PEORIA MAGAZINE March 2022

T he downtown street, normally open to traffic, was closed and barricaded, portending that something significant was in the works. One by one, a line of speakers – business, political and religious leaders – ascended to the podium that frigid morning of Dec. 17, 2021, shivering against the cold but warmed by the satisfaction of what had been accomplished. Framed by the magnificence of the newly renovated building behind them and a gorgeousmid-morning sun against a clear blue sky, each got up and gave thanks to those they believedwere owed their due in making the day a reality – a loving and compassionate God, the corporate decision-makers who took a chance, the government decision makers who helped put it over the top, the historic preservationists who insisted that no detail be overlooked, the architects and engineers who drew up the plans, the workers who got it done. The themes to which they gave voice were similar. It was a “glorious day” in the city’s history, the start of “a new chapter” with “a great project” that promises to “spark a renaissance.’’ Ultimately, it was Ryan Spain who encapsulated the moment. “It’s a reminder that Peoria, Illinois is a headquarters city,” said Spain, OSF’s vice president of economic development and a state legislator who helped make the project happen on both fronts. “We are a strong city.” Welcome to 124 SW Adams St., new home of OSF HealthCare’s Ministry Headquarters. OSF invested $135 million in the building, with the help of $26 million in historic tax credits, $150 million on the entire block bounded by Adams, Main, Washington and Fulton streets. On any given day, 500 “mission partners” will work full time inside its walls, joined by another 175 employees on hybrid schedules – part remote – who will rotate in and out, plus visitors. Between this facility and OSF’s OnCall Center down the block, with 400 employees, that’s more than 1,100 people occupying that stretch of Downtown who weren’t there before. Add the future customers of two restaurants on the property –

N ow that he has the finished product before him, the man who oversaw the renovation, JimMormann, OSF’s CEOof Integrated Solutions, can say that four years and $150 million later, it was all worth it. “If I don’t say yes, I’ll never live it down,” he jokes. But when he first planted eyes on the building in 2017 after Caterpillar indicated it was no longer needed for its own headquarters plans and was willing to effectively give it away – purchase price $1, $3 for the whole block, along with a $3 million donation – Mormann was still skeptical … and then some. The downpour outside was only surpassed by the water gushing into the building’s sub-basement from a pipe in the parking garage. The building had been slated for demolition and was “in different states of disarray.” The electricity had been cut off, and the place was cold and dark. Asbestos abatement was already happening. Debris hung from ceilings and some of the walls seemed in danger of collapse. The windows were not solid or safe. Meanwhile, all the momentum to that point had been for OSF to consolidate its dispersed employees at one brand new headquarters in a green field on State Route 91, in the city’s northwest corridor. It wouldn’t have been less expensive, necessarily, but easier, faster, with fewer hoops to jump through. It would be the Sisters’ decision. “What is our calling?” Mormann recalls Sister Judith Ann asking. “What is our obligation to the community?” There was a general sense that it was important to act not only in the interests of OSF, but of the community. Downtown, the heart of the region, had seen better days and needed a shot in the arm. “If we could help that initiative and help other businesses start seeing the value of reinvesting in the downtown, that fell right along with our calling,” Mormann said. The decision had been made. “This is where I believe we should be,” OSF CEO Bob Sehring noted at the ribbon cutting, adding that not only was “an attractive Downtown” important to OSF’s recruitment and retainment of high-quality employees,

Great Harvest Bread Company, soon to open, and Travis Moehlenbrink’s Saffron Social – and they can’t help but liven up the neighborhood. Arguably, the area hasn’t promised this much activity since the building was constructed for the Schipper & Block store – later Block & Kuhl, the “Big White Store,” then Carson Pirie Scott & Co. – more than a century ago, when Peoria’s Downtown was truly the commercial and retail hub of central Illinois. Indeed, that day in December was dripping with history and symbolism. Sister Judith Ann Duvall, Major Superior of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis and chairperson of the boards that oversee the chain of hospitals/health care providers that make up OSF HealthCare, noted that it was just seven blocks down the road, at 708 SW Adams St., nearly a century and a half ago that the Sisters “set up their little house hospital” to care for people “wherever they are.” “In so many respects, this does feel like coming home,” she said. T he weight of the moment also went deeper than the obvious connection between past and present, as this new headquarters and how it came to be arguably reveal something foundational about the character and ambition of the city of Peoria itself – its peerlessly deep roots as the oldest permanent European settlement in Illinois, its resilience against the forever changing economic tides, its ongoing, never-say-surrender reinvention. Indeed, it marries two of the most enduring landmarks in the community – the 145-year-old institution that is OSF and the 117-year-old building that, at its construction, was the first steel structure in Peoria (and one of the first outside the city of Chicago). At seven stories, it was a skyscraper in its day, as well as an architectural marvel that continues to outshine so much of what has been constructed in central Illinois since. Meanwhile, it is an example of one prominent headquarters that did so much to shape what central Illinois is today – Caterpillar – passing the baton to another in OSF as the region’s next economic chapter is being written.

44 MARCH 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE