After waiting more than a year, a central Illinois computer company is at home in its new headquarters in Peoria’s Fourth District.
Facet Technologies showed off its new corporate headquarters on Lake Street behind Interstate 74 on Thursday afternoon. Facet president Brian Ford said moving from Pekin to the new location is a perfect fit for the business.
“This is a great spot. We're one minute away from (Interstate) 74, where you can jump off and take off and get to someplace quick if we need to,” said Ford. “Most of the stuff we do anymore, we do remotely – but when we need to, we can. And we have employees that live all over the metropolitan area, so it's a nice centralized location.”
Fourth district councilman Andre Allen said Facet picking Peoria for its new location shows the city's economic potential.
“This is what Peoria is about. This demonstrates that you can live, work, and play in this area,” said Allen. “I think that we need to continue to keep telling these narratives. There's a lot more positive things going on Peoria than negative, and this is just an illustration of that.”
Founded by Ford while he was an MBA student at Bradley University in 1989, Facet offers IT consulting and services such as security and web development to more than 5,000 corporate and residential clients across the country, from Seattle to South Carolina. The company currently has about 30 employees and is looking to expand in its larger headquarters.
“We want to grow it; we want to grow it a bunch,” he said. “This building, we can put another two stories on top of this thing. I'd like to do it someday.”
Ford says the company purchased the building that was formerly home to the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce and a health club, on April 1, 2020 – but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed their move was until exactly one year later. During that time, renovations converted the space into a modern, open workspace to meet the company’s needs.
“Obviously, Facet is a great company and it's a terrific employer. The type of job titles that they bring to the city of Peoria, it’s employment that people can raise a family on,” said Kevin Evans, the city’s Senior Economic Engagement Specialist. “We're really happy to have them here.”
Originally called Affordable Computer Enterprises, Facet moved to Pekin’s Market Square in 2001. They acquired the computer repair service Nerds On Call in 2007 and have expanded across central Illinois.
Allen said Facet’s track record of success makes the choice of Peoria for the headquarters significant.
“They definitely had options, I'm sure. Any city would have been lucky to have them, and so for them to choose Peoria and specifically the Fourth District, I'm very excited,” said Allen. “I love to see the partnerships that were represented today from Facet working with the city of Peoria and working with local contractors. That's just what it's about, all coming together to make sure that our businesses are thriving here in the city.”
