Category Archives: City of East Peoria

Thinking about Bass Pro Shops

I’ve been watching the new Bass Pro Shops materialize in East Peoria, and I got to thinking about a statistic I read in the Journal Star when it was announced they were coming to town. The Journal Star reported in May last year that Bass Pro Shops “attract an average of 3 million people a year to each store,” according to East Peoria Mayor Dave Mingus.

I thought it would be interesting to look at these numbers a little closer. For instance, three million visitors annually comes out to roughly 8,219 visitors per day. There are 22,638 residents in East Peoria (2000 census). So if a third of the East Peoria population visited Bass Pro Shops every day, they would get 3,000,000 visits. But this is a regional draw, so I also looked up the Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 366,899. If the entire MSA population (which includes all residents of Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Marshall, and Stark counties) visited Bass Pro Shops 8 times a year, they’d get 3,000,000 visitors a year.

Six Flags gets about 24 million people a year at their 19 theme parks, which is an average of 1,263,158 people per park — not even half the number of visitors to Bass Pro Shops, although presumably Bass Pro Shops doesn’t charge admission. WalMart, which also doesn’t charge admission, and which people patronize often for their daily needs, brings in about 176 million customers per week to their 8,500 stores; that’s about 1,076,706 people per store annually — just over a third the number that reportedly visit Bass Pro Shops each year.

“In 2008, Illinois welcomed nearly 88 million domestic visitors […] 67.8 million for leisure purposes,” according to the State of Illinois. There are currently two Bass Pro Shops in Illinois, which could account for up to six million — or nearly 10% — of those leisure visitors. The Museum of Science and Industry brings in about two million visitors annually, only two-thirds the draw of Bass Pro Shops. The Field Museum only gets 1.75 million visitors.

My point is that I’m skeptical of this three-million number. First of all, how do we know the reported numbers for existing stores are accurate? Aren’t we just taking the privately-held store’s word for it? Don’t the numbers sound a bit high? Secondly, even if we concede that those numbers are accurate, so what? Just because a store in St. Louis brings in four million customers doesn’t mean that East Peoria, Illinois, is going to have the same success. There are some differences between St. Louis (“Gateway to the West”) and East Peoria (“Gateway to Germantown Hills”) that I believe are self-evident.

Don’t get me wrong. I anticipate that Bass Pro Shops will bring in plenty of customers. I just don’t think it’s going to bring in three million a year. And I’m beginning to see why East Peoria opted to construct the site and building themselves. This puts them ahead of Bakersfield (CA), Decatur (AL), and Augusta (GA). Those cities announced they were getting a new Bass Pro Shops in 2007 and 2008, but are still waiting for private construction to begin. Buffalo (NY) announced they were getting a new Bass Pro Shops in 2004, but the deal fell apart last year after the city got tired of waiting. East Peoria, in contrast, already has a 20-year lease with Bass Pro Shops, which it approved last July.

Rt. 24 designation may move out of Peoria

U.S. Route 24 and Illinois Route 29 run through the Warehouse District in downtown Peoria, and that’s causing a problem for the City. The City wants to make Washington Street more pedestrian friendly by narrowing it and adding on-street parking on both sides of the road. Property owners in that area say they need a more pedestrian-friendly Washington Street in order to successfully redevelop those old warehouses into loft apartments, condos, retail shops, and restaurants. Because of the road’s designation as Routes 24 and 29, any changes to the street must be approved by the Illinois Department of Transportation, and they don’t want parking on both sides of the street. In fact, they prefer it wide and fast, just like it is now.

That leaves only one option if the City is going to move forward on its preferred Washington Street makeover: move the route designations and take over jurisdiction of the street from the State. Under a proposal that comes before the Council next Tuesday night, routes 24 and 29 would be rerouted to East Peoria, bypassing downtown Peoria. Specifically, Route 24 traveling northeast would cross the river on the Shade-Lohmann (I-474) bridge instead of the McClugage, effectively bypassing Peoria altogether. Route 29 traveling southeast would cross the river on the Murray Baker (I-74) bridge instead of the Cedar Street bridge, bypassing downtown.

Those changes come with a cost. Because of the route designations, Peoria receives $45,000 each year from the state to help with maintaining those streets. In addition, the State does all the resurfacing work at its own expense — for the work they’re doing this fall, that comes to about $5.44 million. Including routine maintenance and periodic resurfacing, the Public Works Department estimates that it will cost the City an average of $563,669 per year over the next 20 years to take over maintenance of the street.

There had been talk in the past of moving 24 off of Washington Street, but keeping it on this side of the river — perhaps moving it to Adams and Jefferson. However, even if IDOT would agree to it, it would only be a temporary fix, as the City would inevitably run into problems changing those streets in the future. Caterpillar has also made it clear that it does not want the route moved to Adams street, which passes by the front door of their world headquarters.

It is unfortunate that IDOT is being so inflexible on this issue. Since 2003, they are supposed to have been embracing “context sensitive solutions,” “an approach that uses many tools with one goal in mind: plan and design transportation projects that ‘fit’ into their surroundings – what is known as ‘context.’ It involves: Striking a balance between safety, mobility, community needs, and the environment . . . Addressing all modes of transportation in the planing and design of the project, including motor vehicle, mass transit, pedestrians and bicyclists . . . Applying the flexibility inherent in our design standards to fit the project into its surroundings . . . [and] Incorporating aesthetics as part of basic good design.”

A portion of Illinois Route 83 travels right through downtown Antioch, Illinois. This section of state highway carries an average of 12,300 vehicles every day — slightly more than the 11,600 that Washington St. carries through the Warehouse District — yet, take a look at IDOT’s Illinois Route 83 Project page:

…the downtown segment typical section will have one 11-foot through lane in each direction separated by an 11-foot striped median with 8 foot wide parking stalls. The Village of Antioch was involved in the development of geometry of the “downtown” section.

Now, why is it okay to have three lanes of traffic and parking on both sides of the street on Route 83, but we can’t have the same thing on Route 24? Why the inconsistency?

I’ve asked that question in the past and been given two answers. One is that on-street parking has been “grandfathered in” on state routes in some communities; so, if you already have parking, you get to keep it, but you can’t add it if you don’t already have it. This only goes to show that the no-parking requirement is arbitrary and baseless. If it were a vital safety issue, there would be no “grandfathering in” since it costs nothing to remove parking from a route. The other reason I’ve been given is that IDOT divides Illinois into different regions, and each region has its own engineer who sets the rules for his or her area. We’re in Region 3 and Antioch is in Region 1. Thus, the Region 1 engineer allows parking, but the Region 3 engineer, Joe Crowe, does not. In other words, there’s no consistent policy for the State.

No matter how you look at it, the State of Illinois is bent on frustrating Peoria’s plans to improve its downtown, and the only option left is for Peoria to give up the route designations and pay for the street maintenance itself. But can Peoria afford it? The City is already looking down the barrel of a $10 million deficit for next year. More drastic cuts to basic services are being contemplated. Will development of the Warehouse District produce enough new revenue to make losing the route designations worth it?

There haven’t been any studies (that I know of) yet, but consider that the City figured two hotels and three restaurants on one block (the Wonderful Development) would raise enough revenue to cover $37 million in debt service over twenty years. Surely a mixed-use residential/retail development in the Warehouse District with multiple developers over ten blocks will raise enough revenue in property and sales tax increments to cover $8.3 million (in today’s dollars) over the next 20 years, especially since there would be no bond issue and thus no debt service costs. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get a commitment from the Warehouse District developers before moving forward.

Everyone’s atwitter about Bass Pro Shops coming to EP

You’d think it was the biggest thing to hit Illinois since Caterpillar decided to locate their world headquarters here. A large chain store — Bass Pro Shops — is going to open a location in East Peoria by the river next year. Not many details are available about the deal, but the Journal Star article does say this:

The store will be about 145,000 square feet – almost twice the size of the Kohl’s department store on Main Street – and take up just more than 20 acres of the 35-acre site. It will produce about 300 full-time jobs when completed, and at least another 200 full-time workers will be hired during construction…. [T]he deal between the city and Bass Pro Shops is unusual in that East Peoria will own the land, building, parking lot and road leading to the store. Bass Pro Shops will be the tenant.

The city will issue $40 million in bonds to pay for the project, which will be paid off through sales and hotel/motel taxes. Further details about the deal will be released at upcoming council meetings.

Readers of my blog will not be surprised that I don’t get all excited about big box stores. According to glassdoor.com, most local jobs at Bass Pro Stores are in the $8-$12/hr. range, or about $17,000 to $25,000 per year. These aren’t what one would call “living wage” jobs. The construction jobs will be good, but temporary.

Of more interest to me is the City of East Peoria’s development plan, since it will undoubtedly be used as a benchmark for future City of Peoria projects, unfortunately. While the amount — $40 million — is the same, it’s really not the same deal as Peoria’s downtown hotel plan. Peoria is giving the $40 million to a private developer who will then own the whole block and be responsible for the maintenance of all the structures; furthermore the property will be on the property tax rolls. East Peoria, in contrast, will own the Bass Pro Shops building and grounds, making Bass Pro merely a tenant, meaning they will get no property tax revenue on those twenty acres. So East Peoria is now in the land development business, evidently. I wonder if East Peoria will be charging its tenant any rent. It appears they won’t, since the paper says the bonds will be paid off with taxes.

On the plus side, Bass Pro Shops actually has a track record of drawing in a lot of local and regional customers, unlike the current hotel and museum market. So sales tax revenue is more likely to go up. Most of that additional sales tax revenue will come from East Peoria, but Peoria will get some spillover, which is good.

Eastern Bypass public meeting planned for July 29

In the city’s “Issues Update” this week, there was information regarding the upcoming Eastern Bypass study. This is the plan to connect Route 6 and I-474 on the east side of the river, making a ring road — a complete bypass for the greater Peoria area. Here’s the letter IDOT Deputy Director of Highways Joe Crowe wrote to Pekin Mayor Dave Tebben (emphasis mine):

The Illinois Department of Transportation has scheduled a Public Kickoff Meeting for the Eastern Bypass Study. This project would connect Illinois Route 6, near Mossville, to Interstate 74, near Morton, a distance of approximately 20 to 25 miles. The meeting is being held to introduce the project to the public, to describe the study elements, and to answer questions and receive comments.

This meeting is scheduled for Tuesday July 29, 2008, from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at the Countryside Banquet Facility in Washington, Illinois. Enclosed is a copy of the newsletter we have prepared for this meeting, which gives more information concerning the project and public participation. Advertisements announcing the meeting will be published in local newspapers beginning this week.

If you have any questions regarding the project or the scheduled kickoff meeting, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Mike Lewis at (309) 671·3474.

The letter from Crowe and the newsletter to which he refers are available here (PDF file). I hear that many people in affected areas have already received invitations to the meeting.

Woman attacked on biking trail

From the May 23 Morton Times News:

Woman assaulted on the Illinois River bike trail.

By Nathan Domenighini
Times Newspapers

A twenty-year-old woman was attacked Saturday on the Illinois River Trail, which runs between Morton and East Peoria.

At about 11 a.m., Tammy, whose name is being withheld for security purposes, said she was riding her bike along the trail when she acknowledged a man also riding a bike near her.

“I said ‘good morning’ to him (while he passed), ” Tammy, an East Peoria resident, said.

He responded. Tammy said he seemed to just be carrying on a friendly conversation.

After passing her, then letting he catch up several times, she said he fell behind one last time before speeding up and ramming the back of her bike, knocking her to the ground. He asked her if she was alright and apologized for knocking her down.

“At that point, I was just annoyed,” Tammy said. “Then, he just kept coming closer and closer and I kept telling him it was alright and to just move on.” Before she knew what was happening, “He jumped and grabbed me,” she said. “He pulled out a white rag with chemicals on it and held it over my face.”

Tammy then struggled and started barraging him with kicks and punches, she said.

Continue reading Woman attacked on biking trail