The city wants to see a private retail business occupy Peoria’s Riverfront Visitor’s Center:
The City of Peoria and the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (PACVB) operate the Riverfront Visitors Center. Conveniently located on the Peoria Riverfront off of 1-74, the Riverfront Visitors Center is a great first stop for visitors to the area. The Riverfront Visitors Center is housed in the former John Schwab Grocery that was built by John Schwab in 1852; the pre-Civil War building is the city’s oldest commercial building. In 1997 the building was renovated to recreate the 1850s grocery store and it was moved to the Peoria Riverfront as the Riverfront Visitors Center.
The City of Peoria and the PACVB are interested in returning the city’s oldest commercial building to its previous use by recreating the 1850s grocery store. We are looking for a private sector partner to share space with the Riverfront Visitors Center and to operate a small retail operation in the building. The store would have the ambiance and sentimental feel of the 1850s and continue to be a place where visitors could come and get information about the City of Peoria.
If you’ve ever been in the visitors center, you know that it’s not just small — it’s tiny. So what kind of business are they thinking would be a good fit for this 1850s-era building?
There is a large outdoor pavilion that is suitable for tables. The inside space on the first floor is small but there are a number of possible ways to fit the retail operation into the building. Proposals in the nature of an old time ice cream parlor, coffee shop or the sale of soda, hotdogs, pastries, etc. [emphasis mine] will be looked upon favorably.
Not a bad idea. It would get the building on the tax rolls, and it would be another amenity on the riverfront. I like it.
You know what would really make it successful, though? If close by — say, on the Sears block — there were apartments or condos. People aren’t going to come from Dunlap (or even Fake Dunlap) to downtown to have some ice cream, but people who live downtown will. And since museum officials have assured us that their patrons will not walk across the street (hence the absolute necessity of on-site parking for the museum to be successful), we know they’re not going to support it.
The more people you have living downtown, the more successful retail businesses, restaurants, etc., are going to be.
I’ve lived near many empty, void downtowns and the problem is always the same – residential property was non-existent or almost so. Any neighborhood anywhere will be vacant come 5pm M-F if NO ONE LIVES THERE! You could put in a store that gives their product away for FREE and it still wouldn’t stir up much traffic beyond the homeless that already hang there.
I happen to know the Powell Press building and there is no way it could be converted into an ice cream parlor, or grocery store according to the health department rules in Peoria. An office building possibly, but not anything to do with food. I love that old building and worked for the company that was in charge of the move and restoration of it in 1997, but certain things are not possible with it.
Should have made it [part] of the original history museum.
RE downtown residential. Has anyone looked into the vacancy rate of downtown buildings that are residential? It used to be pretty high.