PEORIA HEIGHTS — A mixed-use development being constructed to replace the Save A Lot building will now be a two-story building, rather than three.
The original design of the project was a four-story proposal to feature both commercial and residential units at 4425 N. Prospect Road, the site of the now-demolished grocery store.
That plan was then modified to three stories, eliminating the residential component.
Now, the proposal has changed again, this time with plans to construct a two-story building as the developers look to save money by eliminating the steel components necessary to build a three-story building, according to developer William Torchia.
“It was basically an economic decision,” Torchia told the Journal Star. “Just the cost of construction to go three stories, the type of construction you have to do to go that high is totally different. It actually adds a lot of steel, a steel structure into the building. So going back to two stories, we’re allowed to eliminate all of the steel structure that we had to do and now we can build a two-story building out of wood. Economics was the driving force behind reducing the size of the building from three to two stories.”
The floor being eliminated would have been office spaces, Torchia said. The first floor of the building will be commercial spaces that Torchia and the village both hope and expect will be some kind of sales-tax generating businesses. The second floor will be occupied by Clifton, Larson, Allen, which will employ 80 people in Peoria Heights.
Peoria Heights Mayor Matt Wigginton told the Journal Star he would have preferred a three-story build out, like the one proposed to the village board earlier, but he understood the economic reasons behind the decision.
“From my perspective, would I have loved a four- or three-story building? Absolutely. Absolutely. I’ve said it time and time again, in Peoria Heights we don’t have an unlimited amount of space, we have to build up, we can’t build out,” Wigginton said. “I would have preferred a taller footprint, but again I understand the realities that were presented and I am not in the commercial real estate world, so I’ll just leave it to the people who are.”
The project’s total investment, including the cost of land acquisition and demolition of the Save A Lot building, will be $12.5 million, board trustee Beth Khazzam said Tuesday night.
The changes to the building’s plan sparked a debate Tuesday night among village board members regarding a lack of clarity in the village’s zoning code as to what actions the village could take, if any, when an approved site plan changes like this one did.
Village attorney Mark Walton told the trustees that the village’s code does not specifically address an instance like this one, whereas a city like Peoria, which has hundreds of pages of zoning code, would.
Board members Sarah Devore and Nate Steinwedel on Tuesday night advocated for the village code to be reviewed in wake of changes to the development plan.
Devore said the board was shown a three-story building and was now being asked to accept a two-story project. Whether or not that violated village code, she said, was up to interpretation, but it still “materially changed the project presented to the public and approved by this board.”
“What concerns me most in this situation, among several others we have found ourselves in, highlights a weakness in our code,” Devore said. “We spend significant time reviewing projects, holding public meetings, considering the impact on the community and approving plans based on what is presented to us. Yet, when a substantial change is presented to us, we find ourselves debating whether we even have the authority to require that it come back through that same public process.”
Wigginton told the Journal Star he is open to amending the village code, and amendments are in the works, but he is not in favor of retroactively applying rules.
“It’s hard to paint that with a broad brush because typically how the village has operated is less burden on development and encouraging things to happen in the Heights, and so when you get into the weeds on some of these things, it could have the opposite effect, where you chase away business and development,” Wigginton said. “One of the things the Heights has is how we built this momentum and record of success is we try to work cooperatively.”
Wigginton said some of these concerns will be addressed in the village’s revised zoning code, which should come out later this year.
Peoria Heights approves tax deal with developer
Despite changes to the project plan, the village moved ahead Tuesday night in approving a tax-increment financing deal with the developers that will see them reimbursed based on how much sales tax the property generates.
If the property generates more than $2 million in sales, the developers will receive a 100% TIF reimbursement. If it generates more than $1 million, the reimbursement will be 80%, and if the generated sales are less than $1 million, the reimbursement will be 60%.
Total reimbursement will not exceed $2.5 million.
Torchia said the developers, which include himself, Ciaron Graham and Brandon Dean, are excited about the TIF and believe it is a fair deal for them and the village.
He also said the goal is to fill the first floor of the development with sales-tax generating businesses and said the process of attracting those businesses has been going “very well” so far and announcements are on the horizon.
Wigginton called the TIF deal a “win-win” to help the village ensure sales-tax generating businesses come to the village.
“I think that’s a fair expectation to have that most of that space, at least on the bottom floor, will be occupied by sales-tax generating businesses,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Why plans for major Peoria Heights development have changed again
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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By JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star | USA TODAY Network
