Small Business Group of RSM McGladrey and the audit department of Arthur Andersen in Milwaukee.