'Timing is right': Pekin engages consulting firm for downtown revitalization plan

Mike Kramer, Pekin Daily Times
·2 min read

With the acceptance of a proposal to develop a Downtown Pekin Reinvestment Strategy, the Pekin City Council voted to invest $14,250 in the community’s future.

“We’re in a position where, with some of the (infrastructure improvement) projects, the timing is right … to move forward with downtown redevelopment,” Pekin Mayor Mark Luft said during a Pekin City Council meeting on Aug. 22.

The council voted to engage the consulting firm Reader Area Development to help the city formulate a downtown revitalization plan. The project will include an evaluation of the market, a current building inventory and a current building stock condition report. Eric Reader, president of Reader Area Development, will serve as the lead for the project.

“Mr. Reader will work with business owners, the Pekin Chamber of Commerce, Pekin Main Street, City staff and elected officials to help build a coalition of individuals all focused on making downtown Pekin vibrant and an investible market,” Pekin Economic Development Manager Matt Fick said.

Reader said he intends to engage with downtown business stakeholders to explore business retention, growth, expansion and attraction strategies. Surveying, data collection, and interviews will begin this month. Reader hopes to have a strategy by January of 2023 addressing goals and objectives for issues ranging from population attraction, to green space development, to roadway improvements.

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“I lived in Pekin for six years,” Reader said. “I was a member of Pekin Main Street and served on the board there. I was a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Planning Commission. I was also a member of the (Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce). So, I have a history with Pekin and I’m a lover of downtown.”

Fick noted that Reader Area Development was instrumental in planning the early stages of Havana’s downtown revitalization, as well as helping develop downtown reinvestment strategies in the communities of Monmouth, Aledo and Muscatine, Iowa.

This article originally appeared on Pekin Daily Times: Pekin explores downtown revitalization plan