The City of Peoria has put out a call for housing developers interested in pursuing a residential project at the former Exposition Gardens.
City Manager Patrick Urich says the Expo Gardens property offers a “unique opportunity” to attract a new middle-income neighborhood to the center of Peoria.
“Our intent is that we would look at a market rate development of 200 homes to be built on the site, on approximately 70 acres,” said Urich. “We would be interested in hearing from the housing development community, just to see what types of housing and at what price levels they might want to market at.”
Peoria purchased the Expo Gardens site on Northmoor Road through a foreclosure auction last year for $1.2 million.
Urich says there’s nowhere else within the Peoria Public Schools district boundaries that could accommodate such a large housing development.
“Our vision is single-family homes, but certainly we want to hear what the development community can say,” he said. “We're somewhat limited on the number of units, based on sewer capacity, so 200 units is the most that we can have.
“A single-family home perspective is very complementary to the rest of the neighborhoods that surround Expo Gardens.”
Peoria has issued a formal request for qualifications [RFQ] seeking interested developers, with a deadline of June 9 for submitting proposals. More information is available on the city’s website.
“Expanding access to quality, attainable housing is one of my top priorities,” Mayor Rita Ali said in a media release. “This RFQ represents an opportunity to advance Peoria’s housing goals, particularly by expanding options for middle-income homebuyers.”
Possible Main Street TIF
Peoria also is exploring the idea of establishing a new tax increment financing [TIF] district to spark redevelopment along West Main Street.
Urich said the potential TIF area would extend from the top of the bluff near the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria [UICOMP] to Bradley University. He noted Bradley president James Shadid has frequently expressed interest in seeing a corridor developed between the campus and the downtown area.
“As President Shadid has his plans for future improvements around the Bradley University campus, we've had some discussions about how we can use this as an opportunity to put some attention towards development in the commercial area along Main Street,” said Urich.
“In that West Main area, there are currently a lot of existing businesses that are operating. But we also have some areas that could use some attention. So this was an opportunity for us to utilize the tools that we have to look at redevelopment opportunities.”
A public meeting on the possible TIF is scheduled for May 28 at 6 p.m. in the second floor ballroom at Bradley University’s Mitchell Student Center. The meeting will give residents an opportunity to see the proposed project area and provide feedback through public comment.
Urich said the next steps after the public meeting would be for the Peoria City Council to establish an “interested parties registry” at the first meeting in June, followed by a review board discussion in July and possible adoption by the end of August.
