Rock Island: McKesson project is a first for city
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By Dustin Lemmon | Thursday, November 29, 2007 |
Mike Bell, left, of American Bank & Trust Co. discusses construction plans for the McKesson Lofts, 110 19th St. in Rock Island, with Bob Stecker, board member of the Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation, and Kristi Ramirez, a housing director for the building, while touring the second floor of the McKesson building after the groundbreaking on Wednesday. Buy this Photo
The renovation of Rock Island’s McKesson Building, 110 19th St., will represent a lot of firsts for the city.
Turning the former warehouse built in 1914 into housing with first floor commercial will make it one of Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation’s biggest mixed-use projects with over 60,000 square feet of space. The building will house residential units on the second and third floors.
It will also mark one of the first times the city has converted an old building into an enviro-friendly property with a “green” roof and energy efficient heating and cooling.
Rock Island leaders held a groundbreaking at the property Wednesday afternoon to mark the beginning of construction work. Crews have been cleaning the building out for about two months.
“It does take a certain amount of vision to see what it could be,” Mayor Mark Schwiebert said of the building. “That’s something we here in Rock Island with Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation have gotten pretty good at over the years.”
Brian Hollenback, executive director of Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation, said it took four years to organize the re-use of the building. He said when private investors decided they couldn’t handle the job alone, the city became involved, making it a project combining both public and private funding.
Five local financial institutions are lending $4.5 million to the $6.6 million project. Other funding includes almost $750,000 from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, $1,115,000 from the City of Rock Island, $316,430 from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and $25,000 from the Doris and Victor Day Foundation.
“I believe it will be one of our most exciting projects to date,” Hollenback said.
The first and second floors of the building should be completed by next October and the remainder of the project by September 2009.
The first floor includes 17,700 square feet for leased commercial space with a shared hi-tech conference room, break room, public access to the green roof and a shower area for users of the nearby bike path.
The second floor will have 10 residential units and the third floor 12 units. The average square footage will be 1,200 with prices for ownership ranging from $129,900 to a penthouse at $244,900. There will also be parking available underground.
Ted Johnson of Quad-City Bank & Trust, one of the lenders, said the project is an example of what a public and private partnership can accomplish.
“McKesson Lofts will join a lengthy list of projects the growth corporation has taken on,” he said. “The list is amazing. Rock Island is the place where things work.”
Scott Frost of fellow lender Premier Bank said the individuals involved in the project had a lot to do with it getting off the ground.
“As a community lender we get these calls often and the reason we don’t do all of them is because you don’t have the people behind the project that you do here,” Frost said.
Schwiebert and Hollenback hope the environmental friendly initiatives implemented in this project spur others around the city.
“We see this as being a great investment in our downtown, which is the heart of our city,” Schwiebert said. “We’re doing the ground breaking for a ground breaking project in our city.”
Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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