Aaron Francis views the Adams & Oak building in Peoria’s Warehouse District as an ideal location for his growing restaurant businesses.
“I’m inspired by the way Peoria is looking to develop this area and I want to be on the ground level of the growth of this area,” said Francis, who operates the newly opened Pop-Up Chicken and Love Shack stores in two of the six retail spaces at 800 SW Adams St.
“The area is beautiful, and just with the development of the apartments and my restaurant it has completely revitalized an entire city block.”
Francis was among the speakers at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $29 million mixed-use redevelopment of the former Federal Warehouse Building that includes 90 residential rental units along with 10,000 square feet of retail space.
“This particular building, I've always felt, was kind of the key to the whole Warehouse District because of its prominence on this corner,” said Michael Freilinger, president and CEO of the Downtown Development Corporation (DDC). “I believe Adams Street is going to be our major commercial sector, similar to like what they have on Prospect Avenue in Peoria Heights.
“It's a very important building and important location which will be a catalyst for the entire Warehouse District.”
Mayor Rita Ali and city council member Zach Oyler, who also serves as DDC chairman, also attended Wednesday’s event.
“The revitalization of this building embodies the spirit of innovation and progress. It provides much-needed residential space, offering modern amenities while respecting the historic fabric of our city,” Ali said. “The mixed-use aspect of this development will foster a thriving community, where people can live, work, and enjoy all that Peoria has to offer.”
Francis’ restaurants join financial planning firm Edward Jones and the Architectural Design Group as current retail tenants. They’ll be joined in the fall by The Modern Gentlemen, a higher-end men’s clothing store operated by Aaron Selburg and Heidi Mitzelfelt.
“It just feels right for us. We came down here back in February and it just felt right for us,” Selburg said. “The fact that we're able to be down here where it's kind of all the hustle and bustle of Peoria, it just seems like the right location.”
Selburg said the Adams & Oak store will be their first, but they do have bigger plans in mind.
“Our long-term goal is to have a manufacturing facility down here in Peoria, so we can have our designs manufactured and distributed out of Peoria,” he said, adding he’s eager to see how the Adams & Oak location attracts customers.
“This is truly something that has been incredibly amazing and the hope is — for me, anyway — that it’s going to bring more people down here to shop with us, but also just to see how great Peoria really is.”
Architectural designer Roxanne Ibe served as a co-developer and development coordinator on the Baldovin Construction project. She said the Adams & Oak building is among a host of projects aimed at revitalizing Peoria’s downtown areas.
“This is a piece in a larger puzzle, I think a very important piece,” said Ibe, who noted 40 of the residential units have already been leased in less than two months. “A lot of people consider this building to be kind of like the gateway to the Warehouse District, and I think the residential density that this building has brought is what enabled us to get the commercial interests, across the street and also in the lower floor on this building.”
Freilinger said a DDC study shows a shortage of 500 residential units in Peoria’s Central Business District and Warehouse District.
“Every time we have one of these [ceremonies], it raises awareness that there are people living downtown [and] people who want to live downtown. It just keeps the demand growing, which helps the developers to finance their next projects,” Freilinger said.
“What our history shows us is that the more people that live downtown, the more people want to live downtown. The more people are living down here, the more exciting it is to be downtown because of the businesses and the activities and so on and so forth. So it just makes it more attractive, and now we're expecting that this excitement is migrating into the Central Business District.”
