What will happen to the vacant Pump House building in Peoria Heights? Here's what we know
Peoria Heights terminated its lease in July with Kim Blickenstaff's KDB Group for the Peoria Heights Pump House, which the development group once managed for the village.
Now, KDB Group wants the lease restored, a request the village does not appear inclined to accommodate. Peoria Heights owns the building and had leased it out to KDB Group to generate property taxes.
The Heights, a village where Blickenstaff's footprint was perhaps the largest before he listed many of his properties for sale, terminated the lease with KDB over unpaid taxes on the property.
KDB has since paid the back taxes and is now asking the Heights to restore the lease so it may move a tenant into the building. KDB Group says a sweet shop is interested in moving into the pump house.
At a Peoria Heights Village Board meeting on Aug. 15, KDB Group's attorney Derek Schryer asked the Village Board to restore the lease. He called the unpaid taxes an "oversight" and said they were paid within 48 hours of being notified.
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"Also within 48 hours, KDB Group received a letter from the village terminating its lease for the pump house. That came as a significant surprise to us. Certainly we thought we had an open dialogue with the village to try and position KDB's real estate in the appropriate future developers' hands," Schryer said at the meeting.
Schryer did not return multiple phone calls over three days from the Journal Star.
Mayor Mike Phelan said Peoria Heights is willing to discuss a new lease with KDB Group, but it is not likely the old lease will be restored.
The village has not asked KDB Group to vacate the building, which is currently without a tenant.
Ultimately, it will be left to the Village Board to decide what happens to the building, but Phelan believes they will explore going another direction.
"I think the board is going to entertain possibly other venues — a museum, something that could benefit the neighborhood, a snack shop and museum," Phelan said.
The Pump House had most recently been home to a popcorn and candy shop that operated for less than a year. For decades before that, it was a water pump house that sent water to the Pabst Brewery.
Phelan said the village originally agreed to lease with Blickenstaff under the impression everything that happened in the building would be philanthropic.
"It's a village-owned business and one of the many reasons we agreed to lease that building to KDB, and really Kim Blickenstaff, long ago was he came and made several presentations at public meeting of how he loved the architecture and the design of the building," Phelan said. "That was all to be philanthropic, there was never any mention of making money. It was to be restored to its original luster and be philanthropic."
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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Heights pump house building still waiting for new tenant
