By now, you’re all aware of Old Chicago’s big announcement about their location atop Riverfront Village: they’re closing for the winter. The story was covered by WMBD-AM and the Journal Star. From WMBD:

Old Chicago along Peoria’s riverfront is closed until April 4th, according to CFO Dale Paulsen. Paulsen says it’s best for the riverfront restaurant to open on a seasonal basis until there’s a lure of more customers to the area.

This decision has raised a number of questions in my mind.

First, why are they waiting until April to reopen? Isn’t March Madness one of the busiest times of the year downtown? Why would a pizza restaurant want to miss a time when 20,000 people a day — most of them young kids who presumably would like pizza — descend on Peoria’s Civic Center? They’re going to open up right after this large event?

Second, what impact is this going to have on the City financially? We’re already losing money on this due to a non-profit organization moving into the old Damon’s instead of a tax-paying restaurant or other retailer, plus we’re having to replace the defective stairs at taxpayer expense, even though that should have been the developer’s responsibility. Now we’re going to lose sales tax and HRA revenue for three months, too? What implications does this have on repayment of the bonds used to build Riverfront Village?

Third, they really expect the museum to be their salvation? If they won’t open the doors when 20,000 people a day are downtown (March Madness), why would a supposed 1,000 people a day (predicted by the museum group) be worth their while? And if museum patrons wouldn’t park in Riverfront Village’s lot and walk across the street to see the museum due to fears of safety, weather conditions, or whatever reasons were given for requiring an attached parking deck, wouldn’t the reverse also be true?

Fourth, I thought Riverfront Village was built to lure people to the riverfront. Now Old Chicago is wanting customers to be lured by something else? Doesn’t this point to a fundamental failure of the Riverfront Village plan? Former Mayor Jim Maloof was quoted by the Journal Star in 1995 as saying, “The entire community is going to be thrilled when they see the magnitude of this project and what it is going to do for our downtown.” Fifteen years later, what has it done for our downtown, exactly?