Peoria City leaders continue to explore possible opportunities to restore vibrancy to the downtown area.
Last fall, the city purchased the PNC Bank building, also known as the Tower on Adams complex, in hopes of attracting a private developer to pursue a mixed-use commercial and residential development.
Meanwhile, the Riverview Plaza tower commonly known as the Chase Bank building remains shut down due to code violations that remain unresolved.
City Manager Patrick Urich discusses how Peoria is eager to find ways to bring more people to the Central Business District.
This conversation has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
What are the biggest keys to bringing vibrancy back to Downtown Peoria?
Patrick Urich: Obviously, place-making is very important. Creating a sense of space for people to recreate, for people to dine, for people to entertain, is very important. Ensuring that where we can adaptively reuse buildings to bring more bodies into downtown, whether that’s through improving office space for employees to come in and workers to come in, or whether it’s converting to apartments to get people to live downtown, I think that’s very important.
Is the commercial-residential combination a desired way of trying to get these properties revitalized?
Urich: It is, and I think that from the city’s perspective, we’ll probably see as we focus on the Central Business District more efforts towards seeing more conversion to residential.
Where do things stand with needed repairs at the Riverview Plaza building? What additional steps can the city take to get the issues with that building rectified?
Urich: We have put the property owner [MJ Illinois] into court to get them to comply, and we’ll wait and see what the court system says about what they have to do. It is a significant point of frustration for us that we have a property owner that doesn’t have the resources to be able to do anything with it and is literally just sitting on the property right now. So hopefully we’ll see some movement at some point in time.
That’s a significant property in downtown. It’s highly visible, and isn’t it something that obviously the city would want to get rectified as soon as possible?
Urich: Absolutely, but it also shows you the limitations of what we can do to compel a property owner, particularly one that doesn’t have any resources.
What are the latest updates on the city’s effort to attract a developer to pursue a project at the PNC Bank building and the adjacent properties?
Urich: City staff is finalizing an RFP [request for proposals] that we should have ready to go out at the end of this month, and then we’re excited about talking through with the interested developers. We know that there’s been at least five developers that have reached out to us during this period of time while we’ve had the property. We’ve been talking with PNC Bank about extending their lease and continuing to stay at that location. We’ve got the PNC’s ATM back operating in the parking structure, so they no longer have a mobile ATM outside of the building. And we’re going to continue to proceed forward with the RFP, and hopefully we’ll get a developer on here this year.
What is the timeline or the steps through this process when a developer could potentially take this ownership from the city?
Urich: Well, the timeline is going to run for a while. We’re going to have a period of time where we’re going to express, to send this out to interested developers. Then maybe other developers that are in this business, let them have an opportunity to look at the building, let them have an opportunity to review that, then submit their proposals to us. Staff will review them; we’ll sit down and talk with them and then make a recommendation, ultimately, to the city council about a developer to move forward. So that’ll take most of 2025, I think.
Some of the city council members have expressed some interest in seeing the city retain ownership of the parking structure that’s in that complex. Is that something that the city is considering?
Urich: We’ll leave that as an option within the bidding process, but it would be at least staff’s preference not to own the parking structure.
A downtown hotel project on Southwest Adams was canceled late last year when the developer was unable to meet multiple deadlines. What are the prospects for that location now, and would the city like to see another hotel brought to the downtown area?
Urich: Well, we’re currently seeing that the Mark Twain [Hotel] is under renovation work. The Sheraton Four Points continues to be operating. The Pere Marquette is going through a refresh to meet the Marriott standards. Staybridge Suites has been working on their properties as well. I think from a hospitality standpoint, we’d always like to be open to additional hotels and looking at that. I think that from that perspective, we would continue to talk with developers. The properties in question, I’m not sure what the owner of Sully’s is going to do with his property, but I do know that ICC [Illinois Central College] has their property up for sale. So we’ll have to wait and see.
Talking about downtown vibrancy, one factor is vacant businesses. With that in mind, what is the status of Big Al’s after the club was closed last year until new ownership could take it over? Has the business been sold yet?
Urich: The business has not been sold yet, to my understanding. But they are working to find a new buyer, and I think that we’ll see some progress here in the spring.
Were the previous owners ever charged with anything, and are they paying fines to the city?
Urich: There is kind of a running clock of fines that are going forward, but I don’t believe there were any charges to the owners.
Regarding the pursuit of passenger rail service between Peoria and Chicago, where does that process stand right now?
Urich: We’re wrapping up the first step, which was where we would put together the schedule, scope and budget. The FRA [Federal Railroad Administration] has been reviewing that. The next phase in the process will probably be a 2-2½ year period of time where we’ll be working on the service development plan. As we go forward with that, it’s going to require a 10% match of that. We’re thinking that the next phase might be roughly about $4 million, so we’re going to have to generate $400,000.
We’re talking with the other communities that participated and the other entities that participated with us the last time to continue to provide the local match support that we need. And then, we’ll certainly as well probably have a conversation with IDOT [Illinois Department of Transportation] about their participation. After this 2½ year process, we move into the environmental process and trying to – that next step, that requires a 20% match. So, our goal is to get into step two of the Corridor ID program as quickly as we can.
If this is all moving forward and there is going to be a connection at some point, if a connection doesn’t work through Amtrak, could Metra be an option, and how might that work?
Urich: Yeah, I think that one of the decision points that we’re going to have to make within step two is, who’s the operator? And Amtrak is one potential operator, and Metra is certainly another. You know, the line from Quincy that runs into Chicago, that runs through Galesburg, is operated by Amtrak. The State of Illinois has been discussing who’s going to be the operator to run to Rockford and the Quad Cities, and I think in the Rockford case, I think they’ve decided on Metra.
So I think it really is a decision point that we’re going to have to look at as far as who is best suited to be in that position, and that decision will be part of step two. We’ve had conversations with Metra and we’ve had conversations with Amtrak, and both are definitely interested in being the operator.
I believe you’ve had some conversations with council member John Kelly about his desire to have free parking downtown. Is this something the city wants to consider, and what would be the financial ramifications of that kind of change?
Urich: In December, the council approved – unanimously – a smart parking study, where we’re bringing in several hundred smart meters that we’re going to put in place in downtown, in the Central Business District, as well as some multi-pay station parking bays. We’re looking at upgrading our enforcement capabilities to utilize license plate readers. It was a pilot project that we wanted to look at to see if better data can help us to improve the parking system.
So at this point in time, we don’t anticipate that there will be free parking. It’s going to continue to utilize the meters and we’re going to continue to utilize the system in order to ensure not only that our decks are utilized, but that parking on the street is turning over quickly, so that for businesses that need to have patrons coming into their business, they can come in quickly and they can move on and we’re able to see that and utilize that within our downtown.
What kind of financial picture does the parking generate for the city, though?
Urich: Oh, we’re generating, on street meters we're generating over $100,000 a year of additional revenue. And then we get nearly $1 million a year out of the parking decks that we operate. So it’s an important part of the parking system that we have downtown.
Urich also said the city has not yet gotten any new information on when the State of Illinois may release the $15 million allocated for Peoria’s $26 million riverfront revitalization project.
