Demolition of Riverfront Village at the foot of Main Street in Peoria will now begin in December at the earliest. It has housed various businesses over the past two decades. The City of Peoria owns the raised structure and plans to develop a park in its place.
City Engineer Bill Lewis says there is not sufficient funding for more than initial demolition work.
"One of the first things we’re going to do is we want to take the existing structure down, grade everything out as best we can to get it ready for future development and then as funding becomes available, we will add various elements of the park to that," Lewis said.
Members of the public have submitted ideas for development of the park. However, those suggestions will not be incorporated into the park until funding becomes available. The land cannot house any buildings at ground level because it sits in a floodplain.