Several of developer Kim Blickenstaff's Peoria-area properties are now on the market.
The Scottish Rite Theater, 400 NE Perry Ave., is listed for $8.5 million with Julie Bielfeldt, a Realtor with Keller Williams. Blickenstaff spent millions of dollars restoring what he once touted as the jewel of an envisioned "Theater District" in the downtown area.
The former Betty Jayne Brimmer Center for the Performing Arts is on the market for $2.4 million, and the former Pabst office building on Prospect Road in Peoria Heights in listed for $3.5 million.
Blickenstaff is a Spring Bay native and East Peoria Community High School graduate who later moved to California and made his fortune on medical equipment.
Those properties were among the few that the KDB Group got off the ground. Blickenstaff also proposed other ambitious concepts, many of which were rooted in the region's past. Those included a revival of Al Fresco Park, a restoration of the Peoria Armory, and saving the historic Spurck mansion on Knoxville Avenue. He also proposed creating a park over Interstate 74 to reconnect downtown to the North Valley.
Blickenstaff's company also purchased the Hale Memorial Church at the corner of West Main and High streets on Peoria's West Bluff. That building was deemed unsafe and too far gone for restoration. It was demolished to make way for green space.
The KDB Group's venues abruptly closed in January as the company said it was "reevaluating" the scope of its operations in the Peoria area. The exact reasons have never been disclosed.
Emails to KDB Group employees bounced back to a WCBU's reporter's inbox.
Blickenstaff's Spring Bay glamping resort, Sankoty Lakes, also is closed. That property is currently listed for $10.9 million. Blickenstaff and his nephew, KDB Group CEO Greg Birkland, remain embroiled in a lawsuit with the original owners of that property.
A hearing is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday in Woodford County Circuit Court.
