Category Archives: Southtown

City of Peoria, Southtown

What’s the vision for South Peoria?

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Lately I’ve been driving around South Peoria. I’ve been checking out the housing stock, the parks, the library, the business facades. It’s common knowledge that this is an economically-depressed area, but if you haven’t driven around there, you really need to see it. To say there needs to be more investment on the south side would be the understatement of the decade.

Yet there’s a lot of potential on which to build. In nearly every neighborhood, there’s the remnants of a commercial center where a grocery store or laundromat used to be and could be again. There are a number of parks, most notably Trewyn Park, which are well-maintained by the Park District. The Lincoln Branch of the Peoria Public Library, while small, is very nice with beautiful architecture and a park setting. There are numerous schools and churches.

All other areas of town have big, exciting projects: New construction/annexation in the north, form districts and medical expansions in the center of town and downtown areas. South Peoria, unfortunately, is not known for a lot of new or exciting investment. Now that new investment is proposed, there’s a controversy brewing about it.

There’s a plan to open a grocery store on Adams across from Harrison Homes in the old Miracle Mart building. Businessman Ahmad Abud is requesting a liquor license so he can sell packaged liquor at the new store. He’s gotten the blessing of the Public Housing Authority as well as first-district councilman Clyde Gulley.

But others won’t hear of it. They think the “grocery store” is just a ruse to get a new liquor store on the south side, and that a liquor store will only invite more crime. Abud, according to a recent Journal Star article, “said his store floor plan sets aside only 12 percent of space for alcohol but says he needs those sales to stay in business.” The store would be 15,000 square feet in size, so 12 percent means alcohol would take up 1,800 square feet.

Incidentally, the Journal Star also said Abud was the owner of Pulaski Corp. and “has stores in Chicago, Ohio and California. He just recently moved from Chicago to Bartonville to concentrate on this business development.” However, I searched the secretary of state websites of Illinois, California, and Ohio and could not find an active “Pulaski Corp.” in any of those states’ corporation/LLC databases. I also did a search of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago phone book and could find no reference to “Pulaski Corp.” I find it a little strange that I can’t find any reference to either Abud or his company anywhere.

But I digress. The question I have is, what is the vision for South Peoria?

First, there was “urban redevelopment,” which gave us Southtown. That’s where the city bought up a huge swath of land, tore down all the houses, then redeveloped it to look more suburban. I don’t believe anyone would consider Southtown a garden spot of the city now. Besides, even if it could be argued that redevelopment works, it’s too expensive for the city to completely rebuild the south side.

Then there was the Heart of Peoria Plan, which was recently codified in legal language known as the Land Development Code. The part of the code that would apply to South Peoria has been tabled indefinitely because there were some minor concerns with parts of it. City staff is now heavily involved in the comprehensive planning effort, so they can’t devote any time to fixing the flaws, which means it will sit on the table for a long time, and could be forgotten completely. I hope not, but it’s not the same as simply deferring it to a future date when you know for sure it will come back for further action; tabling, by definition, is indefinite.

Now there’s the grocery store, which we don’t like because they sell liquor (like every other grocery store does, by the way). Okay, fine. We’ll deny his liquor license and he won’t open a store. Congratulations. Now what? Now they still don’t have a grocery store.

How long will things be denied with no alternative? Is it okay to just let it continue its downward spiral while we focus on annexation and new development to the north? The residents on the south side are our neighbors. They’re not “those people.” They’re Peorians. They deserve better.

City of Peoria, Renaissance Park, Southtown

Ren Park plans go south; but setback could be blessing in disguise

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Ren Park LogoNot long ago there was a lot of optimism regarding Renaissance Park, formerly known as the Med-Tech District. Work is still progressing on the PeoriaNEXT Innovation Center, but the next big project that was supposed to land on West Main street has gone south — to Southtown, that is.

A joint venture that includes OSF St. Francis Medical Center, Methodist Medical Center, and RehabCare of St. Louis, considered building their planned long-term acute-care facility in Ren Park. Being on Main just up the hill from the hospitals seemed like a reasonable location, especially since it’s in an area the city is eager to see developed and might be willing to offer some incentives for locating there.

In fact, according to the Journal Star, the city offered “more than $1 million in financial incentives from the city, including $750,000 in property tax abatement over five years and about $300,000 in sales tax abatement.” But despite all that assistance, and even the willingness of the hospitals to pay a little extra to put their hospital on the west bluff, it still wasn’t financially feasible.

Why not? Because some property owners were asking more for their land than the hospitals were willing to pay. Second District Council Member Barbara Van Auken is quoted as saying, “We cannot get in a mode where the bid developments are being held up by extortion.”

That’s pretty strong language, considering this is simply the workings of the free market. Property owners are free to ask whatever price they want for land they own that someone else wants. It’s not like they’re obligated to take the first offer that comes down the pike. From the Journal Star article, it sounds like some of those property owners — maybe the ones with the high asking prices — aren’t all that anxious to sell.

So I don’t blame property owners for wanting to get the best price they can for their property, especially if they don’t really want to move. But it does seem to hamper the city’s strategy for the Ren Park area. The idea was to fill it up with medical and technology companies — either home-grown or relocated — because of its location close to the hospitals and Bradley University. If the property owners aren’t willing to sell, or have asking prices that make the city’s plans unfeasible, isn’t that a bad omen for the future of this area?

That’s what I asked Barbara Van Auken in an e-mail. She responded, “I can only hope that in the future property owners on West Main are more realistic in their financial expectations. If not, obviously development will be much slower than we had hoped.”

Not knowing which properties were at issue, we can only speculate about how slowly West Main will be redeveloped. But considering the size tract the hospitals are trying to purchase in Southtown (more than six acres), I’m going to guess they were asking for a pretty large chunk of land on Main Street as well, and that most property owners were willing to sell, but there were a few strategic properties that were asking a high price.

If that speculation is somewhat accurate, then it may just be that Ren Park is going to be transformed in bite-size pieces instead of large swaths. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If acres of land are taken up with a few large developments, it would make the area less diverse and, thus, less appealing as a new urbanist neighborhood — one of Ren Park’s big selling points.

It could be that this delay in redevelopment is really a blessing in disguise. Maybe instead of one development making a big splash, we’ll see a lot of smaller projects quietly remake the area without the need for a lot of city incentives. I kind of thought that was how it was supposed to work anyway.

City Council, City of Peoria, Renaissance Park, Southtown

Council roundup: Hospitals withdraw Southtown bid

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Several weeks ago, a couple of area hospitals stared down Select Medical of Pennsylvania’s plan to put a long-term acute-care hospital on the last unsold parcel of Southtown.  At that time, they said they were looking to locate a similar establishment in Renaissance Park.  Then, several days ago, they shocked Peoria by considering the possibility of locating on the same parcel in Southtown instead of Ren Park.

Tonight, they withdrew their proposed option agreement on the Southtown property.  Why?  Who knows?  Hopefully, the Journal Star will have more details tomorrow.

City Council, Heart of Peoria Plan, Southtown

Council roundup: Southtown deal approved

The council did the right thing by not delaying the vote on the Southtown project any longer.  The motion to defer was overturned and the council voted 10-1 to approve the project.

I wasn’t too thrilled about delaying the vote at the request of Methodist or OSF, but I thought Gary Sandberg had some excellent points regarding the suburban design of the building and the proposed density of the development.  Whatever is built in Southtown should be required to conform to the Heart of Peoria Plan.  If there is no process to facilitate that requirement, the Heart of Peoria Commission and the City Council should develop one.

City Council, Southtown

The courtesy of a deferral

Second-district councilperson Barbara Van Auken laid out her case for granting “the courtesy of a deferral” to OSF, Methodist, or any business that has shown a long-term commitment to the city/community.  She wanted to make it clear that by doing so, she’s not favoring one project over another.  I believe her.

But, I can’t help but think she may have been used by the hospital(s) to affect the outcome anyway, however unintentionally.  Take a look at this report from the Journal Star today:

More than likely, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board will only approve one such acute-care facility for the Peoria area, as it recently did in Springfield with two competing proposals.

There, Select Medical was not chosen because it filed second.

Notice the timing issue — “Select Medical was not chosen because it filed second.”  Could it be that the one week deferral provided Methodist with the ability to get in their application for a “certificate of need” first?  And, if so, wouldn’t that give them quite an advantage in the competition for a state permit?

I could be all wet.  I hope I am.  But I’ll be interested to see the dates on the applications.

City Council, Renaissance Park, Southtown

Methodist to city: We don’t need your help

The Journal Star reports today that Methodist Medical Center, along with RehabCare of St. Louis, is going to try to bring a long-term, acute-care facility to Renaissance Park (f.k.a. The Med-Tech District).  This is the same kind of facility Select Medical would like to bring to Southtown.  However, the state will likely approve only one such facility for Peoria, so we have a competition on our hands.

The City is apparently in favor of Methodist, as evidenced by its deferral of approving the sale of the land in Southtown to Select Medical last week.  But Methodist is saying (publicly, at least), “Thanks, council, but we can compete in the marketplace without your help”:

“We have no concerns [about Select Medical’s bid]. Whoever is telling you that is a liar,” [Methodist CEO Michael] Bryant said. “If they beat us to the punch, they win. This isn’t a city issue. It comes down to a certificate of need issue. The best thing is for the city not to take any sides.”

I couldn’t agree more.  The council should reconsider the deferral tonight and vote to let the Southtown sale go through.

City Council, Southtown

Polly says it all

Polly Peoria has the right take on the Southtown deal:

Peoria very well might be better off if Methodist and/or OSF build their planned facilities and the would be buyer of the vacant lot be shut out. However, that is the role of the market place, not local government (no matter how noble their intent) to decide.

Didn’t somebody say they didn’t think government should be into choosing the winners and losers?  If this isn’t just that sort of situation, I don’t know what is.

City Council, Southtown

Nichting wants to reconsider the Select Medical deferment

Fifth-district councilman Patrick Nichting doesn’t want to wait three weeks to decide on Select Medical Corporation’s offer to buy a four-acre plot in Southtown. A motion to reconsider comes up Tuesday night:

Communication from Council Member Nichting Requesting RECONSIDERATION OF THE MOTION TO DEFER ITEM NO. 06-026 Regarding OPTION AGREEMENT with SELECT MEDICAL CORPORATION, LLC., for the PURCHASE of CITY-OWNED PROPERTY, (Bordered by Hightower, R.B. Garrett, and Richard Pryor Way), in the Amount of $714.384.00.

City Council, Southtown

Southtown

An anonymous commenter wondered why there has been no discussion from bloggers about the council’s deferral of a $9 million development in Southtown.  So, anon, this is for you.

A Pennsylvania company wants to build a long-term acute care hospital.  They’re not asking for any financial assistance from the city, and are willing to pay $714,384 for the four-acre parcel.  It would create 100 jobs. This sounds like a slam-dunk deal, doesn’t it?  Why in the world was it deferred?

Well, Second District Councilperson Barbara Van Auken wouldn’t say in the meeting (isn’t that intriguing?), but she later told the Journal Star that “a lawyer for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center contacted her Monday, asking for more time to understand the deal. Since St. Francis is planning a $250 million expansion and is one of the area’s largest employers, Van Auken said she didn’t see a problem with giving them the courtesy of a deferral.”

Let’s think about this for a second.  Who does this lawyer work for?  OSF.  And so who’s interests is he looking out for?  OSF’s, right?  Does he care about the city’s interests?  Only insofar as it furthers OSF’s interests.  And so, why does he need to “understand the deal” before the city can act on this offer?  Why is it in the city’s interests to defer the vote?

The statement from the Journal Star seems to imply that it’s because “St. Francis is planning a $250 million expansion and is one of the area’s largest employers.”  So?  What’s that got to do with the price of eggs in China?  As I read it, this deal is between the City of Peoria and Select Medical Property Ventures, LLC.  It doesn’t involve OSF at all.  In fact, OSF could potentially be a competitor if they have any plans to enter into the “long-term acute care” market.  It wouldn’t be any stretch of the imagination to consider that could be in their long-term plans, would it? So, again I ask, why is the city delaying the vote so that OSF’s lawyer can “understand the deal”? If you run a personal injury law firm, one of your top priorities in the business will always be getting new clients and signing more cases. Daniel Hegwer are a team of personal injury trial lawyers with proven expertise handling injury cases.

Delaying the vote so OSF can weigh in on the deal can only mean one thing:  OSF and a majority of the council believe that OSF should have a place at the table when deciding where, how, and perhaps if new medical establishments locate in Peoria. And that’s troubling.

Why should a land deal in Southtown have to get OSF’s go-ahead before the council can vote on it?