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Downtown Peoria: Yes, there are things going on

How can the Greater Peoria region emphasize and improve the area's quality of life? That question was one of the big topics at the 2023 Big Table gathering at the Peoria Civic Center.
Joe Deacon
/
WCBU
How can the Greater Peoria region emphasize and improve the area's quality of life? That question was one of the big topics at the 2023 Big Table gathering at the Peoria Civic Center.

Downtown Peoria isn’t as lively as it used to be. That’s probably an understatement even for downtown boosters.

After all, the central business district has had to deal with Caterpillar Inc. retrenchment (company headquarters already exited Peoria for the Chicago suburbs and is now headed for Texas) and covid’s cooling of an economy as more people work remotely—not in offices downtown.

So the casual observer sees a sea of empty store windows and offices along with plenty of vacancy signs. But Mark Misselhorn and Ray Lees, members of the Downtown Advisory Commission, want to get the word out: plans are afoot to get things going in downtown Peoria.

Misselhorn, a local architect and the commission chairman, stressed the importance that downtown plays for a metropolitan region to be successful. “That’s true for any city. We think it’s important to make the case for downtown,” he said.

Among the improvements Misselhorn cites that are coming to downtown Peoria is renovation of the Bob Michel Bridge that will create a 14-foot wide protected bike and pedestrian lane, Main Street improvements, the installation of two-way roadways on Jefferson and Adams streets that now run one-way, implementation of a downtown wayfinding program, up to $8 million for the Distillery Labs innovation hub as well as $15 million in funding for the renovation of Peoria Riverfront Park.

Improvements and additions are also coming to the city’s Warehouse District, he said.

Lees, planning program manager for the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, noted that investments in the downtown provide a higher level of return per dollar than investment in other parts of the city due to the density of real estate there.

As a downtown worker, Lees is well acquainted with the present situation in the CBD. “My office window looks out on the corner of Jefferson and Fulton and I can tell you that it’s pretty light on the sidewalks. But I do see a glimmer of hope when you go down another block and see OSF’s facility,” he said.

While COVID has hit businesses hard, especially crowd events and restaurants, the addition of federal COVID funds has put Peoria’s city budget in better shape now than in previous years, said Misselhorn. “I look at it as a great opportunity to reset and reprioritize,” he said.

Steve Tarter retired from the Peoria Journal Star in 2019 after spending 20 years at the paper as both reporter and business editor.