John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts history

When Winegardner accepted an offer to become chairman of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels in 1969, Hammons formed his own company and continued in the same tradition.

John Q. donated an undisclosed amount to the creation of the Mercy Hospital Springfield Hammons Heart Institute, which opened in 1972.

John Q. moved the business to the top three floors of the John Q. Hammons Office Building around 1983, and by the end of his career, he could look out over one slice of his empire through the wall of windows that lined the northwest side of his office.

During the prime of his career, around 1987, John Q.’s estimated wealth was $300 million.

When the recession of 1990 hit the real estate development industry, particularly hotel construction, Hammons was well-prepared for the economic downturn.

In 1994, Hammons decided to take his hotel company public, and raised over $500 million to continue an aggressive expansion strategy.

Robbins took minutes during board meetings and remembers the ordeal as “gut-wrenching” for John Q. As his board started telling him no, John Q. looked for other injections of capital around 2002 and connected with Jonathan Eilian at JD Holdings.

There were still those of us who spoke truth to power, but it became less and less important to him.” Robbins eventually left on January 20, 2005, and now serves as executive director of GYN Cancer Alliance.

JQH Arena opened in 2008 and cost $67 million to complete.

They attended final four basketball games and were at the World Series in 2011 when the St Louis Cardinals clinched their 11th World Series win in the 11th inning of game seven.

Since switching owners, the club underwent several renovations and reopened as a public venue in November 2017.