Category Archives: Museum Block

City of Peoria, Museum Block

Will someone please be a leader and kill the museum project now?

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This week’s Issues Update from the city includes this information on the current status of the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum (emphasis added):

Per the terms of the Third Amendment to the Peoria/Museum Block Redevelopment Agreement, (the Third Amendment was approved by the Council on December 9, 2008), the Project Closing was to have occurred on or before June 30, 2009. The Agreement further provides that if that condition is not met, and it obviously has not been met, any party to the Agreement may terminate the Agreement by written notice to the other parties, provided such notice is received by the other parties before such conditions are satisfied. To date, none of the parties to the Agreement, the Museum, City, nor Caterpillar, have terminated the Agreement. Any party could terminate the contract. The anticipation is that there will be a four-way Redevelopment Agreement to include the County, which will supersede the current Redevelopment Agreement.

In other words, now is the perfect time to drive a stake into the downtown museum project. Yes, we had the vote back in April, but what has happened since then? The museum group has missed their deadlines again (this is the fourth time). The city’s deficit has risen to $14.5 million. The museum group has been unable to raise the rest of the money they need to start construction, and they’ve been unable to reach a consensus on a new redevelopment agreement. They haven’t kept their promises during their campaign to provide jobs during the recession, making this project our area’s own little economic stimulus. There’s still no contract with IMAX theater, despite earlier assertions from museum supporters that there was a contract sitting on their desk just waiting to be signed once the tax referendum passed. The failure of the museum group has continued, but no one is willing or responsible enough to pull the plug on this white elephant.

The city is in desperate need of more revenue — not just this year, but in future years. As we have been reminded time and time again, we’re facing a structural deficit, and we need to look at long-term solutions. Taking prime real estate off the market and giving it to a non-profit organization so they can build a single-use building that has no adaptive reuse potential is the height of irresponsibility.

Museum supporters famously claimed that the block would remain vacant for years if left up to the free market. Ironically, it’s the museum’s inability to raise money that has kept the block vacant for the past several years. A serious free market solution has never been tried. Once Sears closed its downtown store in order to move to Northwoods Mall, the city immediately bought the land. Since all the parcels have been assembled and the buildings demolished, the property has never been put on the market. If it were, I believe it would be snatched up in short order and developed, and would start generating tax income for the city.

But even if it didn’t sell right away, so what? We’re looking at long-term solutions here. In the long term, the museum would tie up that land for at least 99 years (going by the last redevelopment agreement) and generate no property tax revenue. Even if the property were to remain vacant for ten years before a commercial venture bought it, it would still be revenue-producing after that in perpetuity. And the city will need that revenue, not to mention the jobs and residents it would provide.

What about the county’s public facilities tax? What would happen to it if we were to get out of the museum deal? Well, that money was never tied specifically to the museum. It just has to be used on public facilities. It could be put to other use improving the county’s infrastructure; part of it would likely be used to build a new Belwood Nursing Home.

If you have any doubts about the folly of this project, consider this: The city, the county, Caterpillar, Methodist, the Journal Star, Illinois Mutual, Bradley University, numerous other large employers in the area, organized labor, local school districts, Illinois state legislators, Congressmen LaHood and Schock, and even a majority of the voters in the April election have worked together to make this project a reality over a period of several years. And yet, it still hasn’t happened. Now you have to ask yourself, how can this be?

Answer: Flawed plan, poorly executed. It’s time to kill this project and move on.

Museum Block

Museum Update

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Merle Widmer has an update on the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum:

No Museum construction this year. No Caterpillar Visitors Construction this year. Why not? The private sector hasn’t come up with the money they promised the county before the county agreed to put the issue on a referendum. Now officials are saying that no ground on either project will be broken until the middle of 2010.

They’re still short on funds, and negotiations between the city, county, and museum group aren’t going very well. Gives you a lot of confidence that this thing will really be successful if it ever gets built, doesn’t it?

Museum Block, Peoria County

County takes charge of museum project

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PRM LogoI received a copy of the following letter in the mail from an anonymous source. The letter is on State’s Attorney letterhead and is signed by Kevin Lyons. It’s not addressed to anyone in particular — in fact, it looks more like a memo than a letter:

RE: Persons and organizations vested in the Peoria Riverfront Museum project

On Thursday, August 13, 2009, the Peoria County Board certified a necessary resolution that will inform the Illinois Department of Revenue that, commencing January 1, 2010, a special sales tax shall be collected throughout the County of Peoria (County) to carry out the objectives of the March, 2009, referendum. The County is pleased to partner with your efforts, and with the fine men and women of Caterpillar, to organize and shape a superior project that, when complemented by The Caterpillar Experience, will serve well the many interests of this enterprise and all of Central Illinois.

To that end, the County of Peoria will provide the appropriate guidance for creating the organization(s) necessary to develop and to carry out the objectives of the project. As this is no time to learn as we go, I have engaged well experienced counsel at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery to help provide for this important detail and direction. I have, in part, carefully selected this reputable firm because of their long history of experience with issues relative to museums, including those public and private and blended, and their appreciation for the broad collaboration of interests that birthed and brought this project to its place today.

Because it will be largely funded by public money, through sale of non-general obligation revenue bonds, it is important that the project commence and operate in compliance with public policy and statutes. A gathering of all interested parties will be planned for September so that the County may provide detailed framework that can be followed in order to formally organize, commence, develop, construct, and carry through the project.

This will involve, but certainly not be limited to, the following items:

  1. The organization and eventual tax exempt qualification of a museum authority. The museum authority would serve as lead coordinator for the project’s space, programming, and development.
  2. A description of roles and responsibilities of a museum authority and the steps required to form a board of directors and all other necessary project components.
  3. An explanation of how funding will be delivered and how the County and the museum authority will develop and refine the project, and how entities (licensees) will occupy and operate within the project.
  4. As with any County capital development project, construction of the project would be bid, let and overseen/administered by the County.
  5. The County would engage the museum authority to operate the project pursuant to the terms of an operating agreement and, upon completion of construction of the project, and pursuant to the operating agreement, the county would deliver the project to the museum authority for operation.
  6. The museum authority would annually account to the County regarding financial performance and community benefit.
  7. A clear and partnered coordination with Caterpillar, Inc., to insure that the project and The Caterpillar Experience, and the many shared goals and responsibilities attendant thereto, are smoothly addressed and accomplished.
  8. Although licensees and entities may be otherwise self-identified, it is understood that the project will be named exclusively Peoria Riverfront Museum.

    9. Your overwhelming efforts, along with ballot box support and the work of others, can permit you and your communities to now step closer to the realization of a magnificent facility along the Peoria riverfront. A September gathering will further assist everyone in understanding, in greater detail, how this significant project can now launch and grow.

    Thank you for your meaningful contributions on behalf of the citizens of Peoria County and all of the greater Peoria area.

    Very truly yours,
    KEVIN W. LYONS
    State’s Attorney

There are a few notable things here:

  • Transfer of Power: First of all, the letter states that in order for “the project [to] commence and operate in compliance with public policy and statutes,” a tax-exempt “museum authority” would need to be organized. This is interesting because there’s already a tax-exempt umbrella organization called the Museum Collaboration Group (MCG). The MCG has, to this point, been calling the shots on everything regarding the proposed museum. But now, it appears that will be coming to an end.

    The new “museum authority,” under the guidance of a newly-established board of directors, will “serve as lead coordinator for the project’s space, programming, and development.” It will be a separate entity from the County, and will also be in charge of museum operations.

    This can be characterized as nothing less than a transfer of power. I suppose it could just be a renaming/reorganization of the MCG, but why that would be necessary (other than providing some additional billing for lawyers) is mysterious to me. It will be most interesting to see who gets a seat on the new museum authority’s board of directors . . . and who doesn’t get a seat.

  • Bidding/letting overseen by County: Museum representatives have long touted their “unprecedented agreement among Caterpillar, the Museum Collaboration Group and the Greater Peoria Area Contractors and Suppliers Association,” promising that “both the Peoria Riverfront Museum and the Caterpillar Experience would be built with 100 percent local union labor.” However, that may be a promise they can’t keep, given that Peoria County Code 6.5-21(9) requires:

    All bids and contracts for the purposes of public works, as defined and provided for by the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (Act), 820 ILCS 130/1 et seq., prohibit the prime contractor and all participating subcontractors from discriminating in employment practices. This act requires that the prevailing wage shall apply to these projects. [820 ILCS 130/2 specifies: “‘Public works’ means all fixed works constructed by any public body, other than work done directly by any public utility company, whether or not done under public supervision or direction, or paid for wholly or in part out of public funds.”]

    Clearly, under this statute, a non-local and non-union shop could very well have the winning bid, and the County would have to award it. This isn’t a new revelation. The question came up during the County’s public forums on the referendum, but the local unions continued to support the referendum anyway, and museum supporters continued to promise that local union labor would definitely be used. It will be interesting to see what bids come in, and who wins.

  • Don’t change the name: It looks they want to avoid this fiasco from happening again. Apparently the name of the Peoria Riverfront Museum is now non-negotiable.
Caterpillar, Museum Block

Museum still $5 million short

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You may recall that the sales tax increase for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum only closed the public funding goal, and that the museum group was still $11 million short on the private funding side. Whenever they were asked about this at town hall meetings before the vote, the answer was always that the CEO Roundtable had committed to raising $8 million of the remaining money from private sources, and that the museum group is “confident” that they can raise the remaining $3 million not covered by that.

The vote took place in early April. It’s now late July, and the Journal Star reports today, “Officials are trying to bridge a $5 million gap in public and private dollars still needed.” So it sounds like the CEO Roundtable has been unsuccessful in raising their promised $8 million (shocker!), leaving not a $3 million gap, but a whopping $5 million gap. Huh. Who’d have thought that a group so unsuccessful in raising private funds for this thing over the past ten years would have so much trouble closing an $11 million gap now?

In other news, Caterpillar, the company that lost $112 million the first quarter of 2009 and has been laying off lots of its workers, donated $100,000 to the “Friends of Build the Block” campaign, according to campaign finance reports. That $100,000 went toward marketing materials that proclaimed, “Over a 25-month construction period beginning in late 2009, The Block project will employ 250 to 300 local workers per month and contribute $1.8 million in monthly labor payroll to our area’s economy.”

Only it won’t actually do that. Almost immediately after the referendum passed, Caterpillar announced that it wouldn’t be building anything this year because of the economic downturn. And they haven’t given a date when they will start building it, either. Presumably, it will be after the economy recovers. So much for our “home-grown economic stimulus package.”

But the good news is that Peoria will still get the higher taxes it wanted. Those are still scheduled to begin in January, whether anything gets built or not. Probably the museum group won’t wait for that final $5 million to be raised before they start building. They’ll just start building anyway, and then when they start running short of money toward the end of the project, they’ll have another capital campaign, or another referendum, or some other gimmick to pry more money out of taxpayers’ pockets. By then it will be “too big to fail,” you know.

Museum Block

Why not put the Peoria museum in a trailer?

15 Comments

A commenter at PeoriaIllinoisan’s site gave me a fantastic idea! Given the huge success of “Titanic: Treasures from the Deep,” why not use the same format for Peoria’s proposed museum? That’s right: put the whole thing in a trailer and park it in various parking lots in the tri-county area throughout the year! Think of the benefits:

  • It would be truly regional.
  • Using the Delta concept, the displays could change regularly, giving visitors a different experience each time it comes to a new parking lot.
  • It would be a lot cheaper than a $140 million building and would free up the land downtown for ventures that will bring revenue into the city.
  • There is no shortage of large surface parking lots to utilize for the traveling exhibits.
  • The county wouldn’t have to raise the sales tax rate; or, if they did, they could leverage the new income in such a way as to help plug the budget deficit.

I’m liking this idea more and more every time I think about it.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Gee, if only we knew of some unnecessary capital project we could cut…

32 Comments

This story popped up on the PJStar.com website tonight:

Peoria County faces $4 million deficit by year’s end

A sharp decline in revenue streams has Peoria County officials looking down the barrel of a $4 million deficit by year’s end that likely will affect budgets for years to come….

The picture has officials balancing needs with wants: What essential services are required by law, and what can be postponed?

“We’re kidding ourselves if we say we’re going to cut (our budget) and not cut staff,” board member Bob Baietto said. “We’re not going to get out of this without cutting.”

Hmmm… what can we cut? What large, completely unnecessary public expenditure could we eliminate to help plug this deficit? If only there were some new, fungible source of revenue coming on line next year that, while currently slated to go toward a non-essential project, could instead be redirected so that basic county services can continue to be provided. Can you guys think of anything? I’m drawing a blank here…..

Caterpillar, City of Peoria, Museum Block, Peoria County

What happened to Peoria’s stimulus package? Also, will Ardis be drinking the Kool-Aid this time?

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Well, it certainly is heartwarming to hear that $3 million in additional donations have rolled in for the proposed downtown museum, but it got me wondering… remember all the talk about this project putting people to work during the recession? Who was it that said that? Oh, yeah, Michael Bryant in InterBusiness Issues:

The message to “Build the Block” as our own stimulus package should be viewed very positively. We would be taking control of our destiny and using our talents and resources to help each other, not waiting for a helping hand. While Peoria may get some monies from President Obama’s economic stimulus package, it would be a mistake for us to wait and see what monies we may get while we have our own outstanding stimulus package right in front of us, literally “shovel-ready.”

Except that they’re not going to start shoveling until at least next year. But according to a new report by Bradley professors Scott and Lewer (you remember them), “the recession will end sometime during the second half of this year.”

So much for helping us stimulate the economy or helping our residents through tough times. Sounds like the economy is correcting itself just fine without turning a spade of dirt for the proposed museum. Who’da thunk? Why, I bet once the recession is over, there would even be a market for the land that’s been held hostage by the museum for the past 11 years.

It’s not too late to correct past mistakes. The current redevelopment agreement for the old Sears block is set to expire at the end of June and must be renegotiated. Now would be the time for the city to require a larger portion of the block be opened up to private, mixed-use development. That would allow the museum to still locate on the block, but in a different form, and it would allow a larger portion of the land to produce property and sales tax income for the city — something we desperately need.

It would not be unprecedented, you know. After voters overwhelmingly supported the library referendum, the city decided to scale back their plans, issuing only $28 million for expansion/updating instead of the $35 million voters approved. I believe the phrase at that time was that the mayor wasn’t “drinking the Kool-Aid on the 72%” of voters who approved the referendum. In fact, Ardis said, taking into account the low voter turnout, that really meant that only 15% of all registered voters voted in favor, and the council has a responsibility to look at the bigger picture and represent all residents whether they voted or not. Well, guess what percentage of registered voters voted in favor of the museum? 12.29% (15,327 of 124,730). So, it only stands to reason that the city would take the same cost-saving measures with this project that they did with the library project, right? After all, times are even more dire now than when the library referendum passed; now we’re staring in the face of a $10 million deficit. Will the mayor be representing all residents whether they voted or not this time?

Of course, the city won’t actually do what I’m suggesting. They’ll pass up (for the fifth time now on this project alone) an opportunity to save money for taxpayers and increase revenues to the city, and instead look for more regressive ways to plug the budget deficit, like cutting public works and public safety, and raising garbage fees.

City of Peoria, Museum Block

Museum vote spurs more downtown-killing development

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Gee, I can hardly contain my excitement over news that downtown Peoria is going to get a new skywalk.

“We decided to move ahead with a skywalk project connecting 401 Water Street with buildings being renovated on Commercial Street,” said developer Kert Huber.

“It’s a $5 million to $6 million project. We’re doing this because the museum went forward. If the citizens of the area hadn’t got behind it, I would have walked away,” he said.

And then where would Peoria be? Imagine what would have happened had we lost this skywalk project: All those high-end condominium residents would have to walk outside to visit renovated buildings across Commercial Street. Oh, the indignity! Thank heavens the museum referendum passed so we didn’t miss this exciting development. [end sarcasm]

The real shame is that these skywalks, which are becoming more and more common in Peoria regrettably, will only hurt downtown commerce, not help it. Studies I’ve quoted in a previous post tell the story. Here’s a quote from Kathleen Hill:

Skywalk design in North America has frequently been critiqued for the barriers it has created between different levels of pedestrian circulation. (Cornell University, Transport and Society May 10, 2007) Skywalks are pedestrian bridges linking buildings at the second floor level creating a second-level city….

Critics of skywalks maintain that their proliferation has reduced street level activity. Kent Robertson (Pedestrianization Strategies for Downtown Planners, Journal of the American Planning Association, Summer 1993) states that businesses located on the street level have closed due to lack of pedestrian traffic and property values have declined. Kurt Anderson (Fast Life Along the Skywalks, Time Magazine, August 1988)
reports this lack of street level pedestrians and activities creates the perception of an inactive and dull downtown, stating that skywalks negatively impact street level retail and social activities.

Some city planners feel that street level retail shops are the key to a vital and multi-use downtown. Critics are also concerned with the privatization of these public spaces and a separation of people based on class. Many of the skywalks link upscale hotels, shops and professional offices signaling to many low and moderate income people that they are not welcome.

So in addition to a museum block that will be devoid of street life because of its defective design, it’s spurring more development that will likewise keep pedestrians off the street. But since Peoria’s mantra is “all development is good development,” the project is promoted as an exciting, positive change for Peoria.

Caterpillar, Museum Block

Cat talking points on museum

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In the post office box of the Citizens for Responsible Spending, we anonymously received this memo purportedly from Caterpillar, dated April 9, 2009:

Build the Block: Peoria Riverfront Museum and Caterpillar Visitor Center Leader Talking Points (Peoria Area)

Caterpillar is pleased about the vote to move forward with Build the Block. We made a commitment in 2002 to support a new regional museum and we will stay true to this commitment. Caterpillar’s funding of this project will be in the near future, but will not occur in 2009.

  • The budgeted cost of the Visitor Center is $41 million. Planning for this project will be modified to reflect our current financial circumstance.

  • The Caterpillar Foundation has pledged $13.5 million to the museum. We have made the decision to temporarily suspend outright cash payments, however, the Foundation will continue to match payments to the museum project from employees and retirees.

The Visitor Center will benefit Caterpillar in many ways:

  • Enhance the overall customer experience when Caterpillar dealers bring customers to Peoria to visit the company.

  • Provide a complete perspective of our commitment to customer success, regardless of where they are working around the world.

  • Exhibits will focus on the value of our equipment, engines and services and the long-term relationships which offer customers a superior value in providing solutions to their business challenges.

Hmmm. So much for stimulating the economy while so many people are facing hard times. Evidently the new plan is to wait for better economic times to build.