The City of Peoria will purchase the PNC Building, Creve Coeur Building and adjoining parking deck in Downtown Peoria for $1.75 million.
The Peoria City Council approved the purchase on Tuesday night after a 9-2 vote in which the council agreed that purchasing the buildings and selling them to a developer was critical for the future of Downtown Peoria.
Councilman Andre Allen called the purchase a "unique opportunity" for the city, and councilmember Tim Riggenbach added it provided "a lot of exciting potential for downtown."
"When you talk about a core building that bridges the Central Business District as well as the Warehouse District together, it has so much potential," Allen said. "And I really think it demonstrates the seriousness that we are having towards our downtown and wanting to be in the driver's seat of that to ensure that the right developer goes in there to ensure that this beautiful building is used in the right way, and I think multi-use is written all over it."
Peoria will purchase the building from Cullinan Properties. The company bought the properties in May for $1.2 million with plans to redevelop them into luxury residences.
However, Cullinan Properties and the city never came to a redevelopment agreement. Rather than see the buildings sold again or put up for auction, the council voted Tuesday night to bring them into the city's hands so it has full control over the future.
City Manager Patrick Urich said the city hopes to own the building on a short-term basis and will issue a request for proposals to lure a developer to the property. Urich stressed to the council the importance of the block to development of Downtown Peoria.
The buildings sit across Jefferson Street from the Peoria Civic Center, a point that was raised by multiple councilmembers when highlighting why they felt it was important for the city to choose the properties' next developer.
In particular, the attached parking garage was stressed as being crucial for Civic Center events. The parking garage is currently closed, and city staff asked the council for $50,000 to do a due diligence study on what it will take to reopen the parking structure.
"With its proximity to the Civic Center and location in the Central Business District, it is a critical block for downtown and the parking deck itself is a huge piece of the operation of the Civic Center and having enough parking to satisfy the needs of what's an upcoming Bradley basketball season and a coming Rivermen hockey season, going into concert venue season," councilmember Zach Oyler said. "Having that deck continue to stay shutdown through that season I think would be disastrous for downtown."
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Some councilmembers raised concerns about the $500,000 difference in price between what Cullinan Properties purchased the building for in May and the city's buying price.
Councilmember John Kelly said he did not feel that Cullinan Properties had shown the city enough as to why they are selling the building for $500,000 more than they paid for it. He moved to table the vote until the city had more information.
"We are rushing and rushing and rushing forward and giving the seller a half million dollars for things that are said to have happened," Kelly said. "Well, let's see what the owner has done with the properties that's worth a half million dollars."
Mayor Rita Ali and other councilmembers said that despite a difference in price from what Cullinan Properties paid, the city was still getting a deal that was below fair market value.
"In my honest opinion, for the purchase price, the price that the current owner purchased it for, I believe was a very, very good deal and so that's why I am currently comfortable at the price that the city is offering to pay for the property," Ali said. "I don't believe that the city could have purchased that property at the price that it was purchased by the current owner. I don't believe that for a minute."
No other councilmembers joined Kelly in his effort to table the vote but District 5 councilmember Denis Cyr joined Kelly in voting no on the matter, citing that he felt a deal like this should be done in the private sector.
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