Daily Archives: January 14, 2010

General News

Keystone gets to keep tax exemption

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State Senator Dave Koehler and Representative Mike Smith were able to pass legislation that will save Keystone Steel and Wire a bundle of money in taxes that had threatened to shutter the struggling business. Koehler’s office issued a press release that explained:

Senate Bill 328 allows Keystone to continue to benefit from a tax exemption it has long enjoyed. Illinois provides a tax exemption to businesses in enterprise zones that employ more than 1,000 full-time workers. Due to the recession, Keystone has had to cut back on employee hours and no longer qualifies. The legislation allows Keystone to
continue to take the exemption as long as it maintains at least 500 full-time employees and gradually works back up to 1,000 full-time employees by 2013. The potential effect of losing the exemption could amount to a monthly financial loss of $140,000 per month for the company and threaten its financial viability.

Keystone’s enterprise zone was established in the mid-1980s.

Bradley University

Bradley to temporarily lease Campustown space

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It turns out the rumors were true: Bradley is going to lease considerable space in Campustown for offices and classrooms (not a bookstore). However, it’s only going to be for a few years while they’re renovating Westlake Hall and constructing the Engineering and Business Convergence Center.

Here’s the full press release:

Bradley to lease two Campustown locations

Peoria, IL (January 13, 2010) – Bradley University will lease two locations in the Campustown Shopping Center to provide faculty office space during upcoming campus construction projects.

Property previously occupied by Blockbuster Video and Sav-A-Lot grocery will be converted to temporary space for educational offices and classrooms during the expansion and renovation of Westlake Hall. That construction is expected to take more than two years.

“We are looking forward to making this move so that progress can continue on restoring historic Westlake Hall,” said Dr. Joan Sattler, dean of the College of Education and Health Sciences. “The temporary inconvenience of this relocation of offices and academic support to Campustown will be well worth it when the University realizes the great benefit of the transformed Westlake.”

The use of the Campustown locations as transitional space for faculty and staff will allow the University to complete the new Alumni Quad and west campus landscaping earlier than planned. The University had previously intended to relocate faculty and staff from the College of Education and Health Sciences to Haussler Hall, but that plan changed once space became available in Campustown. Haussler Hall will be razed after members of the Athletic Department move from there to the new arena later this year.

Bradley will undertake an analysis of space in both Campustown locations to determine how they can best be utilized. The Sav-A-Lot site has 20,100 square feet and Blockbuster totals 6,020 square feet. The grocery closed on January 3 and the video store was shuttered in November. Bradley will have both properties under lease on February 1.

The University expects to continue to use the Campustown locations for transitional space once the Engineering and Business Convergence Center is under construction. No timetable has been established for that project.

The $22 million expansion and renovation of Westlake Hall, one of the University’s original campus buildings, will transform the facility into a modern academic building with 85,000 square feet of academic space, while retaining its classic architectural features. The transformed building will be six times larger than the original and the addition will rise to four stories, rather than three. A glass atrium will allow unique views of the historic clock tower from inside the building.

Westlake Hall will be home to the College of Education and Health Sciences and the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service. The project is one of six in the $150 million Campaign for a Bradley Renaissance. Launched in April 2008, the Renaissance Campaign has amassed more than $125 million to date.