Moving the Ball Forward

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Changes in downtowns and along both riverfronts signal new attitudes among leaders, residents.

Would the Peoria region pass the grandmother test? In other words, is it a place you would be proud to bring your grandmother?

If it isn't, leaders on both sides of the Illinois River are trying to make it so.

With the changes now being made in the downtowns and along the riverfronts of both Peoria and East Peoria – the most seen here at one time in three decades – the leaders are taking steps to create more value and thus promote future growth, said Jim McConoughey, president of The Heartland Partnership, which works with government and civic leadership throughout the region.

"Peoria is one of only about 300 metropolitan regions in the entire country that is doing things to grow, that is moving the ball forward, and it is doing it at the right time as people are making decisions whether they want to stay here. Things like museums and festival parks and river walkways are becoming the new living rooms of communities, so Peoria is adding all the elements needed to create a valuable community," McConoughey said.

"We are going to have a one-two-three-four punch," McConoughey said. "There's the museum and its buffet of activities that will appeal to a lot of people, from art and history buffs to sports fans. The Cat center on the Peoria side and its heritage museum in East Peoria will be meaningful to thousands of people who are directly related to Cat and its big iron machines. The Bass Pro Shops store is a man mall. It will draw 1.5 million people for sure, up 3 million a year.

"With all that, there is the Civic Center. With its new expansion it has created a destination market for a variety of conventions and groups. It's our hope that the Civic Center drives a tremendous amount of value because it draws so many business visitors. And no business has ever moved into our community without having visited here and experiencing what it has to offer," he said.

"What is going on is a fantastic next step for us (after completing the Civic Center expansion). Peoria still has somewhat of an inferiority complex but I think the wheels are coming off that old bus. We're at a good point and getting better," he added.

McConoughey lauded Peoria County voters for approving a new tax to help pay for the Riverfront Museum. He said he was Lexington, Ky., on business in 2009 when voters there rejected a tax increase because of recessionary pressures and development plans there have stalled.

"Here, people voted to tax themselves to bring in new quality-of-life elements because they felt it would be worth it. The ones who will benefit the most will be our children and the people who relocate here," he said.

Bob Marx, president of the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said all that is going on now attracted him to the area. "Peoria was nice already, but these things make the area even better. The more we have to offer people – our residents and business people – the more we will attract. The more our quality of life increases for us, the more income increases for the community. It's exciting growth," he said.

"That helped sway me to accept this position, that Peoria was not in a stagnate mode."

Marx has a stake in seeing convention business grow and he supports the Pere Marquette project. "It will have tremendous urban renewal effect on downtown Peoria and commercial economic development. It will help the whole region and in fact is already doing so," he said, referring to the Sheraton Corp. seeing the potential when it acquired the former Holiday Inn City Centre and recently converted it to a Four Points by Sheraton.

"The Pere/Marriott project and the skywalk connection is essential if we want to go after bigger and more specialized convention groups. It will give us a tremendous linchpin. The convention business is a numbers game. We're competing with other cities, so the better story we have to tell the better chance we have," Marx said.

He also wants tourism business to grow and believes it can and will go hand-in-hand with convention growth. People who attend conventions need things to do when not in meetings; their families need things to do when they are.

But the elements in Museum Square and Bass Pro Shops will be big tourist draws anyway, Marx said. "The Caterpillar Visitors Center will be a big draw that is unique to Peoria. Nobody else can have that. The museum will be a big draw for those looking for the unique. Together they will enable us to go after international travelers, which is a tourism market we've never really gone after with any show of strength.

"And Bass Pro has created an experience, and that is the key to its success. It will draw people who have little or no interest in hunting or fishing, people who can't catch a cold, let alone a fish. That's because it's fun. Bass Pro has the fun factor," Marx said.

Marx and McConoughey both are enthused about the region's future, largely because of the growth occurring now and what it already is spurring. They include the Warehouse District in that.

"I think Peoria is going to have significant growth in urban development. My hope, my expectation is that both downtowns will become much more vibrant. Like with anything, communities have to continually reinvent themselves and I think Peoria is doing that and will do that as it needs to," Marx said.

McConoughey thinks that over the next 20 years sustainability will become an even more important factor as today's younger adults become the leaders. "If they have to drive everywhere to get anywhere they aren't happy about it. Everything is becoming green, green and greener. It's a very strong current running through the younger generations right now. That, I think, will be the new secret sauce for growth in the Warehouse District," he said.

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis said another factor in urban development and growth on both sides of the river is that "people seemed to come to the realization that they cannot create a river." By that, he means they know if they are going to take advantage of this region's greatest natural asset they are going to have to develop around it.

"I think 20 years from now things will not only be vibrant on both sides of the river but I think they'll be expanded significantly. There will be growth to the south again, not just north," he said.

East Peoria Mayor David Mingus said confidence will be a key factor, as well. Past success in East Peoria development, he added, has given city leaders confidence they can continue to have such success.

"We will keep building on our previous efforts, without which we wouldn't be where we are today. We have become very conscious of the river and all of our natural resources and will use them to all our benefit," he said.

McConoughey said area leadership has changed in the decade or so he has been in the Peoria region and has a keen eye on the future. They have come to recognize they have to be competitive. "There is a cost to living the way we want to live. To get what we want takes a strong local economy, positive and effective leadership, vision and a strong quality of life," he said.

People who are critical of local government questioning the value of everything put before it should realize that is what leads to good decisions. "I'm talking about decisions that don't pander to any one person or group, but look to the future and doing the right thing "Some people want to do things right; leaders want to do the right things. It's very evident the Peoria area has long had that. It may lose its way once in a while but it always finds its way back," McConoughey said.

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