PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2022

C O M M U N I T Y S P O T L I G H T

PROGRESS AND PROMISE IN PEKIN The region’s second largest city looks to the future with optimism and confidence

BY SCOTT FISHEL PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

was brought in this fall to look at the best way to “put all of the pieces together for us.” Those pieces include a renewed Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District, a business development district, a new economic development director, and federal and state grants, all focused on breathing new life into the heart of the city.

Pekin Mayor Mark Luft at the corner of South Fourth Street and Court Street

‘WE HAVE ALL THE RIGHT PIECES’

— Mayor Mark Luft

“We’re anxious to move forward,” said Luft. Funds spent for the consultant are “pennies on the dollar” compared to the positive things expected to come from it, he added. Amy Whiting-McCoy, executive director of the Pekin Chamber of Commerce, acknowledges that reviving downtown is one of her organization’s goals. She points to restaurants like Ashers and Maquet’s Rail House, a yoga studio, coffee shops, boutiques, art studios and the Artistic Community Theatre as building blocks that are already in place to encourage frequent downtown visits. She said the consultant will recom mend physical upgrades such as new

L egend has it that Pekin was named for Peking (now Beijing), the capital of China. It’s an appealing but apocryphal story that is generally accepted as truth, even though historians are hard pressed to prove or disprove it. Truth is, Pekin by any other name — parts of the present city were once called Cincinnati — would still be the largest city in Tazewell County and the second largest city in the Peoria metro area. And it would still play a major role in the economy, history, culture and daily life of the region, just as it has for nearly 200 years.

Today, nearly 32,000 call Pekin home, and while that may be fewer than a decade ago, Peoria’s downriver neighbor remains a critical element in the past and future of central Illinois. The city’s largest employer, Pekin In surance, celebrated 100years inbusiness in 2021. Adowntown revitalization study is underway, new“high end” apartments for youngprofessionalswill becompleted inDecember, anda coupleof subdivisions are under development. ToMayor Mark Luft, all of this activity is moving Pekin in the right direction. “We have all the right pieces and the right people,” Luft said. A consultant

90 NOVEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE