PEORIA MAGAZINE March 2023

COMMENTARY

IN DOWNTOWN PEORIA, MAKING ‘NO LITTLE PLANS’ BY CHRIS SETTI PHOTO BY TODD PILON

F or me, it’s the skyline. that moment along I-74 just past the Pinecrest exit where the road slightly bends north and downtown Peoria comes into view. The river, the Murray Baker Bridge all lit up, and the buildings of downtown all greet me. It reminds me of how lucky I am to live in a community that is both big town and small city, and inspires me to work to convince my own friends and neighbors of just how good it is here and to share our collective story with the rest of the world. I’m a big city kid. I grew up in the Los Angeles suburbs and lived in Chicago, Denver and even London for a short time. If you don’t count college, Peoria is the smallest city I’ve ever lived in. But going on my 20th year here now, I’ve Every time I come back from Chicago, or even home from a trip to Morton, I love

lived here longer than I have anywhere else – including my hometown. I didn’t move to Peoria to further a career in government service and economic development. In fact, I don’t think I even knew what economic development was until my first day on the job at the City of Peoria. (And there is a joke in there about how I still might not know much about it.) But I was lucky enough to work under Craig Hullinger, then the city’s director of economic development. Craig’s favorite quote was from Daniel Burnham: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” It was Craig who built on the vision of developers like Kert Huber and Pat Sullivan to develop the city’s Warehouse District plans in 2007. Over the next 11 years, I had the honor of getting a front row seat, and

occasionally getting in the game, for the transformation of the once blighted and vacant outskirts of Downtown Peoria. ‘MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS.

THEY HAVE NO MAGIC TO STIR MEN'S BLOOD’ — Daniel Burnham

It started with public investment. Nearly $25 million in local, state and federal dollars helped to build the frame: the streets, sidewalks and other public spaces. The private investment became the picture. The vacant (and spooky) Fleming Potter building became Persimmon Lofts. A building used to store restaurant equipment became Cooperage 214. A foreclosed property turned into Sugar Wood Fired Pizza. An old ice cream factory (that was missing

78 MARCH 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE